Dr. Runoko Rashidi "INTRO TO HISTORICAL AFRICAN INFLUENCE WORLDWIDE"

RUNOKO RASHIDI--HISTORIAN, RESEARCH SPECIALIST, WRITER,
PUBLIC LECTURER & WORLD TRAVELER--PROFILE OF A PAN-AFRICANIST SCHOLAR

http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/runoko.html

INTRO TO HISTORICAL AFRICAN INFLUENCE WORLDWIDE

DR. RUNOKO RASHIDI'S BIOGRAPHY

"History is a light that illuminates the past, and a key that unlocks the door to the future."
--Runoko Rashidi

Runoko Rashidi is a historian, research specialist, writer, world traveler, and public lecturer focusing on the African presence globally and the African foundations of world civilizations. He is particularly drawn to the African presence in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, and has coordinated historic educational group tours to India, Aboriginal Australia, the Fiji Islands and Southeast Asia as well as Egypt and Brazil.

In regards to the mass media, Runoko is much sought out for radio, television, and newspaper interviews, having now been interviewed on more than 200 radio broadcasts and more than a hundred television programs. As a public lecturer, during the past twenty years he has made major presentations at more than 125 colleges and universities and scores of public and private schools, libraries and book stores, churches and community centers. On the international circuit he has lectured in Australia, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Canada, Columbia, Costa Rica, Egypt, England, Ethiopia, France, Fiji, Germany, Guyana, Honduras, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, the Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, Trinidad, Turkey, Uganda, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

Rashidi's presentations are customized and suitable for all audiences and ages, and are lively, engaging, and vividly illustrated.

Runoko is the author of Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations (published by Karnak House in London in 1993), the editor, along with Dr. Ivan Van Sertima of Rutgers University, of the African Presence in Early Asia, considered "the most comprehensive volume on the subject yet produced" (published by Transaction Press, and now in its third edition), and a major pamphlet titled the Global African Community: The African Presence in Asia, Australia and the South Pacific (published by the Institute of Independent Education in 1994). In 1995, he completed editing Unchained African Voices, a collection of poetry and prose by Death Row inmates at California's San Quentin maximum-security prison. In December 2005 Editions Monde Global released Runoko’s latest work and his first French language text, A Thousand Year History of the African Presence in Asia.

Runoko Rashidi is a prolific writer and essayist. As an essayist and contributing writer, Runoko's articles have appeared in more than seventy-five publications. His historical essays have been prominently featured in virtually all of the critically acclaimed Journal of Civilizations anthologies edited by Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, and cover the broad spectrum of the African presence globally. Rashidi's Journal of African Civilizations essays include: "African Goddesses: Mothers of Civilization," "Ancient and Modern Britons," "The African Presence in Prehistoric America," "A Tribute to Dr. Chancellor James Williams," "Ramses the Great: The Life and Times of a Bold Black Egyptian King," "The Moors in Antiquity," and the "Nile Valley Presence in Asian Antiquity."

Included among the notable African scholars that Runoko has worked with and been influenced by are: John Henrik Clarke, John G. Jackson, Yosef ben-Jochannan, Chancellor James Williams, Charles B. Copher, Edward Vivian Scobie, Ivan Van Sertima, Asa G. Hilliard III, Obadele Williams, Charles S. Finch, James E. Brunson, Wayne B. Chandler, Legrand H. Clegg II, and Jan Carew. He believes that his principle missions in life are to help make Africans proud of themselves, to help change the way Africa is viewed in the world, and to help reunite a family of people that has been separated far too long.

As a scholar, Runoko Rashidi has been called the world's leading authority on the African 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 African-Americans to India, and became the first ever non-Indian recipient of the prestigious Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Memorial Award.

On December 5, 2002 Runoko Rashidi was granted an honorary doctor of divinity degree by the Amen-Ra Theological Seminary in Los Angeles, California.

Runoko Rashidi has dedicated his entire adult life to African people. For additional information on educational tours, to schedule lectures, to purchase books, dvds, photos and more Runoko can be easily reached via the Internet at runoko@yahoo.com, or call him at (210) 337-4405. You may write Runoko at Runoko Rashidi, Box 201662, San Antonio, Texas 78220

For additional information on educational tours, to schedule lectures, purchase audio and video tapes Runoko Rashidi can be easily reached via the Internet at runoko@yahoo.com, or call Runoko at (210) 648-5178. You may write Runoko at Runoko Rashidi, Box 201662, San Antonio, Texas 78220

Runoko Rashidi is very active online. His most comprehensive and popular web site, The Global African Presence, is brilliantly illustrated, regularly updated, and designed and maintained by Kenneth Ritchards. The Global African Presence Web site may be visited at

http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/runoko.html

RBG Street Scholar Educational Design