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Afrocentricity: Academic Origins

Photo: Molefi Kete Asante.

Afrocenticity was founded by Molefi Kete Asante as he published his book Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change in 1980, followed by a series of publications exploring the same topic. According to Asante, Afrocentricity “is the study of the ideas and events from the standpoint of Africans as the key players rather than victims,” thus it is “Africa asserting itself intellectually and psychologically, breaking the bonds of Western domination in the mind as an analogue for breaking those bonds in every other field” (“The Afrocentric Idea in Education” 172). Afrocentricity manifests in a myriad of areas, including but not limited to: social, spiritual, traditional, ethnicity (Mazama 394). Afrocentricity, according to Mazama, is a paradigm, as “there is confusion in large part because scholars have often failed to approach Afrocentricity in a systematic manner” (390). The Department of Africology at Temple University, to which Asante belongs, is home to Afrocentricity and has trained plenty of scholars who have produced a lot of dissertations through Afrocentric inquiry. Among the most notable authors who have written about Afrocentricity are: Cheikh Anta Diop, Marimba Ani, John Henrik Clarke, and Chancellor Williams.

Today, the term “Afrocentrism,” a derivative of the term “Afrocentricity” coined by Asante in 1980, is popularly used by the public. Yehudah argues that “Pop-Culture Afrocentrism” is “an approach fashioned out of mainstream sound-bytes” that is an “often anti-intellectual and nonacademic misappropriation of [Afrocentricity’s] constructs” (551). He claims that the academic, Afrocentric inquiry is focused on Asante’s “location theory” (551), unlike the term “Afrocentrism”, which is used “to speak to anything that featured Black bodies” (552). Among the main beliefs associated with Afrocentricity/Afrocentrism is that the Ancient Egyptian culture, i.e. Kemet, is a Black culture – a claim that is featured in both: pop-culture and major academic projects, such as: Martin Bernal’s Black Athena project in three volumes (1987, 1991, 2006), Diop’s The African Origin of Civilization (1974), Asante’s The Egyptian Philosophers: Ancient African Voices from Imhotep to Akhenaten (2000), and the list goes on. My scope of research is focused on the manifestations of Afrocentrism in Pop-Culture and media, with a special emphasis on the Afrocentric pseudohistorical claim of the Blackness of the Ancient Egyptian heritage, which has been proven scientifically inaccurate with DNA tests. Nevertheless, the race of Ancient Egyptians and the origin of current Egyptians still poses a controversy on a lot of social media platforms as well as media depictions of Egyptians, and it has become a social media trend that is on the rise, especially in the 2020s. I will be mainly investigating the phenomenon of defending an obviously false claim on social media platforms and media productions, reflecting on the academic roots of such a feign belief, and the consequences such a widespread logical, historical, scientific, and cultural fallacy.

Literature Review 

Pro-Afrocentrism

The main body of Afrocentric research promotes the different aspects of Afrocentricity as an ideology and a research method: mainly a historiographical, Black-centered retelling of history to highlight the achievements of the Black people, replacing the slavery narratives with other accomplishments that, according to them, the Western history telling robbed them of. The Afrocentrist approach mainly aims to liberate history from the Eurocentric view that is regarded as the main version of history. However, this approach might not totally align with the scientific methods of research, as it rather depends on presenting history in a way that promotes old African glory, even if their arguments are sometimes totally inaccurate or lack supporting evidence. Therefore, it is perceived as an unreliable academic approach that is used to manipulate proven historical in some aspects, which suggests an underlying agenda for the Afrocentric practices.

Anti-Afrocentrism

Being an extremely controversial academic approach, the reception of Afrocentricity has undoubtedly instigated a strong academic reaction from academics who totally disagree. Notable Anti-Afrocentric publications include: Mary Lefkowitz’s Not Out of Africa, Lefkowitz and Maclean-Rogers’ Black Athena Revisited, and Howe’s Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes. 

Just like the abovementioned books, Masonen’s article “Revolution has no use for savants” heavily critical of the Afrocentrist philosophy. The author argues that, academically, Afrocentrism is not a reliable research methodology, deeming it as an ‘apohistory’ and a socio-political movement that cannot replace the Western, scientific historiography as is based on the ethos (guilt, on the ‘white’ people’s part) rather than concrete facts. The main argument of the opposition to Afrocentrism is that it is based on hypotheses and not facts, thus it falsifies history and appropriates other cultures for the sake of glorifying the Black race’s historical presence, regardless of the accuracy of such a representation. 

Research Gap

As demonstrated, the research done in this area is basically a comprehensive academic debate about Afrocentricity/Afrocentrism in definition and theory. In light of this controversial academic discussion, this research – written by an Egyptian academic who is evidently opposed to the Afrocentric claim of the Blackness of Ancient Egypt – aims to fill a research gap by exploring the multifaceted dynamics and adverse implications of this audacious, systematic, racism-driven theory. Afrocentrism is currently evident through (social) media hostility against modern Egyptians initiated by Afrocentric fanatics. Based on fictional retellings of history that state that Ancient Egyptians were black, Afrocentrists are not-so-subtly accusing modern Egyptians of being descendants of colonizers who do not own the land and history of Egypt due to the fairness of their skin color. Such an idea is starting to be accepted as the true version of history in the Western world in multiple realms of the media and cultural exhibitions, therefore this research is a reaction to such a cultural-appropriating trend to highlight its fallacies and set the record straight. 

References:

Aidi, Hisham. “Egypt and the Afrocentrists: The Latest Round.” Africa Is a Country, 2022, africasacountry.com/2022/03/egypt-and-the-afrocentrists-the-latest-round#:~:text=By%20mid%2DFebruary%2C%20the%20One,of%20an%20abiding%20Arab%20racism.

Asante, Molefi Kete. “The Afrocentric Idea in Education.” The Journal of Negro Education, vol. 60, no. 2, 1991, pp. 170–80. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/2295608. Accessed 29 Sept. 2023.

Asante, Molefi Kete. Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge. Africa World Press, 1992.

Bernal, Martin. Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization. Rutgers Univ. Pr, 2020. 

Diop, Cheikh Anta. The African Origin of Civilization. 1974

Hanretta, Sean. “Egypt in Africa: William A. Brown and a liberating African history.” The Journal of African History, 2023, pp. 1–5, https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021853723000440. 

Howe, Stephen. Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes. Verso, 1999. 

Lefkowitz, Mary R., and Guy Maclean-Rogers. Black Athena Revisited. The University of North Carolina Press, 1996. 

Lefkowitz, Mary. Not out of Africa. Basic Books, 1998. 

Masonen, Pekka. “Revolution has no use for savants.” Afrique & Histoire, Vol. 1, no. 1, 2003, pp. 169–208, https://doi.org/10.3917/afhi.001.0169.  

Mazama, Ama. “The Afrocentric Paradigm: Contours and Definitions.” Journal of Black Studies, vol. 31, no. 4, 2001, pp. 387–405. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2668022. Accessed 29 Sept. 2023.

Nowar, Mariam. “Kevin Hart and Afrocentrism: Why Some Want His Show Cancelled in Egypt.” El-Shai, 13 Dec. 2022, www.el-shai.com/kevin-hart-and-afrocentrism-why-some-want-his-show-cancelled-in-egypt/. 

Yee, Vivian. “Black Artists Embrace Ancient Egypt.

Egyptians Aren’t Happy about It.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 18 June 2023, www.nytimes.com/2023/06/18/world/middleeast/egypt-african-dutch-museum.html. 

Yehudah, Miciah Z. “Distinguishing Afrocentric inquiry from Pop Culture Afrocentrism.” Journal of Black Studies, vol. 46, no. 6, 2015, pp. 551–563, https://doi.org/10.1177/0021934715593054.

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Her: ...

Beautiful Ms Sosa & Arielle

Two lost souls, Swimming in a fish bowl  ...........Pink Floyd

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So my teacher was out sick today and I come into class to see this beautiful woman clad in blue, immediately I thought of Yemaya. The sub also sister locks with cowrie shells in her hair and body adorned in copper jewelry, crystals and more cowrie shells. So I definitely got a Yemaya vibe from her.

Turns out she is an Afro spiritualist who studies Ifa. Y’all I’ve never met an Ifa practitioner before it was wild! Especially to meet one at my school😂

When we met I was able to guess all the crystals she had on but one ring with Kyanite lol. We talked a lot and she told me about all the best places that she goes to that sells books on the Orishas and Afrocentic jewelry c:

At the end of class she gave me her Kyanite ring and wished me lots of love. I’ve never met a person who radiated such a divine presence.💖

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Like a fool, I expected a short read about design and art in ancient Egypt, not about the philosophical culture of beauty and the cosmos (and divinity) in classical Kemet.

Excellent book, and goes back in to tie with Kemet, Afrocenticity and Knowledge, which I liked as well.

[Nefer: The Aesthetic Ideal in Classical Egypt by Willie Cannon-Brown]