SURVEYING ANCIENT AFRICA Africa and Africans in Antiquity. Edited by EDWIN M. YAMAUCHI. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2001. Pp. xv+324. $28.95, paperback (ISBN 0-87013-507-4) (original) (raw)
2002, The Journal of African History
The end of the last century and beginning of a new millennium have provided the excuse for many of us, of whatever profession, to inundate ourselves with summings up of the past and dire warnings and prophesies for the future. Whether or not this publication was intended to coincide with the beginning of the new millennium, it remains timely. The volume presents nine papers revised from a conference at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio) in , together with a tenth to round out its geographical scope. All the contributors except for one co-author are American. This is important, for only in the United States could a volume be produced with the stated aim of taking issue with both Eurocentric and Afrocentric interpretations of the subject. While undoubtedly an important issue in the US, it has a curiously hollow ring to this reviewer, who found little that could be seen as controversial. For a text attempting to bridge these two polar views of ancient Africa, it is a rather odd mixture. Many of the papers are general introductory regional outlines (Egypt and Nubia, Egypt and Kush, Meroe$ , Ballan4 a, Berbers and Carthage, Cyrenaica and Marmarica) by acknowledged experts on each (Frank Yurco, Edna Russmann, Stanley Burstein, William Adams, Reuben Bullard and Donald White, respectively), following the title and its historical theme and fitting together well. These are allied with topical essays (colour prejudice, linguistics, state formation, modern archaeological disinformation) that, with the exception of the first, do not fit so well. Most authors assume the reader has only a general knowledge of his or her region, and so provide a basic background and overview. These, then, are excellent summary introductions to the geographical region and chronological period(s) they encompass, and could be required reading for students of their subject. They are basic enough to be understood by both layman and student, yet sufficiently interesting to profit scholars of more comprehensive background : few of the latter are well versed in all the civilizations, chronological periods and geographical regions covered here, and reading the papers beyond one's area of expertise will prove rewarding. Some, however, require previous specialist knowledge in order to comprehend the arguments put forth. Non-linguists can get through the technical half of Carlton Hodge's ' Afroasiatic ' paper with a little struggle, but Bullard's essay on the Berbers requires detailed knowledge of geological terminology in order to comprehend the importance he himself places on its geology for cultural development in the region. Frank Snowdon's paper is a slightly updated encapsulation of his excellent Before Color Prejudice (), but readers are advised to consult the book before (rather than ?) reading the essay ; the latter is far too concise. It would have been far better if Rodolfo Fattovich and Kathryn Bard, in the only paper not presented at the conference, had penned an overview of Ethiopian civilizations through Classical and indigenous evidence, in keeping with the volume's theme and the majority of its other essays, rather than a comparison of state formation in Egypt and Ethiopia. The only apparent excuse for inclusion of Maynard Swanson's essay on Great Zimbabwe seems to be the early colonialist assumption of a nonindigenous and specifically Semitic origin. Nonetheless, this last paper serves as the volume's best, or at least its most overt, statement of how historical research, archaeology and interpretation have evolved over the past century (fittingly, the volume is dedicated to his memory) ; and as a warning against distortion of evidence for political or aggrandizing motives in the next. Euroand Afrocentrists, both take heed. Unfortunately, some essays were not fully brought up to date for publication. To give but two examples, Hodge cites the first () volume only of the Dictionary of Late Egyptian and the remainder as ' in progress ' (p. ), when the fifth and last already had appeared in , a year before the original conference. And Bard and Fattovich cite their ' Proto-Aksumite ' levels as the earliest at Aksum (pp. -), when concurrent BIEA excavations in - had already unearthed clear and substantial ' Pre-Aksumite ' occupation levels dating a half-millennium earlier ; see Azania (), -; D. W. Phillipson, Archaeology at Aksum, Ethiopia,-(). It must be said that little actually new is presented here. The essays are essentially summations of the current status quo in the various fields discussed. For this reason, if no other, the volume is a useful addition to one's library.