oa Waarom wij studenten niet vertellen dat de Griekse cultuur uit ‘Zwart Afrika’ komt

Why we do not tell our students that Greek culture originates in ‘Black Africa’

The present contribution is an offshoot of a public debate on Afrocentric criticisms of the teaching of Ancient History, held at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in June 2015 (for a video recording of this event see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMu5IncT8OU). We argue that the central tenets of the Afrocentric view of Ancient History, viz. that the ‘Greek miracle’ was a derivative of Egyptian culture, and that pharaonic Egypt was a black civilization, are edifying myths rather than serious contributions to our understanding of the history of the Eastern Mediterranean in Antiquity and that they should not be taught in public educational institutions.