The Destruction of Black Civilization is a powerful book, and should be featured in Black schools around the world. The author basically reveals a history that has largely been covered up. When I was in school, the only thing they taught us is that we were slaves and that is it. Of course, this is a form of mind control designed to create a "slave mentality" among Blacks, and it has been highly successful. Blacks who read the true history of our people will realize that while Europeans were dying of the Bubonic plague(due to a lack of proper hygiene), Africans had built one of the world's first universities and one of the most advanced civilizations in the world, equal to what was produced by the Mayans, Aztecs, and Inca.
However, this book is more than just a book on Ancient African civilization. It is a book which explains the strengths and the weaknesses of the Blacks, and the author is highly objective, explaining how Blacks often hurt themselves in addition to the onslaught of Arab and later European domination. The author shows that, without a doubt, the original builders of the pyramids in both Nubia and Egypt were Black Africans, not Europeans, Arabs, or other Semitic peoples.
My problem with this book is the numerous grammar mistakes I found throughout. While it is normal for some books to have a few grammar errors, this book has more than it should have, and that hurts it a lot. They need to get an editor to fix these mistakes and publish a new edition to the book. However, I checked everything the author talked about and his research is dead on, he mentions African people and civilizations that I didn't even know existed.
Another criticism I have of this book is the plan that the author offers for the Black race in the last few chapters. While I commend him for developing it, this plan in my opinion is not completely feasible, and a completely separate book should have been written for it. He attacks the many Black organizations in the U.S., comparing them to the many different tribes of Africa that were conquered by Europeans because they failed to unite. He also attacks Black Capitalists, a mistake in my opinion.
First off, a lack of Black Capitalists in the world is one reason the race has fallen behind. Out of the world's 1,000 billionaires, only about five or less are of African descent. Most of the world's millionaires and multi-millionaire's are not Black. As long as non-Black people control most of the world's wealth and resources, the Blacks will continue to suffer.
Chancellor Williams believed that "both capitalism and communism are flawed because they only enrich a handful at the top at the expense of the many." He is right about communism, because not too many years after this book was published, the Berlin Wall fell. But he is dead wrong about capitalism, history has shown that this system works, it is why America became the most powerful nation on Earth. The capitalism that he is referring to in the book is not "true" capitalism, but corporatism, which is rule by the corporations, for the corporations. Any African nation that provides property rights for its people, while allowing them to engage in true capitalism, which is open trade and competition(within the rules of law), will become a highly powerful and competitive nations, equal to Japan or the U.S.
Blacks must follow the path set by the Jews and Japanese, which is to emphasize money, business, technology, and education above all else. Both the Jews and Japanese succeeded because they formed tight knit groups, working together as a team and blocking outsiders. Most Whites today are still surprised that they are not allowed in some clubs and restaurants in Japan, but it is this Japanese suspicion of foreigners that prevented them from falling victim to the same tragedy that befell Blacks and Native Americans.
Blacks fail as a group because they don't understand money. The Jews understand money. The Japanese understand money as well. Both the Japanese and Jews are known for their frugality, saving their money instead of buying all the products sold by everyone else, and then they turn around and use their savings as capital to start businesses of their own and acquire assets. This, in a nutshell, is how the Japanese and Jews built wealth. Blacks, on the other hand, which Williams shows in the book, spend much of their money buying the products made by their enemies, and then wonder why they are not advancing. Most Blacks today don't know the difference between assets and liabilities, good debt and bad debt, and the many financial ways in which they are kept in economic bondage.
The author also says that "Blacks are a very religious and spiritual people," and I agree. That is also our greatest weakness. Had the Africans been united under one empire and language when the Europeans showed up, and had more interest in trade than religion, it would have been impossible for either them or Arabs to conquer Africa. Again, if Blacks are to thrive in the 21st century and beyond, we need to emphasize money, technology, and business, because in this world, that is all that matters. |
As a mother of school age children, I have become increasingly concerned by the American school system's failure to develop and foster critical analytical skills in its students. It seems that most children are taught rote memorization and regurgitation of facts (even when some of those "facts" are actually opinions). I want my kids to develop the ability to think for themselves not simply to memorize what someone else tells them is true. In order to learn this skill, I think it requires an ability to abandon the shores of "comfortable" knowledge or status quo or what someone has always told us to be the facts and actively seek out a multitude of perspectives to form a better picture of reality.
This book provides a refreshing and largely silenced viewpoint about a frequently ignored part of the world's population/history. I found most of the information contained in the book to be well-reasoned, thoroughly researched and logical. Some of the conclusions drawn by the author were clearly his opinions and Williams himself admits that some of his interpretations differ from the Western mainstream ideas on the subject in some ways. However, this doesn't negate the overall scholarship and soundness of Williams' work. Furthermore, the Western mainstream opposing views are, in many instances, simply those authors' opinions or interpretations of certain facts. So what makes the "Western" authors' interpretations any more valid than Mr. Williams?
Whether one agrees with Mr. Williams' conclusions or not, to me, there is no question that his voice is an important one in the debate and it should be heard and understood in order to fully understand all the perspectives before forming an opinion. To ignore this work is to choose to remain ignorant. To read this book, whether you agree with it or not, is to begin down the road toward true education and historical analysis. I highly recommend using this as a tool in your historical discovery. |
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"One of the Best Books Ever Written on Black History."
"A must read!"