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Afrocentrism, or Afrocentricity, is a world view that emphasizes the importance of African peoples in culture, philosophy, and history. Pan-Africanism is a Sociopolitical World view, and Philosophy, as well as a movement which seeks to unify both Native Africans and those of Pan-Africanism is a Sociopolitical World view, and Philosophy, as well as a movement which seeks to unify both Native Africans and those of An Afro-Latin American (also Afro-Latino) is a Latin American person of at least partial Black African ancestry the term may also refer to historical African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa Kwanzaa is a week-long holiday celebrated primarily in the United States, honoring African-American heritage See Colony and Colonization for examples of colonialism which do not refer to Western colonialism The word Maafa (also known as the African Holocaust or Holocaust of Enslavement) is derived from a Swahili word meaning disaster terrible occurrence or The term black people usually refers to a racial group of Humans with dark Skin color, but the term has also been used to categorise a number of diverse African Philosophy is a disputed term used in different ways by different Philosophers. Black nationalism (BN advocates a racial definition (or redefinition of black national identity as opposed to Multiculturalism. Black orientalism is a terminology that is used for an intellectual and cultural movement within primarily African American circles which while similar to the general movement This is a list of articles that are related to African and black people The Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou ( Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou or FESPACO) is the largest African African art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth Established in 1992 The Pan African Film Festival (PAFF is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the promotion of cultural and racial tolerance and understanding through the exhibition of film George Padmore (1902&ndash September 23, 1959) born Malcolm Ivan Meredith Nurse, was a Trinidadian who became a leading Pan-Africanist Walter Rodney ( March 23, 1942 &ndash June 13, 1980) was a prominent Guyanese historian and political figure Patrice Émery Lumumba ( 2 July, 1925 – 17 January, 1961) was an African anti-colonial leader and the first legally elected Prime Captain Thomas Isidore Noël Sankara ( December 21, 1949 – October 15, 1987) was the leader of Burkina Faso (formerly Frantz Fanon ( July 20, 1925 – December 6, 1961) was a Psychiatrist, philosopher, revolutionary and author from Ahmed Sékou Touré (var Ahmen Seku Ture) (January 9 1922--March 26 1984 was an African political leader and president of the Republic of Guinea Kwame Nkrumah ( September 21, 1909 - April 27, 1972) was an influential 20th century advocate of Pan-Africanism, and the leader of Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr, National Hero of Jamaica (17 August 1887 10 June 1940 was a Publisher, Journalist, Entrepreneur, Black nationalist Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little; May 19 1925 February 21 1965 also known as El-Hajj Malik El- Shabazz, was an African American William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (duːˈbɔɪz ( February 23, 1868 August 27, 1963) was an American Civil rights activist Cyril Lionel Robert James ( 4 January 1901 &ndash 19 May 1989) was an Afro- Trinidadian Journalist Cheikh Anta Diop ( 29 December, 1923 &ndash 7 February, 1986) was a Senegalese Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (ˈuɰo rafaˈel ˈtʃaβ̞es ˈfɾias (born July 28 1954 is the current President of Venezuela. A comprehensive world view (or worldview) is a term Calqued from the German word Weltanschauung ( Welt is the German The term African people can refer to people who live in Africa, or people who trace their ancestry to Indigenous inhabitants of Africa. ^[1] Fundamental to Afrocentrism is the assumption that approaching knowledge from a Eurocentrist perspective, as well as certain mainstream assumptions in the application of information in the West, has led to injustices and also to inadequacies in meeting the needs of Black Africans and the peoples of the African diaspora. Eurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective with an implied belief either consciously or subconsciously in the preeminence of European (and The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings The African diaspora was the movement of Africans and their descendants to places throughout the world - predominantly to the Americas, then later to Europe, the The Afrocentrist paradigm seeks to discover and also reinterpret (or reinvent) information through African eyes.

As an ideology and scholarly and social movement, the Afrocentrist paradigm has its beginnings in activism among Black intellectuals, political figures and historians. However, as part of a broader, multicultural movement, it is in use today beyond these contexts across a number of disciplines, among them religion, education, sociology, psychiatry, medicine and public health, and in the delivery of government and social services. Molefi Kete Asante describes "Afrocentricity" as a "systematic nationalism", however, it focuses more on one's consciousness instead of the change of the black nation. This term no longer represents a "coherent political ideology" but appears to be instead a set of tactics in the struggle for cultural survival. ^[2]

According to its critics, Afrocentrism is a mythology that exaggerates the contributions of African peoples to culture, philosophy, and history. They point to disproved claims of Egyptians being black. Some claim that it is an attempt to assert black superiority over other races. Also oftenpointed out are the alleged pseudo-scientific methods used by Afrocentrists, sometimes inventing evidence or rearranging dates and even geography to fit their theories. Finally critics of Afrocentrism have often found themselves being accused as racists, reducing the number of actual scolars prepared to respond to what they feel isn't science to begin with. A famous exception is Mary Lefkowitz. Mary R Lefkowitz

History

A 1911 copy of the NAACP journal The Crisis depicting an Afrocentric artist's interpretation of "Ra-Maat-Neb, one of the kings of the Upper Nile"

Afrocentrists commonly contend that Eurocentrism has led to the neglect or denial of the contributions of African people and focused instead on a generally European-centered model of world civilization and history. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential Civil rights organizations The term African people can refer to people who live in Africa, or people who trace their ancestry to Indigenous inhabitants of Africa. Therefore, Afrocentrism is a paradigm shift from a European-centered history to an African-centered history. More broadly, Afrocentrism is concerned with distinguishing African achievements apart from the influence of European peoples. The European peoples are the various Nations and Ethnic groups of Europe. ^[3] Some Western mainstream scholars have assessed some Afrocentric ideas as pseudohistorical, especially claims regarding Ancient Egypt as contributing directly to the development of Greek and Western culture. Pseudohistory is a term applied to texts which purport to be historical in nature but which depart from standard historiographical conventions in a way which undermines Ancient Egypt was an Ancient Civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now ^{[4] [5]}Contemporary Afrocentrists may view the movement as multicultural rather than ethnocentric. The term multiculturalism generally refers to a state of racial, cultural and ethnic diversity within the Demographics of a specified Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own Culture. ^[6] According to US professor Victor Oguejiofor Okafor, concepts of Afrocentricity lie at the core of the disciplines such as African American studies. African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. ^[7]

Modern afrocentricity has its origins in the work of African and African diaspora intellectuals in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The African diaspora was the movement of Africans and their descendants to places throughout the world - predominantly to the Americas, then later to Europe, the The 19th century of the Common Era began on January 1, 1801 and ended on December 31, 1900, according to the Gregorian calendar The twentieth century of the Common Era began on Afrocentricity has changed over time. Aspects have been hotly debated both outside and within Afrocentric circles.

Afrocentrism developed first as an argument among leaders and intellectuals in the Western Hemisphere. The Western Hemisphere, also Western hemisphere or western hemisphere, is a geographical term for the half of the Earth that lies West It arose following social changes in the United States and Africa due both to the end of slavery and expansion of British colonialism. Wanting to further establish their own identities in freedom, African Americans left white-dominated churches to establish their own. They pulled together in communities and often migrated to restore their families. African Americans eagerly sought education. They withdrew women and children from fieldwork as much as possible, the men received the right to vote and participate in public office, and their leaders took more active public roles despite severe discrimination and segregation. ^[8][9]

By the late 19th century, Great Britain had become a world power. Through the century Great Britain and France governments, travelers, scholars, artists and writers increasingly turned their attentions to Africa and the Near East as places of exploration (both physical and intellectual), settlement, exploitation of new resources, and playing out of their longstanding rivalries. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. B Syria - Belka Woman from Damascus Arab from Baghdadjpg|thumb|Inhabitants of the Near East late nineteenth century They completed the Suez Canal in 1869, simplifying ship passage between Europe and the Far East. The Suez Canal is a Canal in Egypt. Opened in 1869 it allows Water transportation between Europe and Asia without circumnavigation The Far East is a term often used by people in the Western world to refer to the countries of East Asia. Based on their self-appraisal of the value of technology, industrialization, Western infrastructure, and culture, these European nations assumed their superiority to the peoples and cultures they encountered in Africa.

19th and early 20th century

Edward Wilmot Blyden, an Americo-Liberian educator and diplomat active in the pan-Africa movement, perceived a change in perception taking place among Europeans towards Africans in his 1908 book African Life and Customs, which originated as a series of articles in the Sierra Leone Weekly News. Edward Wilmot Blyden ( 3 August, 1832 &ndash 7 February, 1912) was an Americo-Liberian educator writer diplomat and politician Americo-Liberians are a Liberian ethnicity of African American descent Year 1908 ( MCMVIII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Leap year Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. ^[10] In it, he proposed that Africans were beginning to be seen simply as different and not as inferior, in part because of the work of English writers such as Mary Kingsley and Lady Lugard, who traveled and studied in Africa. Mary Henrietta Kingsley ( October 13, 1862 &ndash June 3, 1900) was an English Writer and explorer who greatly Dame Flora Louisa Shaw Lady Lugard DBE (1852 Woolwich, London – 1929 Surrey, England) the daughter of an English father Captain ^[10] Such an enlightened view was fundamental to refute prevailing ideas among Western peoples about African cultures and Africans.

Blyden used that standpoint to show how the traditional social, industrial, and economic life of Africans untouched by "either European or Asiatic influence", was different and complete in itself, with its own organic wholeness. ^[10] In a letter responding to Blyden's original series of articles, Fante journalist and politician J.E. Casely Hayford commented, "It is easy to see the men and women who walked the banks of the Nile" passing him on the streets of Kumasi. For the writer see John Fante. Fante can also refer to the Fante language. Joseph Ephraim Casely-Hayford or Ekra-Agiman ( September 29, 1866 &ndash August 11, 1930) was a Fante journalist The Nile (النيل, Ancient Egyptian iteru or Ḥ'pī, Coptic piaro or phiaro) is a major north-flowing River Kumasi is a City in southern central Ghana. It is located near the Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about 250 km (by road ^[10] Hayford suggested building a University to preserve African identity and instincts. In that university, the history chair would teach

". . . universal history, with particular reference to the part Ethiopia has played in the affairs of the world. NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page I would lay stress upon the fact that while Ramses II was dedicating temples to "the God of gods, and secondly to his own glory", the God of the Hebrews had not yet appeared unto Moses in the burning bush; that Africa was the cradle of the world's systems and philosophies, and the nursing mother of its religions. For information about Yahweh see God in Abrahamic religions, which provides useful links Moses ( Latin: Moyses,; Greek: grc Mωυσής in both the Septuagint and the New Testament; Arabic: ar موسىٰ In short, that Africa has nothing to be ashamed of in its place among the nations of the earth. I would make it possible for this seat of learning to be the means of revising erroneous current ideas regarding the African; of raising him in self-respect; and of making him an efficient co-worker in the uplifting of man to nobler effort. "^[10]

The exchange of ideas between Blyden and Hayford embodied the fundamental concepts of Afrocentricism.

In the United States, writers and editors of publications such as The Crisis and The Journal of Negro History sought to counter the prevailing view that Sub-Saharan Africa had contributed nothing of value to human history that was not the result of incursions by Europeans and Arabs. The Crisis is the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP) and was founded by W The Journal of Negro History was founded in January 1 1916 as a quarterly research journal The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding ^[11] Authors in these journals theorized that Ancient Egyptian civilization was the culmination of events arising from the origin of the human race in Africa. They investigated the history of Africa from that perspective.

Afrocentrists claimed The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933) by Carter G. Woodson, an African- American historian, as one of their foundational texts. The Mis-Education of the Negro is a book originally published in 1933 by Dr Carter Godwin Woodson' ( December 19 1875 - April 3 1950) was an African - American Historian, Author Woodson critiqued education of African Americans as "mis-education" because he held that it denigrated the black while glorifying the white. For these early Afrocentrists, the goal was to break what they saw as a vicious cycle of the reproduction of black self-abnegation. In the words of The Crisis editor W.E.B. Du Bois, the world left African Americans with a "double consciousness," and a sense of "always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (duːˈbɔɪz ( February 23, 1868 August 27, 1963) was an American Civil rights activist "^[12]

In his early years, W. E. B. Du Bois, researched West African cultures and attempted to construct a pan-Africanist value system based on West African traditions. West Africa or Western Africa is the Westernmost Region of the African Continent. Pan-Africanism is a Sociopolitical World view, and Philosophy, as well as a movement which seeks to unify both Native Africans and those of In the 1950s Du Bois envisioned and received funding from Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah to produce an Encyclopedia Africana to chronicle the history and cultures of Africa. The Republic of Ghana is a country in West Africa. It borders Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast to the west Burkina Faso to the north Togo to the Kwame Nkrumah ( September 21, 1909 - April 27, 1972) was an influential 20th century advocate of Pan-Africanism, and the leader of Africana The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience edited by Henry Louis Gates and Anthony Appiah (Basic Civitas Books 1999 2nd Du Bois died before being able to complete his work. Some aspects of Du Bois's approach are evident in work by Cheikh Anta Diop in the 1950s and 1960s. Cheikh Anta Diop ( 29 December, 1923 &ndash 7 February, 1986) was a Senegalese Diop identified a pan-African protolanguage and presented evidence that ancient Egyptians were, indeed, Africans. A proto-language is a Language which was the common ancestor of related languages that form a Language family.

Du Bois inspired a number of authors, including Drusilla Dunjee Houston. After reading his work The Negro (1915), Houston embarked upon writing her Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire (1926). The book was a compilation of evidence related to the historic origins of Cush and Ethiopia, and assessed their influences on Greece. Kush civilization centered in the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile, and the confluence of the River Atbara and Nile in what

1960s and 1970s

The 1960s and 1970s were times of social and political ferment which gave rise in the U. S. to the Black Nationalist, Black Power and Black Arts Movements, all driven to some degree by a rejection of Western values and an identification with "Mother Africa. " Afrocentric scholars and Black youth also challenged Eurocentric ideas in academia. 1968 signaled a new era in student unrest in the U. S. when Howard University became the first major university to be shut down by student protests, in part over demands for a more Afrocentric orientation of the institution. Howard University is a private, Coeducational Nonsectarian University located in Washington D

The work of Cheikh Anta Diop became very influential. In the following decades, histories related to Africa and the diaspora gradually would incorporate a more African perspective. Since that time, Afrocentrists have increasingly seen African peoples as the makers and shapers of their own histories. ^[1]

You have all heard of the African Personality; of African democracy, of the African way to socialism, of negritude, and so on. They are all props we have fashioned at different times to help us get on our feet again. Once we are up we shan't need any of them any more. But for the moment it is in the nature of things that we may need to counter racism with what Jean-Paul Sartre has called an anti-racist racism, to announce not just that we are as good as the next man but that we are much better.
—Chinua Achebe, 1965^[13]

Tejumola Olaniyan writes that Chinua Achebe easily might have included Afrocentrism in his list of "props. " In this context, ethnocentric Afrocentrism was not intended to be essential or permanent. It was a consciously fashioned strategy of resistance to the Eurocentrism of the time. ^[12] Afrocentric scholars adopted two approaches: a deconstructive rebuttal of what they called "the whole archive of European ideological racism" and a reconstructive act of writing new self-constructed histories. ^[12]At a 1974 UNESCO symposium in Cairo titled "The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Decipherment of Meroitic Script", Cheikh Anta Diop brought together scholars of Egypt from around the world. Cheikh Anta Diop ( 29 December, 1923 &ndash 7 February, 1986) was a Senegalese ^[14]

Key texts from this period include:

• The Destruction of Black Civilization (1971) by Chancellor Williams
• The African Origins of Civilization: Myth or Reality (1974) by Cheikh Anta Diop
• They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America (1976) by Ivan Van Sertima

Some Afrocentric writers focused on study of indigenous African civilizations and peoples, to emphasize African history separate from European or Arab influence. The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding Primary among them was Chancellor Williams, whose book The Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race from 4500 B. Chancellor James Williams ( December 22, 1898, Bennettsville, South Carolina – December 7, 1992, Washington DC C. to 2000 A. D. set out to determine a "purely African body of principles, value systems (and) philosophy of life". ^[15]

Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories

Main article: Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories

In the 1970s, several scholars advanced theories that the complex civilizations of the Americas were the result of trans-oceanic influence from the Egyptians or other African civilizations. Pre-Columbian Africa-Americas contact theories propose direct contact or actual migrations by peoples from the continent of Africa with the Indigenous peoples of the Americas Such a claim is the primary thesis of Ivan van Sertima's book They Came Before Columbus, published in 1978. These hyper-diffusionist writers seek to establish that the Olmec people, who built the first highly complex civilization in Mesoamerica and are considered by some to be the mother civilization for all other civilizations of Mesoamerica, were deeply influenced by Africans. Cultural diffusion, as first conceptualized by Alfred L Kroeber in his influential 1940 paper Stimulus Diffusion, or trans-cultural diffusion in later reformulations The Olmec were an ancient Pre-Columbian people living in the Tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in what are roughly the modern-day states Mesoamerica or Meso-America (Mesoamérica is a Region extending approximately from central Mexico to Honduras and Nicaragua, defined Van Sertima himself contended that the Olmec civilization was a hybrid one of Africans and Native Americans. His book, published by a major publishing house, received broad exposure. While Van Sertima rejected the notion that his findings were driven by Afrocentrism, the book received a friendly reception among Afrocentrist proponents. His theory of pre-Columbian American-African contact has met with opposition in academia, with some Mesoamericanists charging Van Sertima with "doctoring" and twisting data to fit his conclusions, and with inventing evidence. ^[5] However, archaeological finds over the last two decades in South America of rock art and human skeletal remains suggest to some scholars and academicians an ancient, pre-Columbian presence of "Australoid" or "Negroid" peoples in the New World^[16] who came from Australia and Melanesia earlier than the Asian ancestors of current Native American populations. ^[17][18]

1980s and 1990s

In the 1980s and 1990s, Afrocentrism increasingly became seen as a tool for addressing social ills and a means of grounding community efforts toward self-determination and political and economic empowerment.

In his (1992) article "Eurocentrism vs. Afrocentrism", US anthropologist Linus A. Hoskins wrote:

The vital necessity for African people to use the weapons of education and history to extricate themselves from this psychological dependency complex/syndrome as a necessary precondition for liberation. [. . . ] If African peoples (the global majority) were to become Afrocentric (Afrocentrized), . . . that would spell the ineluctable end of European global power and dominance. This is indeed the fear of Europeans. . . . Afrocentrism is a state of mind, a particular subconscious mind-set that is rooted in the ancestral heritage and communal value system. ^[19]

Although Afrocentricity is often associated with liberal or left-wing politics, the movement is not homogeneous. During the 1980s and 1990s, sociological research became increasingly preoccupied with the problem of the "black underclass". The contemporary concept of the underclass is a sanitized term for what was known in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as the undeserving poor and may have been coined by American sociologist Some Afrocentric scholars began to frame Afrocentric values as a remedy for what they perceived to be the social ills of poor African Americans. American educator Jawanza Kunjufu made the case that hip hop culture, rather than being creative expression of the culture, was the root of many social ills. Hip hop is a cultural movement which developed in New York City in the 1970s primarily among African Americans and Latinos. ^[20] For some Afrocentrists, the contemporary problems of the ghetto stemmed not from race and class inequality, but rather from a failure to inculcate Black youth with Afrocentric values. A ghetto is described as a "portion of a city in which members of a minority group live especially because of social legal or economic pressure ^[21]

Afrocentric ideas also received a considerable boost from the cultural shift known as postmodernism and its privileging of difference, micro-struggles, and the politics of identity. Postmodernism literally means 'after the modernist movement' While " Modern " itself refers to something "related to the present" the movement of modernism Postmodernism's general assault on the authority and universalist claims of Western "culture" is also a mainstay in many Afrocentric agendas. In turn, postmodern pluralism has begun to permeate Afrocentric thought. ^[12]

In the West and elsewhere, the European, in the midst of other peoples, has often propounded an exclusive view of reality; the exclusivity of this view creates a fundamental human crisis. In some cases, it has created cultures arrayed against each other or even against themselves. Afrocentricity’s response certainly is not to impose its own particularity as a universal, as Eurocentricity has often done. But hearing the voice of African American culture with all of its attendant parts is one way of creating a more sane society and one model for a more humane world. -Asante, M. K. (1988)^[22]

By the end of the 1990s, the ethnocentric Afrocentrism of the '50s, '60s and '70s had largely fallen out of favor. In 1997, US cultural historian Nathan Glazer described Afrocentricity as a form of multiculturalism. He wrote that its influence ranged from sensible proposals about inclusion of more African material in school curriculums to what he called senseless claims about African primacy in all major technological achievements. Glazer argued that Afrocentricity had become more important due to the failure of mainstream society to assimilate all African Americans. Anger and frustration at their continuing separation gave black Americans the impetus to reject traditions that excluded them. ^[23]

Contemporary

Today, Afrocentricity takes many forms, including serving as a tool for creating a more multicultural and balanced approach to the study of history and sociology. Afrocentricity contends that race still exists as a social and political construct. A social construction or social construct is any phenomenon "invented" or "constructed" by participants in a particular Culture or Society ^[21] It argues that for centuries in academia, Eurocentric ideas about history were dominant: ideas such as blacks having no civilizations, no written languages, no cultures, and no histories of any note before coming into contact with Europeans. A written language is the representation of a Language by means of a Writing system. Further, according to the views of some Afrocentrists, European history has commonly received more attention within the academic community than the history of sub-Saharan African cultures or those of the many Pacific Island peoples. Afrocentrists contend it is important to divorce the historical record from past racism. Molefi Kete Asante's book Afrocentricity (1988) argues that African-Americans should look to African cultures "as a critical corrective to a displaced agency among Africans. Molefi Kete Asante (born as Arthur Lee Smith Jr on August 14, 1942, in Valdosta Georgia USA is a contemporary African American scholar in " Less concerned about specific claims about the race of the Egyptians or other controversial topics, some Afrocentrists believe that the burden of Afrocentricity is to define and develop African agency in the midst of the cultural wars debate. The culture war (or culture wars) in American usage is a metaphor used to claim that political conflict is based on sets of conflicting values By doing so, Afrocentricity can support all forms of multiculturalism. ^[24]

Afrocentrists argue that Afrocentricity is important for people of all ethnicities who want to understand African history and the African diaspora. The African diaspora was the movement of Africans and their descendants to places throughout the world - predominantly to the Americas, then later to Europe, the For example, the Afrocentric method can be used to research African indigenous culture. Queeneth Mkabela writes in 2005 that the Afrocentric perspective provides new insights for understanding African indigenous culture, in a multicultural context. According to Mkabela and others, the Afrocentric method is a necessary part of complete scholarship and without it, the picture is incomplete, less accurate, and less objective. ^[25]

Contemporary Afrocentrists may view the movement as multicultural rather than ethnocentric. The term multiculturalism generally refers to a state of racial, cultural and ethnic diversity within the Demographics of a specified Ethnocentrism is the tendency to look at the world primarily from the perspective of one's own Culture. ^[6]They see Afrocentricity as one part of a larger multicultural movement that has begun to shift the focus of historical and cultural studies away from Eurocentrism. ^[26] Studies of African and African-diaspora cultures have shifted understanding and created a more positive acceptance of influence by African religious, linguistic and other traditions, both among scholars and the general public. For example Lorenzo Dow Turner's seminal 1949 study of the Gullah language, a dialect spoken by black communities in Georgia and South Carolina, demonstrated that its idiosyncrasies were not simply incompetent command of English, but incorporated West African linguistic characteristics in vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and semantic system. Lorenzo Dow Turner (b August 21 1890 - d 1972 was an African American linguist who did seminal research on the Gullah language of coastal South Carolina and Georgia The Gullah language (Sea Island Creole English Geechee is a Creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called "Geechees" an African The State of Georgia ( is a state in the United States and was one of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule South Carolina ( is a state in the southern region ( Deep South) of the United States of America. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States ^[27] Likewise, religious movements such as Vodou are now less likely to be characterized as "mere superstition", but understood in terms of links to African traditions. vodoo, vodun, or vodoun may refer to any of West African vodun, a west African religion Haitian vodou, mostly derived Scholars who adopt such approaches may or may not see their work as Afrocentrist in orientation.

In recent years Africana Studies or Africology^[1] departments at many major universities have grown out of the Afrocentric "Black Studies" departments formed in the 1970s. In United States education, Africana studies, or Africology is the study of the histories politics and cultures of peoples of African origin both in Africa Rather than focusing on black topics in the African diaspora (often exclusively African American topics), these reformed departments aim to expand the field to encompass all of the African diaspora. They also seek to better align themselves with other University departments and find continuity and compromise between the radical Afrocentricity of the past decades and the multicultural scholarship found in many fields today. The term multiculturalism generally refers to a state of racial, cultural and ethnic diversity within the Demographics of a specified ^[28]

Eurocentrism

Main article: Eurocentrism

In part in response to the pressure of Afrocentrists, the study of history and sociology has changed, gradually incorporating Afrocentic ideas as a part of a broader push toward multiculturalism in academia. Eurocentrism is the practice of viewing the world from a European perspective with an implied belief either consciously or subconsciously in the preeminence of European (and Afrocentricity has had an impact on the disciplines of African studies, Black studies and Africana studies, as well as anthropology, sociology, and the study of history as a whole. African studies is the study of Africa, and can encompass such fields as social and Economic development, Politics, History, In United States education, Africana studies, or Africology is the study of the histories politics and cultures of peoples of African origin both in Africa Anthropology (/ˌænθɹəˈpɒlədʒi/ from Greek grc ἄνθρωπος anthrōpos, "human" -λογία -logia) is the study of Sociology (from Latin: socius "companion" and the suffix -ology "the study of" from Greek λόγος lógos "knowledge" Adisa A. Alkebulan writes that the Afrocentric idea has been a guiding paradigm in postcolonial African studies and Africana studies. Postcolonialism ( postcolonial theory, post-colonial theory) is an intellectual discourse that holds together a set of theories found among the texts and African studies is the study of Africa, and can encompass such fields as social and Economic development, Politics, History, In United States education, Africana studies, or Africology is the study of the histories politics and cultures of peoples of African origin both in Africa ^[29] These changes were necessary due to the limits of Eurocentrism, especially in earlier western scholarship. For example:

I am apt to suspect the Negroes to be naturally inferior to the Whites. There scarcely ever was a civilized nation of that complexion, nor even any individual, eminent either in action or speculation. No ingenious manufactures amongst them, no arts, no sciences. . . . [In] our colonies, there are Negro slaves dispersed all over Europe, of whom none ever discovered the symptoms of ingenuity; though low people, without education, will start up amongst us, and distinguish themselves in every profession. In Jamaica, indeed, they talk of one Negro as a man of parts and learning; but it is likely he is admired for slender accomplishments, like a parrot who speaks a few words plainly. - David Hume 18th century Scottish historian, philosopher and essayist. David Hume (26 April 1711 25 August 1776 Scottish Philosopher, Economist, and Historian is an important figure in Western philosophy The 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini / Common Era numbering system ^[30]

By the mid-20th century many such overtly derogatory ideas had been rejected, but Afrocentrists contended that the denial, denigration and appropriation of black historical and cultural achievements made it important to study world history from a new perspective. Thus, Afrocentric scholars have worked to engage the biased methods and approaches used by some European scholars and the European-dominated intellectual community, in relation to all the people of Africa and the diaspora.

Because of bias due to Eurocentrism, scholars sometimes overlooked or denied Africans' agency in the creation of their own histories. For example until recently, Western scholars believed cities such as Dakar, Banjul (Bathhurst), Abidjan, Conakry and others were created by Western colonizers. For the Dakar Rally see Dakar Rally. For the Israeli submarine see INS Dakar. Banjul (formerly Bathurst officially the City of Banjul, is the Capital of The Gambia, and located within the division of the Abidjan is the largest city and former Capital of Côte d'Ivoire ( Ivory Coast) Conakry or Konakry ( Malinké: Kɔnakiri) is the Capital and largest city of Guinea. Although the cities were transformed by colonization (in both negative and positive ways), each of them predated colonization. Similarly, many of the existing economic and institutional patterns in Africa had origins well before colonialism. ^[31]

Lynn Meskell writes that archaeologists working in Egypt have rarely considered the local and global ramifications of their interpretations of ancient history. According to Meskell, many continue to operate under the residual effects of colonialism. ^[32] In 1991 Wyatt MacGaffey wrote that the bulk of scholarly work about Africa took for granted a Eurocentric distinction between "savage" and "civilized" peoples calculated to flatter the European and white audience for which it was intended. MacGaffey writes that it has only been since the 1960s that the possibility of writing any history for Africa has been generally admitted. ^[33]

Nathan Glazer acknowledges that Afrocentricity and multiculturalism have played a role in shaping trends in the teaching of history and the social sciences, but he also stresses that they are not the only cultural movements responsible for the move away from now increasingly obsolete forms of Eurocentrism. ^[23]

Definitions of Pan-African identity

The indigenous Papuans of New Guinea have Australoid and Negroid physical characteristics^[34] and are considered black in some cultures, despite being genetically closer to Southeast Asians than to Africans. Papua New Guinea (or ˈpæpjuːə in Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini) officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania The Australoid race is a broad racial classification. The concept's existence is based on the typological method of racial classification. See also Black people Negroid is an Adjective derived from the term Negro and refers to a presumed race of people mostly from

Afrocentic scholars have struggled to reconcile the relationships among racial, cultural and continental identities. Some authors have used the concept of black racial identity to gather under the umbrella of "African" peoples even widely dispersed populations traditionally classified and thought of as non-Africans. These include the Dravidians of India, the people of the rest of the Indian subcontinent, and the Australoid aboriginal peoples of Australia and New Guinea. Dravidian peoples refers to the peoples that natively speak languages belonging to the Dravidian language family. This article deals with the geophysical region in Asia For geopolitical treatments see South Asia. The Australoid race is a broad racial classification. The concept's existence is based on the typological method of racial classification.

Some Afrocentric writers also include in the African diaspora the "Negritos" of Southeast Asia (Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia; and the Africoid, aboriginal peoples of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The African diaspora was the movement of Africans and their descendants to places throughout the world - predominantly to the Americas, then later to Europe, the The term Negrito refers to several ethnic groups in isolated parts of Southeast Asia. The Kingdom of Thailand (ˈtaɪlænd ราชอาณาจักรไทย, râːtɕʰa-ʔaːnaːtɕɑ̀k-tʰɑj The Philippines ( Filipino: Pilipinas, officially known as the Republic of the Philippines (fil ''Republika ng Pilipinas'' RP For the biogeographical region see Malesia Malaysia (məˈleɪʒə or /məˈleɪziə/ is a country that consists of thirteen states and Africoid peoples are human populations of varying phenotypes who are considered black regardless of recent African ancestry Micronesia, from the Greek mikros (μικρός (meaning small) and nesos (νῆσος (meaning island) is a Subregion Polynesia (from Greek: πολύς many, νῆσος island) is a Subregion of Oceania, comprising a large grouping of over

Some Afrocentrists claim that the Olmecs of Mexico were a hybrid society comprised of Native American peoples and Africans. The Olmec were an ancient Pre-Columbian people living in the Tropical lowlands of south-central Mexico, in what are roughly the modern-day states The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Mainstream historians of Mesoamerica do not share that view. ^[5]

Afrocentrists who adopt this approach contend that such peoples are African in a racial sense, just as the white inhabitants of modern Australia may be said to be European. In doing so, they ignore the drastically different time frames for migration of whites from Europe to Australia within the last 200 years, and ancient peoples from the African continent to India or Polynesia tens of thousands of years ago.

In 2003, geneticist Spencer Wells' findings confirmed a clear DNA link between indigenous Africans and the Australoid peoples of India, Australia and Southeast Asia, tracing the DNA of San bushmen from southeast Africa to India and on to Australia. Spencer Wells (born April 6 1969 in Georgia United States) is a Geneticist and Anthropologist, and an Explorer-in-Residence at the The Journey of Man A Genetic Odyssey is the Book by Spencer Wells, an American Geneticist and Anthropologist, in which Khoisan (increasingly commonly spelled Khoesan or Khoe-San) is the name for two major Ethnic groups of Southern Africa. Earlier studies showed that some of these darker-skinned ethnic groups cluster genetically more closely with neighboring East Asians than with indigenous Africans, due to millennia of intermingling with one another in relative isolation.

Afrocentrists have adopted a pan-Africanist perspective that such people of color are all "African people" or "diasporic Africans," citing physical characteristics they exhibit in common with Black Africans. Pan-Africanism is a Sociopolitical World view, and Philosophy, as well as a movement which seeks to unify both Native Africans and those of The term Diaspora (in Greek, διασπορά &ndash " a scattering or sowing of seeds " refers any population sharing common ethnic Afrocentric scholar Runoko Rashidi writes that they are all part of the "global African community. Runoko Rashidi is a late-20th c historian researcher writer world traveler and public lecturer based in Los Angeles. "

Critics of Afrocentrism note that the Southeast Asian and Melanesian peoples did not emigrate out of Africa within any time span that relates them closely to ancient African civilizations. Wells' work indicates that the ancestors of Southeast Asian and Melanesian peoples migrated out of Africa before the ancestors of modern Europeans did. The Afrocentric designation of Southeast Asians and Melanesians as "African diaspora" is also made without reference to the self-identities of the peoples in question, who may not generally consider themselves African.

Views on race

Afrocentricity contends that race exists primarily as a social and political construct. A social construction or social construct is any phenomenon "invented" or "constructed" by participants in a particular Culture or Society That is, that race is important because of its cultural rather than its biological significance. ^[21] Many Afrocentrists seek to challenge concepts such as white privilege, so-called color-blind perspectives, and race-neutral pedagogies. White privilege is a sociological concept that describes advantages purportedly enjoyed by white persons beyond that which is commonly experienced by non-white people in Color-blind (sometimes called Race-blind) is a term describing activities undertaken and services provided without regard to the racial characteristics of those who There are strong ties between Afrocentricity and Critical race theory. Critical Race Theory (CRT is the branch of Critical legal studies concerned with issues of Racism and racial subordination and Discrimination. ^[35]

Afrocentrists hold that Africans exhibit a range of types and physical characteristics, and that such elements as wavy hair or aquiline facial features are part of a continuum of African types that do not depend on admixture with Caucasian groups. They cite work by Hiernaux ^[36] and Hassan ^[37] which they believe demonstrates that populations could vary based on microevolutionary principles (climate adaptation, drift, selection), and that such variations existed in both living and fossil Africans. ^[38]

Afrocentrists have condemned what they consider to be attempts at dividing African peoples into racial clusters as new versions of what they deem older, discredited theories, such as the "Hamitic Hypothesis" and the Dynastic Race Theory. The Dynastic Race Theory was the earliest thesis to attempt to explain how predynastic Egypt developed into the Pharonic monarchy These theories, they contend, attempted to identify certain African ethnicities, such as Nubians, Ethiopians and Somalis, as "Caucasoid" groups that entered Africa to bring civilization to the natives.

Afrocentrists have also charged that a double standard exists and that Western academics have made limited attempts at defining a "true white". ^[39] They believe that Western academics have traditionally limited the peoples they defined as "Black" Africans, but used broader "Caucasoid" or related categories to classify peoples of Egypt or certain other African ethnicities.

Afrocentric writer C. A. Diop expressed this belief in a double standard as follows in 1964:

"But it is only the most gratuitous theory which considers the Dinka, the Nouer and the Masai, among others, to be Caucasoids. What if an African ethnologist were to persist in recognising as white only the blond, blue-eyed Scandinavians, and systematically refused membership to the remaining Europeans, and Mediterraneans in particular--the French, Italians, Greek, Spanish, and Portuguese? Just as the inhabitants of Scandinavia and the Mediterranean countries must be considered as two extreme poles of the same anthropological reality, so should the Negroes of East and West Africa be considered as the two extremes in the reality of the Negro world. To say that a Shillouk, a Dinka, or a Nouer is a Caucasoid is for an African as devoid of sense and scientific interest as would be, to a European, an attitude which maintained that a Greek or a Latin were not of the same race. "^[40]

Afrocentrists believe that European scholars define Black people as narrowly as possible, labeling as the extreme "true Negro" only those peoples living south of the Sahara. They add that all Africans who do not meet the definition of this extreme are allocated to "Caucasoid" groupings, including Ethiopians, Somalis, Egyptians and Nubians (C. G. Seligman's Races of Africa, 1966)^[41]. Afrocentrists also believe strongly in the work of certain anthropologists who have suggested that there is little evidence to support that these populations are closely related to "Caucasoids" of Europe and western Asia. ^[36]

For example, French historian Jean Vercoutter has claimed that selective grouping was common among scholars assessing the ethnicity of the ancient Egyptians. He has said that workers routinely classified Negroid remains as "Mediterranean", even though archaeological workers found such remains in substantial numbers with ancient artifacts. (Vercoutter 1978- The Peopling of ancient Egypt)^[42]

More recent work by geneticists, however, provides evidence that Eurasians likely are descended from populations who migrated north and east out of the Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa (alternatively Northeast Africa, and sometimes Somali Peninsula; shortened to HOA) is a Peninsula in East Africa Hence, certain shared genetic and phenotypical characteristics among Eurasians and Northeast African groups such as Ethiopians and Somalis. NOTE This intro is the result of careful NPOV work Please do not make potentially controversial edits to it without first discussing on the talk page Somalis ( Soomaaliyeed, الصوماليون are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. ^[43] Some phenotypical similarities among Somalis and Eurasians exist at a higher structural level, such as orthognathism^[44], tooth size^[45], keen facial features and skull shape and size. According to anthropologist Loring Brace:

When the nonadaptive aspects of craniofacial configuration are the basis for assessment, the Somalis cluster with Europeans before showing a tie with the people of West Africa or the Congo Basin. C Loring Brace (born 1930 is an anthropologist at the University of Michigan. ^[46]

Genetic analyses of male DNA in the 21st century have also indicated that Somalis carry considerable E1b1b, a Y chromosome haplogroup characteristic of Northeast African, Berber, Arab, Jewish, Mediterranean and Balkan populations. Somalis ( Soomaaliyeed, الصوماليون are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. In Human genetics, Y Haplogroup E1b1b (E-M215 is a Y-chromosome Haplogroup, a sub-group of Haplogroup E, which is defined by In Human genetics, a Human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroup is a Haplogroup defined by differences in the non- recombining portions of DNA from the In the study of Molecular evolution, a haplogroup, from "ἁπλο-" (Greek haplo-: simple or single + "group" is a group of similar Haplotypes The Horn of Africa (alternatively Northeast Africa, and sometimes Somali Peninsula; shortened to HOA) is a Peninsula in East Africa Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. The araB gene Promoter is a bacterial promoter activated by e L-arabinose binding PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ ^[47]

Afrocentrists argue against the classification of people they deem indigenous, "Black" Africans as Caucasoid and instead advocate use of the term Africoid to encompass the varying phenotypes of both Negroid and proto-Caucasoid African populations, as well as phenotypically Negroid Australasian populations. Africoid peoples are human populations of varying phenotypes who are considered black regardless of recent African ancestry They contend that it is more appropriate to name Africans in a manner which reflects their geographical origin, as are Asians, as Mongoloids, and Europeans, as Caucasians.

Role of Ancient Egypt

See also: Race of Ancient Egyptians

Several Afrocentrists have said that important cultural characteristics of ancient Egypt were indigenous to Africa and that these features were present in other African civilizations. This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. ^[48] Critical of much of mainstream Egyptology, Afrocentrists wrote that the study of ancient Egyptian culture had been artificially disconnected from other early African civilizations, such as Kerma and the Meroitic civilizations of Nubia — particularly in light of the fact that archaeological evidence clearly indicated a confluence among this cultural triad. Mainstream is generally the common current of Thought of the Majority. Egyptology (from Egypt and Greek grc -λογία -logia. علم المصريات مصر شناسی is a major field of Archaeology The Kingdom of Kerma was a state in Nubia from around 2500 BC to about 1520 BC. Meroë ( Meroitic: Medewi or Bedewi; Arabic: ar مرواه ar-Latn Meruwah) is the name of an ancient city on the east bank of the This article is about the region in Africa for other uses see Nubia (disambiguation. ^[49] This perspective, championed by the Senegalese scholar Cheikh Anta Diop in the 1960s, was known formally as the Cultural Unity Theory. Senegal (le Sénégal officially the Republic of Senegal, is a country south of the Sénégal River in western Africa. Cheikh Anta Diop ( 29 December, 1923 &ndash 7 February, 1986) was a Senegalese These related theories had proponents in the 1980s outside Afrocentric circles, among them Bruce Williams of the Oriental Institute, Chicago. The Oriental Institute ( OI) established in 1919, is the University of Chicago 's Archeology Museum and research center for ancient ^[50]

Mainstream archaeologists and Egyptologists such as Frank J. Yurco and Fekri Hassan have stated that ancient Egyptian peoples comprised a mix of North and sub-Saharan African peoples that have typified Egyptians ever since. They said that the Egyptian people were generally coextensive with other Africans in the Nile valley. ^[51]

Early Afrocentrists pointed to the work in the 1960s of Czech anthropologist Eugene Strouhal, which described physical, cultural and material links of ancient Egypt with the peoples of Nubia and the Sahara ( Strouhal (1968, 1971- Strouhal, E. , ‘Evidence of the early penetration of Negroes into prehistoric Egypt). ^[52], the analyses of Falkenburger (1947) which show a clear Negroid element, especially in the southern population and sometimes as predominating in the predynastic period. ^[53] In 1993 C Loring Brace et al wrote "The attempt to force the Egyptians into either a “black” or a “white” category has no biological justification. Our data show only that Egypt clearly had biological ties to the north and to the south, but that it was intermediate between populations to the east and the west, and that Egypt was basically Egyptian from the Neolithic right on up to historic times. "^[54]

Research by archaeologist Bruce Williams argued for Nubian cultural influence on formation of the Egyptian kingships. ^[55]

Egyptians themselves called for the inclusion of Egypt in Du Bois's early drafts of the Encyclopedia Africana. Africana The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience edited by Henry Louis Gates and Anthony Appiah (Basic Civitas Books 1999 2nd The director of the Egyptian Cultural Center in Accra wrote to praise Du Boise for having "maintained faith in the African character of Egypt's achievement," and urging that the Encyclopedia Africana keep Egypt within its Afrocentric focus. Afrocentrism or Afrocentricity is a World view that emphasizes the importance of African people in culture philosophy and history ^[56]

Afrocentrists have claimed a growing scholarly acceptance of Egypt as an African culture with its own unique elements. They cite mainstream scholars like Bruce Trigger, who in 1978 decried that approaches of the past were 'marred by a confusion of race, language, and culture and by an accompanying racism'. ^[57] and Egyptologist Frank Yurco, who in the late 1990s viewed the Egyptians, Nubians, Ethiopians, Somalians, and others as one localized Nile valley population, that need not be artificially clustered into racial percentages. ^[58] Afrocentrists have cited 1990s mainstream studies that confirmed the varied physical character of the Egyptian people, and influence on them from other peoples of the Nile (Nilotic influence). ^[59]

Afrocentrists also claimed that the ancient Egyptians made significant contributions to ancient Greece^[60] and Rome during their formative periods. Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 They also claimed that Egyptians were black, as discussed above.

This early Afrocentric view is at odds with conclusions of mid-20th c. Eurocentric scholars such as British historian Arnold Toynbee and hearkens back to the findings of earlier historians. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located This page is about the universal historian Arnold Joseph Toynbee for the economic historian Arnold Toynbee see this article. Toynbee believed the ancient Egyptian cultural sphere had died out without leaving a successor. He regarded as "myth" the idea that Egypt was the "origin of Western civilization. "

There are accounts in the historical record dating back several centuries, in which writers noted Egypt's contributions to Mediterranean civilizations. ^[61]

Criticism

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Critics contend that some Afrocentric historical research lacks merit and that it essentially supplants and counters one form of racism with another, rather than attempting to arrive at the truth. African Americans or Black Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa African American history is the portion of American history that specifically discusses the African American or Black American ethnic group in the United The Atlantic Slave trade, also known as the transatlantic slave trade, was the trade of African people supplied to the Colonies of the New World The word Maafa (also known as the African Holocaust or Holocaust of Enslavement) is derived from a Swahili word meaning disaster terrible occurrence or Slavery in the United States began soon after English colonists first settled Virginia in 1607 and lasted until the passage of the Thirteenth The Military history of African Americans spans from the arrival of the first black slaves during the colonial history of the United The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted primarily but not exclusively in the Southern and border states of the United States between 1876 and 1965 Redlining is the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services such as Banking, Insurance, access to jobs access to health care or even Supermarkets The American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968 refers to the reform movements in the United States aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African Reparations for Slavery is a proposal by some in the United States that some type of compensation should be provided to the descendants of enslaved people in African American culture in the United States refers to the cultural contributions of African ethnic groups to the culture of the United States either as part of or distinct from African American studies is a subset of Black studies or Africana studies. African American neighborhoods or black neighborhoods are types of Ethnic enclaves found in many cities in the United States. Historically black colleges and universities ( HBCUs) are institutions of Higher education in the United States that were established before 1964 with the intention Kwanzaa is a week-long holiday celebrated primarily in the United States, honoring African-American heritage African American art is a broad term describing the visual arts of the American black community This is an incomplete list of museums which can or may never satisfy any objective standard for completeness African American dances in the vernacular tradition (academically known as "African American vernacular dance" are those dances which have developed within African African American literature is the body of Literature produced in the United States by writers of African descent African American music (also called black music) is an umbrella term given to a range of Music and Musical genres emerging from or influenced by the The term black church or African American church refers to predominantly African-American Christian churches that minister to predominantly black congregations This theology maintains that African Americans must be liberated from multiple forms of bondage — social political economic and religious Black theology refers to a variety of Christian theologies which has as its base in the The Doctrine of Father Divine is the teachings of the late Father Divine (d The Nation of Islam ( NOI) (أمة الإسلام Ummah al-Islāmu) is a group founded in Detroit, Michigan, Black Hebrew Israelites (also Black Hebrews, African Hebrew Israelites, and Hebrew Israelites) are groups of people of Black African ancestry Vodou ( Anglicized: Voodoo) or Vaudoo is a family of New World syncretistic religions primarily based on the faiths of the Hoodoo is a form of predominantly African-American traditional folk magic. Santería, also known as La Regla de Lukumi (Lukumi's Rule and The Way of the Saints is an Afro-Cuban religious tradition derived from traditional beliefs Pan-Africanism is a Sociopolitical World view, and Philosophy, as well as a movement which seeks to unify both Native Africans and those of Black nationalism (BN advocates a racial definition (or redefinition of black national identity as opposed to Multiculturalism. 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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, usually abbreviated as NAACP, is one of the oldest and most influential Civil rights organizations The Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC) is an American Civil rights organization The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced "snick" was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement The National Urban League ( NUL) formerly known as the National League of black men and women, is a Civil rights organization based in New York City The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH is a non-profit organization founded in Chicago, Illinois, on September 9, The United Negro College Fund ( UNCF) is a Fairfax, Virginia -based American philanthropic organization that fundraises College tuition The National Black Chamber of Commerce was incorporated in 1993 by Harry Alford who in 2007 continues as CEO History The National Pan-Hellenic Council was established in an age when Racial segregation and disenfranchisement plagued African Americans, the rise of each The Links Incorporated is an exclusive non-profit organization based upon the ideals of combining friendship and community service The National Council of Negro Women (NCNW is a Non-profit organization with the mission to advance the opportunities and the quality of life for African American women their Part of the History of baseball in the United States series The Negro leagues were American professional Baseball leagues History The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, founded on the campus of Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in 1912 is the oldest African-American Conference sports Conference member schools Current members Former members Conference Stadia Championships The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC is a Collegiate athletic conference of historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs in the Southeastern "Southwestern Conference" redirects here For the former major conference in Texas and Arkansas see Southwest Conference; for the Ohio High School Conference English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The Gullah language (Sea Island Creole English Geechee is a Creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called "Geechees" an African Louisiana Creole is a French Creole language spoken by the mixed Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. African American Vernacular English ( AAVE) – also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Notable African-Americans or Black Americans For people from current African countries see lists for individual countries List of first African-American mayors for most mayor listings African Americans are a demographic minority in the United States. This is a list of landmark legislation, court decisions, executive orders and proclamations in the United States significantly affecting African Americans This is an alphabetical list of African-American-related topics: A African American African American culture This is a list of articles that are related to African and black people List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that Among these critics are Mary Lefkowitz, who contends Afrocentric historical claims are grounded in identity politics and myth rather than sound scholarship. Mary R Lefkowitz Identity politics is Political action to advance the interests of members of a group whose members are oppressed by virtue of a shared and marginalized Identity (such The word mythology (from the Greek grc μυθολογία mythología, meaning "a story-telling a legendary lore" ^[62] Lefkowitz rejects George G. M. James's views on Egypt, on the grounds that his sources predated the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs and that his theories were overturned by later findings. Egyptian hieroglyphs (ˈhaɪərəʊɡlɪf from Greek grc-Grek ἱερογλύφος " sacred carving " also hieroglyphic = grc-Grek She contends that actual ancient Egyptian texts showed little similarity to Greek philosophy and that Bernal underestimated the distinctiveness of Greek intellectual culture. Lefkowitz has criticized Afrocentricity as "an excuse to teach myth as history"^[62] Her most recent book History Lesson (Yale University Press, April 2008) is a personal account of the way she was attacked for simply stating the facts. For example, her pointing out that Aristotle could not have stolen his ideas from the great Library at Alexandria because the library was founded after his death (by his pupil Alexander the Great) was countered by Afrocentrists not by disproving her statements but by accusing her of being racist. Aristotle (Greek Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC was a Greek philosopher a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. The Royal Library of Alexandria or Ancient Library of Alexandria in Alexandria, Egypt, was once the largest library in the ancient world

Other critics of the Afrocentric approach in the study of history include the late Egyptologist Frank Yurco^[63], and African-American history professor Clarence E. Walker who has stated that Afrocentrism is: "a mythology that is racist, reactionary, essentially therapeutic and is eurocentrism in black face. "^[64]

Cain Hope Felder, a Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Howard University and supporter of Afrocentric ideas, has warned Afrocentrists to avoid certain pitfalls. ^[65] These include:

• Demonizing categorically all white people, without careful differentiation between persons of goodwill and those who consciously perpetuate racism.

• Adopting multiculturalism as a curricular alternative that eliminates, marginalizes, or vilifies European heritage to the point that Europe epitomizes all the evil in the world.

• Gross over-generalizations and using factually or incorrect material is bad history and bad scholarship. ^[65]

Nathan Glazer writes that although Afrocentricity can mean many things, the popular press has generally given most attention to its most outlandish theories. ^[23] Glazer supports many of the findings in Mary Lefkowitz book Not Out of Africa but also recognizes that Afrocentricity may, at times, take the form of legitimate and relevant scholarship. ^[23]

Often, the work that critics of Afrocentricity call "bad scholarship" is also rejected by Afrocentrists. Adisa A. Alkebulan writes that critics have used claims of what she calls "a few non-Afrocentrists" as "an indictment against Afrocentricity. "^[29]

Robert Todd Carroll in The Skeptic's Dictionary refers to Afrocentrism as "pseudohistorical", and argues that the prime goal of Afrocentrism is to encourage black nationalism as well as ethnic pride in order to effectively combat the destructive consequences of cultural and universal racism. Robert Todd Carroll (born 1945 PhD, is an American writer and academic Pseudohistory is a term applied to texts which purport to be historical in nature but which depart from standard historiographical conventions in a way which undermines ^[66][67]

List of prominent authors

• Molefi Kete Asante, professor, author: Afrocentricity: The theory of Social Change; The Afrocentric Idea; The Egyptian Philosophers: Ancient African Voices from Imhotep to Akhenaten
• Ishakamusa Barashango, college professor and lecturer; founder, Temple of the Black Messiah, School of History and Religion; co-founder and creative director, Fourth Dynasty Publishing Company, Silver Spring, Maryland
• Hakim Bey, leader of the Moorish Science Temple, author of the "Journal of the Moorish Paradigm"
• Jacob Carruthers, Egyptologist; founding director of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization; founder and director of the Kemetic Institute, Chicago
• Cheikh Anta Diop [1],[2], author: The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality; Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology; Precolonial Black Africa; The Cultural Unity of Black Africa: The Domains of Patriarchy and of Matriarchy in Classical Antiquity; The Peopling of Ancient Egypt & the Deciphering of the Meroitic Script
• H. B. ("Barry") Fell, Harvard professor, biologist, author: Saga America, 1980 [3]
• Charles S. Molefi Kete Asante (born as Arthur Lee Smith Jr on August 14, 1942, in Valdosta Georgia USA is a contemporary African American scholar in The Moorish Science Temple of America is a Religious organization founded in 1913 by Noble Drew Ali Jacob Hudson Carruthers ( February 15[[ 930]] in Dallas Texas - January 4[[ 004]] in Chicago) was an American academic noted as an Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. Cheikh Anta Diop ( 29 December, 1923 &ndash 7 February, 1986) was a Senegalese Barry Fell (born Howard Barraclough Fell on June 6 1917 in Lewes, Sussex, England; died on April 21 1994 of Heart failure in Finch, medical doctor and author: Echoes of the Old Darkland: Themes from the African Eden (1991), Africa and the Birth of Science and Technology (1991), The Star of Deep Beginnings (1998), Biblio Africana: An Annotated Reader's Guide to African Cultural History and Related Subjects (1999), The African Background to Medical Science: Essays on African History, Science & Civilizations (2000), The Afrikan Origins of the Major World Religions (with Yosef Ben-Jochannan and Modupe Oduyoye) (1987)
• Drusilla Dunjee Houston, lecturer, syndicated columnist, author: Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire, 1926.
• Yosef Ben-Jochannan, author: African Origins of Major "Western Religions"; Black Man of the Nile and His Family; Africa: Mother of Western Civilization; New Dimensions in African History; The Myth of Exodus and Genesis and the Exclusion of Their African Origins; Africa: Mother of Western Civilization; Abu Simbel to Ghizeh: A Guide Book and Manual
• Runoko Rashidi [4], author: Introduction to African Civilizations; The global African community: The African presence in Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific
• J.A. Rogers, author: Sex and Race: Negro-Caucasian Mixing in All Ages and All Lands: The Old World; Nature Knows No Color Line; Sex and Race: A History of White, Negro, and Indian Miscegenation in the Two Americas: The New World; 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro With Complete Proof: A Short Cut to the World History of the Negro
• Ivan van Sertima, author: They Came before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America, African Presence in Early Europe ISBN 0887386644; Blacks in Science Ancient and Modern; African Presence in Early Asia; African Presence in Early America; Early America Revisited; Egypt Revisited: Journal of African Civilizations; Nile Valley Civilizations; Egypt: Child of Africa (Journal of African Civilizations, V. Yosef AA (Alfredo Antonio Ben-Jochannan (born February 14, 1918, Gondar Ethiopia) is an American Runoko Rashidi is a late-20th c historian researcher writer world traveler and public lecturer based in Los Angeles. Joel Augustus Rogers ( September 6, 1880 (some sources say 1883) — March 26, 1966) Author, Journalist, Historian Ivan van Sertima is a Guyanese historian linguist and Anthropologist at Rutgers University. 12); The Golden Age of the Moor (Journal of African Civilizations, Vol. 11, Fall 1991); Great Black Leaders: Ancient and Modern; Great African Thinkers: Cheikh Anta Diop[5]
• Chancellor Williams, author: The Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race from 4500 B. Chancellor James Williams ( December 22, 1898, Bennettsville, South Carolina – December 7, 1992, Washington DC C. to 2000 A. D.
• Bekeh Ukelina Utietiang, author: "Afridentity: Essays on Africa" Silver Spring: Africa Reads Books, 2007.
• Théophile Obenga, author: Ancient Egypt and Black Africa: a student's handbook for the study of Ancient Egypt in philosophy, linguistics, and gender relations
• Asa Hilliard, III, author: SBA: The Reawakening of the African Mind; The Teachings of Ptahhotep

See also

• African philosophy
• African Renaissance
• Ausar Auset
• Black Athena
• Black supremacy
• Ethnocentrism
• Eurocentrism
• Kush
• Race of Ancient Egyptians

Notes

References

• Ani, Marimba (1994). John Wiley & Sons Inc, also referred to as Wiley, is a global Publishing company that markets its products to professionals and consumers students and instructors Yurugu: An African-centered Critique of European Thought and Behavior. Trenton, N. J. : Africa World Press. ISBN 0-86543-248-1.  
• Asante, Molefi Kete (1988). Molefi Kete Asante (born as Arthur Lee Smith Jr on August 14, 1942, in Valdosta Georgia USA is a contemporary African American scholar in Afrocentricity, rev. ed. , Trenton, N. J. : Africa World Press. ISBN 0-86543-067-5.  
• Asante, Molefi Kete (1990). Kemet, Afrocentricity, and Knowledge. Trenton, N. J. : Africa World Press. ISBN 0-86543-188-4.  
• Asante, Molefi Kete (1998). The Afrocentric Idea. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-594-1.  
• Bailey, Randall C. (editor) (2003). Yet with a steady beat: contemporary U. S. Afrocentric biblical interpretation. Society of Biblical Literature.  
• Berlinerblau, Jacques (1999). Heresy in the University: The Black Athena Controversy and the Responsibilities of American Intellectuals. Rutgers University Press.  
• Binder, Amy J. (2002). Contentious curricula: Afrocentrism and creationism in American public schools. Princeton University Press.  
• Browder, Anthony T. (1992). Nile Valley Contributions To Civilization: Exploding the Myths, Volume 1. Washington, DC: Institute of Karmic Guidance.  
• Crawford, Clinton (1996). Recasting Ancient Egypt In The African Context: Toward A Model Curriculum Using Art And Language. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press.  
• Henderson, Errol Anthony (1995). Afrocentrism and world politics: towards a new paradigm. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger.  
• Henke, Holger and Fred Reno (editors) (2003). Modern political culture in the Caribbean. University of the West Indies Press.  
• Houston, Drusilla Dunjee (1926). Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire. Oklahoma: Universal Publishing Company.  
• Howe, Stephen (1998). Afrocentrism: mythical pasts and imagined homes. London: Verso.  
• Karenga, Maulana (1993). Maulana Karenga (born Ronald McKinley Everett on July 14, 1941, and also known as Ron Everett) is an African American Introduction to Black Studies, 2nd ed. , Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press. ISBN 0-943412-16-1.  
• Kershaw, Terry (1992). ""Afrocentrism and the Afrocentric method. " Western Journal of Black Studies" 16 (3): 160-168.  
• Konstan, David. "Inventing Ancient Greece: [Review article]", History and Theory, Vol.  36, No.  2. (May, 1997), pp.  261–269.
• Lefkowitz, Mary (1996). Mary R Lefkowitz History Lesson: A Race Odyssey. Yale University Press. ISBN 030012659X.  
• Lefkowitz, Mary (1996). Not Out of Africa: How Afrocentrism Became an Excuse to Teach Myth as History. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0465098371.  
• Lefkowitz, Mary R. and Guy MacLean Rogers (editors) (1996). Black Athena Revisited. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807845558.  
• Lewis, Martin W. (1997). The myth of continents: a critique of metageography. University of California Press.  
• Magida, Arthur J. (1996). Prophet of rage a life of Louis Farrakhan and his nation. New York: BasicBooks.  
• Morton, Eric. "Race and Racism in the Works of David Hume. " Journal on African Philosophy. (2002) ISSN: 1533-1067. Africa Resource Center. Retrieved on 2006-11-06. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 355 - Roman Emperor Constantius II promotes his cousin Julian to the rank of Caesar, entrusting him with
• Moses, Wilson Jeremiah (1998). Afrotopia: the roots of African American popular history. Cambridge University Press.  
• Sniderman, Paul M. and Thomas Piazza (2002). Black pride and black prejudice. Princeton University Press.  
• Spivey, Donald (2003). Fire from the soul: a history of the African-American struggle. Carolina Academic Press.  
• Walker, Clarence E. (2000). We Can't Go Home Again: An Argument about Afrocentrism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195095715.  
• Wells, Spencer (2002). The Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey. Princeton University Press.  

External links

• 'Were the Ancient Egyptians Black or White' Biblical Archaeology Review for September – October, 1989. Frank Joseph Yurco's perpective on the race controversy of the ancient Egyptians
• Afrocentrism by Robert Todd Carroll, Skeptic's Dictionary
• Afrocentrism: The Argument We're Really Having by Ibrahim Sundiata
• Building Bridges to Afrocentrism by Ann Macy Roth, for the University of Pennsylvania's African Studies Center
• Afrocentrist multicultural pseudo-history by The Association for Rational Thought
• Ex Africa Lux? by T. Robert Todd Carroll (born 1945 PhD, is an American writer and academic A. Schmitz (PDF)
• Fallacies of Afrocentrism by Grover Furr, for the Montclair State University
• "Not Out Of Africa Excerpt," by Mary Lefkowitz
• Racism and the Rediscovery of Ancient Nubia
• UC Davis History Professor Clarence Walker's take on Afrocentrism
• Safari Scholarship Reinvents History by Ilana Mercer
• Robbing Native American Cultures: Van Sertima's Afrocentricity and the Olmecs, an article from Current Anthropology
• by Mark Newbrook
• Multiculturalism, Cult Archaeology, and Pseudoscience by Bernard Ortiz De Montellano
• Comments on Pitfalls in Multicultural Science Education
• Spreading Scientific Illiteracy Among Minorities - Part I: Multicultural Pseudoscience
• Spreading Scientific Illiteracy Among Minorities - Part II: Magic Melanin

Afrocentric websites

• ankhonline.com
• afrostyly.com
• asante.net