By Harriet Knight
“The first Ethiopians: The Image of Africa and Africans in the early Mediterranean World”, a book authored by Malvern Van Wyk Smith, Professor Emeritus in the English Department, that investigates the origins of racisms, will be launched at Rhodes University on March 23, 2010.
The book encapsulating over three decades worth of Prof Van Wyk Smith’s work, explores the images of Africa and Africans that evolved in ancient Egypt, classical Greece and imperial Rome in the early Mediterranean world, and in the early domains of Christianity.
The launch, taking place on Tuesday (23 March) in the Eden Grove foyer at 18:15, will be introduced by Professor Michael Whisson, Professor Emeritus at Rhodes University and the former head of the Anthropology department at the institution.
Prof Malvern’s curiosity regarding the origins of racism in southern Africa started during his younger days when the National Party instituted Apartheid in 1948. He questions where racism came from and most importantly, “can we cure ourselves of it?”
Prof Malvern consulted a wide range of sources, which led to a startling proposition: “western racism has its roots in Africa itself, notably in late New-Kingdom Egypt as its ruling elites sought to distance Egyptian civilisation from its African origins.”
He found the first ideas of being separate, of being more worthy, or evolved, than “the other” in a pre-dynastic culture to appear as early as 5 000 BC. His research has produced several novel conclusions that are sure to spark debate about that very human quality, the ability to see difference where really there is none.
The book will be available for purchase at the launch event.