By Malik Aziz
Dr. Anderson Thompson, a member of the Kemetic Institute made his transition yesterday. He was a member of KI’s Council of Historians and its Council of Elders. He was also a charter member of ASCAC and sat on the International Board as chairman of the Research Commission.
I met Dr. Thompson as a student at Northeastern Illinois University. Moreover, he was frequently sought out as a subject-matter-expert at many conferences and panel discussions providing analysis on the Black Liberation Struggle. One such gathering including Dr. Thompson sharing the dais with the esteemed Revolutionary Chokwe Lumumba of the Republic of New Africa discussing Malcolm X. I sat in the audience taking extensive notes to study later. A sharp contrast in the now social media atmosphere we find ourselves in today. His extensive work and impact with the likes of Dr. Jacob Carruthers, Dr. Conrad Worrill (Chairman Emeritus of The National Black United Front), Minister Louis Farrakhan and the African Community of Chicago will be recorded with our Ancestors of our struggle.
Dr. Thompson lectured extensively throughout the world on African history and culture. He published several articles and essays over the years, the most recent in the African World History Project: The Preliminary Challenge and The Best of the Kemetic Voice.
Through the leadership of Dr. Anderson Thompson, the senior member of the faculty and founding member of CCICS since 1966, he had spent a lifetime researching a multiplicity of issues related to Africans and the African world, the Illinois Transatlantic Slave Trade Commission was established. To that end he was selected to be the Director of Research and Evaluation for this project. The commission had the awesome challenge of examining the impact of slavery and the slave trade on African people in the United States and specifically in Illinois. Additionally, under his leadership, some of the best researchers and experts in the African world, in a variety of disciplines, were recruited to participate as Research Associates. Dr. Thompson is much sought after as a consultant on Middle Eastern Affairs. He attended the Darfur 23 presentation of its’ data from fact-finding mission on Sudan in 2007 at Operation Push Headquarters. I spoke with Dr. Thompson afterwards and he responded positively that “the Movement is being passed on to a very capable generation. You seem to have it all together” he replied.
He traveled extensively throughout Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil since 1977. He traveled to Africa and Brazil each summer conducting study tours. Thompson’s tours however, were not for your typical tourist. They were for people who were truly interested in learning the truth about African history and culture. His tours took you directly to the people and not the usual tourist sites. The knowledge one acquired as a member of Dr. Thompson’s tour group is not only an educational experience, but, a spiritual one.
