Afrocentricity [Paperback]

Molefi Kete Asante (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 126 pages
• Publisher: Africa World Pr; Rev Sub edition (August 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865430675
• ISBN-13: 978-0865430679
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,939 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely necessary for educators in every field., August 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Afrocentricity (Paperback)

Hotep to those who want to recognize truth and bring enlightenment to our future leaders.

Dr. Molefi K. Asante has never been a favorite of anyone who wants African Americans to not gain victory over their plight in America(especially in the academy. As a teacher and a student, I've witnessed hundreds of students become more encouraged and realistic about their future and their history.

Afrocentricty is not for the timid or the meek. It was written for those persons who recognize the atrocities of our educational system and realize African Americans must view themselves as competent, creative, sensitive, and humane people, who have contributed much to humankind. A white American scholar named Ulrich C.Reitzug (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)wrote a a chapter in Theodore Kowalski's Public Relations in Educational Organizations (1996), entitled Changing Social and Institutional Conditions, stating that: "Prior to becoming a university professor I worked in K-12 schools for eleven years as a teacher and principal. The schools in which I worked wre attended by primarily white students from upper middle class, two-parent families. Nonetheless, there was sufficient diversity in these schools that there were also children in attendance from economically disadvantaged families and single parent families. As I reflect back on those days I realize that while overall I was well respected as an educator, i also know that education in the schools in which I worked was like a cheap tube sock-one size fit all...I believed in euity and justice. I cared for my students and their families; I wanted a top quality education for all students. However, I viewed these concepts through the narrow lens of a white middle class male living in a period of time when white maleness so dominated education that our focus was seldom challenged. Thus I was insensitive to cultural differences in learning style; I was unaware of certain aspects of student diversity; i did not now enough to question the Eurocentric content of the textbooks we used. I thought equality of educational opportunity meant providing the best "white" education for all children. If nonwhite children or other children who were culturally different from the mainstream "didn't get it," we would team them in a group with other children who also "didn't get it." There we would help them by providing white education in finer, more discrete increments. I was never sensitive enough to realize that the Eurocentric focus of the education we provided delegitimized the culture of children of color and ensure inequalitiy of educational opportunity for most of these children. This educator references in his bibliography, Molefi Kete Asante's Afrocentricity, as a book used in his research. For those of us who grew up under a system of Jim Crow and segregation, and now the eradication of Affirmative Action (thanks to African Americans like Ward Connelly), it is major that scholars like Asante, Patricia Liggins-Hill (author of the anthology Call and Response), Clenora Hudson-Weems (author of Africana Womanism and Emmett Till: The Sacrificial Lamb of the Civil Rights Movement),Tony Martin (volumes of books of the life and contributions of Marcus Garvey) and so many other African American scholars, continue to be Afrocentric in their research, writing, and actions. It doesn't mean they are against anyone. Afrocentricity means we as Africana scholars (some of these scholars have been white who have gained their scholarship the Temple University, thanks to Dr. Asante and others), want to correct the miseducation of all students from preschool to college; What will our future leaders think and say, if we do not make our voices heard and our writings sound to wipe the onslaught of racism and incorrect books about first world peoples? Afrocentricity is a spirit movement and a paradigm which Molefi K. Asante challenged the system and was victorious. For those who do not or cannot understand Afrocentricity, try praying for understanding and wisdom. Dr. Asante, on behalf of our children of the world, thank you. Oh, by the way. One year ago, the first Chinese student to earn his doctorate under Dr. Asante returned to China, to teach in the Afrocentric way. Need I say more.

Asante Sana! Thank you.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great thinkers of the 20th Century, October 21, 2001

By 

MuzikJunky (NYC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Afrocentricity (Paperback)

Afrocentricity remains as one of the newest and least understood of philosophical branches. Originating in the late 19th Century through the work of W.E.B. DuBois and his contemporaries, Asante provides a brilliant stepping-stone, just scraping the surface for the uninitiated beginner, into this compelling branch of thought. Particularly interesting are his arguements on human nature and of universality. Afrocentricity is NOT Black nationalist propaganda, it is a legitimate point-of-view and a basis of serious scholarship. Essential reading for any philosophy student.

5.0 out of 5 stars A "PHILOSOPHICAL" INTERPRETATION BY A FOUNDER OF AFROCENTRICITY, December 16, 2010

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Afrocentricity (Paperback)

Molefi Kete Asante (born 1942) is an African-American scholar, historian, and philosopher, who is currently Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Temple University, where he founded the first Ph.D. program in African American Studies. He is also widely credited with being the founder of the "Afrocentricity" school of thought. He has also written books such as Afrocentric Idea Revised, Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge, and Classical Africa.

He begins the first chapter of this 1988 book by saying, "This book offers a philosophical inquiry into the future of the Afrocentric perspective and a testament of Nija, the ideology of victorious thought."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"Understand this point, a nationalist is not necessarily a racist; indeed, the true nationalist is never a racist." (Pg. 5)
"Afrocentricity is the belief in the centrality of Africans in post modern history. It is our history, our mythology, our creative motif, and our ethos exemplifying our collective will." (Pg. 6)
"Afrocentricity, therefore, is only superficially related to color, it is more accurately a philosophical outlook determined by history." (Pg. 27)
"There is no such thing as a black racism against whites; racism is based on fantasy; black views of whites are based on fact." (Pg. 32)
"The Afrocentric drive to create must always be based on a deep collective commitment to excellence. Thus, Afrocentricity detests the conspiracy of unproductivity and generates the ability to handle problems by the will of our genius." (Pg. 57)
"The black church is the single most authoritative religious force within our community." (Pg. 71)
"Being born on the continent of African ancestry and with African historical experiences makes one an African; it does not make one Afrocentric." (Pg. 104)