A. W. Amo First Great Black Man of Letters

Bibliographic Data

ID7841768
AuthorsReginald Be, Reginald Bess (Grambling State University, corresponding author)
Year1989
Volume19
Issue4
Pages387-393
Publication date1989-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Black Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9347 • E-ISSN: 1552-4566
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/002193478901900401
OpenAlexW1969227353
LanguageEN
Citations received2

A few years ago Fikes (1980) reported on his research into Black scholars in Europe in the early modern period. At that time this writer was also conducting research into the life and times of one of the scholars who was also Fikes's concern. Research and scholarship are designed to advance the state of man's knowledge. It is with this thought in mind that I shall attempt in the following pages to enhance, update, and correct the knowledge about one of the Black scholars whose life and accomplishments some researchers have touched upon. That scholar was Anton Wilhelm Amo, a Ghanaian who in the first half of the 1700s was one of the leading intellectuals in Europe. Indeed, on April 17, 1734, young Amo made history by becoming the first Black African to be awarded the doctorate degree in philosophy and letters from a European university. Such had been his intellectual achievements that the rector of the University of Wittenberg was moved to say at the conclusion of the defense of the doctoral thesis (Amo, 1734)

Aesthetics · Economic history · Intellectual history · Period (music · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · State (computer science · African history and culture studies · Classics · History · Law · Philosophy · Race, History, and American Society

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