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My Life in Search of Africa
The author, one of the foremost scholars on Africa, fought to legitimize African history for more than 60 years. This book finally uncovers the tumultuous life of this great figure. Through a series of autobiographical essays, Clarke looks back on his lifelong struggle to restore African history to its proper place in the context of world history.
106 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1994
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July 3, 2024
THE FAMED SCHOLAR LOOKS BACK OVER HIS ENTIRE LIFE
John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998) was an African-American historian, professor, and a pioneer in Pan-African and Africana studies.
The Introduction by Jacob Carruthers to this posthumously-published 1999 book explains, “The three lectures which comprise this volume were delivered at Cornell University’s Africana Studies and Research Center in March of 1990… In these lectures… John Henrik Clarke traces his intellectual development through Alabama, Georgia, Harlem, Africa, and the African World community… He speaks lovingly of his students whom he inspired to reject the easy path to ‘education,’ and take the higher ground of educational excellence… In Professor Clarke’s opinion, Africans can best change the world by changing ourselves first… those of us who are his disciples are struggling to hold erect the staff that he has passed to us.”
In the first lecture, he recalls that his great-grandmother “was the first person to bring to my attention the strength of Africans, and to plant the word Africa in my mind.” (Pg. 5) But she also “thought that anybody who wasn’t a Baptist was somewhat off in their religious direction anyway.” (Pg. 5) He notes that “I wanted to teach Sunday School… [But] When I opened the Bible, I saw no one who looked like an African---I could find no image of my people in God’s book… I was confused… it was beginning to look as if God who loved all people had left an entire people out of ‘his Book’… I could not believe that God could discriminate against his own children. This led me into a religious contradiction that was to take me twenty years to work out.” (Pg. 5-6) Later, he adds, “We cannot conceive of a God that looks like us… We are trapped by this White image, and a lot of these images came straight out of the Bible.” (Pg. 8)
He recounts how “I went to a White … lawyer… who had a good library… He said very kindly, ‘John, I’m sorry, but you come from a race of people who have no history’… My mind rebelled against the concept…” (Pg. 11) He found an essay by Arthur Schomburg, ‘a Puerto Rican of African descent. For the first time I knew that we not only had an ancient history, but we are an old people; that we were already old before Europe was born… and that we had built great civilizations that not only had no jail system, but had no word in their language that meant jail.” (Pg. 10-13)
He explains, “I did not lose the concept of God, but I gained the concept of spirituality which is higher than the concept of religion… You have not examined religion well enough to understand that you can be a highly spiritual person on this earth without buying any of it. I dare you to walk this earth without some form of spirituality.” (Pg. 17-18)
During the 30s, ‘I was preaching the gospel according to Karl Marx, and I was calling anybody a dirty capitalist at the slightest opportunity.” (Pg. 19) But later, “I often wondered why some Black Marxists didn’t… have the guts to say, ‘I am a Marxist and I am Black; and my Marxism is going to come out of my Blackness, out of my Pan-Africanism and out of my Nationalism. If you don’t want to take it that way, jump!’” (Pg. 23) He summarizes, “I am a Nationalist, and a Pan-Africanist, first and foremost. Nothing takes precedent over my commitment to my people… my study… taught me that Karl Marx was a Johnny-come-lately and a political opportunist.” (Pg. 24)
In the early 1960s. he met Cheikh Anta Diop [i.e., author of The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality]: “We became friends from that moment and remained friends until he died. We were very close. My twenty year relationship with this man was one of the treasured things in my life.” (Pg. 32-33)
Of the time when students began demanding Black Studies courses, he reflected, “We were going wrong even in demanding Black Studies; we made a mistake that we are still making. Black Studies is not a separate entity; we are talking about the missing pages in the history of the world. We are talking not only about the cheating of Black students of information they need in the world of tomorrow, we are also talking about the chearting of White students also, because in the world of tomorrow both White students and Black students will have to look at each other from a different point of view than previously with a different set of information. It’s just as valuable to them as it is to us, because in the world of tomorrow they will be dealing with African people from different perspectives.” (Pg. 33-34)
In the second lecture, he observes, “This is why you don’t understand the difference between [W.E.B.] DuBois and [Booker T.] Washington… on proper examination both men were right… logically the political conveyer belt led from Booker T. Washington to DuBois, from DuBois to Garvey… Garvey would logically lead you to a consideration of what Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X were saying. Nation reclamation: all of them were talking about the same thing using different words.” (Pg. 41-42)
Of his years teaching at Cornell, he recalls, “Those were the best years that I have enjoyed during my teaching life… I began something which I would continue throughout my entire teaching life, giving out extensive notes for every class, with references and page numbers where to find the references. Someone said I was spoon-feeding the students… What I started them to do was research in areas they had never dreamed about… This had been my training outside of college because I was self-trained; I didn’t just read the prescribed books. I also read unprescribed books. I read the radical books; I read the dissenting books. I had the range of information over and above the regular academically trained person.” (Pg. 48)
Of Dr. Yosef A.A. ben-Jochannan [author of books such as Africa: Mother of Western Civilization], he says, “We crossed swords then, but we love each other like brothers, and we look after each other like brothers. Among the living people around me, he’s about as close to me as any brother I’ve ever had. Yet we have some strong intellectual disagreements… He knows more detail than almost any man I know.” (Pg. 50-51)
He asserts, “It is important to recall that the Arab slave trade drained Africa of much energy and much organization. It came a thousand years before the European slave trade, and African did not have the energy or the organization to stop the European slave trade. Besides, Africa did not suspect that the Arab stranger and the European stranger were conquerors and slavetraders. Africans are hospitable to strangers and still will invite strangers to dinner, even now.” (Pg. 59)
He laments, “I was a little depressed when I knew that I was losing my eyesight. I saw no reason for it. I saw bums who never read a letter… with perfect eyesight… I read more books than more men see in a lifetime, and I’ve developed more understanding from it. My eyes were the great treasures of my existence. I used them to rescue me from depression and to enhance my intellectual being.” (Pg. 69)
In the third lecture, he points out, “I am one of those they [in the media] call a revisionist. I am not a revisionist, I’m a correctionist. I’m not trying to stand history on its head. I’m trying to stand history on its feet. Herodotus, the first of the great eyewitnesses of Africa… was a good reporter because in his work… he said the Africans told me thus and so… To approach African history solely from the point of view of Blackness is dead wrong because many times Whites have left us some good records we need to examine.” (Pg. 75-76)
He says of Heinrich Barth’s Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, “If you say that you’re not going to read it because it’s written by a White man, you’re dead wrong! In the absence of adequate resources and sponsorship, few if any Blacks could have undertaken that journey had they access to the things Barth had access to…. I’m pointing to literature written by Whites to which we need to pay some attention… My point is that Black Studies goes beyond Blackness…. many of these White writers that I have referred to risked their reputations, risked their limbs, risked their very lives to write these books, and they sometimes paid dearly for their publications repudiating the concept that they were dealing with a people who had no history… I acknowledge that a lot of the records that helped me see African history in a broader dimension beyond Blackness came from White writers.” (Pg. 87-90)
This is a fascinating and very insightful book, from a scholar and teacher whose influence continues to be felt, well into the 21st century.
John Henrik Clarke (1915-1998) was an African-American historian, professor, and a pioneer in Pan-African and Africana studies.
The Introduction by Jacob Carruthers to this posthumously-published 1999 book explains, “The three lectures which comprise this volume were delivered at Cornell University’s Africana Studies and Research Center in March of 1990… In these lectures… John Henrik Clarke traces his intellectual development through Alabama, Georgia, Harlem, Africa, and the African World community… He speaks lovingly of his students whom he inspired to reject the easy path to ‘education,’ and take the higher ground of educational excellence… In Professor Clarke’s opinion, Africans can best change the world by changing ourselves first… those of us who are his disciples are struggling to hold erect the staff that he has passed to us.”
In the first lecture, he recalls that his great-grandmother “was the first person to bring to my attention the strength of Africans, and to plant the word Africa in my mind.” (Pg. 5) But she also “thought that anybody who wasn’t a Baptist was somewhat off in their religious direction anyway.” (Pg. 5) He notes that “I wanted to teach Sunday School… [But] When I opened the Bible, I saw no one who looked like an African---I could find no image of my people in God’s book… I was confused… it was beginning to look as if God who loved all people had left an entire people out of ‘his Book’… I could not believe that God could discriminate against his own children. This led me into a religious contradiction that was to take me twenty years to work out.” (Pg. 5-6) Later, he adds, “We cannot conceive of a God that looks like us… We are trapped by this White image, and a lot of these images came straight out of the Bible.” (Pg. 8)
He recounts how “I went to a White … lawyer… who had a good library… He said very kindly, ‘John, I’m sorry, but you come from a race of people who have no history’… My mind rebelled against the concept…” (Pg. 11) He found an essay by Arthur Schomburg, ‘a Puerto Rican of African descent. For the first time I knew that we not only had an ancient history, but we are an old people; that we were already old before Europe was born… and that we had built great civilizations that not only had no jail system, but had no word in their language that meant jail.” (Pg. 10-13)
He explains, “I did not lose the concept of God, but I gained the concept of spirituality which is higher than the concept of religion… You have not examined religion well enough to understand that you can be a highly spiritual person on this earth without buying any of it. I dare you to walk this earth without some form of spirituality.” (Pg. 17-18)
During the 30s, ‘I was preaching the gospel according to Karl Marx, and I was calling anybody a dirty capitalist at the slightest opportunity.” (Pg. 19) But later, “I often wondered why some Black Marxists didn’t… have the guts to say, ‘I am a Marxist and I am Black; and my Marxism is going to come out of my Blackness, out of my Pan-Africanism and out of my Nationalism. If you don’t want to take it that way, jump!’” (Pg. 23) He summarizes, “I am a Nationalist, and a Pan-Africanist, first and foremost. Nothing takes precedent over my commitment to my people… my study… taught me that Karl Marx was a Johnny-come-lately and a political opportunist.” (Pg. 24)
In the early 1960s. he met Cheikh Anta Diop [i.e., author of The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality]: “We became friends from that moment and remained friends until he died. We were very close. My twenty year relationship with this man was one of the treasured things in my life.” (Pg. 32-33)
Of the time when students began demanding Black Studies courses, he reflected, “We were going wrong even in demanding Black Studies; we made a mistake that we are still making. Black Studies is not a separate entity; we are talking about the missing pages in the history of the world. We are talking not only about the cheating of Black students of information they need in the world of tomorrow, we are also talking about the chearting of White students also, because in the world of tomorrow both White students and Black students will have to look at each other from a different point of view than previously with a different set of information. It’s just as valuable to them as it is to us, because in the world of tomorrow they will be dealing with African people from different perspectives.” (Pg. 33-34)
In the second lecture, he observes, “This is why you don’t understand the difference between [W.E.B.] DuBois and [Booker T.] Washington… on proper examination both men were right… logically the political conveyer belt led from Booker T. Washington to DuBois, from DuBois to Garvey… Garvey would logically lead you to a consideration of what Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X were saying. Nation reclamation: all of them were talking about the same thing using different words.” (Pg. 41-42)
Of his years teaching at Cornell, he recalls, “Those were the best years that I have enjoyed during my teaching life… I began something which I would continue throughout my entire teaching life, giving out extensive notes for every class, with references and page numbers where to find the references. Someone said I was spoon-feeding the students… What I started them to do was research in areas they had never dreamed about… This had been my training outside of college because I was self-trained; I didn’t just read the prescribed books. I also read unprescribed books. I read the radical books; I read the dissenting books. I had the range of information over and above the regular academically trained person.” (Pg. 48)
Of Dr. Yosef A.A. ben-Jochannan [author of books such as Africa: Mother of Western Civilization], he says, “We crossed swords then, but we love each other like brothers, and we look after each other like brothers. Among the living people around me, he’s about as close to me as any brother I’ve ever had. Yet we have some strong intellectual disagreements… He knows more detail than almost any man I know.” (Pg. 50-51)
He asserts, “It is important to recall that the Arab slave trade drained Africa of much energy and much organization. It came a thousand years before the European slave trade, and African did not have the energy or the organization to stop the European slave trade. Besides, Africa did not suspect that the Arab stranger and the European stranger were conquerors and slavetraders. Africans are hospitable to strangers and still will invite strangers to dinner, even now.” (Pg. 59)
He laments, “I was a little depressed when I knew that I was losing my eyesight. I saw no reason for it. I saw bums who never read a letter… with perfect eyesight… I read more books than more men see in a lifetime, and I’ve developed more understanding from it. My eyes were the great treasures of my existence. I used them to rescue me from depression and to enhance my intellectual being.” (Pg. 69)
In the third lecture, he points out, “I am one of those they [in the media] call a revisionist. I am not a revisionist, I’m a correctionist. I’m not trying to stand history on its head. I’m trying to stand history on its feet. Herodotus, the first of the great eyewitnesses of Africa… was a good reporter because in his work… he said the Africans told me thus and so… To approach African history solely from the point of view of Blackness is dead wrong because many times Whites have left us some good records we need to examine.” (Pg. 75-76)
He says of Heinrich Barth’s Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa, “If you say that you’re not going to read it because it’s written by a White man, you’re dead wrong! In the absence of adequate resources and sponsorship, few if any Blacks could have undertaken that journey had they access to the things Barth had access to…. I’m pointing to literature written by Whites to which we need to pay some attention… My point is that Black Studies goes beyond Blackness…. many of these White writers that I have referred to risked their reputations, risked their limbs, risked their very lives to write these books, and they sometimes paid dearly for their publications repudiating the concept that they were dealing with a people who had no history… I acknowledge that a lot of the records that helped me see African history in a broader dimension beyond Blackness came from White writers.” (Pg. 87-90)
This is a fascinating and very insightful book, from a scholar and teacher whose influence continues to be felt, well into the 21st century.
May 11, 2023
Asante sana Nana Clarke for blessing us with this piece. I recommend this read to all Afrikan people serious about the Liberation of Afrikan people worldwide.
I will definitely read this book again at another space and time.
I will definitely read this book again at another space and time.
September 15, 2020
It is understandable why the book could not be read at school level as the history of Africa is hidden from the African people. For if you read the history of African then, you understand the history of the world.
August 19, 2015
2015 Reading Challenge - A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't.
This is a compilation of a lecture series that Dr. Clarke gave at the Africana Studies and Research Center's 20th Anniversary. He was an incredibly well versed historian with a vast knowledge of the African Diaspora, the accounting of history, developments throughout the world and how they rooted back to or involved Africa. This book made me feel as if I were right back in Africana listening to him lecture.
This is a compilation of a lecture series that Dr. Clarke gave at the Africana Studies and Research Center's 20th Anniversary. He was an incredibly well versed historian with a vast knowledge of the African Diaspora, the accounting of history, developments throughout the world and how they rooted back to or involved Africa. This book made me feel as if I were right back in Africana listening to him lecture.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews