Part 1

It is rare these days to have successful Hollywood productions that are six hours long. American attention spans are simply not equipped to weather such torture. I was therefore surprised at the success of the movie John Adams. To my relief I later learnt that the six hours were divided into one-hour episodes and shown on HBO before they were sold on CD. It was well worth it. The movie provides wonderful insights into the foundations of the US polity and democratic institutions while telling a personal story. I will not say much about the movie so as not to ruin the experience for those who may choose to watch it.

One of the profound revelations in the movie is how particular to a culture and history the formation of a new state can be. Despite the revolutionary leaders’ identity as aristocratic Englishmen, the system that they founded had very little in common with the governing system in London. But it did closely resemble the aspirational hopes of Britons like John Locke. Puritan discipline combined with economic transformation and cheap firearms allowed revolutionaries to refuse subordination to a foreign power and helped assert democracy. Well sort of.

In these series of essays titled Connecting The Dots, this poster will delve into the tenuous world of modern archeology and history, as it relates to peoples of Africa. For the most part, peoples of African descent are consciously and/or subconsciously aware, that somehow, they are not afforded their right place in history. Often their histories are pursued only as far back as the transatlantic slave trade and/or the era of colonialism. Any history of these people past those relatively recent milestones is considered highly controversial and only relegated to the strong willed, those who are willing to risk most everything they have worked for, if their intentions are to go against the status quo.

Martin Bernal is one of the few such strong willed persons who risked much by writing a series of hard hitting books titled Black Athena. Before Black Athena, Bernal was a well respected British orientalist who was influential in shaping the British diplomatic relationship with China. After the publication of the first volume of Black Athena in 1987, subtitled The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985, his stock fell severely.