I always wanted this book for the longest and I do NOT KNOW what took me so LOOOOOONG. But I finally copped it on Amazon. Got a fast delivery so I can get it this Friday. Didn't mind my wallet bleeding.
After buying/reading his Black and Science Volume 2 I now had confidence to get his When We Ruled. Not expecting anything new on the Ancient Egyptians since this book came out in 2005, but I HOPE to read some new shyt on Western Sudanic empires, Southern Africa and the Swahili Coast(since most books I tried looking up for the Swahili coast sucks ass). His 100 things you did not know about Africa interested me a lot and I HOPE he goes into details of those listed things. This book has 715 pages!!! And I HOPE its not mostly Ancient Egypt... I want to see stuff I never read...
Alright, I just finished this long book and whats considered the "Bible" for Africana studies. Before I give my review, I understand that this is a rather old book[came out in 2005]. And also I did find this book to be good but it was not astounding like what I was thinking and everyone made it out to be. The reason why I am a bit disappointed is because when I read Robin Walker's "100 things you didn't know about Africa", I was hyped for this book because I assumed I was going to get juicy information about Africa that I never read before. However, as a veteran of African history many of the info presented in this book were info I already seen years ago[and some you can find on the internet yourself] and some of them were almost basic information.
Again this was not a good book but just not one for veterans. First I'll state the pros of what I liked about it, The Egyptian hair argument and how the straight hair in the mummies should not be used as an example of how the Ancient Egyptians hair looked like due to chemical waving of mummification was very good. His arguments for the Egyptian timeline being older than thought where he provided good amounts of evidence for was also very good. Not only that but I liked the way he debunked that flawed Brace study which had a lot of errors when it came to the morphology of the Ancient Egyptians. What REALLY caught my attention was the Yoruba-Americas connection with American Zee May plants being found in Ifa pavements!!! That was one of the biggest nuclear bombs for me in the book! And I wonder why the hell haven't archaeologist haven't looked into nor have those so called Afrocentrics who focus on the Olmecs. I officially believe Africans must have went to the new world but thats another story. Another thing I liked was the South African chapter about Great Zimbabwe that had a lot of juicy info. To me that chapter was the best one in the book. Lastly I like the chapter on migrations out of the Nile valley where he states many West African ethnic groups claim they come from Kush and that many old scholars stated so to. I found that very interesting because I too hold that view because many West-Central African ethnics claim they come from the Sudan and their cultural traits seem to hint that. Not only that but West Africa especially coastal West Africa was populated rather recently. I don't know about Egypt, but it seems more realistic that they came from the Sudan.
But sadly now onto the cons.... Like ALL Historians, the author of this book should stay as far away from Bio-anthropology. Because Historians like the author make almost pseudo-science claims due to failing to comprehend the field that they are not really meant to. What they should stick to is history because obviously that is their forte. I say this because the author uses pseudo-science arguments like European pale skin being due to albinism, when albinism would mean total lack of melanin whereas pale skin still has melanin. What I think he meant to say was that European developed pale skin due to lack of UV, but due to him not understanding anthropology he made such claims. Most worse of he said that "Asians" were the result of "albino" Europeans and Africans! Arguments like that really hurt the authors credibility and his book. It would have been best if he stayed AWAY from anthropology and focused on HISTORY of Africa. Moving on, another thing I found strange was that he said in a way that we should ignore modern Ethiopian and Swahili history because they have been mixed with invaders. First off both groups are still visibly African/black and I found that part like he was almost agreeing with the true Negroid myth. But also there were no successful foreign invasions of Ethiopia until the Italian invasion of World War 2.
Moving on again, I felt the Ancient Egyptian part dragged on for far too long and was getting repetitive. But I felt that he could have used MORE of Keita's sources since Keita[especially during the time the book was published] is one of the biggest MAINSTREAM supporter for an African Egypt and his limb proportion studies on the Ancient Egyptians were so undeniable good that they have constantly been used in the mainstream. Yet, he used little Keita.
Moving on again, there is too much Runoko Rashidi influence in this book who uses too much pseudo-history. What I mean is the Olmec theory[which has been debunked, Ivan Van Seritma was ahead of his time but the Olmec theory is no longer a realistic] and two black Arabia, Sumer, Indus Valley chapters that dragged on and should have been more additional chapters for AFRICAN history. I don't give a crap about Asian history or trying to argue that they are black. I purchased this book for African history. And many of the sources used for those chapters were lackluster.
Finally the term "Moor" does not come from "Kushyte" but the Greek/Roman word "Maure" which meant black. Along with that the West African chapter was lackluster with me expecting much more and there was no evidence that Islam spread in early West Africa via invasion but instead trade. Also the theory of a Berber Almoravid invasion of Ancient Ghana has been dismissed long before this book was published and so the author should have known that.
Like I said this is a good book, BUT for those who are NEW to African history. However, for us veterans you will find many information you already knew about. I expected more from this book especially after reading his "100 things you didn't know about Africa", but like I said most of what I read was basic info. I give this book a 3/5. I found his later books much more enjoyable.
