'Heroes of Old, Men of Renown'

So, I just got finished reading two monumental history books: The first is The Wonderful Ethiopians of the Mighty Cushite Empire, by Drusilla Dungee. The second is depicted above -- The Destruction of Black Civilization by giant historian, Chancellor Williams. Destruction was published in 1986. I remember the owner of The Know Book Store in Durham, N.C. recommending it to me when I was attending college there. However, for some reason, I never got around to reading it then. Luckily it is still in publication, so I was able to pick up a fresh new copy from Barnes & Noble over spring break. It makes sense now that this book sparked the new zeal for African (Black) studies we saw in the late 1980s, and extending to the late 1990s before fizzling at the millennium. With unquestionable research documented for examination, and some of the best prose you will find in a history book, Williams, handily explains the evolution of human civilization from its origins in the Great Riff Valley (Africa) and its flourish into Nile Valley civilization (Egypt) at the hands of Ethiopian and Nubian (Black) builders thousands of years prior to many invasions -- and subsequent overthrow -- by Asian, and European, conquerors. These invasions and the centuries-long conflict they caused, togther with internal strife, set in place a genocidal cycle of movement-settlement-movement of Blacks ever further south of the equator, and away from the civilizations they founded. This pre/post biblical history unearths and explains much of the obscured, missing, and sheltered contributions of African people to humanity.

Book Review

Michael Muhammad Knight chronicles his expansive tour of Muslim shrines, from North American to the Middle East, in his impressive anthropological book, Journey to the End of Islam. Knight writes as irreverently as he does intelligently when he muses about his experiences with people and places that span the scope and depth of Islamic culture. From urban Muslim griots to Sufi prophets to the most clinging Wahabists, Knight shows himself adept with the numerous schools of Islamic thought. And he, more than anyone I have read or heard lately, asks some of the most important and provocative questions about the faith. I recommend Journey for thoughtful, truth-seeking Muslims, and for anyone who wants to survey the vast diversity comprising the global Muslim community.

Jewels, Gems and Other Assorted Valuables

My new favorite book is Eduardo Galeano's Mirrors: Stories of Almost Everyone (2009, Nation Books). In Mirrors, Galeano exhumes the mass graves of the previously unknown who have salted this earth. Using the art of brevity, the authors holds up a mirror that shows us reflections of humanity's ghosts, the images of international vampires. He reveals the toil of angels.

Innumerable paragraphs stand alone as literary gems and chronicle the ethereal nature of mankind as both an inspiration and a toxicity. None escape Galeano's scrutiny. Not as races, nations, tribes, nor as individuals. Mirrors astounds with stories of Africans, Mayans, Anglicans, Indians and others. More compelling, however, are tales of arrogance, hubris, irony, nobility, happenstance, hate and love. Indeed Mirrors may be an anecdote for the banal education that inoculates the youth of nations. A stimulant for legions of uninspired school children who rarely find any wonder in the antiseptic antholgies, standard in public education.

Eduardo Geleano gives proof that all nations have blood stained banners. And while imperfect, individual liberty and considerate stewardship over the earth are the only cleansers.

Many Ways to Pray

Somaly Mam is a true life heroine. A real super hero. What she has done, and is doing, is an utterly remarkable work of God manifesting in human beings. As a child in her native Cambodia, Mam was sold into sexual slavery and suffered the most vile cruelties. She survived, by the Grace of Allah and her own human resolve. She now operates a foundation and functions as a modern day Harriet Tubman.

Reading Mam's book, The Road of Lost Innocence, I am reminded of the truth of God: There are no chosen people. There is only triumph over evil by compassion through the universal principle of love. I will not review the book here. However, I encourage you to read it, if only as a hedge against your own complacency and self pity. I warn you, however. Although Mam writes a poignant account of her experience, free of the titillating details, her story will, literally speaking, pinch your heart.

Book Review: Red Moon Over China

Author Iris Chang is hearby lauded for her profoundly sobering book, The Rape of Nanking (1997). Obviously I am late getting to the book, having first heard of it when the author was interviewed on C-SPAN several years ago. I made a mental note to read it one day, and I finally got around to doing so last month. I am glad I did. In Nanking, Chang (pbuh), chronicles the Japanese invasion of China at the start of World War II in Asia -- several years prior to our participation in 1941. It is a horrifying account of how, in this contemporary area, man and his government armies can be so grossly inhumane to their opponents, war notwithstanding.

My own notion of Japan is probably not unlike that of most Americans. Japan was on the opposing side - but they were likely lackeys for Hitler and his army. Its shining moment was its sneak attack on Peal Harbor, but we quickly smeared that brazen grab at glory with deposits over two of their major cities. Attacks that not not only devastated Japan, but the entire world. Ironically, the United States' response to Pearl Harbor brought about international sympathy for a country that was a chief member of the original "axis of evil." It caused sustained periods of public guilt among Americans, and it obscured Japan's own heinous deeds with its pursuit of supremacy in Asia.

In Nanking, Iris Chang educates us about the true role of Japan during the war. She describes the mentality of a traditionally isolated nation whose culture, traditions and prior defeats spurred its nationalism and made it competitive in the arms race of that time. The Japanese enmity for the Chinese and their quest for expansion, lead them to commit some of the most gruesome atrocities of the war. Crimes against humanity that approximated those committed by the Nazis -- in deed if not in scale.

Chang went to great lengths to verify and document how Japanese armies pillaged and looted Shanghai and Nanking during their invasion at the start of the war (circa 1934). She bravely tells of brutality that is unfathumable to the average person, even today. Acts of rampant and grotesques rape, mass killings and torture. including killing for sport and experimentation. These acts occurred during the Japanese invasion and occupation. They were inhumane crimes on a grand scale committed against soldiers and many more civilians. In deed, I do the history an injustice with this telling. Read the book.

I found The Rape of Nanking was an important read for a few reasons. It has been said often that America's release of atomic bombs over Japan was as prudent an act of military strategy as it was punishing. To that, Chang describes the mentality of the common Japanese soldier and their commanders during this period in history. She gives credence to the notion that our troops would have suffered casualities during a land invasion of Japan that would have been both brutal and innumerable. And it would have prolonged our effort in the Pacific -- as the Japanses were loathe to surrender under any ordinary circumsatnces of war. Nanking gives context to the fears -- even paranoia -- of our government and its drastic action against Japanese citizens here in the U.S. during the war. Finally, and most important, it reminds me that such acts as described by the author have several antecedents, and when they combine to manifest such a virulent evil in men, there is no limit to what can occur.

A final word. Recently I have become accustomed to dropping a line of thanks via e-mail to authors whose books stir something inside me. And so I did with Iris Chang. However, just moments after finding a website where I could register a note in praise of her work, I discovered that she died a few years ago (2004). She did invaluable work for her people, and for all of humanity. All Praise is Due...

Book Review: Islam & the Blackamerican

I am recommending a book I read recently. If, like me, you are interested in sociology and religious issues, then Sherman A. Jackson wrote what I think is one of the more interesting books on Islam of late. In Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking toward the Third Resurrection, Jackson thoroughly addresses the influence Islam has made on African-American people.

Despite the prominent role of Muslims like Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and many others held in the popular conscience of America during the 1960's and 70's, the face of Islam today is no longer immediately synonymous with Black people. Vast immigration to the United States, especially by Arab and Pakistani nationals, have changed the image of Islam in America. It is this dynamic, and its consequences for the prototypical African-American Muslim, that Jackson writes about in his book.

Sherman Jackson describes the effective 'appropriation' of Islamic culture into a viable protest culture, and ultimately a contending religious movement by Black Americans. Forerunners of the prevailing Sunni Islamic movement, which most African-American Muslims identify with today, were Noble Drew Ali and the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Sherman explains how these men were able to forge a new state of consciousness and activism among working class and poor urban Blacks in early 20Th century America. They accomplished this feat using only strains of what Islamic culture that were to survive slavery. Do largely to the vision and organizational brilliance of Elijah Muhammad, immaculately dressed, industrious, educated, disciplined black men became the most recognizable face of Islam in America by the 1970's.

This all changed with the coming of immigrant Muslims. With their [other-worldliness], facility with the Arabic language, social customs -- be they rooted in Islam or not -- and their penchant for non-assimilation, immigrant Muslims became the de-facto authenticators of Blackamerican Islam. This dynamic was made even more possible due to the demise of Elijah Muhammad and the radical changes undertaken by the Nation of Islam's new leadership, W. Deen Muhammad. Sherman reveals how one of the most influential religious movements of the twentieth century found itself fractured and adrift without a paddle in a sea of change.

There is more to Jackson's book than space will allow me to convey. In order to avoid a complete summary of the book, suffice it to say that the author refers, hopefully, to a new resurrection of Blackamerican Muslims. A resurrection that does not compromise either their authenticity as Muslims, or negate their own cultural heritage. This movement is possible without casting off the highest ideas of American style democracy and prosperity, contends Jackson. To this end the Author suggests that African-American Muslims give serious consideration to the wisdom and moral direction espoused through Sufism - an Islamic tradition with well established roots in the Muslim world. Jackson posits that Sufism serves dual possibilities for Black people. First, it reconnects naturally to cultural traditions in West Africa. Second, it can arrests recidivism is the Black Muslim community through its emphasis on piety. And it has a cannon of religious precepts that will stand against scrutiny.

Read Islam and the Blackamerican.