Afrocentricity

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Not to be confused with Afrocentrism.
Molefi Kete Asante, United States

Afrocentricity is an academic theory and approach to scholarship that seeks to center the experiences and peoples of Africa and the African diaspora within their own historical, cultural, and sociological contexts.<ref name="Monteiro-Ferreira">Monteiro-Ferreira, Ana (2009). "Afrocentricity and the Western Paradigm". Journal of Black Studies. 40 (2): 333–335. doi:10.1177/0021934708314801. ISSN 0021-9347. JSTOR 40282637. OCLC 461451432. S2CID 144475771.</ref><ref name="Asante">Asante, Molefi Kete (Dec 17, 2007). An Afrocentric Manifesto: Toward an African Renaissance. Polity. p. 17. ISBN 9780745641027. OCLC 156812629. S2CID 190415914.</ref><ref name="Alkebulan">Alkebulan, Adisa A. (Jan 2007). "Defending The Paradigm". Journal of Black Studies. Sage Publications, Inc. 37 (3): 411, 413–417. doi:10.1177/0021934706290082. ISSN 0021-9347. JSTOR 40034783. OCLC 7104045481. S2CID 143557323.</ref><ref name="Pellerin">Pellerin, Marquita (June 2012). "Benefits of Afrocentricity in Exploring Social Phenomena: Understanding Afrocentricity as a Social Science Methodology" (PDF). The Journal of Pan African Studies. 5 (4): 149–160. ISSN 0888-6601. OCLC 6864551898. S2CID 18435352.</ref> First developed as a systematized methodology by Molefi Kete Asante in 1980, he drew inspiration from a number of African and African diaspora intellectuals including Cheikh Anta Diop, George James, Harold Cruse, Ida B. Wells, Langston Hughes, Malcolm X, Marcus Garvey, and W. E. B. Du Bois.<ref name="Monteiro-Ferreira" /> The Temple Circle,<ref name="Asante VIII">Asante, Molefi Kete; Mazama, Ama; Cérol, Marie-José (2005). "Temple Circle". Encyclopedia of Black Studies. SAGE. p. 445. doi:10.4135/9781412952538. ISBN 9781452265445. OCLC 61296166. S2CID 141533226.</ref><ref name="Karenga">Karenga, Maulana (2018). "Founding the First PhD in Black Studies: A Sankofa Remembrance and Critical Assessment of Its Significance". Journal of Black Studies. SAGE Journals. 49 (6): 587. doi:10.1177/0021934718797317. ISSN 0021-9347. JSTOR 26574582. OCLC 7840305163. S2CID 150088166.</ref> also known as the Temple School of Thought,<ref name="Karenga" /> Temple Circle of Afrocentricity,<ref name="Asante X">Asante, Molefi Kete (Oct 19, 2010). "Afrocentricity and Africology: Theory and Practice in the Discipline". African American Studies. Edinburgh University Press. p. 48-50. ISBN 9780748686971. JSTOR 10.3366/j.ctt1g0b6m8. OCLC 703158344.</ref> or Temple School of Afrocentricity,<ref name="Myers">Myers, Joshua (2015). "Racial Economies of Academia: Africana Studies as Arbiter". Journal of African American Studies. 19 (1): 85. doi:10.1007/s12111-014-9291-8. ISSN 1559-1646. JSTOR 43525579. OCLC 5739148920. S2CID 144208208.</ref> was an early group of Africologists during the late 1980s and early 1990s that helped to further develop Afrocentricity, which is based on concepts of agency, centeredness, location, and orientation.<ref name="Asante VIII" />

Definition

Afrocentricity was coined to evoke "African-centeredness", and, as a unifying paradigm, draws from the foundational scholarship of Africana studies and African studies.<ref name="Alkebulan" /><ref name="Chawane" /> Those who identify as specialists in Afrocentricity, including historians, philosophers, and sociologists, call themselves "Africologists"<ref name="Asante II">Asante, Molefi Kete (2017). "The Philosophy of Afrocentricity". The Palgrave Handbook of African Philosophy. The Palgrave Handbook of African Philosophy. pp. 231, 239–240. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-59291-0_16. ISBN 978-1-137-59290-3. OCLC 1012883218. S2CID 158226446.</ref><ref name="Conyers III">Conyers, Jr., James L. (May 1, 2004). "The Evolution Of Africology: An Afrocentric Appraisal" (PDF). Journal of Black Studies. 34 (5): 643–644, 646–648. doi:10.1177/0021934703259257. ISSN 0021-9347. JSTOR 3180921. OCLC 5546050945. S2CID 145790776.</ref> or "Afrocentrists."<ref name="Asante IV" /><ref name="Asante XXIII">Asante, Molefi Kete (Oct 19, 2010). "Afrocentricity and Africology: Theory and Practice in the Discipline". African American Studies. Edinburgh University Press. p. 38-39. ISBN 9780748686971. JSTOR 10.3366/j.ctt1g0b6m8. OCLC 703158344.</ref><ref name="Conyers III" /> Africologists seek to ground their work in the perspective and culture common to African peoples, and center African peoples and their experiences as agents and subjects.<ref name="Mazama">Mazama, Mambo Ama (November 1, 2002). "Afrocentricity And African Spirituality" (PDF). Journal of Black Studies. 33 (2): 218–219. doi:10.1177/002193402237226. ISSN 0021-9347. JSTOR 3180935. OCLC 363925416. S2CID 145664692.</ref>

Ama Mazama defined the paradigm of Afrocentricity as being composed of the "ontology/epistemology, cosmology, axiology, and aesthetics of African people" and as being "centered in African experiences", which then conveys the "African voice". According to her, Afrocentricity incorporates African dance, music, rituals, legends, literature, and oratures as key features of its expository approach. Axiological features of Afrocentricity that Mazama identifies include explorations of African ethics, and the aesthetic aspects incorporate African mythology, rhythm, and the performing arts. Mazama also argues that Afrocentricity can integrate aspects of African spiritualities as essential components of African worldviews. Mazama sees spirituality and other intuitive methods of acquiring knowledge and emotional responses used in the paradigm as a counterbalance to rationality, and firsthand experience of these cultural and spiritual artifacts can inform Afrocentricity.<ref name="Alkebulan" /> Mazama indicates that many of the terms and concepts used in Afrocentricity are meant to shift the conceptual status of Africans from being objects that are acted upon to subjects who are agents that act.<ref name="Mazama III">Mazama, Ama (2021). "Africology and the Question of Disciplinary Language". Journal of Black Studies. 52 (5): 4–5. doi:10.1177/0021934721996431. ISSN 0021-9347. OCLC 8992523912. S2CID 234870652.</ref>

In contrast to the hegemonic ideology of Eurocentrism, the paradigm of Afrocentricity is argued by Africologists to be non-hierarchical and pluralistic and not intended to supplant "'white knowledge' with 'black knowledge'". As a holistic multidisciplinary theory with a strong focus on the location and agency of Africans, Afrocentricity is designed not to accept the role of subaltern prescribed to Africans by Eurocentrism. An important aspect of Afrocentricity is therefore a deconstruction and criticism of hegemony, racism, and prejudice.<ref name="Monteiro-Ferreira" />

Africologists, who produce Afrocentric academic works, identify their professional field as Afrocentricity – not Afrocentrism. Crucially, not all academic works that focus on African or African-American topics are necessarily Afrocentric and neither are works on melanist theories nor those rooted in matters of color of the skin, biology, or biological determinism; this means that some claims to Afrocentricity are not strictly part of the paradigm, and certain critiques of supposedly Afrocentric ideas may not be critiques of Afrocentricity per se.<ref name="Asante XXIII" />

History

Midas Chanawe outlined in his historical survey of the development of Afrocentricity how experiences of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Middle Passage, and legal prohibition of literacy, shared by enslaved African-Americans, followed by the experience of dual cultures (e.g., Africanisms, Americanisms), resulted in some African-Americans re-exploring their African cultural heritage rather than choosing to be Americanized. Additionally, the African-American experience of ongoing racism emphasized the importance that culture and its relative nature could have on their intellectual enterprise. All of this cultivated a foundation for the development of Afrocentricity. Examples of the kinds of arguments that presaged Afrocentricity include pieces published in the Freedom's Journal (1827) that drew connections between Africans and ancient Egyptians, African-American abolitionists, such as Frederick Douglass and David Walker, who highlighted the accomplishments of the ancient Egyptians as Africans to undermine the white supremacist assertion that Africans were inferior, and the assertions of the Pan-Africanist, Marcus Garvey, who argued that ancient Egypt laid the foundation for civilization in world history. These would be echoed in the contexts of Black Nationalism, Negritude, Pan-Africanism, Black Power movement, and the Black is Beautiful movement that served as harbingers for the formal development of Afrocentricity.<ref name="Chawane">Chawane, Midas (December 2016). "The development of Afrocentricity: a historical survey". Yesterday and Today. The South African Society for History Teaching. 16 (16): 81–82. doi:10.17159/2223-0386/2016/N16A5. ISSN 2309-9003. OCLC 8520863946. S2CID 164548774.</ref>

Molefi Kete Asante dates the first use of the term, "Afro-centric", to 1964,<ref name="Asante II" /> when the Institute of African Studies was being established in Ghana and its founder, Kwame Nkrumah, said to the Editorial Board of the Encyclopedia Africana: "[T]he Africana Project must be frankly Afro-centric in its interpretation of African history, and of the social and cultural institutions of the African and people of African descent everywhere."<ref name="Biney">Biney, Ama (2011). "Nkrumah's Political Writings, 1958–1966". The Political and Social Thought of Kwame Nkrumah. Springer. p. 122. doi:10.1057/9780230118645_8. ISBN 978-1-349-29513-5. OCLC 6019828376. S2CID 156979024.</ref> Other antecedents to Afrocentricity identified by Asante include the 1948 work of Cheikh Anta Diop when he introduced the idea of an "African Renaissance",<ref name="Asante II" /><ref name="Maurice">Maurice, Danielle (2007). "The living museum and the centenary of the abolition of slavery: for the recognition of African cultures". Colonial Past and Ways of Remembering Slavery. 3. ISSN 1718-5556. OCLC 6733666736. S2CID 161385608.</ref> J.A. Sofala's 1973 treatise The African Culture and Personality, and the three 1973 publications of The Afrocentric Review.<ref name="Asante II" /> Following the example of these and other preceding African intellectuals, Asante formally proposed the concept of Afrocentricity in a 1980 publication, Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change,<ref name="Monteiro-Ferreira" /> and further refined the concept in The Afrocentric Idea (1987).<ref name="Asante II" /> Other influential publications that helped to develop Afrocentricity include Linda James Myers' Understanding the Afrocentric Worldview (1988), Asante's Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge (1992), Ama Mazama's edited compilation The Afrocentric Paradigm (2003), and Asante's An Afrocentric Manifesto (2007).<ref name="Asante II" />

Temple University, the institutional home of Molefi Kete Asante and site of the first PhD program in the field of Africana Studies, which at Temple is named Africology and African American Studies,<ref name="Temple University">"Africology and African American Studies". Temple University. Temple University College of Liberal Arts. 20 January 2021. Retrieved 2021-07-03.</ref> is widely regarded as the leading institution for scholarship in Afrocentricity. In addition to Molefi Kete Asante, Afrocentricity developed among the "Temple Circle" (e.g., Abu Abarry, Kariamu Welsh Asante, Terry Kershaw, Tsehloane Keto, Ama Mazama, Theophile Obenga).<ref name="Chawane" /> As a result of the scholarly development of Afrocentricity, several scholarly journals and professional associations have developed throughout the United States of America and Africa.<ref name="Chawane" /> As a global intellectual enterprise, Afrocentricity is studied, taught, and exemplified at institutions and locations, such as Quilombismo (which was initiated by Abdias Nascimento) in Brazil, the Universitario del Pacifico in Buenaventura, Colombia, the programs of Africamaat in Paris, France, the Centre for African Renaissance at the University of South Africa in South Africa, a training program operated by Stanley Mkhize at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, and the Molefi Kete Asante Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.<ref name="Tillotson">Tillotson, Michael T. (March 2011). "Retrospective Analysis: The Movement Against African Centered Thought" (PDF). Journal of Pan African Studies. 4 (3): 170. ISSN 0888-6601. OCLC 4774962979. S2CID 141299507.</ref> Africological conferences also developed, some which operate by invitation, and some which occur on a yearly basis,<ref name="Asante IX">Asante, Molefi Kete (Mar 1, 2001). "Afrocentricity, Race, and Reason". Dispatches from the Ebony Tower: Intellectuals Confront the African American Experience. Columbia University Press. p. 199. ISBN 9780231507943. OCLC 243615903.</ref> such as the Cheikh Anta Diop Conference.<ref name="Asante IX" /><ref name="Mazama II">Mazama, Ama (2001). "The Afrocentric Paradigm: Contours and Definitions". Journal of Black Studies. Sage Publications, Inc. 31 (4): 403. doi:10.1177/002193470103100401. ISSN 0021-9347. JSTOR 2668022. OCLC 425284157. S2CID 143377231.</ref> The theory of Afrocentricity also had subsequent impact on other academic fields and theories, such as anthropology, education, jazz theory, linguistics, organizational theory, and physical education.<ref name="Gayles">Gayles, Jonathan (2008). "Anthropology, Afrocentricity, And African American Studies: Toward A Sincere Discipline". Transforming Anthropology. American Anthropology Association. 16 (2): 147–159. doi:10.1111/j.1548-7466.2008.00022.x. ISSN 1051-0559. OCLC 5157215557. S2CID 144396400.</ref>

Theophile Obenga, Republic of Congo

Differences between Afrocentricity and Afrocentrism

Afrocentricity and Afrocentrism are not synonymous, but, instead, are distinct from one another, and should not be mistaken for one another. Molefi Kete Asante explains:

By way of distinction, Afrocentricity should not be confused with the variant Afrocentrism. The term “Afrocentrism” was first used by the opponents of Afrocentricity who in their zeal saw it as an obverse of Eurocentrism. The adjective “Afrocentric” in the academic literature always referred to “Afrocentricity.” However, the use of “Afrocentrism” reflected a negation of the idea of Afrocentricity as a positive and progressive paradigm. The aim was to assign religious signification to the idea of African centeredness. However, it has come to refer to a broad cultural movement of the late twentieth century that has a set of philosophical, political, and artistic ideas which provides the basis for the musical, sartorial, and aesthetic dimensions of the African personality. On the other hand, Afrocentricity, as I have previously defined it, is a theory of agency, that is, the idea that African people must be viewed and view themselves as agents rather than spectators to historical revolution and change. To this end Afrocentricity seeks to examine every aspect of the subject place of Africans in historical, literary, architectural, ethical, philosophical, economic, and political life.<ref name="Asante" />

In addition to Molefi Kete Asante, many other academics have explained that Afrocentricity and Afrocentrism are distinct from one another, and that critics have often conflated the two when criticizing Afrocentricity.<ref group=""></ref> Further, Asante indicates that by conflating Afrocentricity with Afrocentricism, critics of Afrocentrism have mischaracterized Afrocentricity as being a "'religious' movement based on an essentialist paradigm."<ref name="Asante IV">Asante, Molefi Kete (13 December 2017). Afrocentricity: Critical Intercultural Communication Theories, Issues, and Concepts. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. pp. 1–11. doi:10.1002/9781118783665.ieicc0195. ISBN 9781118783665. OCLC 1019678798. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)</ref> Other academics have also been critical of the criticism of Afrocentricity that seek to define it as a religious movement.<ref name="Monteiro-Ferreira II">Monteiro-Ferreira, Ana (March 26, 2008). "Afrocentricity and the Western Paradigm". Journal of Black Studies. 40 (2): 333. doi:10.1177/0021934708314801. ISSN 0021-9347. JSTOR 40282637. OCLC 461451432. S2CID 144475771.</ref><ref name="Asante XXIII" /> Historian and medical anthropologist Katherine Bankole-Medina notes that rather than seeking to understand the theory of Afrocentricity or engage in constructive discourse with the scholars of the theory, many critical academics seek to critique and discredit the theory as well as engage in intellectual militarism.<ref name="Bankole">Bankole, Katherine Kemi (Nov 30, 1994). "The Attack On Afrocentricity". The Gaither Reporter. 2 (2): 8.</ref> Consequently, between Afrocentrism and Afrocentricity, many critical academics tend to overlook their key suffix distinction (i.e., -ism and -icity).<ref name="Bankole" /> Philosopher Ramose indicated that, in contrast to Afrocentricity, Afrocentrism has been characterized as a notion that negates the notion of Afrocentricity being a “positive and progressive paradigm.”<ref name="Ramose">Ramose, Mogobe B. (2014). "Ubuntu: Affirming a Right and Seeking Remedies in South Africa". Ubuntu: Curating the Archive. University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-1-86914-265-0. OCLC 881707322. S2CID 146369742.</ref>

Other academics have indicated that since Afrocentricity has been made increasingly well-known inside and outside of academia, it has resulted in non-academics developing their own forms of analysis that are not so precise or accurate and these subsequently developed forms of analysis have been incorporated into various forms of media (e.g., music, film).<ref name="Stewart">Stewart, James B. (1997). "Reaching for Higher Ground: Toward an Understanding of Black/Africana Studies". Africana Studies: A Disciplinary Quest for Both Theory and Method. McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. pp. 108–109. ISBN 0-7864-0278-4. OCLC 35558992. S2CID 107507209.</ref> This form of popular culture, or Afrocentrism, has also subsequently been mistaken for the systematic methodology of Afrocentricity.<ref name="Stewart" /> As a result of the popular misconceptions of what Afrocentricity is not, Stewart indicates that this has had a negative impact in terms of public perception.<ref name="Stewart" /> Some academics have stated that, while Afrocentrism is popular culture, Afrocentricity is an academic theory and that Afrocentricity has been depicted by mass media and critics as Afrocentrism in order to attempt to mischaracterize and/or invalidate Afrocentricity.<ref name="Yehudah">Yehudah, Miciah Z. (June 30, 2015). "Distinguishing Afrocentric Inquiry From Pop Culture Afrocentrism". Journal of Black Studies. 46 (6): 552, 560. doi:10.1177/0021934715593054. ISSN 0021-9347. JSTOR 24572898. OCLC 5868722093. S2CID 146611141.</ref><ref name="Kumah-Abiwu" /> Karenga indicated that distinctions exist between the public understanding of Afrocentrism that has been conveyed through mass media, which is held by some proponents and held by some critics of Afrocentrism, and the academic conceptualization of Afrocentricity held by Africologists.<ref name="Alkebulan" /> Karenga indicates that Afrocentricity is an intellectual paradigm or methodology, whereas, Afrocentrism, by merit of the term’s suffix (i.e., -ism), is an ideological and political disposition.<ref name="Alkebulan" /> Additionally, Karenga indicates that, in Afrocentricity, African behaviors and African culture are subject to examination through the centered lens of African ideals.<ref name="Alkebulan" /> M'Baye indicates that, unlike Afrocentrism, the intellectual theory of Afrocentricity adds value to the field of Black studies.<ref name="M'Baye">M'Baye, Babacar (Jul 13, 2012). "What Is Black in the Melting Pot?: A Critique of Afrocentrist and Postmodernist Discourses on Blackness". American Multicultural Studies: Diversity of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality. SAGE Publications. pp. 9–10. ISBN 978-1-4129-9802-4. OCLC 780481540. S2CID 204705387.</ref>

Some academics have stated that some of the more radical views of Afrocentricism have been unfairly attributed to Kete Asante.<ref name="Gayles II">Gayles, Jonathan (11 November 2008). "Anthropology, Afrocentricity, And African American Studies: Toward A Sincere Discipline". Transforming Anthropology. 16 (2): 151. doi:10.1111/j.1548-7466.2008.00022.x. ISSN 1051-0559. OCLC 5157215557. S2CID 144396400.</ref>

Some academics have indicated that Afrocentricity is distinct from Afrocentrism, and that Afrocentrism is frequently confused with ethnonationalism, often simplified to black pride or romanticized black history, often misconstrued by progressive/liberal academics as being a black version of white nationalism, or mischaracterized as being a black version of Eurocentrism.<ref name="M'Baye" /> They further state, that Afrocentrism has been fallaciously characterized as being a notion based on black supremacy and as being the black equivalent of hegemonic Eurocentrism.<ref name="Abdullah" /> Rasekoala states that, while Afrocentrism has been characterized as an ideology focused on cultural traits (e.g., customs, habits, traditions, values, value systems) of Africans, Afrocentricity is a methodology that focuses on the positionality, agency, and experiences of Africans.<ref name="Rasekoala" />

Proponents of Afrocentricity state that it is a theoretic concept of agency.<ref name="Moloi" /> They further state that the detractors of Afrocentricity intentionally mislabel Afrocentricity as Afrocentrism in order to steer people of African descent, who are not yet aware of what composes Afrocentricity, away from it.<ref name="Moloi" /> This has been characterized as an “ongoing ideological warfare to ensure the continuation of the subjugation of African people as objects of analysis, thus discouraging them from being agents in their own history.”<ref name="Moloi" /> Additionally, it has been further indicated that those who charge scholars of Afrocentricity of producing political propaganda, do so as well, while portraying it as scholarship, in order to deny the agency of Africans and to avoid critique.<ref name="Moloi" /> Hilliard and Alkebulan indicate that, rather than the academic work of scholars of Afrocentricity being used to define Afrocentricity, mass media has shaped the public understanding of Afrocentricity using the work of journalists and the work of academics, who are not professionals in the field of Afrocentricity – such as Mary Lefkowitz and her work, Not Out of Africa, which also confuses Afrocentrism with Afrocentricity – as authoritative sources for criticisms of Afrocentricity.<ref name="Moloi" /> Cultural critic and postcolonial studies professor Edward Said has also been criticized of confusing Afrocentricity with Afrocentricism.<ref name="Noman" />

In 1991, the New York Times,<ref name="Bangura">Bangura, Abdul Karim (November 2017). "Teaching Afrocentricity Through E-Clustering" (PDF). Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies. 10 (10): 122. OCLC 7840267045. S2CID 70053117.</ref><ref name="Bangura II">Bangura, Abdul Karim (2020). "Hrārā/S-tut/Qeṭ: Re-conceptualizing Pan-African Studies in the Era of Globalization Using a Mixture of Ancient Egyptian, Diopian, Mazruiana, Mbitian, and Asanteian Approaches". Africa and Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. p. 313. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-55351-7_15. ISBN 978-3-030-55350-0. S2CID 226405885.</ref><ref name="Kunda">Kunda, Ali (2021). "Afrocentrism: A Mazruiana Perspective". African Isms: Africa and the Globalized World. Peter Lang Publishing. p. 40. ISBN 978-1-4331-8382-9. OCLC 1240733540.</ref> or Newsweek,<ref name="Zulu">Zulu, Itibari M. (March 2018). "Exploring the African Centered Paradigm: Discourse and Innovation in African World Community Studies" (PDF). Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies. 11 (4): 115–116. OCLC 44580337. S2CID 165025970.</ref> created the term Afrocentrism in opposition to Afrocentricity and critics of Afrocentricity advanced this effort.<ref name="Bangura" /><ref name="Zulu" /> Zulu indicates that Afrocentrism was an imposed term, which was part of a deceptive grand narrative, intended to derail and curtail the momentum of the paradigm of Afrocentricity being adopted and used.<ref name="Zulu" />

Asante indicates that Afrocentrism post-dates Afrocentricity as a concept.<ref name="Moloi" /> Other scholars indicate that what has come to be known as Afrocentrism has existed among black communities for centuries as a grassroots political understanding and narrative tradition about the history of Africa and Africans, which lies in contrast to and is distinct from the theory of Afrocentricity and Africology movement that developed in the 1980s.<ref name="Balakrishnan">Balakrishnan, Sarah (February 8, 2021). "Afrocentrism Revisited: Africa in the Philosophy of Black Nationalism". Souls: A Critical Journal of Black Politics, Culture, and Society. 22 (1): 71–72. doi:10.1080/10999949.2019.1711566. ISSN 1099-9949. OCLC 8907443619. S2CID 231848410.</ref> Additionally, use of the term Afrocentric preexisted the birth of Kete Asante and it later became incorporated into the Afrocentric methodology and paradigm created by Asante.<ref name="Asante XXII" /> As Kete Asante further notes, while African-centeredness may suggest a limitation in geography, Afrocentricity can be performed anywhere in the world as a form of academic study.<ref name="Asante XXII" />

While there are different designations (e.g., Africanity, Gloriana Afrocentricity, Proletarian Afrocentricity) for Afrocentricity, Amo‑Agyemang indicates that Afrocentricity should not be mistaken for Afrocentrism and does not seek to replace Eurocentrism.<ref name="Amo‑Agyemang">Amo‑Agyemang, Charles (17 February 2021). "Unmasking resilience as governmentality: towards an Afrocentric epistemology" (PDF). International Politics. 58 (5): 688. doi:10.1057/S41311-021-00282-8. ISSN 1384-5748. OCLC 9270818002. S2CID 233930251.</ref> As Afrocentricity centers African identity, and privileges the concepts, traditions, and history of Africans, Amo‑Agyemang indicates that Afrocentricity clarifies, deconstructs, and undermines hegemonic epistemologies; also, that it serves as a liberatory method that "negates/repudiates exploitations, oppression, repression, domination and marginality of indigenous cultural knowledge" and seeks the "democratisation of knowledge, de‑hegemonisation of knowledge, de‑westernisation of knowledge, and de‑Europeanisation of knowledge".<ref name="Amo‑Agyemang" />

Criticisms and responses to criticisms

Major critics of Afrocentricity have been Tunde Adeleke (e.g., The Case Against Afrocentrism, 2009), Clarence Walker (e.g., Why We Can't Go Home Again, 2001), Stephen Howe (e.g., Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes, 1998), and Mary Lefkowitz (e.g., Not Out of Africa, 1997).<ref name="Asante II" /> These major critical works were characterized in Asante (2017) as being a "misunderstanding of Afrocentricity or an attempt to relaunch the Eurocentric domination in knowledge, criticism, and literature."<ref name="Asante II" />

Esonwanne (1992) critiqued Asante's Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge (1990) and characterized its discourse as "implausible", its argumentation as "disorganized", its analysis as "crude and garbled", its perceived lack of seriousness in study as harmful to the "serious study of African American and African cultures", as being part of a "whole project of Afrocentrism", and as being "off-handedly racist".<ref name="Esonwanne">Esonwanne, Uzo (1992). "Review: [Untitled]". Research in African Literatures. Indiana University Press. 23 (1): 206. JSTOR 3819965.</ref> Esonwanne (1992) indicates that the redeeming quality and "intellectual value" of Asante's earlier work is its "negative value" and that it is a prime example of what researchers in African studies and African-American studies "would do well to avoid".<ref name="Esonwanne" /> Esonwanne (1992) further characterizes Asante’s Afrocentricity as being a "post-Civil Rights individualist version of the pan-Africanist doctrine" that merits not giving into "temptation to dismiss the notion of Afrocentricity completely in abeyance".<ref name="Esonwanne" />

Asante (1993) critiqued Esonwanne (1992) and the critical review that was given to his earlier work.<ref name="Asante V">Asante, Molefi Kete (1993). Malcolm X as Cultural Hero And Other Afrocentric Essays. Africa World Press. pp. 60–62. ISBN 9780865434011. OCLC 28891809. S2CID 160357150.</ref> Asante indicated that scholars who considered using Esonwanne (1992) as a means to comprehend his earlier work would have a limited comprehension of his earlier work.<ref name="Asante V" /> Esonwanne's characterization of Asante's work as "off-handedly racist" was characterized by Asante as "gratuitous mudslinging" that lacked specificity about what was being characterized as "off-handedly racist".<ref name="Asante V" /> Additionally, Asante indicated that, due to the lack of specific example cited from his earlier work to support the characterization of it as "off-handedly racist", it was "not only a serious breach of professionalism but a grotesque and dishonest intellectual ploy".<ref name="Asante V" />

Esonwanne (1992) indicated that grouping Cheikh Anta Diop, Maulana Karenga, and Wade Nobles together was a "strange mix" due to each of the scholars having different methodological approaches to African studies and African-American studies.<ref name="Asante V" /> Based on this characterization of Asante's earlier work as a "strange mix", Asante (1993) viewed this as indication of Esonwanne (1992) showing a lack of comprehension and familiarity with his earlier work, with the works of Diop, Karenga, and Wade, as well as the theory of Afrocentricity.<ref name="Asante V" /> Asante (1993) went on to clarify that Cheikh Anta Diop, Maulana Karenga, and Wade Nobles, despite differences in professional backgrounds or academic interests, were all scholars in the theory of Afrocentricity.<ref name="Asante V" />

Asante (1993) went on to clarify that, similar to the use of the term "European", the use of the composite term "African" is not used it in reference to an abstraction, but is used in reference to ethnic identity and cultural heritage; as such, there are modal uses of terms such as "African civilization" and "African culture", which do not deny the significance of the discrete identities and heritages of more specific African groupings (e.g., African-American, Hausa, Jamaican, Kikuyu, Kongo, Yoruba).<ref name="Asante V" /> Asante (1993) indicates that usage of such terms, in reference to Ma'at, was addressed in a chapter of his earlier work, but that the shortcomings of the critiques presented in Esonwanne (1992) show that Esonwanne may not have read as far as that chapter.<ref name="Asante V" />

Hill-Collins (2006) characterized Afrocentrism as essentially being a civil religion (e.g., common beliefs and values; common tenets that distinguish believers from non-believers; views on the unknowns of life, on suffering, and on death; common places of gathering and rituals that establish one as a member of an institutionalized belief system).<ref name="Hill-Collins">Hill-Collins, Patricia (Jan 19, 2006). "Black Nationalism and African American Ethnicity". From Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism. Temple University Press. pp. 85–92. ISBN 9781592137909. ISSN 1062-4783. OCLC 5207839980. S2CID 140854826.</ref> Some aspects that she defined and related to Asante's Afrocentricity was a fundamental love for black people and blackness (e.g., negritude) and common black values (e.g., Karenga’s established values and principles of Kwanzaa); another aspect was black centeredness as a form of grace or relief from white racism; another aspect was the "original sin" of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade as the major reasoning for the suffering and death of black people, Africa as the promised land, and a form of salvation through self-redefinition and self-reclamation as an African people as well as rejection of what is perceived as being of white people and white culture (which are viewed as bearing evil qualities in relation to black people).<ref name="Hill-Collins" /> Another aspect of the characterization of Afrocentrism as a civil religion involves the homophobic and sexist exclusion of black GLBTQ individuals, black women, biracial and multiracial individuals, and wealthy black individuals.<ref name="Hill-Collins" />

Asante (2007) characterized Hill-Collins (2006) as following a similar approach as Stephen Howe and Mary Lefkowitz of not providing a clear definition for the concept of Afrocentricity that they are attempting to critique and then, subsequently, negatively and incorrectly characterizing Afrocentricity as Afrocentrism (i.e., a black form of Eurocentrism).<ref name="Asante III">Asante, Molefi Kete (Dec 17, 2007). An Afrocentric Manifesto: Toward an African Renaissance. Polity. pp. 18–23. ISBN 9780745641027. OCLC 156812629. S2CID 190415914.</ref> Asante indicates that Afrocentricity is not an enclosed system of thought or religious belief; rather, he indicated that it is an unenclosed, critical dialectic that allows for open-ended dialogue and debate on the fundamental assumptions that the theory of Afrocentricity is based on.<ref name="Asante III" /> Asante further critiqued and characterized Hill-Collins (2006) as being "not only poor scholarship", but a "form of self-hatred" that is typically "engaged in by vulgar careerists whose plan is to distance themselves from African agency".<ref name="Asante III" /> Asante highlighted Hill-Collins' intellectual work on the centeredness of women of the African diaspora to contrast with her characterized lack of understanding of the intellectual work on the centeredness of African people that Afrocentricity focuses on.<ref name="Asante III" /> As a follow-up to Hill-Collins' Black Power to Hip Hop: Racism, Nationalism, and Feminism?, she authored Ethnicity, Culture, and Black Nationalist Politics, which Asante characterizes as having vaguely defined notions of black nationalism, Afrocentrism/Afrocentricity, civil religion, and African-American ethnic identity.<ref name="Asante III" /> Asante characterized her critiques of Afrocentricity as being supportive of a manufactured intellectual agenda and predicated on the reactionary politics surrounding modern American history.<ref name="Asante III" />

Asante (2007) highlights that Hill-Collins' perspective on black nationalism, rather than being distinct from usual approaches, derives from the same origin as these approaches (e.g., black feminist nationalism, cultural nationalism, religious nationalism, revolutionary nationalism).<ref name="Asante III" /> Within the context of racialized American national identity, Asante characterizes Hill-Collins' notion of civil religion as the reverence for American civil government and its political principles; along with this notion is the characterized view of immigrating Afro-Caribbeans choosing how to not become "black" Americans (who later join with African-Americans and partake in the UNIA movement), immigrating Europeans choosing how to become "white" Americans, the European-American social power of whiteness to erase their racial identity and become any other identity (e.g., Native American, of Irish descent, of Italian descent) except an identity of African descent, the European-American social power to operate as individuals rather than as a monolithic racial identity (e.g., Black American), and a tradition of racism operating in the modern context of color-blindness, desegregation, and the illusion of equality.<ref name="Asante III" />

Following her characterized view of black nationalism, Asante (2007) indicates that Hill-Collins conflates black nationalism (e.g., Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam) with Afrocentricity (e.g., Molefi Kete Asante and Afrocentricity).<ref name="Asante III" /> Asante indicates that black nationalism, as a political ideology, is distinct from Afrocentricity, which is a philosophical paradigm, and that both serve distinct purposes and operate in distinct spheres.<ref name="Asante III" /> Rather than being a reformulation of black cultural nationalism and being a civil religion, Asante indicates that Black studies derived and developed from black nationalism and that the development of Afrocentricity post-dates the development of Black studies.<ref name="Asante III" /> Asante indicates that the correct understanding that Hill-Collins has is that "Afrocentricity is a social theory in the sense that it explains the dislocation, disorientation, and mental enslavement of African people as being a function of white racial hegemony."<ref name="Asante III" /> In relation to this view, Asante indicates that mutilating one’s own people is one of the greatest forms of dislocation and that revering the instruction of a "slave master" to intellectually attacking one's own people is a form of dislocated behavior.<ref name="Asante III" />

The centerpiece of Hill-Collins’ approach, as Asante (2007) characterized it, is that "Afrocentricity took the framework of American civil religion and stripped it of its American symbols and substituted a black value system."<ref name="Asante III" /> Asante indicates that the earliest Africologists (e.g., Nah Dove, Tsehloane Keto, Ama Mazama, Kariamu Welsh, Terry Kershaw) of the "Temple Circle" or contemporaneous scholars (e.g., Maulana Karenga, Wade Nobles, Asa Hilliard, Clenora Hudson-Weems, Linda Myers) had no conscious intention of creating a civil religion as Hill-Collins claims.<ref name="Asante III" />

List of Africologists

Temple Circle

References

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