Afrocentricity

The African-centered paradigm, also known as Afrocentricity and Africentricity, is both an epistemological framework as well as a mode of social engagement that is centrally concerned with the liberation and empowerment of the global African community. Growing directly out of the scholarship and activism of numerous continental and diasporic Africans from the mid-20th century to the present, the Afrocentric paradigm has also been informed by the historical struggles of African people for self-determination in the wake of European enslavement and colonialism.

As an epistemological framework, Afrocentricity can be defined as a mode of social, historical, and cultural analysis that is centrally concerned with the issues, interest, and destiny of African people in the world. As such, Afrocentricity argues that any substantive discussion of African people must reconcile itself with the historical continuum of African civilization, culture, and humanity. What this means is that African people must be seen as historical beings, growing out of, existing within, and contributing to a particular historical reality. Second, it must endeavor to understand the social practices, traditions, understandings, and behaviors of African people within an African cultural and interpretive framework. This means that one must understand African thought and action within African terms, or within the conceptual logic of the culture in question. Finally, Afrocentricity insists on the necessity of Sankofa, a concept from the Akan culture of Ghana that literally means “to go back and fetch it.” For advocates of the African-centered approach, this has meant returning to the source, or facilitating the reconstruction of African culture, history, and civilization. The necessity of Sankofa as a restorative process is understood relative to the Maafa, the historical and ongoing assault on African civilization, culture, and humanity evidenced by the ancient and modern invasions and colonization of the African continent, the enslavement and oppression of African people, and the ongoing exploitation, plunder, and destabilization of African societies (both continental and diasporic).

As a paradigm of social engagement, Afrocentricity has been applied, to varying degrees, to the task of reality transformation or community empowerment for African-descended people. It has found prominent expression within various academic disciplines as well as certain sectors of the African community. Specific disciplines that have been of import to African-centered scholars have been history (and by extension, historiography), psychology, education, and sociology (or social theory). Each of these areas has been quite instrumental in terms of community-based Afrocentric initiatives.

In the field of history, Afrocentric scholars have noted the ways in which African civilization and history have been either distorted or utterly denied in the dominant (Eurocentric) historical narrative. As such, African-centered scholars have paid special attention to historiography, the prevailing theories, methods, and objectives of historical knowledge construction. The maligning of Africa in world history and the reconstructive mandate of the Afrocentric paradigm places the process of historical research, research that accurately represents the achievements and contributions of Africa and African people, as a fundamental objective. Particular emphasis has been placed on Kmt (Ancient Egypt), which has been portrayed in contemporary Eurocentric scholarship as a non-African civilization. Other Afrocentric scholars have studied the history of the various African empires, kingdoms, and societies, as well as their diasporic counterparts.

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