In contemporary discourse, children are imagined with "surplus risk," and parents often feel pressure to protect their children from danger. Drawing on interviews with 40 Latina, White, and Black mothers of teenagers, the authors examine the factors that shape these mothers' concerns for their teens' safety, how they articulate these…

In this paper, the author attempts to sketch out both an argument for and the outlines of what might be termed an African cultural studies of education. This formation would actually be composed of several fields and discourses that are often taken up as quite distinct, namely critical approaches to education, cultural studies, and African…

Preparing today's children to be tomorrow's global citizens will require social educators who have knowledge of the histories, experiences, and cultural practices of the children they teach. This article offers culturally responsive pedagogy and the African proverb as frames for teaching African American students to become engaged local and global…

The tradition of using giant puppets in dance rituals is widespread throughout Africa. Huge puppets can communicate spiritual and moral authority, which is all the more easily accepted because it is delivered with a sense of playfulness. Giant puppets also create unique movement possibilities. This potent combination of symbolic meaning and…

The authors share a successful Fulbright Group Projects Abroad grant award. The purpose of the grant was to enhance American educators' experience and knowledge of South Africa, in particular, and sub-Saharan Africa more generally. Toward that end, participants experienced a multifaceted view of South Africa's geographical diversity, both physical…

This article investigates the joint losses of food and religious culture in the African-American community, which has had a significant impact on the African-American community. Beginning with a historical perspective on the role of food in both a religious and cultural context, the article offers an analysis of why the dual losses have occurred,…

This essay addresses a call for research involving African Americans to interpret data from the historical, contemporary, and cultural experiences of African Americans. The essay argues for a science education research approach that explicitly considers the positionality of African Americans in the United States. This positionality involves the…

This article examines the complexities and possibilities of identity (leaning on DuBois' notion of double consciousness) when located not in the white racial landscape of the US but in the varied racial, cultural and (inter)national contexts explicated by the scholars gathered in this issue of "REE". One way to read this response might be as a…

Reviews the recent attempts of Black psychologists and social scientists to formulate a conceptual-operational framework for the study of psychological phenomena as they bear on the cultural-survival conditions of Black-African people. Outlines issues and problems in the attempt to define African (Black) psychology and discusses its relation to…

Traces the historical development of the Jerusarema, a traditional dance of the Shona of Zimbabwe, from its origins as a form of military defense to its present role in recreation and ceremony. Describes the Jerusarema, classifies it in relation to other African dance forms, and discusses how it is learned. (KH)

Between Africans and Afro-Americans there exists an emotional, cultural, and psychological connection. The mission of Afro-centricity is to modify the traditional where necessary to conform to the demands of modern society. Molefi K. Asante can increase adherence to the principles of Afro-centricity by decreasing some of his contradictions.…

Describes the discovery in Swaziland of the oldest iron mining site known. Before this evidence that it was Africans who discovered iron mining and smelting around 42,000 B.C., it had been believed that the knowledge of iron originated in the Middle East between 550-1500 B.C. (GC)

Reviews the debate between Herskovits, Turner, and Johnson on Africanisms in Gullah. Suggests that Whinnom's approach, which considers pidgins and creoles under the rubric of "linguistic hybridization," is a more appropriate model with which to view Gullah, making irrelevant the question of whether it is an African or European language.…

Formal literacy education in predominantly oral societies, such as those in Black Africa, has flourished at the expense of oral cultural traditions resulting in language problems. Libraries should provide nonprint-oriented services for their potential users. (FM)

Examines how the unfolding events in one classroom lesson brought to the fore the extent to which schools and educators explicitly draw connections between the social and historical relationship of African Americans and foreign-born blacks. A personal accounting of journeys to Africa captures how the author arrived at using a sociopolitical lens…