"
In this new edition of Dictionary of African Antiquity , Nei Lopes fills a gap in African historiography, and presents in a didactic and concise manner the greatness of civilizations of African Antiquity in Lower and Upper Egypt, Congo, Senegal, Tunisia and other territories.
The contribution of Black and African societies to the development of humanity's natural, scientific, cultural, and artistic knowledge is irrefutable. The erasure of this knowledge, its roots, and origins, reflects structural racism and a history that brutally strived to be white. Fortunately, there is a conscious and constructive movement to reclaim these Black memories and sciences. This tradition includes Nei Lopes's Dictionary of African Antiquity .
The revised reissue of this book has become imperative at a time when multiple global events are paving the way for new paradigms for approaching and reinterpreting African history. Because there is no longer room for the idea of Western civilization's superiority, based on the false premise of representing a more advanced stage of human development, which has been violently imposed on peoples around the world over the centuries. And the untruth of this argument has been recognized since the decipherment, in the 19th century, of the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone, which prove the pre-existence of scientific knowledge on the African continent, beginning in Egypt, in relation to Greco-Latin societies.
Thus, it reveals a panorama that began more than four millennia ago, with the emergence of the first African states. These kingdoms, from Lower and Upper Egypt, extended their power to Nubia, a region now belonging to the republics of Sudan and South Sudan, neighboring Ethiopia and Somalia—countries also notable protagonists of decisive historical trajectories. Beyond the Egyptian-Nubian context, this dictionary also chronicles the past of regions that, in antiquity, were centers of powerful civilizations, such as those along the Congo-Angola, Nigeria-Cameroon, Senegal-Guinea-Mali, Morocco-Tunisia-Algeria, Zimbabwe-Mozambique axes, among others.
Dictionary of African Antiquity fills historical gaps by focusing on the continent that is the cradle of the world. With didactic, accessible, and concise entries, it allows readers to enrich their theoretical repertoire. According to Nei Lopes, the main objective of this work is to bring Africa into the "great celebration of Universal History," in an atmosphere of dialogue and mutual respect, without any pretense of hegemony.
Focusing on African societies that developed from the 7th century onward, long before colonization by European countries, the work aims to fill a gap in studies of the continent's history. Among the terms revised are axioms such as "scientific knowledge," "royal incest," and "Egyptian literature," as well as names like Cleopatra and Nefertiti and places like Alexandria and the Sahara. - Cult Magazine
"
