Black Studies

Black Studies, which is also called Africana Studies, is the critical and systematic study of the thought and practice of African people in their current and historical unfolding. As an area of inquiry, Black Studies may be conceived in a broad or narrow sense. More broadly conceived, it is an inquiry that begins with ancient societies, such as ancient Egypt, Mali, and Songhai, which established an intellectual tradition of studying themselves and the world in which they lived. More narrowly conceived, Black Studies is a self-conscious and organized university-based discipline with origins in the 1960s and a modern intellectual practice rooted in and expressive of the social visions and social struggles of this period. Reflected in the vision, values, and practice of Black Studies are the critical concerns expressed in African struggles for freedom, justice, equality, power, political and cultural self-determination, educational relevance, meaningful African presence in areas of critical social space in society and the academy, and an expanded sense of social and human possibility. And it is from the critical concerns and the struggles that gave practice and social expression to them that Black Studies developed its self-understanding as both an area of critical intellectual study and an instrument of social change in the interest of African and human good.