The First Ethiopians: The Image of Africa and Africans in the Early Mediterranean World

The First Ethiopians explores the images of Africa and Africans that evolved in ancient Egypt, in classical Greece and imperial Rome, in the early Mediterranean world, and in the early domains of Christianity. Malvern van Wyk Smith was inspired by his curiosity regarding the origins of racism in southern Africa and consulted a wide range of sources for this book. From rock art to classical travel writing; from the pre-dynastic African beginnings of Egyptian and Nubian civilizations to Greek and Roman perceptions of Africa; from Khoisan cultural expressions to early Christian conceptions of Africa and its people as? demonic; from Aristotelian climatology to medieval cartography; and from the geo-linguistic history of Africa to the most recent revelations regarding the genome profile of the continent's peoples. The research led to a startling proposition: western racism has its roots in Africa itself, notably in late New-Kingdom Egypt as its ruling elites sought to distance Egyptian civilization from its African origins.