D. Vance Smith, "Atlas’s Bones: The African Foundations of Europe" (U Chicago Press, 2025)
About this episode
D. Vance Smith discusses his book 'Atlas’s Bones' which explores Africa's significant influence on European culture and the misconceptions created during colonization.
A major new look at Africa’s influence on European culture and how colonization remade Africa in the image of a medieval Europe.Virgil. Chaucer. Petrarch. These names resonate with many as cornerstones of European culture. Yet, in Atlas’s Bones: The African Foundations of Europe (U Chicago Press, 2025), D. Vance Smith reveals that much of what is claimed as European culture up to the Middle Ages—its great themes in literature, its sources in political thought, its religious beliefs—originated in the writings of African thinkers like Augustine, Fulgentius, and Martianus Capella, or Europeans who thought extensively about Africa. In fact, a third of Virgil’s Aeneid takes place in Africa. Francis Petrarch believed his most important achievement was his epic Africa; while Geoffrey Chaucer wrote repeatedly about the figures of Scipio Africanus, actually two different men who defeated and destroyed Carthage.Smith tells the story of how Europe created a false “medieval” version of Africa to acquire resources and power during the era of imperialism and colonialism. The first half of the book, “Reading Africa,” traces Egypt’s, Libya’s, and Carthage’s influence on classical and medieval…
People in this episode
Host: Marshall Poe
Guest: D. Vance Smith
Topics covered
- African influence on European culture
- colonization
- medieval Europe
- literary traditions
- political thought
- religious beliefs
Keywords
- Africa
- Europe
- colonization
- literature
- medieval
- cultural influence
- imperialism
- historical narratives
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Atlas’s Bones: The African Foundations of Europe, Aeneid, Africa
Places: Africa, Europe, Carthage, Alexandria
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