Yosef A.A. Ben-Jochanan

Ben-Jochanan also stated,”I say the Black [sic] man has called upon Jesus Christ for so many years here in America, and now he starts calling on Mohammed and there are many calling on Moses, and at no time has the Black man’s situation changed, nor has the Black man any freedom. It’s obvious that someone didn’t hear his call or isn’t interested in that call- either Jesus, Moses, or Mohammed.“

In his lecture ‘Why do you Believe in God’ Ben-Jochanan explicitly stated his disbelief in God. He declared that Judeo-Christian-Islamic figures and stories (like Adam and Eve) were based on African and Asian Mythology. On the subject of Churches, he argued that,”The churches can’t help the people when the chips are down because their interest is with the power structure."

Ben-Jochannan married three times and had a total of 13 children. He died on March 19, 2015, at the age of 96. at the Bay Park Nursing Home in the Bronx.

In 2002, Ben-Jochannan donated his library of more than 35,000 volumes, manuscripts and ancient scrolls to the Nation of Islam. In the years before his death, Ben-Jochannan lived in the Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City, in an apartment complex known as Lenox Terrace.

Ben-Jochannan has been criticized for allegedly distorting history and promoting Black supremacy. In February 1993, Wellesley College European classics professor Mary Lefkowitz publicly confronted Ben-Jochannan about his teachings. Ben-Jochannan taught that Aristotle visited the Library of Alexandria. During the question and answer session following the lecture, Lefkowitz asked ben-Jochannan, "How would that have been possible, when the library was not built until after his death?" Ben-Jochannan replied that the dates were uncertain. Lefkowitz writes that ben-Jochannan proceeded to tell those present that "they could and should believe what only Black instructors told them" and "that although they might think that Jews were all 'hook-nosed and sallow faced,' there were other Jews who looked Black like himself."

During his career in the 1980s, Ben-Jochannan was well known for leading guided tours to the Nile Valley. Ben-Jochannan's 15-day trips to Egypt, billed as "Dr. Ben's Alkebu-Lan Educational Tours," using what he said was an ancient name for Africa, typically ran three times a summer, shuttling as many as 200 people to Africa per season.

According to his obituary, Ben-Jochannan began his educational teaching in Harlem in 1967 at HARYOU-ACT. He worked as an adjunct professor (1973–1987) at Cornell University in the Africana Studies and Research Center, then directed by James Turner. He also taught at other institutions, including Rutgers University. In 1977 he accepted an honorary faculty position with the Israelite Rabbinical Academy at Beth Shalom Hebrew Congregation in Brooklyn. (See Capers Funnye.) Ben-Jochannan appeared several times on Gil Noble's WABC-TV weekly public affairs series Like It Is.

Accounts agree on little else other than that Ben-Jochannan was raised in the Caribbean and immigrated to the United States about 1940, where he reportedly worked as a draftsman and continued his studies. He later stated that in 1945, he was appointed chairman of the African Studies Committee at the headquarters of the newly founded UNESCO. He said he worked for them until 1970. However, UNESCO staff state that they have "no record of Mr. Ben-Jochannan ever having been employed by the United Nations." Ben-Jochannan also stated that he began teaching Egyptology at Malcolm-King College in Harlem in 1950, but this volunteer-run effort was not founded until 1968, when it started with 13 students. He later taught at City College in New York City. From 1973 to 1987, he was an adjunct (part-time) professor at Cornell University.

Ben-Jochannan's academic record is disputed, with claims he was educated variously in Puerto Rico, Brazil, Cuba, or Spain, earning degrees in either engineering and/or anthropology. In 1938, he is said to have earned a BS in Civil Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico; this is disputed as the registrar has no record of his attendance. He stated that in 1939 he earned a master's degree in Architectural Engineering from the University of Havana, Cuba. He also claimed to have earned doctoral degrees (PhD) in Cultural Anthropology and Moorish History from the University of Havana and the University of Barcelona, Spain, respectively, and advanced degrees from Cambridge University in England. Both Barcelona and Cambridge say that he never received a degree from either university and, furthermore, Cambridge University said it had no record of Ben-Jochannan ever attending any classes there.

Yosef A. A. Ben-Jochanan was born on December 31, 1918 in Gondar, Ethiopia as Yosef Alfredo Antonio Ben-Jochannan.