Runoko Rashidi

Who is Runoko Rashidi?

Runoko Rashidi is a historian, essayist, author and public lecturer based in Los Angeles, California. He authored Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations and is editor of Unchained African Voices, a collection of poetry and prose by Death Row inmates at California's San Quentin maximum-scurity prison.

Rashidi's work focuses on his views concerning African foundations of world civilizations. Several scholars dispute his assertions of genetic ties between ancient African populations and indigenous and "black" populations in the modern world.

He has conducted field research and educational group tours to India, aboriginal Australia, the Fiji Islands and Southeast Asia, Egypt and Brazil. Rashidi is frequently a featured writer and speaker and lectures on topics including ancient Egypt, his belief in an African presence in prehistoric America, Africans in antiquity, and the African presence in Asia and other parts of the world.