Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge

by Molefi Kete Asante

"Asante's book, Kemet,Afrocentricity,and Knowledge, continues his project of forging a new discipline out of the many strands of Black Studies. Like his previous works, this is a profound statement of the Afrocentric perspective."...C. Tsehloane Keto, Ph.D., Director of Graduate Studies, Dept of African American Studies, Temple University. "This volume is a joy to read. It is accessible to anyone because of its richly textured images, ideas, and concepts. It is filled with intellectual allusions and rate isight into african culture. If ind this book truly refreshing."...Milgun Anadolu Okur, Ph.d.,american Studies, Izmir University, Turkey. "This book addresses the most important theoretical and methodological questions facing the discipline of African American Studies. Asante's point is that Africology is a discipline, not a group of courses related only in their subject matter. He makes a phenomenal advance in our conceptualization."...Patrick D. Bellegarde-smith, Ph.D., Chair, Dept of Afro-American Studies, university of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Molefi Kete Asante is chairperson of the Temple University Dept of African American Studies and a leading figure in the Afrocentrism School. He is the author or twenty-five books, including Afrocentricity.

Genres: History

214 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1990

About the author

Molefi Kete Asante (born Arthur Lee Smith Jr.; August 14, 1942) is an American professor and philosopher. He is a leading figure in the fields of African-American studies, African studies, and communication studies. He is currently professor in the Department of Africology at Temple University, where he founded the PhD program in African-American Studies. He is president of the Molefi Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies.

Asante is known for his writings on Afrocentricity, a school of thought that has influenced the fields of sociology, intercultural communication, critical theory, political science, the history of Africa, and social work.He is the author of more than 66 books and the founding editor of the Journal of Black Studies.

Reviews

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A KEY WORK BY A FOUNDER OF AFROCENTRISM

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' and 'Classical Africa.'

He writes in the Preface to this 1990 book, "I have divided the book into three sections: (1) interiors, (2) anteriors, and (3) exteriors. The idea is to examine what constitutes the discipline of Africalogy; secondly, a discussion of origins and issues related to historical developments in the writing of Africa; and thirdly, a presentation of approaches to fields other than Africalogy with particular emphasis on critique."

Here are some quotations from the book:

"What constitutes the quest for truth in the Afrocentric enterprise? In Africalogy, language, myth, ancestral memory, dance-music-art, and science provide the sources of knowledge, the canons of proof and the structures of truth." (Pg. 10)
"If evidence suggests that Africa was the mother of European civilization, what force brought about the demise of respect for Africa? Greece gained in prominence while Egypt fell in reputation due to a combination of European racism and chauvinism. Africa's antiquity was no longer considered a valuable credit but rather a debit." (Pg. 102)
"Again the use of 'negroes' obfuscates the African reality. Furthermore, the 'race of negroes' he speaks of are Africans, as are the Nubia of whom he is writing. The statement that 'these negroes were aliens' is incredible inasmuch as the people of the Sudan were Africans and without giving an ethnic name one cannot say whether these people were aliens or not. There is no negro ethnic group or race." (Pg. 134)
"Research reported in our journals must be evaluated on how well it reflects reality not the degree to which it employs the traditional Eurocentric frame of reference." (Pg. 141)