BET Animation - Hannibal

As I posted earlier, BET is going to be releasing an animated series on the life of Hannibal. I don't what which is the biggest shame: when you sat "Hannibal" either Silence of the Lambs or A-Team come to mind or the fact so few people recognize the real Hannibal as being a black man. When I learned about him in school it was never mentioned that he was black. Yes, we go that he was a great general. He had the Romans shaking in their togas. He won every single battle he waged against Rome except the last one - which cost Carthage the war. I learned how Rome thought itself impregnable because of the Mediterranean Sea and the Alps. They thought that there was no way that their rival Carthage could ever attack Rome directly. Hannibal did the impossible. He marched his army, including elephants, over and through the Alps and attacked Rome directly! The Romans were shocked to say the least. I always knew it would make a great movie. Just like the Battle of Thermopylae made a great movie (300). You look at the two stories and you see many similarities. Huge drama that no one could just make up. Period pieces from over 2000 years ago. Despite all of western civilization hanging in the balance, precious few people had heard of the stories.

So why has the story of Leonidas been made into a couple of movies and we are largely silent about Hannibal? Because Hannibal was black. We don't want to give any young black people any ideas that they can change the world and take a stand do we? Perish the thought. We must not let them know that black history does not begin with slavery and that there have always been black people that do important things. I think that this is why it's near impossible for Vin Diesel to get this story made into the big-budget epic it deserves to be. Here is a painting of Hannibal's army crossing the Alps on the right.

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