Film Description

This award-winning documentary chronicles the life and times of the noted African-American historian, scholar and Pan-African activist. Both a biography of Clarke himself and an overview of 5,000 years of African history, the film offers a provocative look at the past through the eyes of a leading proponent of an Afro-centric view of history. From ancient Egypt and Africa's other great empires, Clarke moves through Mediterranean borrowings, the Atlantic slave trade, European colonization, the development of the Pan-African movement, and present-day African-American history. Born into an Alabama sharecropping family in 1915, Clarke has been a central figure in the Harlem community since the 1930s, and has since evolved as a leading Pan-African ideologist, one who continues to stir heated debate both within and outside the African-American community. The film features an extensive interview with Clarke which is complemented by compelling archival footage and photos of Africa and its people, past and present.