Kemet Afrocentricity And Knowledge

A profound statement of the Afrocentric perspective.

The Afrocentric method seeks to transform human reality by ushering in a human openness to cultural pluralism that cannot exist without the unlocking of our minds for acceptance of an expansion of consciousness. I seek to overthrow parochialism, provincialism, and narrow Wotanic visions of the world by demonstrating the usefulness of an Afrocentric approach, based on beginning with ancient Kemet, to questions of knowledge. Without a plausible ideology we can never march in the same direction; Afrocentricity is essential for the collective vision. I must alert you to the overpowering value of realizing an Africa truth that has been staring us in the face for thousands of years: the permanence of the pyramids.There is nothing profound in such a pronouncement, there have been similar pronouncements by various other writers, but what is different, I hope, is the identification of the principal cause of the failure in those other formulations. In the West there have been theories and critiques that are fraught with problems whether you call them by the names of existentialism, phenomenology, structuralism, post-colonialism, or deconstruction. What we have come to know is that the proponents of these views have hedged their bets in a European worldview that is moribund when it comes to looking at the outside world. They cannot truly grasp the significance of a revolutionary idea that would challenge the Eurocentric projection of its method as universal. However, the time has come for a total re-evaluation of both intellectual privilege and the assertion of European dominance in knowledge.

The author has written this book entitled 'Afrocentricity' especially for those Africans still in a confused state in order to show them the way to peace. Further he indicates that the book has created its own supporters and detractors and has also been at the core of intense debates about the de-colonizing of the African mind, the dismantling of America, and the destabilizing of the Eurocentric hegemony. This book is not meant to be unread, un-remarked upon, or unheard. Afrocentrists have multiplied in the theaters, universities, unions, political organizations, schools, and corporations. The challenge to the white racial hierarchy has been intense and severe; there can be no hiding from the agency of awakened Africans. In the next few decades it is anticipated that a mighty revolution of values, symbols, and actions might bring about a more equitable society. This revolution for justice and liberty shall be led by the aroused black nation committed to a world of peace.

Molefi Kete Asante's Afrocentric philosophy has become one of the most persistent influences in the social sciences and humanities over the past three decades. It strives to create new forms of discourse about Africa and the African Diaspora, impact on education through expanding curricula to be more inclusive, change the language of social institutions to reflect a more holistic universe, and revitalize conversations in Africa, Europe, and America, about an African renaissance based on commitment to fundamental ideas of agency, centeredness, and cultural location. In An Afrocentric Manifesto, Molefi Kete Asante examines and explores the cultural perspective closest to the existential reality of African people in order to present an innovative interpretation on the modern issues confronting contemporary society. Thus, this book engages the major critiques of Afrocentricity, defends the necessity for African people to view themselves as agents instead of as objects on the fringes of Europe, and proposes a more democratic framework for human relationships. An Afrocentric Manifesto completes Asante's quartet on Afrocentric theory. It is at the cutting edge of this new paradigm with implications for all disciplines and fields of study. It will be essential reading for urban studies, philosophy, African and African American Studies, social work, sociology, political science, and communication.

Winner of the 2021 CLA Book Award presented by the College Language Association Black Cultural Mythology retrieves the concept of "mythology" from its Black Arts Movement origins and broadens its scope to illuminate the relationship between legacies of heroic survival, cultural memory, and creative production in the African diaspora. Christel N. Temple comprehensively surveys more than two hundred years of figures, moments, ideas, and canonical works by such visionaries as Maria Stewart, Richard Wright, Colson Whitehead, and Edwidge Danticat to map an expansive yet broadly overlooked intellectual tradition of Black cultural mythology and to provide a new conceptual framework for analyzing this tradition. In so doing, she at once reorients and stabilizes the emergent field of Africana cultural memory studies, while also staging a much broader intervention by challenging scholars across disciplines—from literary and cultural studies, history, sociology, and beyond—to embrace a more organic vocabulary to articulate the vitality of the inheritance of survival.

Edited by Dr. Ziegler, this book generates a dialogue that articulates the meaning behind Asante's work by examining the roots of Afrocentric thought and exploring Asante's contributions to communication and education.

This book introduces readers to the rich discipline of Africana Studies, reflecting on how it has developed over the last fifty years as an intellectual enterprise for knowledge production about Africa and the African diaspora. The African world has always had a wealth of indigenous knowledge systems, but for the greater part of the scholarly history, hegemonic Western epistemologies have denied the authenticity of African indigenous ways of knowing. The post-colonial era has seen steady and deliberate efforts to expand the frontiers of knowledge about black people and their societies, and to Africanize such bodies of knowledge in all fields of human endeavor. This book reflects on how the multidisciplinary discipline of Africana Studies has transformed and reinvented itself as it has sought to advance knowledge about the African world. The contributors consider the foundations of the discipline, its key theories and methods of knowledge production, and how it interacts with popular culture, Women’s Studies, and other area studies such as Ethnic and Afro-Latinix Studies. Bringing together rich insights from across history, religion, literature, art, sociology, and philosophy, this book will be an important read for students and researchers of Africa and Africana Studies.