Handbook of Black Studies PDF

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available by clicking on this link, which includes an easy-to-navigate-and-s...

Sage Reference Handbook of Black Studies For the most optimal reading experience we recommend using our website. A free-to-view version of this content is available by clicking on this link, which includes an easy-to-navigate-and-search-entry, and may also include videos, embedded datasets, downloadable datasets, interactive questions, audio content, and downloadable tables and resources. Author: Reiland Rabaka Pub. Date: 2010 Product: Sage Reference DOI: https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412982696 Keywords: critical theory, discursive formations, négritude, black existentialism, African people, Asante, African philosophy Disciplines: Race & Ethnicity, Race, Ethnicity & Migration, Black Studies, Sociology Access Date: July 8, 2024 Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc. City: Thousand Oaks Online ISBN: 9781412982696 © 2010 SAGE Publications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Africana Critical Theory of Contemporary Society: The Role of Radical Politics, Social Theory, and Africana Philosophy1 ReilandRabaka Disciplinary Developments and New Discursive Directions in Africana Studies Africana Studies blurs the lines between disciplines and offers interdisciplinarity in the interest of continental and diasporan Africans. Drawing from and contributing to the natural and social sciences and the arts and humanities, Africana Studies is a broadly construed interdisciplinary discipline that critically interprets and an- alyzes classical and contemporary continental and diasporan African thought and practice (Karenga 2001, 2002). The agnomen Africana has come to represent many things to many different people, not all of them of African descent. From W. E. B. Du Bois's 1909 contraction of the term for a proposed encyclopedia “covering the chief points in the history and condition of the Negro race,” with contributions by a board of 100 “Negro American, African and West Indian” intellectuals (Du Bois, 1997a, p. 146), to James Turner's (1984) assertion that “the concept Africana is derived from the African continuum and African consociation' which posits funda- mental interconnections in the global Black experience” (p. viii) to Lucius Outlaw's (1997) use of the term as a “gathering” and/or “umbrella” notion “under which to situate the articulations (writings, speeches, etc.)” of con- tinental and diasporan Africans “collectively … which are to be regarded as philosophy” (p. 64) to Emmanuel Eze's (1997b) employment of the heading to emphasize, in a “serious sense,” the historical and cultural range and diversity of continental and diasporan African thought in consequence of “the single most important fac- tor that drives the field and the contemporary practice of African/a Philosophy… the brutal encounter of the African world with European modernity” (p. 4), finally, to Lewis Gordon's (2000) recent adoption of the term to refer to “an area of thought that focuses on theoretical questions raised by struggles over ideas in African cultures and their hybrid and creolized forms in Europe, North America, Central and South America, and the Caribbean” (p. 1). Whether thought, philosophy, or studies accompanies Africana, the term and its varying Handbook of Black Studies Page 2 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. conceptual meanings have, indeed, traveled a great deal of social, political, historical, cultural, philosophical, and physical terrain. However, if there is one constant concerning the appellation “Africana,” it is the simple fact that for nearly a century, intellectuals and activists of African origin and descent have employed the term to indicate and include the life worlds and lived experiences of continental and diasporan Africans. Disciplinary development is predicated on discursive formations to which Africana Studies—that is, African, Pan-African, African American, and Black Studies—is not immune. Discursive formations, meaning essential- ly knowledge production and dissemination, what we would call in Africana Studies “epistemologies” or “the- ories of knowledge,” provide the theoretical thrust(s) that help to guide and establish interdisciplinary arenas while simultaneously exploding traditional disciplinary boundaries. As a consequence of the overemphasis on experience and emotion in the study of continental and diasporan African life, there has been a critical turn toward Africana thought or, more properly, Africana philosophy. After 500 years of the Europeanization of human consciousness, it is not simply European imperial thought and texts that stand in need of Afrocentric analysis (see Asante, 2000). Africana theorists, taking a long and critical look at Africana history and culture, argue that consequent to holocaust, enslavement, and as Fanon (1965, 1967, 1968, 1969) and Ngúgí (1986, 1993, 1997) note, physical and psychological colonization, Africana peoples have been systematically socialized and ideologically educated to view and value the world and to think and act employing a European imperial modus operandi. This means, then, that many Africana people in the modern moment have internalized not simply imperial thought and practices but, to put it plainly, anti-African thought and practices. Internalized anti-African thought and practices have created problems for and plagued Africana Studies al- most since its inception (Karenga, 1988). It has led to a specific species of intellectual reductionism that turns on an often clandestine credo that warrants that Black people ante up experience and emotion, whereas White people contribute theory, philosophy, or both. The internalization of this thought expressed itself most notably in the work of Negritude poet and theorist, Leopold Sedar Sénghor (1995), who infamously asserted that reason is Europe's great contribution to human culture and civilization, whereas rhythm is Africa's eternal offering. In Sénghor's words, “‘I think therefore I am,’ wrote Descartes, who was the European par excellence. The African could say, ‘I feel, I dance the Other, I am’” (p. 120).2 The implication, and what I wish to emphasize here, is not that there is no place for discussions of the expe- riential aspects of Black life in Africana Studies, but that this experiential/emotional approach has become, in many scholars' and students' minds, the primary and most privileged way of doing Africana Studies. On the Handbook of Black Studies Page 3 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. one hand, one of the positives of the experiential/emotional approach to Black life obviously revolves around the historical fact that people of African descent have long been denied an inner life and time and space to explore and discover their deep (social, political, and spiritual, among other) desires, what Black feminist the- orist bell hooks (1990, 1995) has referred to as “radical black subjectivity.” Even the very thought, let alone serious consideration of an Africana point of view would be an admission of consciousness, which would in turn call for the dynamism and dialecticism of reciprocal recognition and some form of (one hopes, critical) reflection. On the other hand, one of the many negatives of privileging the experiential/emotional approach is that we end up with a multiplicity of narratives and biographies of Blacks' experience of the world but with no theoretical tools (developed and/or developing) in which to critically interpret these distinctly Black experi- ences. In some senses, this situation forces Africana Studies scholars and students to turn to the theoretical breakthroughs and analytical advances of other (read: “traditional,” White/Eurocentric) disciplines to interpret Black life worlds and lived experiences. Thus, this reproduces intellectually what Africana men, women, and children have long been fighting against physically and psychologically: a dependency and/or colonial com- plex. A disciplinary dependency complex collapses and compartmentalizes the entirety of Black existence into the areas of experience, emotion, intuition, and creative expression and advances White theory, White philoso- phy, White science, and White concepts of culture and civilization as the normal and neutral sites and sources of intellectual acumen and cutting-edge criticism. This conundrum takes us right back to W E. B. Du Bois's (1997b) contention in The Souls of Black Folk that Black people not be confused with the problems they have historically and continue currently to confront. “Africanity,” or Blackness, to put it bluntly, has so much more to offer human and social science than merely its experiential/emotional aspects. Without conscious and consci- entious conceptual generation, Africana Studies will be nothing more than an academic ghetto. By “academic ghetto,” I mean a place where Africana intellectuals exist in intellectual poverty, on the fringes of the White academy, eagerly accepting the dominant White intellectuals' interpretations of reality. If, indeed, Africana Studies seeks to seriously engage continental and diasporan African thought and practice, it cannot with the experiential/emotional approach alone, which almost by default emphasizes Africana prac- tice and privileges it over Africana thought. The experiential/emotional approach in Africana Studies has a tendency to employ White theoretical frameworks to interpret and explore Africana practice(s)—meaning. Es- sentially, that it uses White theory to engage Black behavior, negating Black thought on, and Black critical conceptual frameworks created for the interpretation of, Black behavior. What is more, the experiential/emo- tional approach, by focusing on Black actions and emotions and relying on White theory to interpret these ac- Handbook of Black Studies Page 4 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. tions and emotions, handicaps and hinders the development of Africana Studies, because disciplines cannot and do not develop without some form of conceptual generation that is internal and endemic to their distinct disciplinary matrices and ongoing academic agendas. This disciplinary dependency complex on White theory, instead of aiding in the development of Africana Studies as an independent interdisciplinary discipline, unwit- tingly helps to confirm the age-old anti-African myth that thought or philosophy should be left to Whites and that Blacks should stick to the arts, entertainment, and athletics. The negation or, at the least, the neglect of thought or philosophy in the systematic and scientific study of continental and diasporan Africans' experience and thoughtful and/or thought-filled engagement of the world has led to several counterdiscursive formula- tions and formations, two of the more recent being Africana philosophy and, what I have humbly chronicled and called, Africana critical theory.3 Africana Philosophy and Critical Theory of/in Africana Studies To theorize Blackness—and some might even argue in order to practice Blackness, which is to say, to actually and fully live our Africanity—some type of thought or, rather more to the point, some form of philosophy will be required.4 “Days are gone,” Emmanuel Eze (1997a) asserts, “when one people, epoch, or tradition could arrogantly claim to have either singularly invented philosophy, or to have a monopoly over the specific yet diverse processes of searching for knowledge typical to the discipline of philosophy” (p. ix). And I think that it is important for us to extend this critical caveat further to encompass, in specific, the work of contemporary Western European trained philosophers of African descent in relation to the discursive formation of Africana philosophy. Being biologically Black, or of African origin and/or descent, and having received training in West- ern European philosophy does not necessarily make one and one's thought and texts Africana philosophy. A critical distinction, then, is being made here between philosophers of African origin and descent and Africana philosophers.5 The former grouping has more to do with biology, phenotype, and academic training than any distinct philosophical focus that would warrant an appellation of a “school” or “tradition,” whereas the latter grouping is consciously concerned with discursive formations and practices geared toward the development of thought and thought traditions that seek solutions to problems plaguing people of African origin and de- scent. The latter grouping also, like Africana critical theory, does not adhere to the protocols and practices of Handbook of Black Studies Page 5 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. racialism(s) and traditional disciplinary development but harbors an epistemic openness toward the contribu- tions of a wide range of thinkers (and doers) from various racial and cultural backgrounds, academic disci- plines, and activist traditions. All this brings us to the questions recently raised by the discursive formation of Africana critical theory of con- temporary society. Africana critical theory is theory critical of domination and discrimination in classical and contemporary, continental and diasporan African life worlds and lived experiences. It is a style of critical theo- rizing, inextricably linked to progressive political practice(s), that highlights and accents Africana radicals' and revolutionaries' answers to the key questions posed by the major forms and forces of domination and discrim- ination—racism, sexism, capitalism, and colonialism—that have historically and continue currently to shape and mold our modern/postmodern and/or neo-colonial/postcolonial world. Africana critical theory involves not only the critique of domination and discrimination but also a deep com- mitment to human liberation and constant social transformation.6 Similar to other traditions of critical social theory, Africana critical theory is concerned with thoroughly analyzing contemporary society “in light of its used and unused or abused capabilities for improving the human [and deteriorating environmental] condition” (Marcuse, 1964, p. xlii). What distinguishes and helps to define Africana critical theory is its emphasis on the often overlooked continental and diasporan African contributions to critical theory. It draws from critical thought and philosophical traditions rooted in the realities of continental and diasporan African history, culture, and struggle—which, in other words, is to say that Africana critical theory inherently employs an Afrocentric methodological orientation that highlights and accents Africana theories and philosophies “born of struggle” (Asante, 1988, 1990, 1998; Harris, 1983). And if it need be said at this point, Africana struggle is simultane- ously national and international, existential and world historical and, therefore, requires multidimensional and multiperspectival theory in which to interpret and explain the various diverse phenomena, philosophical mo- tifs, and social and political movements characteristic of, to use Fanon's famous phrase, l'expérience vécue du Noir (“the lived-experience of the black”)—that is, the reality of constantly wrestling simultaneously with racism, sexism, colonialism, and capitalism (Fanon, 2001; see also Gordon, 1996). Why, one may ask, focus on Africana radicals' and revolutionaries' theories of social change? An initial answer to this question takes us directly to Du Bois's dictum, in the “Conservation of Races” (1897), that people of African origin and descent “have a contribution to make to civilization and humanity” (Du Bois, 1986, p. 825) that their historic experiences of holocaust, enslavement, colonization, and segregation have long throttled and thwarted. He maintained that “the methods which we evolved for opposing slavery and fighting preju- Handbook of Black Studies Page 6 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. dice are not to be forgotten, but learned for our own and others' instruction” (Du Bois, 1973, p. 144). Hence, Du Bois is suggesting that Africana liberation struggle(s)—that is, the combined continental and diasporan African fight(s) for freedom—may have much to contribute to critical theory, and his comments here also hit at the heart of one of the core concepts of critical theory, the critique of domination and discrimination (Agger, 1992; O'Neill, 1976; Rasmussen & Swindal, 2004). From a methodological point of view, critical theory seeks to simultaneously (a) comprehend the established society, (b) criticize its contradictions and conflicts, and (c) create alternatives (Morrow, 1994). The ultimate emphasis on the creation and offering of alternatives brings to the fore another core concept of critical the- ory—its theory of liberation and social transformation (Marcuse, 1968, 1969; Marsh, 1995; Ray, 1993). The paradigms and points of departure for critical theorists vary depending on the theorists' intellectual interests and political persuasions. For instance, many European critical theorists turn to Hegel, Marx, Freud, and/or the Frankfurt School (Adorno, Benjamin, Fromm, Habermas, Horkheimer, and Marcuse), because they un- derstand these thinkers' thought and texts to speak in special ways to modern and/or “postmodern” life worlds and lived experiences. My work, Africana critical theory, uses the thought and texts of Africana intellectual ancestors as critical theoretical paradigms and points of departure because so much of their thought prefig- ures and provides a foundation for contemporary Africana Studies and for Africana philosophy specifically. In fact, in some senses, Africana critical theory, besides being grounded in and growing out of the discourse of Africana Studies, can be said to be an offshoot of Africana philosophy, which according to Lucius Outlaw (1997) is, a “gathering” notion under which to situate the articulations (writings, speeches, etc.), and traditions of the same, of Africans and peoples of African descent collectively, as well as the sub-discipline or field-forming, tradition-defining, tradition-organizing reconstructive efforts which are (to be) regarded as philosophy. However, “Africana philosophy” is to include, as well, the work of those persons who are neither African nor of African descent but who recognize the legitimacy and importance of the issues and endeavors that constitute the disciplinary activities of African or [African Caribbean or] African American philosophy and contribute to the efforts—persons whose work justifies their being called “Africanists.” Use of the qualifier “Africana” is consistent with the practice of naming intellectual traditions and practices in terms of the national, geographic, cultural, racial, and/or ethnic descriptor or identity of the persons who initiated and were/are the primary practitioners—and/or are the sub- jects and objects—of the practices and traditions in question (e.g., “American,” “British,” “French,” “German,” or “continental” philosophy). (p. 64) Handbook of Black Studies Page 7 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Africana critical theory is distinguished from Africana philosophy by the fact that critical theory cannot be sit- uated within the world of conventional academic disciplines and divisions of labor. It transverses and trans- gresses boundaries between traditional disciplines and accents the interconnections and intersections of phi- losophy, history, politics, economics, the arts, psychology, and sociology, among other areas. Critical theory is contrasted with mainstream, monodisciplinary social theory through its multidisciplinary methodology and its efforts to develop a comprehensive dialectical theory of domination and liberation specific to the special needs of contemporary society (Agger, 1992; Habermas, 1989; Morrow, 1994; Outlaw, 1983a, 1983b, 1983c, 1983d). Africana philosophy has a very different agenda, one that seems to me more metaphilosophical than philosophical, at this point, because it entails theorizing on tradition and tradition construction more than tra- dition extension and expansion through the production of normative theory and efforts aimed at application (i.e., actual social transformation).7 The primary purpose of critical theory is to relate radical thought to revolutionary social practice, which is to say that its focus—philosophical, social, and political—is always and ever the search for ethical alternatives and viable solutions to the most pressing problems of our present age. Critical theory is not about, or rather should not be about allegiance to intellectual ancestors and/or ancient schools of thought, but about using all (without regard to race, gender, class, and/or sexual orientation) accumulated radical thought and revolution- ary practices in the interest of liberation and social transformation. With this in mind, Cornel West's (1982) contentions concerning “Afro-American critical thought” offer an outline for the type of theorizing that Africana critical theory endeavors: The object of inquiry for Afro-American critical thought is the past and present, the doings and the sufferings of African people in the United States. Rather than a new scientific discipline or field of study, it is a genre of writing, a textuality, a mode of discourse that interprets, describes, and eval- uates Afro-American life in order comprehensively to understand and effectively to transform it. It is not concerned with “foundations” or transcendental “grounds” but with how to build its language in such a way that the configuration of sentences and the constellation of paragraphs themselves cre- ate a textu-ality and distinctive discourse which are a material force for Afro-American freedom. (p. 15) Although Africana critical theory encompasses and is concerned with much more than the life worlds and lived experiences of “African peoples in the United States,” West's comments here are helpful, because they give us a glimpse at the kind of connections critical theorists make in terms of their ideas having an impact Handbook of Black Studies Page 8 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. and significant influence on society. Africana critical theory is not thought for thought's sake (as it often seems is the case with so much contemporary philosophy—Africana philosophy notwithstanding), but thought for life and liberation's sake. It is not only a style of writing, which focuses on radicalism and revolution, but also a new way of thinking and doing revolution that is based and constantly being built on the radicalisms and rev- olutions of the past. From West's (1982) frame of reference, Afro-American philosophy expresses the particular American variation of European modernity that Afro-Americans helped shape in this country and must contend with in the future. While it might be possible to articulate a competing Afro-American philosophy based principally on African norms and notions, it is likely that the result would be theoretically thin. (p. 24) Africana critical theory is that “possible articulation] of a competing [Africana] philosophy based principally on African norms and notions,” and though West thinks that the results will be “theoretically thin,” Africana critical theory—following Fanon (1968, 1969)—understands this risk to be part of the price the oppressed must be willing to pay for their freedom. Africana critical theory does not acquiesce, or give priority and special priv- ilege, to European history, culture, and thought. It turns to the long overlooked thought and texts of women and men of African descent who have developed and contributed radical thought and revolutionary practices that could possibly aid us in our endeavors to continuously create a theory critical of domination and discrim- ination in contemporary culture and society. Above and beyond all the aforementioned, Africana critical theory is about offering alternatives to what is (domination and discrimination), by projecting possibilities of what ought to be and/or what could be (human liberation and revolutionary social transformation). It is not afraid, to put it as plainly as possible, to critically engage and dialogue deeply with European and/or other ethnic groups' thought traditions. In fact, it often finds critical cross-cultural dialogue necessary, considering the historical conundrums and current shared condi- tions and crises of the modern, almost completely multicultural world. Africana critical theory, quite simply, does not privilege or give priority to European and/or other ethnic groups' thought traditions, because its philo- sophical foci and primary purpose revolve around the search for solutions to the most pressing social and political problems in continental and diasporan African life worlds and lived experiences in the present age. Handbook of Black Studies Page 9 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Epistemic Openness and Theoretic Weaknesses in Africana Thought Africana critical theory navigates many theoretic spaces that extend well beyond the established intellectual boundaries of Africana Studies. At this point, it is clearly characterized by an epistemic openness to theories and methodologies usually understood to be incompatible with one another. Besides providing it with a simul- taneously creative and critical tension, Africana critical theory's antithetical conceptual contraction also gives it its theoretic rebelliousness and untamable academic quality—which is to say that Africana critical theory exists or is able to exist well beyond the boundaries of the academy and academic disciplines because the bulk of its theoretic base and its primary points of departure are progressive Africana political practices and social movements. The word theory, then, in the appellation “Africana critical theory” is being defined and, perhaps, radically refined, for specific discursive purposes and practices. This is extremely important to point out because there has been a long intellectual history of chaos concerning the nature and tasks of “theory” in Africana Studies (Gordon & Gordon, 2004; Marable, 2000). To an Africana critical theorist, it seems highly questionable, if not just downright silly, at this juncture in the history of Africana thought, to seek a theoretical Holy Grail that will serve as a panacea to our search for the secrets to being, culture, politics, or society. Taking our cue from Du Bois and C. L. R. James, it may be better to conceive of theory as an “instrument” or, as Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral would have it, as a “weapon” used to attack certain targets of domination and discrimination. Theories are, among many other things, optics, ways of seeing; they are perspectives that illuminate specific phenomena. However, as with any perspective, position, or standpoint, each theory has its blind spots and lens limitations, what we call in the contemporary discourse of Africana philosophy, theoretical myopia. Recent theoretical developments in Africana Studies have made us painfully aware of the fact that theories are discipline-specific constructs and products, created in particular intellectual contexts, for particular intel- lectual purposes.8 Contemporary Africana thought has also helped us see that theories are always grounded in and grow out of specific social discourses, political practices, and national and international institutions. The Eritrean hermeneutic philosopher, Tsenay Serequeberhan (1994), correctly contends that “political ‘neutrality’ in philosophy, as in most other things, is at best a ‘harmless’ naïveté, and at worst a pernicious subterfuge for hidden agendas” (p. 4). Each discipline has an academic agenda. Therefore, the theories and methodolo- Handbook of Black Studies Page 10 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. gies of a discipline promote the development of that discipline. Theories emerging from traditional disciplines that claim to provide an eternal philosophical foundation or universal and neutral knowledge transcendent of historical horizons, cultural conditions, and social struggles, or a metatheory (i.e., a theory about theorizing) that purports absolute truth that transcends the interests of specific theorists and their theories, have been and are being vigorously rejected by Africana Studies scholars and students (Asante, 1998, 2000; Conyers, 2003). Theory, then, as Serequeberhan (1994) says of philosophy, is a “critical and explorative engagement of one's own cultural specificity and lived historicalness. It is a critically aware explorative appropriation of our cultural, political, and historical existence” (p. 23). Theoretic discourse does not simply fall from the sky like wind-blown rain, leaving no traces of the direction from which it came and its initial point of departure. On the contrary, it registers as and often radically rep- resents critical concerns interior to epistemologies and experiences arising out of a specific cultural and his- torical horizon within which it is located and discursively situated. In other words, similar to a finely crafted woodcarving or handwoven garment, theories retain the intellectual and cultural markings of their makers, and although they can and do “travel” and “cross borders,” they are optimal in their original settings and when applied to the original phenomena that inspired their creation (Said, 1999, 2000). A more modest conception of theory sees it, then, as an instrument (or as Michel Foucault, 1977, 1984, 1988, would have it, a “tool”) to help us illuminate and navigate specific social spaces, pointing to present and po- tential problems, interpreting and criticizing them, and ultimately offering ethical and egalitarian alternatives to them. At their best, theories not only illuminate social realities but they also help individuals make sense of their life worlds and lived experiences. To do this effectively, theories use images, arguments, symbols, con- cepts, and narratives. Modern metatheory often accents the interesting fact that theories have literary compo- nents and qualities: They narrate or tell stories, employ rhetoric and semiotics, and similar to literature, often offer accessible interpretations of classical and contemporary life. However, theories also have cognitive and kinship components that allow them to connect with other theories' concepts and common critical features, as when a variety of disparate theories of Africana Studies discourse raise questions of race and racism or questions of identity and liberation. There are many different types of theory, from literary theory to linguistic theory, cultural theory to aesthetic theory, and political theory to postmodern theory. Africana critical theory is a critical conceptual framework that seeks an ongoing synthesis of the most emancipatory elements of a wide range of social theory in the inter- est of continental and diasporan Africans. This means that Africana critical theory often identifies and isolates Handbook of Black Studies Page 11 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. the social implications of various theories, some of which were not created to have any concrete connections with the social world (and certainly not the African world), but currently do as a consequence of the ways they have been appropriated and articulated (Birt, 2002). Here, we have to go back to the history of theory. Theories are instruments and, therefore, can be put to use in a multiplicity of manners. Historically, theories have always traveled outside their original contexts, but two important points should be made here: The first has to do with something Edward Said noted long ago—that theories lose some of their original power when taken out of their original intellectual and cultural contexts, because the sociopolitical situation is different, the suffering and/or struggling people are different, and the aims and objectives of their movements are different (Said, 1999, 2000). The second point is reflexive and has to do with the modern moment in the history of theory: Never before have so many theories traveled so many mental miles away from their intellectual milieus. This speaks to the new and novel theoretical times that we are passing through. Part of what we have to do, then, is identify those theories (“instruments” and/or “weapons”) that will aid us most in our struggles against racism, sexism, capitalism, and colonialism, among other epochal issues. The turn toward and emphasis on social theory suggests several of Africana critical theory's key concerns, such as the development of a synthetic sociopolitical discourse that earnestly and accessibly addresses is- sues arising from (a) everyday Black life in White supremacist societies, (b) women's daily lives in male su- premacist societies, and (c) some of the distinct differences between Black life in colonial and Capitalist coun- tries. Social theoretical discourse is important because it provides individuals and groups with topographies of their social terrains. This discourse also often offers concepts and categories that aid individuals and groups in critically engaging and radically altering their social worlds (see Calhoun, 1995). Social theories, in a general sense, are simultaneously heuristic and discursive devices for exploring and explaining the social world. They accent social conditions and can often provoke social action and political praxis. Social theories endeavor to provide a panoramic picture that enables individuals to conceptualize and contextualize their life worlds and lived experiences within the wider field of sociopolitical relations and institu- tions. In addition, social theories can aid individuals in their efforts to understand and alter particular sociopo- litical events and artifacts by analyzing their receptions, relations, and ongoing effects. In addition to sociotheoretical discourse, Africana critical social theory draws directly from the discourse of dialects because it seeks to understand and, if necessary, alter society as a whole, not simply some isolated or culturally confined series of phenomena. The emphasis on dialectics also sends a signal to those social Handbook of Black Studies Page 12 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. theorists and others who are easily intellectually intimidated by efforts to grasp and grapple with the whole of human history—that Africana critical theory is not in any sense a traditional social theory but a social ac- tivist and political praxis-promoting theory that seriously seeks the radical redistribution of social wealth and political power. The dialectical dimension of Africana critical theory enables it to make connections between seemingly isolated and unrelated parts of society, demonstrating how, for instance, neutral social terrain, such as the education industries, the entertainment industries, the prison industrial complex, or the political elec- toral process, are sites and sources of ruling race, gender, and/or class privilege and power. Dialectics, the art of demonstrating the interconnectedness of parts to each other and to the overarching system or framework as a whole, distinguishes Africana critical theory from other Africana Studies theory because it simultaneously searches for progressive and retrogressive aspects of Eurocentric andAfrocentric thought.9 This means, then, that Africana critical theory offers an external and an internal critique, which is also to say that it is a self-reflexive social theory—a social theory that relentlessly reexamines and refines its own philosophical foundations, methods, positions, and presuppositions. Africana critical theory's dialec- tical dimension also distinguishes it from other traditions and versions of critical theory because the connec- tions it makes between social parts and the social whole are those that directly and profoundly affect Africana life worlds and lived experiences. No other tradition or version of critical theory has historically or currently claimed to highlight and accent sites of domination and sources of liberation in the interest of continental and diasporan Africans. Weapons of Theory and Thought Traditions of Praxis In “The Weapon of Theory,” the Guinea-Bissaun freedom fighter, Amilcar Cabral (1979), asserted, “Every practice gives birth to a theory. If it is true that a revolution can fail, even though it be nurtured on perfectly conceived theories, no one has yet successfully practiced revolution without a revolutionary theory” (p. 123). Africana critical theory is a “revolutionary theory” and a beacon symbolizing the birth of a theoretical revolu- tion in Africana Studies. Its basic aims and objectives speak to its radical character and critical qualities. It promotes social activism and political practice geared toward the development of ethical and egalitarian soci- eties by pointing to (a) what needs to be transformed, (b) what strategies and tactics might be most useful in the transformative efforts, and (c) which agents and agencies could potentially carry out the transformation. Following Cabral, Africana critical theory conceives of theory as a “weapon” and the history of Africana Handbook of Black Studies Page 13 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. thought as its essential arsenal (see Cabral 1972, 1973, 1979). As with any arsenal, a weapon is chosen or left behind based on the specifics of the mission, such as the target, terrain, and time sensitivity. The same may be said concerning “the weapon of theory.” Different theories can be used for different purposes in dis- parate situations. The usefulness or uselessness of a particular theory depends on the task at hand, and whether the theory in question is appropriate for the task. Theory can be extremely useful, but it is indeed a great and grave mistake to believe that there is a grand narrative or supertheory that will provide the inter- pretive or explanatory keys to the political and intellectual kingdom (or queen-dom). Instead of arguing for a new supertheory, Africana critical theory advocates an ongoing synthesis of the most moral and radical polit- ical elements of classical and contemporary, continental, and diasporan African thought traditions with other cultural groups' progressive thought and political practices. Contemporary society requires a continuous and increasingly high level of sociopolitical mapping because of the intensity of recent political maneuvers and the urgency of present social transformations. History has unfolded to this in-between epoch of immense and provocative change, and many theories of contemporary society outline and attempt to explain an aspect of this change and, as a result, are relevant with regard to cer- tain social phenomena. But no single theory captures the complete sociopolitical picture, although a plethora of theories almost religiously claim to and promise to provide their adherents with theoretical salvation in the sin-sick world of theory. It should be stated outright: All theories have blind spots and lens limitations, and all theories make critical contributions as well. Consequently, Africana critical theory advocates combining clas- sical and contemporary theory from diverse academic disciplines and activist traditions—although Africana thought, it must be made clear, is always and ever Africana critical theory's primary point of departure. My conception of critical social theory keeps in mind that the mappings of each theory provide some novel in- sights but that these insights alone are not enough to effect the type of social change needed. It is with this understanding that Africana critical theory draws from the diverse discursive formations and practices of a wide-range of Africana thought-traditions, such as: African, African Caribbean, and African American philos- ophy; Afrocentric theory; Kawaida theory; Black nationalism; Black Marxism; Black feminism; Black existen- tialism; critical race theory; Negritude; Pan-Africanism; and postcolonialism, among others. Africana critical theory relentlessly examines its own aims, objectives, positions, and methods, constantly putting them in question in an effort to radically refine and revise them. It is thus open, flexible, and nondog- matic, constantly exhibiting the ability to critically engage opposing theories and appropriate and incorporate progressive strains and reject retrogressive strains from them. It is here that Africana critical theory exhibits its theoretical sophistication and epistemological strength and stamina. Along with the various Africana theoret- Handbook of Black Studies Page 14 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. ical perspectives that Africana critical theory employs as its primary points of departure, it also often critically engages many of the other major theoretical discourses of the modern moment, such as feminism, Marxism, pragmatism, existentialism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, semiotics, Frankfurt School critical theory, post- structuralism, and postmodernism, among others. Africana critical theory engages other discursive formations because it is aware of the long history of appropriation and rearticulation in Africana thought. This takes us right back to the point made earlier about Black people employing White theory to explore and explain Black experiences. Instead of simply sidestepping this intellectual history, Africana critical theory confronts it in an effort to understand and alter it. This brings to mind Lewis Gordon's (1997a) contention that, Theory, any theory, gains its sustenance from that which it offers for and through the lived-reality of those who are expected to formulate it. Africana philosophy's history of Christian, Marxist, Feminist, Pragmatist, Analytical, and Phenomenological thought has therefore been a matter of what specif- ic dimensions each had to offer the existential realities of theorizing blackness. For Marxism, for instance, it was not so much its notion of “science” over all other forms of socialist theory, nor its promise of a world to win, that may have struck a resonating chord in the hearts of black Marxists. It was, instead, Marx and Engels' famous encomium of the proletarians' having nothing to lose but their chains. Such a call has obvious affinity for a people who have been so strongly identified with chattel slavery. (p. 4) It is important to understand and critically engage why continental and diasporan Africans have historically and continue currently to embrace Eurocentric theory. Saying simply that Blacks who did and who do embrace some aspects of White theory are intellectually insane or have an intellectual inferiority complex logically leads us to yet another discourse on Black pathology. Persons of African origin and descent have been preoccu- pied in the modern moment with struggles against various forms and forces of oppression. They, therefore, have been and remain attracted to theories that they understand to promise or provide tools to combat their oppression. Although Blacks in White supremacist societies are virtually invisible, or anonymous when they are seen, they do not have a “collective mind” and have reached no consensus concerning which theories make the best weapons. This means then that the way is open and that those Blacks who embrace or appro- priate some aspects of White theory are not “lost” but, perhaps, simply unaware of or not attracted to Africana thought traditions. Contemporary Africana theorists must take as one of their primary tasks making classical and contemporary Africana thought more accessible and attractive, particularly to Blacks but also to others. Africana critical theory engages a wide and diverse range of theory emerging from the intellectuals of the Handbook of Black Studies Page 15 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. academy and the activist-intellectuals of sociopolitical movements because it understands each theory to of- fer enigmatic and illuminating insights and that the more theory that theorists have at their disposal, the more issues and objects they can address, the more tasks they can perform, and the more theoretical targets they can terminate. As stated above, theories are optics or perspectives, and it is with this understanding that Africana critical theory contends that bringing a multiplicity of perspectives to bear on a phenomenon promis- es a greater grasp and a more thorough engagement and understanding of that phenomenon. For instance, many theories of race and racism arising from the discourse of Africana Studies have historically exhibited a serious weakness where sexism, and particularly patriarchy, is concerned. This situation was (to a certain extent) remedied and these theories were strengthened when Africana Women's Studies scholars diagnosed these one-dimensional theories of race and racism and coupled them with their own unique race-based inter- pretations of women's domination and discrimination and gender relations (see Guy-Sheftall, 1995; Hudson- Weems, 1995; Hull, Scott, & Smith, 1982; James & Sharpley-Whiting, 2000; Nnaemeka, 1998). Indeed this is an ongoing effort, and clearly, there is no consensus in Africana Studies as to the importance of critically engaging gender domination and discrimination in continental and diasporan African life worlds and lived ex- periences. But whether we have consensus or not, which we probably never will, the key concern to keep in mind is that although it may not be theoretically fashionable to engage certain phenomena, it does not nec- essarily mean that it is not theoretically important to engage that phenomena. As theorists, part of our task is to bring unseen or often overlooked issues to the fore. To do this, we may have to develop new concepts and categories so that others might be able to coherently comprehend these embedded issues. In calling for bringing many theories to bear on a phenomenon, Africana critical theory is not eliding the fact that in many instances a single theory may be the best source of insight. For example, Pan-Africanism offers a paradigm for analyzing the history of Africana anticolonialism, Black Marxism accents the interconnections of racism and capitalism in Black life, and Black feminism often speaks to the intersection of racism and sex- ism in Black women's life worlds. Africana critical theory chooses to deploy a theory based on its overarching aims and objectives, which are constantly informed by the ongoing Africana quest for freedom. It is not inter- ested in an eclectic combination of theories—that is, theoretical eclecticism—but in social transformation in the interest of Africana and other oppressed people. Handbook of Black Studies Page 16 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Notes 1. Several individuals and institutions were crucial to the completion of this essay. I am indebted to Marilyn Giles, Kristine Lewis, Molefi Asante, Lucius Outlaw, Nelson Keith, Anthony Lemelle, Rhonda Tankerson, Nicole Barcliff, Lamya Al-Kharusi, Stacey Smith, Gregory Stephens, De Reef Jamison, Katherine Bankole, and Kimberly Marshall for their intellectual encouragement and constructive criticisms. I am also grateful to California State University-Long Beach for a reduced teaching load and research grant, which enabled me to initiate this study. The research and writing of this essay was completed while I was a Visiting Scholar in AAS at the University of Houston. I humbly acknowledge and thank my colleagues at both institutions. 2. My criticism of Sénghor here does not negate my critical appreciation of some aspects of his conception(s) of “African Socialism.” For further discussion, see my “Negritude's Connections and Contributions to Africana Critical Theory” (and especially the subsection “A Satrean African Philosopher? Leopold Sedar Sénghor, Negritude, Cultural Mulattoism, Africanity, and the Adventures of African Socialism,” in which I critically dis- cuss Sénghor's, as well as Aimé Césaire's, advances and retreats with regard to the development of Africana philosophy and Africana critical theory (Rabaka, 2001, pp. 129–178, esp., 144–151). 3. My analysis here smacks of Black existentialism or Africana philosophy of existence, which afforded me the theoretical tools to tease out the issues involved in the experiential/ emotional approach in Africana Studies. Interpreting experience—that is, investigating any lived-reality—almost inherently entails a confrontation with existential and ontological questions and claims. These questions and claims, as quiet as it is kept, differ for each human group because each human group's historical horizon and cultural contexts, which were either created by them or some other human group, are wide and varied and always vacillating between human homogeneity and heterogeneity, often ultimately giving way in our postmodern moment to hyperhybridity. For further discussion of Africana philosophy of existence or Black existentialism, see Lewis Gordon's ground- breaking Existence in Black: An Anthology of Black Existential Philosophy (1997a) and Existentia Africana: Understanding Africana Existential Thought (2000). 4. The conception of “Africanity” that I invoke and employ here involves a combination of African identity and African personality theory and is drawn primarily from the work of the African philosopher, Tsenay Sereque- berhan (1998), in his article “Africanity at the End of the Twentieth Century.” 5. With regard to my conception of a “philosopher,” I follow Lewis Gordon's (1997b) lead in making a critical Handbook of Black Studies Page 17 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. distinction between “philosophers” and “scholars of or on philosophy.” In his words, “Philosopher” here means something more than a person with a doctorate in philosophy. I regard many individuals with that title to be scholars of or on philosophy instead of philosophers. Philoso- phers are individuals who make original contributions to the development of philosophical thought, to the world of ideas. Such thinkers are people whom the former study. It is no accident that philoso- phers in this sense are few in number and many of them did not [and do not] have doctorates in phi- losophy, for example, René Descartes, David Hume, S⊘ren Kierkegaard, William James, Edmund Husserl, Karl Jaspers, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, and Alfred Schutz. (pp. 48–49) This distinction between “philosophers” and “scholars of or on philosophy” is also in line with Lucius Outlaw's (1997) articulation of Africana philosophy and Africana philosophers. Within the world of this discursive forma- tion, “Persons past and present, who were and are without formal training or degrees in philosophy are being worked into developing canons as providing instances of reflections, on various matters, that are appropriate- ly characterized as philosophical” (p. 63). In addition, Outlaw's (1996) timely tome, On Race and Philosophy, also offers critical insights on the academic tasks and some of the social and political challenges confronting Africana philosophers, as well as philosophers of African descent, as they increasingly transgress the bound- aries of the “traditional” White philosophy discipline/department and their training in Western European and European American philosophy. 6. I advance this essay, then, as a continuation of the Africana Critical Theory (ACT) project, which was ini- tiated with my doctoral dissertation, “Africana Critical Theory: From W. E. B. Du Bois and C. L. R. James's Discourse on Domination and Liberation to Frantz Fanon and Amilcar Cabral's Dialectics of Decolonization” (Rabaka, 2001). It need be noted at the outset, and in agreement with David Held (1980), “Critical theory, it should be emphasized, does not form a unity; it does not mean the same thing to all its adherents” (p. 14). For instance, Steven Best and Douglas Kellner (1991) employ “critical theory” in a general sense in their cri- tique of postmodern theory, stating, “We are using ‘critical theory’ here in the general sense of critical social and cultural theory and not in the specific sense that refers to the critical theory of society developed by the Frankfurt School” (p. 33). Furthermore, Raymond Morrow (1994) has forwarded that the term critical theory has its origins in the work of a group of German scholars [of Jewish descent] (collectively referred to as the Frankfurt School) in the 1920's who used the term initially (Kritische Theorie in German) to Handbook of Black Studies Page 18 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. designate a specific approach to interpreting Marxist theory. But the term has taken on new mean- ings in the interim and can be neither exclusively identified with the Marxist tradition from which it has become increasingly distinct nor reserved exclusively to the Frankfurt School, given extensive new variations outside the original German context. (p. 6) Finally, in his study of Marx, Foucault, and Habermas's philosophies of history and contributions to critical the- ory, Steven Best (1996) uses the term critical theory “in the most general sense, designating simply a critical social theory, that is, a social theory critical of present forms of domination, injustice, coercion, and inequality” (p. xvii). He, therefore, does not “limit the term to refer to only the Frankfurt School” (p. xvii). This means, then, that critical theory and the methods, presuppositions, and positions it has come to be associated with in the humanities and social sciences (a) connotes and continues to exhibit an epistemic openness and style of radical cultural criticism that highlights and accents the historical alternatives and emancipatory possibili- ties of a specific age and/or sociocultural condition; (b) is not the exclusive domain of Marxists, neo-Marxists, post-Marxists, feminists, postfeminists, poststructuralists, postmodernists, and/or Habermasians; and (c) can be radically reinterpreted and redefined to identify and encompass classical and contemporary, continental and diasporan African liberation theory and praxis. For a few of the more noteworthy histories of the Frankfurt School and their philosophical project and various sociopolitical programs, see Bernstein (1995), Held (1980), Ingram (1990), Kellner (1989), Morrow (1994), and Wiggerhaus (1995). And for further discussion of the ACT project, see Rabaka (2002, 2003a, 2003b, 2003c, 2003d, 2003e, 2003f, 2004). 7. Part of Africana philosophy's current metaphilosophical character has to do with both its critical and uncriti- cal appropriation of several Western European philosophical concepts and categories. As more philosophers of African origin and descent receive training in and/or deeply dialogue with Africana Studies theories and methodologies, and especially Afro-centric and Kawaida theory, the basic notions and nature of Africana phi- losophy will undoubtedly change (see Asante, 1988, 1990, 1998; Karenga, 1978, 1980, 1983, 1997). Need- less to say, Africana philosophy has an intellectual arena and engages issues that are often distinctly differ- ent from the phenomena that preoccupy and have long plagued Western European and European American philosophy. I am not criticizing the metaphilosophical motivations in the discourse of contemporary Africana philosophy as much as I am pleading with workers in the field to develop a “division of labor”—à la Du Bois's classic caveat(s) to continental and diasporan Africans in the face of White supremacy (see Du Bois, 1973, 2002). A move should be made away from “philosophizing on Africana philosophy” (i.e., metaphilosophy), and more Africana philosophical attention should be directed toward the cultural crises and social and political problems of the present age. To do this, Africana philosophers will have to turn to the advances of Africana Handbook of Black Studies Page 19 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. Studies scholars working in the areas of history, cultural criticism, economics, politics, and social theory, among others. For a more detailed discussion of the nature and tasks of Africana philosophy, see Lucius Out- law's (1996) On Race and Philosophy and “African, African American, Africana Philosophy” (Outlaw, 1997). Also of immense importance and extremely influential with regard to my interpretation of Africana philosophy are Coetzee and Roux (1998), English and Kalumba (1996), Eze (1997a, 1997b), Gordon (1997a, 1997b, 1998, 2000, 2003), Gyekye (1995, 1996, 1997), Harris (1983), Hord and Lee (1995), Hountondji (1996), Imbo (1998), Kwame (1995), Locke (1983, 1989, 1992), Lott (2002), Lott and Pittman (2003), Masolo (1994), Mills (1998), Mosley (1995), Mudimbe (1988, 1994), Pittman (1997), Serequeberhan (1991, 1994, 1997, 2000), Wiredu (1980, 1995, 1996, 2004), and Wright (1984). 8. Here, I draw heavily from the discourse of Africana hermeneutics, or Africana philosophy of interpretation, in an effort to emphasize the importance of culturally grounded inquiry and interpretation in Africana critical theory. As Okonda Okolo (1991) observed in his classic essay, “Tradition and Destiny: Horizons of an African Philosophical Hermeneutics,” Africana hermeneutics, as with almost all hermeneutical endeavors, centers on the ideas of tradition and destiny and how successive generations interpret, explain, and embrace their his- torical, cultural, and intellectual heritage. In his own words, For our part, we want to test the resources but also the limits of our hermeneutical models and prac- tices, by examining the two notions that encompass our interpretative efforts in an unconquerable circle—the notions of Tradition and Destiny. These notions simultaneously define the object, the sub- ject, the horizons, and the limits of interpretation. To interpret is always to close the circle of the sub- ject and the object. We cannot, however, make this circle our own if we do not lay it out beyond the thought of the subject and the object, toward a thinking of our horizons and the limits of our interpre- tation defined by the reality of our traditions and the ideality of our destiny. (p. 202) Okolo, among other Africana hermeneutics, highlights the abstruse issues that arise in interpretative theory and praxis in our present social world and world of ideas. Historical and cultural experiences determine and, often subtly, define what we interpret and the way we interpret. If, for instance, Africana thought traditions are not known to, and not shared with, theorists and philosophers of African descent and other interested schol- ars, then they will assume there is no history of theory or philosophy in the African world (see Eze, 1997a; Harris, 1983; Lott & Pittman, 2003; Wiredu, 2004). These would-be Africana theorists will draw from anoth- er cultural group's schools of thought, because human existence, as the Africana philosophers of existence have pointed out, is nothing other than our constant confrontation with ontological issues and questions. What Handbook of Black Studies Page 20 of 29 Sage Sage Reference © 2006 by Sage Publications, Inc. is more, the nature of theory, especially in the current postcolonial/postmodern period, is that it incessantly builds on other theories. In other words, a competent theorist must be familiar not only with the history and evolutionary character of theory but the intellectual origins of theories—that is, with who, where, and why spe- cific theories were created to describe and explain a particular subject and/or object. 9. Most notably, my interpretation of dialectics has been influenced by Herbert Marcuse's studies in dialectical thought; see his Reason and Revolution (1960), Negations: Essays in Critical Theory (1968), Studies in Crit- ical Philosophy (1973), “On the Problem of the Dialectic (Part 1)” and “On the Problem of the Dialectic (Part 2)” (1976). References Agger, B. (1992). The discourse of domination: From the Frankfurt School to postmodernism. Chicago: North- western University Press. Asante, M. (1988). Afrocentricity. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Asante, M. K. (1990). Kemet, Afrocentricity, and knowledge. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Asante, M. K. (1998). The Afrocentric idea. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Asante, M. K. (2000). The painful demise of Eurocentricism: An Afrocentric response to critics. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Bernstein, J. M. (Ed.). (1995). The Frankfurt school: Critical assessments. London: Routledge. Best, S. (1996). 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