Black Athena

Black Athena is a three-volume project by Martin Bernal. It is mainly concerned with ancient Egyptian and Phoenician roles in the formation of Greek civilization. While Greek is without question an Indo-European language, more than half of its basic vocabulary cannot be explained in terms of Indo-European. The linguistic argument is thus central to Bernal's hypothesis that Egypt and the Levant (East or Syro-Palestine) had a massive cultural, scientific, and religious impact on the formation of ancient Greek civilization. Classical and Hellenistic Greeks (500–50 B.C.E.) emphasized the importance of Egypt in the creation of their culture and civilization. However, modern Euro-American defenders of the Eurocentric disciplines of classics and Egyptology generally marginalize ancient Egyptian and Phoenician cultural influences on Greece. Moreover, due to racial and ideological biases, Eurocentric scholars were unwilling to trace ancient African sources of fundamental Greek words.

Bernal's work is subtitled “The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization,” emphasizing his belief that the foundation of Greek civilization was Africa and Asia. He establishes his arguments on the basis of historical inquiry and linguistic analyses. There is a strong appreciation in Bernal's books for the work done by early African scholars such as George G. M. James and Cheikh Anta Diop. Although Bernal cannot be called an Afrocentrist, he is clearly one of the scholars who has assisted the Afrocentric project of critiquing the hegemonic ideas of the European world.

The first volume is his most famous work, Black Athena, is organized into 10 chapters and a conclusion. Each chapter is created to build toward the conclusion that the “miracle” of Greek culture is a misnomer and a fabrication of the Aryan model of antiquity. The development of Greek civilization from its earliest times with the appearance of the Pelasgians and Ionians was indebted to outside influences and it was most likely, Bernal argues, that these sources were Africa and Asia. In the case of Africa, Egypt supplied Greece with a considerable cultural trove of ideas, concepts, ceremonies, names, and material artifacts. Using the works of Greek writers, Bernal demonstrates that the early historians and geographers were clear on the debt Greece owed to Africa. Thucydides, Isocrates, Plato, and Aristotle were beneficiaries of the work of those who lived in Asia and Africa before them. To Bernal, it is clear that the ancient model of antiquity is much more plausible than the Aryan model that was created to aid the idea of white superiority. Indeed, the goddess Athena was black, which is why Bernal titled his work Black Athena.

Delving into the controversy over the color of the ancient Egyptians, Bernal distances himself from those who argue that the ancient Africans were white. Perhaps this is the position that creates tension between him and the classicists who cannot accept that the ancient Egyptians were black skinned with wooly hair, as suggested in the 5th-century book, The Histories, written by Herodotus. Nevertheless, Bernal shows how the fate of Egypt and its relationship to Greece rise and fall with different emphases on the part of European scholars. It is the work of the Afrocentric scholars that has maintained the strength of the argument that Egypt is the great contributor to early Greek civilization.

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