AFRICA Afrocentricity and Knowledge

© Shutterstock.com Adjusting the Narrative Lens

The distortions of history produced in the West during a time when Africans were either enslaved or colonised have continued to direct the thinking of most modern historians.

By Molefi Kete Asante

suspect that until we reset the social as if our own experiences, that orientation to knowledge and I have sciences, humanities, sciences is, those of our ancestors, are less not been alone in this effort.2 Iand arts more closely to our own important than others.1 Hence, I have This begins with the proper interface historical narratives we will continue proposed a re-alignment of all forms of to the emergence of homo sapiens to assume the role of junior brother historical, philosophical, and economic on the continent of Africa whether in and sister to other world narratives investigations toward an Afrocentric the Rift Valley or as has recently been

24 THE THINKER AFRICA asserted in Morocco. What we know areas of archaeological and historical Africans long before the young Greeks is that homo sapiens appears between research. Nabta Playa, a rich field of imposed Aegyptos on the world, a 350,000 and 200,000 years ago in stone artifacts and tumuli, in the far singular fact overwhelms and awes us: Africa. There are no examples of homo southwest of Egypt and crossing over the construction of the pyramids. sapiens earlier in other parts of the into Libya, has shown itself to be the The pyramid stands as the most world. In fact, there are no instances oldest such archaeological region in important human construction in the where homo sapiens are found in the world making Stonehenge in the ancient world. The pyramid, the mr, Europe, Australia, Asia, or the Americas United Kingdom appear like a relatively is an eternal and nearly indestructible prior to Africa. Our species emerged recent experiment. Africa’s Nabta monument honoring the passionate in Africa and spent nearly two-thirds of Playa is the oldest known astronomical spiritual power of the enduring human time on earth has been spent megalith field on earth.4 It was created notion of eternal life. It is not merely in Africa. One can reasonable assert between 12,000 to 14,000 years an architectural wonder, but a seed, that prior to 70,000 every human was ago. Stonehenge, for example, was asili, in the words of Marimba Ani, black; one can definitely say that all erected around 5000 years ago and that announces its primacy as a homo sapiens were Africans. Teotihuacan appears in Mexico about building and as a perfect monument to Cheikh Anta Diop’s work, 2000 years ago. excellence. The African Origin of Civilization I have argued in two of my books Throughout the world the West has established the fact that humans in that the distortions of history produced imposed its version of human history Africa also created the first civilisations in the West during a time when as the universal view. Consequently on the earth.3 It is not simply the fact Africans were either enslaved or we learn that Homer’s Odyssey that homo sapiens first stood up erect colonised have continued to direct the and Iliad are at the head of the class on African soil but that homo sapiens when it comes to a discourse on first named god, first built barges, civilization. But how could that be first domesticated animals, first built The cultural since Homer lived about 800 BC and villages to protect humans from other question as the first pyramid was designed and animals, first decided what was edible constructed by the constructed by the African Imhotep and what was poisonous to eat, and about 2800 BC, almost 2000 years so forth. The organisation of collective Afrocentrists is not before Homer was born? There is no protection measures, administration merely literature, art, doubt in my mind that we have been of rational forms of punishment for hoodwinked and lied to and lied about bringing shame to the community, music, and dance, but by those who first created the idea and the exploitation of the resources the entire process by of humans as inferior and superior of nature for food, were all related to to protect their own narrative. Why the growing ability of human beings to which Africans are aren’t African pyramids considered the develop civilization. socialised to live in the most profound creations of antiquity? An immense record exists of One finds that they contain writing, the emergence in Africa of every modern world. mathematics, literature, philosophy, foundational basis for modern measurement, religion, medicine, civilisation. Nothing escaped the thinking of most modern historians.5 and aesthetics. It is not possible to early humans who occupied the They are stuck in what Basil Davidson conceive of an instrument of human continent. We know, for instance, that once told me was a “cycle of disbelief.” civilization more pronounced in the African women created the earliest They cannot accept Africa’s primacy ancient world. mathematical computers as they in anything because they were led This is why the general perspective marked the time of their female cycles. to believe by many years of negative that I have proposed, Afrocentricity, Understandably these calculators thinking and bad history that Africa had has become a much more relevant idea reach back nearly forty thousand years never produced any civilisations. They than many other viewpoints. Within ago in Swaziland with the discovery were able to say this in a Trumpian the paradigm of Afrocentricity, as Ama of the Lebombo bone and 28,000 way, that is, while you are looking at Mazama called it, there are many years ago in Congo with the Ishango the evidence and examining it with theories such as location theory, place bone calculator. There should be no your own eyes they are telling you theory, centrality analysis, and so forth, wonder that this marvelous continent, what you are seeing is incorrect. but my aim has been to provide the the original home of humankind, also Of course, we are rational human five constituent elements discovered gave us ancient paintings on the walls beings and as such we investigate, in the creation of the idea as guiding of caves throughout its vast territory. question, and demand to see more landmarks for the intellectual. Each day it appears that Africa evidence. One of the most powerful I think it is important to establish that reveals more of itself and yet there examples of substance fact in a concrete unlike the Negritude Movement (led is so much more to be revealed in way is what our African ancestors left by Leopold Senghor, Leon Damas, and time because scholars have barely on the earth. Early on in the dynastic Aime Cesaire) to which the Afrocentric unearthed one-tenth of the possible age of ancient Egypt, called Kemet by Movement owes much and to which

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it is often compared, Afrocentricity commitment is to discover the the correcting of the collective text has not been limited to asking artistic proper role of Africa or Africans in is a vital part of the reformative questions. Indeed the cultural question all situations involving Africans. A process of education and the as constructed by the Afrocentrists is critique of inequality, injustice, only real way to a truly liberating not merely literature, art, music, and marginality or other forms of off- knowledge. Thus, the Afrocentrist is dance, but the entire process by which centeredness is certainly in order in by definition and activist intellectual, Africans are socialised to live in the this research. not a public intellectual. modern world. Thus, economics is a • Afrocentricity insists that there has In conclusion, these are the cultural question as much as religion to be a defense of African cultural reasonable minimum characteristics and science in the construction of the elements as historically valid in the necessary for a truly clear view of Afrocentrist. This is why Afrocentrists context of art, music, education, African phenomena transgenerationally tend to pose three sets of questions science, and literature. One cannot and transcontinentally. Thus, we regarding historical and contemporary assume that Africans have not incorporate the best traditions of societies. How do we see ourselves spoken, commented, or acted in the ancestors, the various struggle and how have others seen us? all the ways that humans behave streams of resistance found on the What can we do to regain our own in the world of culture, science, continent and in the diaspora, and accountability and to move beyond the and economics. To defend African the indefatigable will of African intellectual and cultural plantation that cultural elements means that we sages. Afrocentricity is consequently constrains our economic, political, must study African cultures, whether an innovative understanding of social, and scientific development? on the continent or in the Diaspora, phenomena from the standpoint of What allied theories and methods may in order to become expert in our African people as agents. So long be used to rescue those African ideas field of inquiry. as we are afraid of Afrocentricity, and ideals that are marginalised by • Afrocentricity celebrates "cen- even as a word, we will be unable to Europe and thus in the African’s mind break the chains of alien cultures as well? that still crush our legs, necks, There are five principal constituents Afrocentricity and brains. ■ of Afrocentricity that would is consequently References and further reading: distinguish it from any other theoretical 1 A young and energetic Cheikh Anta Diop, while viewpoint. an innovative a student in Paris, wrote an article for the famous journal, Presence Africaine in which he asked the • Afrocentricity asserts that Africans understanding of question, “When will we be able to speak of an ought to have an intense interest African renaissance?” Diop understood that we could phenomena from the never speak of a renaissance or rebirth of Africa in psychological or emotional civilization until we returned to our sources and used location as determined by symbols, those guidelines for our way forward. standpoint of African 2 Molefi Kete Asante,Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social motifs, rituals, ceremonies, and Change. Chicago: African American Images, 2011, people as agents. was first published in l980. The book has sold over signs. What this means is that the 100,000 copies worldwide and gone through four African thinker should be seeking editions. Ama Mazama, ed., The Afrocentric Paradigm, Trenton: Africa World Press, 2003 helped to advance to determine by icon, myth, teredness" and “agency” and the idea among scholars. See Mazama’s Mazama, motifs, symbols, etc., where the activates a commitment to lexical Ama. (2001) The Afrocentric Paradigm: Contours and Definitions.Journal of Black Studies, 31, 387-405. This person, text, or event is located. refinement and reconstruction is a definitive account of the Afrocentric paradigm Is it a Eurocentric, Asiacentric, or that eliminates pejoratives about with explanations of the critical dimensions and implication of the intellectual idea. Read also Zulu, Afrocentric phenomenon? Is the Africans or other people. Nothing Itibari M. Exploring The African Centered Paradigm: Discourse And Innovation In African World Community person asking the question located pejorative or demeaning to Africans Studies. Los Angeles, CA: Amen-Ra Theological in the proper place to ask a genuine as humans can escape the attention Seminary Press, 1999. This is an important work on the Afrocentric paradigm by one of the key intellectual question? For example, one could of Afrocentrists. If someone uses activists in the field. Zulu’s book shows that examining ask a Eurocentric question such as the term “tribe” in a negative way the agency and location of African people is useful in African World Community Studies. The book by Toyin “Is African religion monotheistic or or speaks of “minorities” when Falola, Africanizing Knowledge, New York: Taylor and polytheistic?” If one asked such a speaking or writing about African Francis, 2002, is also worth reading. 3 Diop, Cheikh Anta. The African Origin of Civilization: question in an African situation it people in the United States or Brazil Myth or Reality. New York: Lawrence Hill Press, l974. Using primary sources gained from his own would have to be reoriented and or anywhere else, that person must and others’ works, Diop presents a cogent argument interrogated for its location. be checked, that is, located before for the African origin of civilization. In his discourse he critiques the works of numerous white scholars • The Afrocentrist should possess a you can make a proper assessment to demonstrate how their writings often falsified commitment to finding the subject- of the situation. the history of African people. Lewis Gordon, An Introduction to Africana Philosophy. Cambridge: place of Africans in any social, • Afrocentricity is a powerful Cambridge University Press, 2008, has a powerful political, economic, architectural, imperative from historical and social introduction on the African beginnings of philosophy. 4 Robert Bauval and Thomas Brophy, Black Genesis: literary, or religious phenomenon sources to revise the collective text The Prehistoric Origins of Ancient Egypt, Bear and Company, 2011. Bauval and Brophy produced a with implications for questions of of African people. Since so much work of intelligent research based upon their firsthand sex, gender, and class. There is no negativity about Africa has been observation and study of Nabta Playa. 5 Molefi Kete Asante,The History of Africa. New York: field or interest that is without some written over the centuries the Routledge, 2015; Molefi Kete Asante,African Pyramids perspective and the Afrocentrist’s Afrocentrist takes the position that of Knowledge. New York: Universal Write, 2016.

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