Tarikhu Farrar's interest in the history of Africa and the African Diaspora had its origins in the rise of the Black Conciousness Movement of the late 1960s. Tarikhu was in his mid-teens at the time and very much an activist during this intellectural and cultural period. As an avid reader, he read everything he could get his hands on concerning "Black History." Only years later did her pursue formal academic training, receiving his baccalaureate degree from Harvard University and a PhD in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. He taught African and African-American Studies for more than thirty years. Tarikhu's teaching experience began at U.C. Berkeley, before joining the faculty at City College of San Francisco where he taught for twenty-eight years. This, in a very real sense, allowed him to return to his roots.
Published by Lexington Books in 2020, Precolonial African Material Culture: Combatting Stereotypes of Technological Backwardness, interogates the idea of an inherent backwardness of technology and material culture in early sub-Saharan Africa. This persistent and tenacious myth is popular in the scholarly imagination. Precolonial African Material Culture offers a thorough challenge to this myth. Tarikhu Farrar revisits the early technology of sub-Saharan Africa as revealed by recent research and reconsiders long-possessed primary historical sources. He then explores the ways that indigenous African technologies have influenced the world beyond the African continent.
Copies of the book can be purchased from most online book sellers.
“When African Kings Became ‘Chiefs’: Some Transformations in European Perceptions of West African Civilization c. 1450-1800.” Journal of Black Studies, Volume 23/2, 1992.
“Afrocentric Scholarship and Models of History and Culture Growth: A Critical Evaluation.” The Afrocentric Scholar, Volume 2/2, 1993.
Building Technology and Settlement Planning in a West African Civilization: Precolonial Akan Cities and Towns. Lewiston: Mellen University Press. 1996.
“The Queenmother, Matriarchy, and the Question of Female Political Authority in Precolonial West African Monarchy.” Journal of Black Studies, Volume 27/5, 1997.
“Reconsidering the African Impact on Colonial American Technology.” Conference Proceedings of the African Impact on the Material Culture of the Americas, May 30—June 2, 1996. Old Salem: Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts. 1998.
“Indigenous African Building Technology in Tropical/sub-Saharan Africa: A Consideration of Building Materials with Special Reference to Indigenous Akan Building Construction.” Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures.
“Indigenous Akan Building Construction: Some Aspects of Timber and Clay and Coursed Clay Methods.” Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer-Verlag, 2008.
Precolonial African Material Culture: Combatting Stereotypes of Technological Backwardness. Lanham, Boulder, New York, London: Lexington Press. 2020.
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