CEMOTAP Co-Chair, Dr. James McIntosh and Brother Lucien Pinckney present two awards to Dr. Ben. Ancestors bordering the award on the left include Paul Robeson, Ida Wells Barnett, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Queen Yaa Asantewa, The Honorable Marcus Garvey, Queen Tiy, Kwame Nkrumah, Nat Turner, Sourjourner Truth, John Coltrane, Asa Hilliard, John Henrik Clarke, Nina Simone, Malcolm X, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dedan Kimathi, Harriet Tubman and Khallid Muhammad. The wooden Plaque to the right reads. “We came from the beginning of the Nile where (the god) Hapi Dwells at the foothills of the Mountain of the Moon”. It is an inscription from the Papyrus of Hunefer

WHO IS DR. BEN

Dr. Yosef A. A. Ben-Jochannan, affectionately known as “Dr. Ben” was born December 31, 1918, to a Puerto Rican mother and an Ethiopian father in what is known as the “Falasha” Hebrew community in Gondar, Ethiopia.

Dr. Ben’s formal education began in Puerto Rico. His early education continued in The Virgin Islands and in Brazil, where he attended elementary and secondary school. Dr. Ben earned a B.S. degree in Civil Engineering at the university of Puerto Rico, and a Master’s degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Havana, Cuba. He received doctorial degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Moorish History, from the University of Havana and the University of Barcelona Spain.
Dr. Ben was adjunct professor at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, for over a decade (19761987). He has written and published over forty-nine books and papers, revealing much of the information unearthed while he was in Egypt. Two of his better known works include, Black Man of the Nile and His Family and Africa: Mother of Major Western Religions.
In 1939, shortly after receiving his undergraduate degree, Dr. Ben’s father sent him to Egypt to study first hand the ancient history of African People. Since 1941, Dr. Ben has been to Egypt at least twice a year. He began leading educational tours to Egypt in 1946. When asked why he began the tours, he replied “because no one knew or cared about Egypt and most believed Egypt was not in Africa.” According to Dr. Ben, Egypt is the place to go to learn the fundamentals of living. Over five decades have passed and Dr. Ben, a preeminent scholar and Egyptologist, remains focused on Nile Valley Civilization.