Defining the concept of Afrocentricity
The concept of Afrocentricity has been defined differently by various scholars. MK Asante defined Afrocentricity as a manner of thought and action in which the centrality of African interests, values, and perspectives predominate. He further stated that Afrocentricity is an exercise in knowledge and a new historical perspective. Another definition views Afrocentricity as an intellectual movement, a political view, and/or a historical evolution
2 MK Asante, Afrocentricity: The theory of social change (Chicago, Peoples Publishing Group, 2001), p. 3; JC Chukwuokolo, Afrocentrism or Eurocentrism: The dilemma of African development, New Journal of African Studies, 2009, p. 32. Asante is constantly acknowledged as the originator of the concept “Afrocentricity” and the one who introduced it as an academic concept. Other pioneers of the Afrocentric ideas include William Dubois, GGM James, Anta Diop, and Martin Bernal that stresses the culture and achievements of Africans. The other definition believes that Afrocentricity is a transformation of attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviour results, suggesting that it is the first and only reality for African people – a simple rediscovery. Another definition stresses the centrality of Africans and defines Afrocentricity as meaning “African centeredness”, according to which Africans should be given their intellectual pride as the originators of civilization. What is common with these definitions is that they all call for a change in the way that the world has been viewed, a change that should encompass all attributes of human existence, with emphasis on the centrality of African experiences.
As an academic exercise, Afrocentricity is defined in terms of the methodology, theory, and ideology that should be employed to achieve its objectives towards attaining the proposed change. Methodologically, Afrocentricity is intended as an answer to the intellectual colonialism that undergirds and serves to validate political and economic colonialism. In regards to theory, it places African people at the centre of any analysis of African phenomena in terms of action and behaviour. It is described as a devotion to the idea that what is in the best interest of African consciousness is at the heart of ethical behaviour and seeks to cherish the idea that “Africanness” itself is an ensemble of ethics.6 As an ideology it represents the continued longing among Africans for some set of ideas that would bind them together as a community and offer some alternative to an assimilation that is either excluded by Europeans or seen by Africans as an admission of inferiority and defeat. As an academic phenomenon, therefore, Afrocentricity serves the purpose of binding together the various elements of African and African-American studies, transforming them from an interdisciplinary assortment into a unified discipline, with ideological and intellectual goals, political purpose, and a set of commonly understood methods and theories. G Early, WJ Moses, L Wilson & MR Lefkowitz, “Symposium: Historical roots of Afrocentrism”, Academic Questions, 7(2), 1994, pp. 44-54.
WE Reed, EJ Lawson & T Gibbs, “Afrocentrism in the 21st century”, The Western Journal of Black Studies, 21(3), 1997, pp. 73-79. JC Chukwuokolo, “Afrocentrism or Eurocentrism...”, New Journal of African Studies, 2009, p. 32.
KW Stikkers, “An outline of methodological Afrocentrism, with particular application to the thought of W.E.B.
DuBois”, Journal of Speculative Philosophy, (22)1, 2008, pp. 40-49.
G Early, WJ Moses, L Wilson & MR Lefkowitz, “Symposium: Historical roots of Afrocentrism”, Academic
Questions, 7(2), 1994, pp. 44-54. Thank you for tuning in and your support. For more subscribe to our channel and check out our website at www.moorsearch.org. IG: @muurz.z
