Chapters 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21 from Handbook of Black Studies

Critiques of Race-Based Research

• Opposing groups in race-based research accuse each other of being politically motivated, but rarely acknowledge their own biases.
• A large proportion of controversial race-based research involves comparisons of Black and White behavior, but rarely cites Black authorities.

Afrocentric Research

• Afrocentric research counters Eurocentric research by asserting the legitimacy of African and other non-European ideals, values, and experiences as a valid frame of reference for intellectual inquiry.
• Afrocentric research emphasizes the importance of the researcher's personal experiences and perspectives in the research process.

Objectivity and Researcher Bias

• Objectivity is an impossible standard to achieve in research, and researchers should be judged on the fairness and honesty of their work instead.
• Researchers should present sufficient information about themselves to enable readers to assess how their presence influenced the research outcomes.
• The inclusion of personal experiences and biases is necessary for Afrocentric research, as it influences all aspects of the research process.

Importance of Place and Self-Reflection

• The Afrocentric research exercise emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and critical examination of the researcher's motivations and perspectives.
• Place is a fundamental concept in Afrocentric intellectual inquiry, allowing the researcher to center their ideals and values in the inquiry.
• Self-reflection and awareness of one's perspectives and biases are crucial in establishing Afrocentricity as a legitimate response to the human condition.

Questioning the Personal-Academic Dichotomy

• The construction of theory and knowledge is a subjective process, influenced by the researcher's societal baggage and biases.
• All scholars have some stake or interest in the outcome of their work, and disclaimers to the contrary are misleading and deceptive.

Ancient Egyptian Kinship and Marriage

• Queen Tiy, wife of Amenhotep III, held the title King's Sister, but was not his sister or half-sister.
• The term "sister" to refer to a wife emerged in the mid-eighteenth Dynasty.
• In contemporary African societies, husbands often refer to their wives as "sister", indicating a close relationship.

Pharaonic Egypt and Marriage Practices

• Pharaonic Egypt underwent significant changes after the Eighteenth Dynasty.
• The practice of marrying close relatives, such as full sisters, was introduced by the Macedonian rulers.
• This practice was maintained until the end of the dynasty.

Ancient Egyptian Family and Social Organization

• The ancient Egyptian family was not just a nuclear unit, but an extended family structure.
• Kinship terms were descriptive but not primitive, and their simplicity does not imply a lack of complexity.
• Marriage in ancient Egypt was a cultural event, not a legal or religious matter.

Scholarship and Limitations

• Early scholars, such as Murray and Middleton, have been criticized for their lack of knowledge of ancient Egyptian kinship terms and family social organization.
• P.W. Pestman's work on marriage and matrimonial property in ancient Egypt has been criticized for not considering the law of succession and the interrelatedness of kinship terms and social organization.
• Sheila Whale's work on the family in the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt has been criticized for its ambiguity in regard to ancient Egyptian kinship, family, and social organization.

Colonialism and African Literature

• Critics analyze African literature from a colonial perspective, denying its autonomy and significance.
• Chinweizu (1983) argues that African literature is viewed as an "overseas department" of European literature, lacking its own traditions, models, audience, and norms.

Postcolonial Theory and Eurocentrism

• Postcolonial theory is an umbrella term for literary criticism applied to works from postcolonial countries, including Africa, Asia, Australia, the Caribbean, and India.
• The theory is laden with culturally offensive terminology, implying Western control and superiority.
• Edward Said (1979) defined Orientalism as "knowledge of the Orient that places things Oriental in class, court, prison, or manual for scrutiny, study, judgement, discipline, or governing".

Orientalism and the "Orient"

• Said's concept of Orientalism includes Africa and other colonized countries as part of the "Orient".
• The "Orient" is seen as a place of Europe's greatest and richest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, and a cultural contestant.
• The holy trinity of postcolonial theory (Said, Bhabha, and Spivak) does not include an African voice.

Dilemmas of Postcolonialism

• The concept of postcolonialism is problematic, with questions arising about its temporal and spatial locations.
• The "who" of the postcolonial is also unclear, as decolonization is an uneven and incomplete process.

African Literary Productions and Western Hegemony

• African literary productions are critiqued using Western hegemonic discourse theory, which has yet to define itself.
• The Western norm of analysis ignores important factors, including the autonomy and significance of African literature.

Kilombismo: A Pan-Africanist Movement

• Independent political position: Kilombismo promotes non-alignment and South-South dialogue, avoiding subservience to either ideological pole of the Cold War.

History of Resistance

• Kilombos: African communities built in freedom, found in every country where Africans were enslaved, with specific characteristics, such as economic, political, cultural, and social organization grounded in African precedent.
• Palmares Republic: Led by Zumbi, a famous example of kilombos, with a population of more than 30,000, existing from 1595 to 1696 in Brazil.
• African resistance: Kilombismo is connected to the Haitian revolution, Garveyism, and the Pan-African movement, highlighting a unique and coherent political strategem.

Key Concepts

• Ujamaa: African socialism, described by Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, is a democratic communitarian principle that organized kilombos.
• Life force philosophy: Contributes to high levels of resistance against Portuguese invasion and domination, and is a key concept in kilombismo.

Theorists and Activists

• Abdias Nascimento: An African Brazilian writer, artist, and activist who articulated kilombismo as an explicit political theory.
• Beatriz Nascimento: A historian who expanded the concept of kilombismo to denote the level of political, economic, and cultural organization and shared psychosocial coherence.

Goals and Principles

• Democratic principle: Kilombismo puts the African majority population and cultural heritage at the center of the nation's culture, polity, and socioeconomic organization.
• Pluralism without hierarchy: Kilombismo favors strengthening and building cultural references of indigenous Brazilian as well as African heritage, because both are minimized and distorted by the Eurocentric mainstream.

Empowerment in Black Communities

• Empowerment means liberation from oppressive barriers and control, experienced through critical consciousness and a sense of rising up.
• It involves resistance and agency in defining and redefining Black cultural identities.
• A critical reading of cultural products and themes provides new insights and approaches in designing social interventions.

African-Centered Worldviews

• The concept of balance is crucial, where living things must maintain balance in the face of adverse external social forces.
• Being in harmony with life means living with life, cooperating with natural forces, and taking responsibility for one's life.
• When inner peace is compromised, psychological, social, and physical well-being is threatened.

African-Centered Social Work

• African-centered theories recognize the importance of social context and contextualize social realities as enabling factors in progressive forms of practice.
• Multiple modalities may be required to meet the needs of an individual, as multiple experiences of oppression require multifaceted interventions.
• African-centered social work seeks to analyze social ills and issues through the lens of Black experiences and interpretations.

Community Building Strategies

• Community-building strategies engage and sustain individuals and communities through individual assets and positive attributes.
• Shared concerns and reflections on racism inform strategies of resistance toward social change.
• Communities extrapolate from shared concerns to increase knowledge about life experiences and often appropriate cultural antecedents to plan successful futures.

Life Cycle Development Programs

• Life cycle development programs (rites of passage) facilitate the transition of young people into adulthood through supporting family relationships.
• The absence of an orderly progression into adulthood may contribute to the breakdown in the maturation process and disintegration of important links between generations.