Chapters 9, 10, 11, and 12 - Handbook of Black Studies

Eurocentric Assumptions

• Europeans are superior, Africans are inferior: 30 common reasons were listed by Blaut (2000) to justify European superiority, including a better climate, better soils, and unique inventiveness and rationality.
• This assumption led to "Eurocentric diffusionism", where progress is seen as permanent and natural in Europe, but not elsewhere, and that progress in other regions is mainly due to the diffusion of innovative ideas and products from Europe.
• In this schema, non-Europeans are destined to be consumers of European culture, whether in the form of concepts or goods.

Classification of Human Beings

• During the Enlightenment period, humans were classified into four or more categories based on their level of civilization, with Europeans being seen as civilized and others as less or uncivilized.
• Examples of such classification include Herbert Spencer's social Darwinist theory, which categorized human societies into four levels of differentiation, and Edward Tylor's three great stages of human evolution: savagery, barbarism, and civilization.
• Cultural differences were seen as marks of inferiority in this Eurocentric context.

Linear Evolutionism

• This assumption posits that all human beings evolve along the same line, with Marxism being a notable example, featuring four different stages that every society is supposed to experience.
• This linear evolutionism is understandable within the context of universal evolutionism, where every society is seen as evolving along the same path.

Africana Studies and Discursive Formations

• For nearly a century, intellectuals and activists of African origin and descent have used the term "Africana" to include the life worlds and lived experiences of continental and diasporan Africans.
• Discursive formations, or knowledge production and dissemination, provide the theoretical thrusts that guide and establish interdisciplinary arenas while exploding traditional disciplinary boundaries.

The Critical Turn towards Africana Thought

• There has been a critical turn towards Africana thought or philosophy due to the overemphasis on experience and emotion in the study of continental and diasporan African life.
• After 500 years of Europeanization of human consciousness, Africana theorists argue that Africana history and culture need Afrocentric analysis.

Internalized Anti-African Thought and Practices

• Africana peoples have been systematically socialized and ideologically educated to view and value the world using a European imperial modus operandi.
• Many Africana people have internalized anti-African thought and practices, creating problems for and plaguing Africana Studies.

Africana Philosophy and Critical Theory

• Leopold Sedar Sénghor's advances and retreats in the development of Africana philosophy and critical theory are discussed in the context of Negritude, Cultural Mulattoism, Africanity, and African Socialism.
• Black existentialism or Africana philosophy of existence provides the theoretical tools to tease out the issues involved in the experiential/emotional approach in Africana Studies.

Africana Philosophy of Existence

• Africana philosophy of existence or Black existentialism confronts existential and ontological questions and claims that differ for each human group due to their unique historical horizon and cultural contexts.
• For further discussion of Africana philosophy of existence, see Lewis Gordon's work, particularly Existence in Black: An Anthology of Black Existential Philosophy (1997a) and Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought (2000).

Africanity and Identity

• The conception of "Africanity" involves a combination of African identity and African personality theory, drawn primarily from the work of Tsenay Serequeberhan (1998).
• Africanity has more to offer human and social science than merely its experiential/emotional aspects.

The Limitations of the Experiential/Emotional Approach

• Privileging the experiential/emotional approach can lead to a multiplicity of narratives and biographies of Blacks' experience of the world, but with no theoretical tools to critically interpret these experiences.
• This approach can result in a dependency on White/Eurocentric disciplines to interpret Black life worlds and lived experiences, reproducing intellectual dependency and colonial complexes.

Afrocentricity and Conscientization

• Conscientization is a central concept in Afrocentricity, making it distinct from Africanity.
• Afrocentricity involves conscientization related to the agency of African people, making them self-conscious human beings.
• Conscientization is key to reorientation and recentering, enabling individuals to act as agents rather than victims or dependents.

The Agency Concept

• An agent is a human being capable of acting independently in their own best interest.
• Agency refers to the ability to provide psychological and cultural resources necessary for human freedom.
• In situations of oppression, the concept of agency assumes primary importance.

Afrocentricity and Agency

• Afrocentricity involves recognizing African people as agents in economic, cultural, political, and social terms.
• The degree to which Africans are weak or strong agents is open to intellectual discourse, but agency itself is a fundamental aspect.
• The absence of agency leads to marginality, with the worst form being marginalization within one's own story.

The Problem of Marginalization

• Marginalization is not just limited to being ignored, but also involves the obliteration of the presence, meaning, activities, or images of African people.
• This is a result of White racial domination, leading to a negated reality and destruction of African spiritual and material personality.

Minimum Characteristics of Afrocentricity

• An Afrocentric project should include:
  • Interest in psychological location
  • Commitment to finding the African subject place
  • Defense of African cultural elements
  • Commitment to lexical refinement
  • Commitment to correct the history of Africa

The Need for a New Narrative History of Africa

• Eurocentric writers have traditionally positioned Africa as inferior, leading to a deliberate falsification of historical records.
• The Afrocentrist's primary obligation is to assess the condition of research and intervene appropriately to correct this narrative.
• This is particularly evident in the study of Kemet, classical Egyptian history, where African contributions have been misrepresented as European.

The Third Modal Period: Reaffirmation of Africanness

• The 1960s marked a period of reaffirmation of African Americans' connection to their African heritage and cultural values.
• This period was characterized by a cultural revolution, where African Americans turned towards Africa for roots and revitalization, rejecting European views and values.
• The Organization Us, a major Black Power and cultural nationalist organization, called for a "thrust towards full re-Africanization," borrowing from Sékou Touré's phrase.

Reaffirmation of Social Justice Tradition

• African Americans reaffirmed their social justice tradition, which emphasized respect for human rights, economic justice, meaningful political participation, shared power, cultural integrity, and mutual respect for all peoples.
• The Million Man March Mission Statement outlined the minimum requirements for this tradition, including respect for human rights, economic justice, and uncompromising resistance to social forces that deny or limit these rights.

Key Figures and Publications

• Sékou Touré, a continental African leader, influenced the concept of re-Africanization.
• Maulana Karenga, a prominent scholar, wrote about the reaffirmation of Africanness in the 1960s.
• Various publications, including "The Afrocentric Paradigm" and "Red, Black, and Green: Black Nationalism in the United States," contributed to the intellectual and cultural movement of the 1960s.