CCR’s engagement with African civilizations has been relatively recent. Tseggai Isaac’s “Civilizations: Which Constitutes Africa’s Most Effective Choice?” in v70 and v71 addresses the question of which civilizational orientation is best for African development, treating this as a comparative civilizational question.

James DeMeo’s Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence in the Deserts of the Old World (reviewed by Laina Farhat-Holzman in v70 and v71) advances the controversial thesis that desert regions of the Old World — particularly Saharasia — are the original sources of “armored patrism” and accompanying patrist institutions, with implications for civilizational analysis. DeMeo’s hypothesis, derived from both climatological and cultural-diffusion evidence, postulates a matrist original condition in much of the Old World before the spread of patrist institutions out of Saharasia.

Tseggai Isaac and Andrew Targowski (eds.), African Civilization in the 21st Century: Focus on Civilizations and Cultures (Nova Publishers, 2015), is reviewed in v76. The book is a major collection of essays on African civilizational futures, including engagement with the work of Cheikh Anta Diop, Théophile Obenga, and other Afrocentric scholars, as well as comparative-civilizational approaches.

In v92, “Wholistic Perspectives: Ethiopian Civilization, Governance and Global Presence” engages Ethiopian civilization as a case study, with attention to its ancient Aksumite origins, its Christian monarchy, and its contemporary federal governance. The article treats Ethiopia as a continuous civilizational entity with deep connections to Red Sea, Mediterranean and Indian Ocean trade networks.

Source summaries:

  • v69 (Fall 2013) — James DeMeo, “Saharasia: Geographical Comparisons of World Cultures and Civilizations,” the full text of DeMeo’s controversial thesis on the desert origins of “armored patrism” and the diffusion of patrist institutions out of Saharasia, with figures on the Saharasian Desert Belt and the diffusion of armored patrism. (v69)
  • v70 (Spring 2014) — Tseggai Isaac, “Civilizations: Which Constitutes Africa’s Most Effective Choice?”; Laina Farhat-Holzman reviews James DeMeo’s Saharasia. (v70)
  • v71 (Fall 2014) — Continuation of the African civilization discussion. (v71)
  • v76 (Spring 2017) — Review of Tseggai Isaac and Andrew Targowski (eds.), African Civilization in the 21st Century. (v76)
  • v92 (Spring 2025) — “Wholistic Perspectives: Ethiopian Civilization, Governance and Global Presence.” (v92)