Nile Valley Civilization a 10,000–Year History
by Charles S. Finch III

“Certain European scholars have tied themselves into knots trying to ‘de-Africanize’ ancient Egypt. Using their own ‘conventional’ historical timeline is one way these scholars have been able to give the world this distorted view of Nile Valley history.”

Much has been written about African history and culture and yet one will comb this vast literature nearly in vain for a complete and comprehensive survey of African civilizations by a single author. The multi-volume UNESCO General History of Africa 1 is, in effect, an anthology and while valuable and wide-ranging, suffers the limitations that all works of collective authorship do. Not all the essays are of comparable quality, different ‘schools of thought’ contend with one another, and a consequent lack of consistency and a unifying thread compromises the impact of the grand sweep of civilization on the world’s second-largest continent, the original home of humankind. A single author, with the requisite scholarly foundation and literary skills, could bring a certain seamlessness to the topic.