Africa is the birthplace of civilization, an educational psychologist and historian told a group of about 30 black students last night, but he added that the notion has been denied by scholars throughout history.

Asa Hilliard III presented his views in a slide show titled "Free Your Mind: Return to the Source, African Origins" at the 1989 Symposium on Education, sponsored by the Black Graduate Student Association.

"This is the third year (for the symposium) and we plan to do it every year," BGSA President Jacquelyn Duval said, adding that each year the symposium focuses on a different subject. "The purpose is to supplement traditional classroom instruction."

The focus on African origins was partially chosen because of recent demands to change the term "black" to "Afro-American." One goal of the symposium is to educate participants so they can make an informed decision about the issue, Duval said.

After seeing Hilliard's presentation at an American Psychological Association conference last August, Duval said, "I thought it would be a good message to bring to the students at Penn State."

"(It's important) to get more information on Africa itself since it doesn't get much attention outside of black studies classes," she added.

Hilliard said his presentation addressed the idea of mental enslavement from a world that has systematically attempted to blot out the memory, culture and group identity of blacks.

He called for a liberation from society's current representation of black culture, that should occur unilaterally for blacks -- both physically and mentally.

Society has engaged in a "systematic defamation" of Africans in the last 400 years, he said, adding that the process continues even today.

He cited distorted geographical maps that show the African continent as much smaller than continents inhabited by whites, when in reality it is larger. Even if these views of the world are abandoned, the residual effects are still found in textbooks, libraries, movies, mass media, etc., he said. "The problem for us, however, is that they were never corrected."

Hilliard cited microbiological studies which have found a single black African woman is the ancestor of all people. "At one point we weren't on the family tree. Now it turns out we are the family tree."

Hilliard credits ancient Kemetic (Egyptian) society -- which he said was comprised of blacks -- with inventing trigonometry, having the oldest major university in the world (enrolling 80,000 students), and engaging in the forerunner of Christian religion, which contained myths of an immaculate conception, nativity, and resurrection.

"No matter where you look it always comes up black," Hilliard said.