John Valentine
John Valentine came of age during the turbulent 60s. Born in rural Mississippi, the son of dirt poor sharecroppers, he got an early taste of what it was like to be born in racist America. Seeing his father humiliated and his mother disrespected and unappreciated daily by the white land owner they worked for, he became determined never to compromise his manhood or accept disrespect from anyone. His experience as an inquisitive Black boy growing up in the deep south colored his view of race and manhood and set him on a life long journey to discover his true roots.
A voracious reader and seeker of knowledge from an early age, Valentine decided to become a writer and chronicle the trials and tribulations of not only his existence, but also those of his people. Failing to find a true or positive depiction of himself in American life and literature he decided to tell the story of African-descended peoples in his own words through a self-revelatory process he termed “Ourstory” (history of the human species told from a black cultural perspective.
Valentine’s writings were so deep, personal, and provocative that much of his work have been censored, even by some Black publications fearful of upsetting their white advertisers. Still Valentine refused to sugar coat the plight of Blacks in America and willingly paid the price for his insubordination, forgoing fortune and fame to speak truth to power and educate his people to their true contributions to the human race. The author and Cultural Historian strongly believes it is this modern disconnection between Black people and their true past that hinders them in their effort to find true happiness and self-worth in a nation that still refuses to accept them as equals and valued citizens. He feels the recent emphasis put on eliminating systemic racism will fail once again, just as it has for over 300 years, unless Black people discover their true identities and their true selves… an identity that was honed and forged long before Aryan colonialism, slavery, and oppression.
Valentine’s long journey of personal discovery took him through millenniums of untold stories, unknown history, and finally to the discovery of ancient knowledge and wisdom hidden in the Temples and Tombs of ancient Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Sudan, the earliest home of our black ancestors. These ancient ancestors, an assertion proven conclusively by modern scientific methods, including archaeology, anthropology, and genetic research, lived thousands of years ago in Africa and discovered many of the systems, customs, religious beliefs, and tools that started the species down the path to civilization.
Valentine’s highly praised tome the The Clan of Southern Man traces the history of African-descended peoples all the way back to the beginning of the human species (the first to do so) and shows the success of Black people in advancing the species long before there were any other “races” on Earth. This all-important book introduces for the first time to Blacks the so-called African Eve, the black woman who lived around 150,000 years ago, and is the ancestor of all humans living today. Yes, our 10,000th great grandmother. It was this black woman and her clan and their future generations that gave us the social system of the clan (extended family) that helped them survive the African macrocosm and perpetuate the human species.
As to The Clan of Southern Man Professor Reginald Martin, M.F.A, Ph.D., and full professor of English at the University of Memphis writes:
“This is no usual history of Blacks out of Africa and onto these shores of misery but is instead a history of the earth and the place of Blacks in it: where they come from, whom they have always been, and where they are going if they are not careful and do not listen to Valentine". Valentine believes that only through a rediscovery of their ancient culture, beliefs, and mores, that was built on a matriarchal model, can modern Black people regain their ‘souls’ and their desired place in the world. As Valentine is fond of saying ‘we can’t out-white White people,’ and only by being ourselves can we find true happiness and acceptance.”
He also reminds us that as historian John G. Jackson noted: “Africans were not waiting in the dark for the Europeans to discover them, but instead for thousands of years before the arrival of Whites to the continent they were the bearers of light and wisdom … light and wisdom they gave to the world”.
Learn more at John Valentine’s official website
