Afrikan Heroes by Antonio Perry - HTML preview

Runoko Rashidi is a historian, research specialist, writer, world traveler, and public lecturer focusing on the global presence of Afrikan peoples and the Afrikan foundations of world civilizations. He is particularly drawn to the Afrikan presence in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. In March 1999, he coordinated a historic tour to India called Looking at India through Afrikan Eyes. In March 2000, he toured Viti Levu, Fiji, while in July 2000, he coordinated an educational tour to Aboriginal Australia titled Looking at Australia through Afrikan Eyes.

As a scholar, Runoko Rashidi has been called the world's leading authority on the Afrikan presence in Asia. Since 1986, he has worked actively with the Dalits (India's Black Untouchables). In 1987, he was a keynote speaker at the first All-India Dalits Writer's Conference, held in Hyderabad, India, and spoke on the "Global Unity of African People."

In 1998, he returned to India to lecture, study, and sojourn with the Dalits and Adivasis (the indigenous people of India). In 1999, he led a group of seventeen Afrikan-Americans to India and became the first-ever non-Indian recipient of the prestigious Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Award. For the past twelve years, he has served as United States representative of Dalit Voice: The Voice of the Persecuted Nationalities Denied Human Rights, published fortnightly from Bangalore, India.

"There is no question that Africa is the Mother Continent. It is the birthplace of modern humanity. If we did not know it before, the genetic studies of the past thirty years have surely confirmed this. Of course, a lot of people, even Black people, find this impossible to accept. And I think the reason for this is our bias against Africa. We are taught, systematically, from the beginning, to be anti- African. And I have found this to be the case even in Africa. So many of us would prefer to think of ourselves as anything but an African. Even myself, as a youth, because my mother’s mother was Cherokee, I thought of myself as a Native American. Yes, even me. But as I grew and learned about Africa and studied Africa my pride in my African identity soared like an eagle. So, today, when I hear our people say that they are not African, I don’t get angry with them. I feel sorry for them and pray that one day they cease to be content with the food of chickens and see themselves as the mighty eagles that they truly are. We are African people. Get comfortable with it. And learn to love your African self."

- RUNOKO RASHIDI