Yosef Ben-Jochannan
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Yosef A.A. (Alfredo Antonio) Ben-Jochannan (born December 31, 1918, Gonder, Ethiopia)[1], also known simply as Dr. Ben, is an American historian.
Contents [hide]
1 Early life and education
2 Career and later life
3 Selected bibliography
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
[edit]Early life and education

According to his own biographical sketches, Dr. Ben was born, an only child, to a Black Puerto Rican Jewish mother named Julia Matta and a Black Ethiopian Jewish father named Kriston ben-Jochannan, a Falasha.[2] Shortly after his birth, the Ben-Jochannan family moved to St. Croix, Virgin Islands. The young Dr. Ben enjoyed playing cricket, and working on the sugar plantation of his uncle. Dr. Ben is married to Gertrude M. England. He is the father of 18 children.[3]
Dr. Ben was educated in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Spain, earning degrees in engineering and anthropology.[4]In 1938, Dr. Ben earned a BS in Civil Engineering at the university of Puerto Rico and in 1939 a Master's degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Havana, Cuba.[5] He received doctoral degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Moorish History from the University of Havana and the University of Barcelona, Spain.[6]
[edit]Career and later life

Dr. Ben immigrated to the United States in the early 1940s. He worked as a draftsman and continued his studies. In 1945, he was appointed chairman of the African Studies Committee of the newly founded UNESCO, a position from which he stepped down from in 1970. Dr. Ben began teaching in 1950 at Malcolm King College then at City College in New York City. From 1976 to 1987, he was an adjunct professor at Cornell University. Dr. Ben is the author of 49 books, primarily on ancient Nile Valley civilizations and their impact on Western cultures.[7] One of the most famous of which is Black Man of the Nile and His Family.[8] Dr. Ben is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Arabic. He has a reading knowledge of ancient Greek and Egyptian hieroglyphics.[9] In his writings, notably, We the Black Jews, he argues that the original Jews were Black Africans from Ethiopia, while the white Jews later adopted the Jewish faith and its customs.[10] Dr. Ben currently lives in the Harlem section of New York City, where, beginning in 1946 he formerly ran a business organizing trips to Egypt for travelers to see the monuments of ancient Africa.[11]
Dr. Ben is founder and high priest in the Craft of Amen-Ra and holds the title/rank of 360° Grand Master in the Craft of Amen-Ra.[citation needed] In February 1993, Wellesley College classics professor Mary Lefkowitz publicly confronted Dr. Ben about the historical accuracy of some of his claims.[12]
In 2002, Dr. Ben donated his personal library of 30,000 volumes to The Nation of Islam.[13]
In May 2004 his son Nnandi Ben-Jochannan was shot and murdered in Harlem.[14]
[edit]Selected bibliography

African Origins of Major "Western Religions"; Black Man of the Nile and His Family; Africa: Mother of Western Civilization; New Dimensions in African History; The Myth of Exodus and Genesis and the Exclusion of Their African Origins; Africa: Mother of Western Civilization; Abu Simbel to Ghizeh: A Guide Book and Manual
[edit]See also

Afrocentrism
Ancient Egyptian race controversy
[edit]References

^ http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1369&category=Educationmakers
^ http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1369&category=Educationmakers
^ http://www.tapvideo.com/categories/Dr.-Josef-Ben%252dJochannan/
^ http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1369&category=Educationmakers
^ http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1369&category=Educationmakers
^ http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1369&category=Educationmakers
^ http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1369&category=Educationmakers
^ http://www.africawithin.com/jochannan/drben_books.htm
^ http://www.thehistorymakers.com/biography/biography.asp?bioindex=1369&category=Educationmakers
^ http://books.google.com/books?id=uvbF_RaqCSoC&pg=PR63&lpg=PR63&dq=Yosef+Ben-Jochannan+unesco&source=bl&ots=dv0_RhOLFV&sig=i-xJJIJCbhyAXm7_0wuq9dtKyuQ&hl=en&ei=StmWS8vMOor38QbNxKwf&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=8&ved=0CCIQ6AEwBw#v=onepage&q&f=false
^ http://www.nbccongress.org/publications/black-authors/josef-ben-jochannan.asp
^ http://www.wellesley.edu/CS/Mary/contents.html
^ http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_73.shtml
^ Neighbors Remember Murder Victim