Rating: 
Summary: ouch
Review: In the fall of 1991 I was asked to write a review-article for The New Republic about Martin Bernal's Black Athena and its relation
to the Afrocentrist movement. The assignment literally changed my life. Once I began to work on the article I realized that here was
a subject that needed all the attention, and more, that I could give to it. Although I had been completely unaware of it, there was in
existence a whole literature that denied that the ancient Greeks were the inventors of democracy, philosophy, and science. There were
books in circulation that claimed that Socrates and Cleopatra were of African descent, and that Greek philosophy had actually been
stolen from Egypt. Not only were these books being read and widely distributed; some of these ideas were being taught in schools
and even in universities. Ordinarily, if someone has a theory which involves a radical departure from what the experts have professed, he is expected to defend
his position by providing evidence in its support. But no one seemed to think it was appropriate to ask for evidence from the
instructors who claimed that the Greeks stole their philosophy from Egypt.
-Mary Lefkowitz, Not Out of Africa One is torn by two competing emotions in reading Not Out of Africa. On the one hand, there's the visceral thrill of watching idiotic
ideas get an old-fashioned butt-whipping. But, on the other hand, there's something poignant about the need of black scholars to claim
the accomplishments of the Greeks and Egyptians as their own. It is very nearly painful to watch the ease with which Ms Lefkowitz
disposes of the lunatic ideas that make up Afrocentrism, though she deserves great credit for taking them seriously enough to lay them
out systematically, and demonstrating that they actually do have ancient sources, before annihilating them. Still, as you near the end of
the book, the contest has been so uneven that it's natural to wonder if this bloodbath was really necessary. However, in her conclusion, Ms Lefkowitz makes the case for why it is necessary to utterly destroy Afrocentrism, and here she is
equally persuasive. Her reasons are as follows : (1) By claiming European civilization as a product of Africans, Afrocentrism has the perverse effect of making blacks responsible
for the culture which justified their enslavement and oppression for centuries. (2) By focussing solely on the achievements of the Egyptians, Afrocentrism fails to consider genuinely black African cultures, like
that of Nubia. (3) By teaching black students that white Europeans stole their culture, Afrocentrism fosters racial animosity. (4) Afrocentrism is not only antihistorical it is also antiscientific--denying genetic, archaeological, linguistic, and other forms of
data. (5) It wastes precious educational time; the time that students spend learning the lies of Afrocentrism is time that they are not
spending learning the truth. And she closes with a very strong statement : Students of the modern world may think it is a matter of indifference whether or not Aristotle stole his philosophy from Egypt. They
may believe that even if the story is not true, it can be used to serve a positive purpose. But the question, and many others like it,
should be a matter of serious concern to everyone, because if you assert that he did steal his philosophy, you are prepared to ignore or
to conceal a substantial body of historical evidence that proves the contrary. Once you start doing that, you can have no scientific or
even social-scientific discourse, nor can you have a community, or a university. That's pretty bracing stuff, but it cuts to the quick : are we truly prepared to sacrifice our universities and our students on the altar of
political correctness, self esteem, and multicultural hogwash? One would certainly hope not, and we can only thank Ms Lefkowitz for
having the courage to take on the racially charged task of confronting these issues head on. She has done us all a great service. GRADE : A
Rating: 
Summary: Denile
Review: The book NoT Out Of Africa by Mary Lefkowitz is a great big lode of (...). Why is it so hard for White America to except the fact that Egyptian Civilization (Khemit) was BLACK? There's Know way possibe that it was Eurocentric. (...) Oh! and one more thing Cleopatra WAS NOT WHITE,and she did not kill herself for the love of two white men. Her first love was EGYPT and she killed herself because of the fall of EGYPT in Roman arms.
Rating:
Summary: Actual science
Review: Unlike the hateful reviews in the past, I will not rave. But all the negative reviews refuse to discuss facts. There is a reason for that: they have NONE! This book, and it's sequel "Black Athena Revisited" are excellent refutations of the Myth that is Afro-centrism. My advice is to read her books with Bernal's side by side and make up your own mind. It's hard to dispute facts.
Rating:
Summary: Dismissal, Disinterest and Disrespect...
Review: ...these are the three D's utilized by the white intelligensia when it comes to anything regarding sub-Saharan African history and that of the Disapora. Lefkowitz's sources are primarily those of countless white historians, professors and anthropologists before her, so her book is basically a pseudo-intellectual rehash of so much Eurocentric bull. She basically validates Eurocentrism and invalidates Afrocentrism. Pure and simple. There seems to be a rather un-intellectual tinge of vindictiveness in her book as well - it seems based on her reactions to a difficult student and an African-American faculty at a college who didn't let her speak. Poor thing! Maybe now she knows how it feels for African-American faculty who find it rather challenging to work and teach at predominately white colleges...it seems ironic because Ms. Lefkowitz is of Jewish heritage...persecution can either sensitize and give one compassion for other groups, or desensitize and make one bitter...Mary, honey, you have chosen the latter route. Eurocentric history is also based on romanticism and embellishment, what history hasn't? But she's entitled to her opinion, as those of her peers. I just choose not to believe her. One must take all info on Black History interpreted by whites with a grain of salt. Or in the case of this dry, redundant and ultimately racist book, don't take it at all...
Rating:
Summary: The truth is: Greek Civilization was great!
Review: .... While this book is quite generalized, it gets the truth across.
The Africans didn't even develop a WRITTEN LANGUAGE! Egyptians barely interacted with the rest of Africa (DNA evidence proves this). If anything, Egypt was a separate enclave in Africa that interacted with Asia and Europe (Again, check the DNA).
Let the politicos scream, but throw the truth at them and they all crumble!
Rating: 
Summary: Circle the chariots, the Afrocentrics are coming. . .
Review: Or, is it, "some of my best friends are Egyptian." The truth is I rather enjoyed the book. There is an unintended humorous side not often found in history tomes, one that I attribute to the fact the book is aimed at a preconditioned lay audience. In fact, if the discourse was to be decided on approachability alone, Mary Lefkowitz would get my vote. Now, if I understand correctly, and this is one of those rare occasions where I am sure I do, Professor Leftowitz has two main objectives; to refute the fallacies she believes Afrocentrism encourages and to inspire the modestly initiated masses to pursue further study of Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. In view of the implications of objective number one, her idea of a historiographically correct reading list is indicated by asterisk in the bibliography of this work. In decades to follow, we may find physical science holds the answers to vexatious partisanship in historiography. Until that revelation comes to fruition, subjectivity and/or relativism will continue to rule the roost. Contrary to exhortations from the classicist orthodoxy, the author begrudgingly admits she is as susceptible to tendentiousness as any other academic. Her bias is apparent in this book although, objectivity should not be construed as a necessary condition to validate the rectitude of any premise. Nevertheless, in the endeavor to explain unattested events that occurred 5000 years ago, *ex ante* conclusions tend to be unavoidable. Ms. Lefkowitz implores all Afrocentric authors should mind their "p's" (possibility, plausibility, probability, provable) and "r's" (reification, relativism, revisionism) whilst she is clearly reluctant to apply similar constraints to evaluation of the heuristic claims of mainstream traditionalists, where elementary and secondary school students are still taught of the wondrous feats of one Christopher Columbus, with an "oh, by the the way" shout out to earlier explorers, or The Crusades, an epoch presented as though some adamant Jehovah's Witnesses armed with pamphlets suffused *en masse.* The author has devoted more than thirty years to the study of Greek and Roman civilizations but only due to the aloofness of a misguided student does she become cognizant of the effervescing danger represented by the pedagogy of Afrocentrism, like the unsubstantiated claims of Socrates' and Cleopatra's ethnicity. Apparently, Lefkowitz arrived at the conclusion the calumnious works of Afrocentric authors, who evidently are any writers or historians who offer an alternative view to eurocentrism, can no longer be lightly tossed aside. These books should be thrown with extreme force (derivative: Dorothy Parker). She is unwavering in rejection of any and all allegations race is a subtext to her burgeoning enmity. I can suspend belief long enough to accept her word BUT, a couple of thoughts did occur to me. First, if she genuinely desired to circumvent racist accusations, the title of the book would have been "Not out of Egypt" as that terminology closely approximates the focus of her text but indubitably would also fail to pull the plastic out of wallets, and; notwithstanding her rather weak explanation, it is rather perplexing for 30 years she remained oblivious to discussions clearly pertinent to her field of expertise. A number of the publications she now sets out to debunk have been in print for decades. Until a respected *white* peer submitted an undeniably scholarly tome (Bernal's BLACK ATHENA) thereby rendering academia's standard practice of null recognition untenable, the good professor seems to have been quite comfortable in the idyllic surroundings of near-ivy New England. It should be noted, while this book addressed a wide range of ostensibly Afrocentric works, including BLACK ATHENA, Lefkowitz is also co-editor of BLACK ATHENA REVISITED, where Bernal's postulations are addressed at length. The book that has truly brought chafe to the Lefkowitz toga is STOLEN LEGACY, G.M.M. James, a work originally published in the 1950's, and now a very serviceable target as the quintessential "straw man." Amongst other claims, based on the tenets of Freemasonry, James posits during antiquity there existed an education system, "The Egyptian Mystery System" that the Greeks usurped. It is an argument Lefkowitz expeditiously, and convincingly, deconstructs. By association with the James book, direct or otherwise, Lefkowitz is able to discount the commendable efforts of other scholars where accepted research methodologies have been observed and verisimilitude is arguably equal to the historians currently recognized as authorities in the pertinent areas. Two books by Cheikh Anta Diop, a Senegalese scholar, are prime examples. His first effort, originally published in french in 1954 and completely autonomous to "Legacy," is ignored as the author instead strategically elects to focus attention on a later book that unfortunately does refer to James' ethnically uplifting but academically flawed issue. In the effort to expose Afrocentric extremism, Lefkowitz tends to denigrate African and African American studies, disciplines she admits to find of bonafide academic justification. She also (quietly) admits there exists a high probability of significant black admixture to Egyptian civilization; that Egypt and the Levant probably contributed to Greek culture and civilization, most notably in medicine, mathematics and astronomy. Her contention is Egypt was not a major contributor to the formulation of Greek philosophic thought. I do not exclude the possibility her assessment is most probable. She should not exclude the possibility not all claims she deems Afrocentric are probably myth.
Rating:
Summary: solid scholarship
Review: This is a clearly written, dispassionate analysis of the bogus "scholarship" that is Afrocentric writing. It is quite amusing to read the reviews on this site, as it is obvious that many of the reviewers have never read the book in question. Lefkowitz is bashed for things she never said. She has never denied the greatness of Egyptian civilization, or that it influenced Greece -- only the notion that everything Greek of any value came from Egypt. She has not denied that some Egyptians were what modern Europeans would call black. Consider Ross Ike's review. The irrelevant criticisms of Snowden, the erroneous allusions to a denial of African agency, the fallacious defense of James, the false denial that Afrocentricsa have claimed Cleopatra was black -- word for word as you will find them in the writings of Molefi K. Asante. Now I know it is merely a Eurocentric convention to list your sources, but I can also understand the reluctance to list Asante on other grounds -- he has no substantial scholarly expertise in the area of Egyptian and Near East archeology. In fact, before Asante went to Africa, picked up some kinte cloth and a dashiki or two, and thereby transformed himself into an expert on Africa, he was Arthur Lee Smith, Jr., and he had a doctorate in Speech from UCLA (his dissertation title was "Samuel Adams's Agitational Rhetoric of Revolution"). If you want a general overview of the tripe that is Afrocentric writing on the connection of Egypt to Greece, then this is your book. If you want a detailed dismemberment (hilarious, too) of Martin Bernal's fantasies, then I suggest Black Athena Revisited, edited in part by Lefkowitz. There you find some real gems: a tumulus tomb is described by Bernal as a step-pyramid; the Silsbury mound in England is called a pyramid (Bernal says, without evidence, they must have known about the pyramids of Egypt) -- he even goes so far as to say that he's prepared to believe the Egyptians knew about America. Now when an author (Bernal) tells you he's prepared to believe something for which there is no evidence, he admits no use of rigorous methodology, he admits he's aiming not for the truth but for a plausible account that will serve his political ends, then you can imagine the result. Lefkowitz's book is a warning cry. Afrocentric views have not gained credence with the university academic community, but they have sidestepped this process, and been incorporated directly into primary and secondary school curricula. We are about to send a substantial part of a generation of kids onto college ill-prepared to profit from the experience, their minds loaded with garbage.
Rating:
Summary: Please read this - and free your minds...
Review: Africa's influence on ancient Greece, the oldest European civilization, was profound and significant in art, architecture, astronomy, medicine, geometry, mathematics, law, politics, and religion. Yet there has been a furious campaign to discredit African influence and to claim a miraculous birth for Western civilization. A number of books and articles by white and some black conservatives seek to disprove the Egyptian influence on Greece. One of the most recent works in this genre is a book by Wellesley professor Mary Lefkowitz, Not Out of Africa. It continues what Martin Bernal calls in Black Athena the Aryanist tradition of attacking African agency in regard to Greece by raising strawpeople arguments and then knocking them over. This is unfortunate but to be expected by an intellectual tradition that supports the dominant mythologies of race in the history of the West by diverting attention to marginal issues in the public domain. Afrocentricity seeks to discover African agency in every situation. Who are we? What did we do? Where did we travel? What is our role in geometry? How do we as a people function in this or that contemporary situation? But the Afrocentrist does not advance African particularity as universal. This is its essential difference from Eurocentricity which is advanced in the United States and other places as if the particular experiences of Europeans is universal. This imposition is ethnocentric and often racist. Afrocentricity advances the view that it is possible for a pluralism of cultures to exist without hierarchy but this demands cultural equality and respect. The press fanfare granted Not out of Africa, however, does demonstrate how noise can be confused with music. But what is more worrisome is that it demonstrates a glee, although misinformed, of those who feel some sense of relief that a white scholar has taken on the Afrocentrists, a kind of white hope idea. This stems, as I believe George Will has shown in his essay on the subject, from what is viewed as white salvation from the irrationality of Afrocentrists. It originates in an historical anti-African bias and Roger Kimball nearly gloated that readers would "savor" Lefkowitz' "definitive dissection of Afrocentrism." Contrary to any definitive dissection of Afrocentrism what Professor Lefkowitz offered was a definitive exposure of the principal assumptions of a racial structure of classical knowledge. Professor Lefkowitz is conversant with many Greek sources but as she admits this is the first time that she has ventured into these waters. This is unfortunate because she has created a false security among those who believe that Greece sprung like a miracle unborn and untaught. Bringing Frank Snowden in the discussion of the ancient world does not help because Professor Snowden's book Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Graeco-Roman Experience is fatally flawed as a Eurocentric interpretation of the African past. His objective was to demonstrate that Africans existed in the imaginations and experience of Greece and Rome. He succeeded in stripping all agency from Africans. The problem is that Ethiopia in the form of Nubia and Kemet (Egypt) existed thousands of years before there was a Greece or Rome. To start a discussion of the ancient world with 800 B.C is certainly poor scholarship. But Professor Lefkowitz reliance on Snowden is the least of her problems. The book is badly written and terribly redundant as if she is in a hurry to enlarge a relatively poor argument. How many times can you really say that George G. M. James should not have used the term "stolen legacy" when he claimed that the Africans influenced the Greeks? Professor James certainly had just as much rhetorical justification as Professor Lefkowitz who chose the unsubtle title "Not Out of Africa" probably for the same reason as Professor James called his book Stolen Legacy. Ruling classes always seek to promote and to maintain their ruling mythologies. Professor Lefkowitz' passion in trying to walk a tight rope between support of the false mythology of a Greek miracle and the facts of Egyptian influence on the early Greeks is telling. She seeks to minimize the role Egypt played in civilizing Greece by claiming that only in art and architecture was there real influence. This flies in the face of the ancient observers and beneficiaries of the largesse of the Africans. Mary Lefkowitz's Not Out of Africa, has demonstrated the tremendous power of a false idea especially when it is advanced in the halls of the Academy. I have come to believe that it is a part of a larger falsification that encompasses the various right-wing ideologies that parade as truth. They are rooted in the same dogma: reason is the gift of the Greeks. The Greeks are Europeans, Europeans are white, white people gave the world reason and philosophy. This is not only a bad idea it is a false idea. It is a bad idea because it preaches a European triumphalism and it is a false idea because the historical record is contrary. Tragically the idea that Europeans have some different intellectual or scientific ability is accepted doctrine and some scholars will go to any length to try to uphold it. Usually, as Lefkowitz does, they commit four fundamental flaws: They attack insignificant or trivial issues to obscure the main points. Professor Lefkowitz has three main axes to grind in her book. The first is that a student told her that she believed Socrates was black. The second is that the Greek gods came from Africa which she attributes to Martin Bernal, the author of Black Athena, and to Cheikh Anta Diop, the author of The African Origin of Civilization. The third is that freemasonry is the source of George James' claim in his book Stolen Legacy that the Greeks got many of their major ideas from the Egyptians. The main point made by Afrocentrists is that Greece owes a substantial debt to Egypt and that Egypt was anterior to Greece and should be considered a major contributor to our current knowledge. I think I can say without a doubt that Afrocentrists do not spend time arguing that either Socrates or Cleopatra were black.
Rating:
Summary: Dry but necessary Unless you like fantasy
Review: I can think of nothing more insulting to the Black community than the need of some afrocentric "experts" to literaly steal the history of another country (Greece). It implies that Africa doesn't have a rich enough culture to be proud of and that is a shame. It is a crime that Mary Lefkowitz needed to write such a book, however since it has to be done she does it well. Step by step she gives actual evidence to refute claims born out of rage and inadaquacy. The best arguements involve (in my opinion) pointing to the lack of a propaganda attack on Cleopatra for her race by her & Ceasar's foes. It is a fine example of how people and politicts don't change only the technology they use does. She points out not just the factual errors but the inherant dangers of spreading a fantasy and beliving a lie for political purposes. Those who do are made of the stuff of those who don't care for those they incite and exist only to destory. All of the greatest tyrants used such tactics as the basis for their rule. Such illusions are usually shattered at a great price. Lets hope that we as a society and particularly the young African American community don't to pay it.
Rating:
Summary: Required reading
Review: Although this book's literary style is as dry as a pinch of sand you really need to read it if you want to call yourself serious about history. Mary Lefkowitz is a very brave woman.
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