Investigated African-descent college students' perspectives toward their African identity and how students with different perspectives reacted to immersion into an African-centered literacy curriculum. Five prevailing perspectives emerged: indifferent, resentful, hostile, accepting, and African centered (only one student was African centered).…

Discusses whether or not to introduce philosophy in K-12 Afrocentric schools, recommending that Afrocentric educators take into account public education's aversion to philosophy, challenging Plato's and Aristotle's arguments against philosophizing before age 30. Encourages Afrocentric educators to formulate an explicit Afrocentric philosophy,…

Researchers of Black American culture argue that interpretations of their experience are skewed by academe's Western perspective, and are becoming champions of Afrocentricity. (MSE)

Explores psychological, political, and sociological impulses that underlie Black Americans' contact with and interest in Africa. Asserts that Africa and her American descendants can attain a high level of mutual understanding and solidarity only when Afro-Americans change their "American mentality" so that cultural elements of their "Africanness"…

Most teachers do not realize that an African-American or a Hispanic person has had to experience the death of his/her own culture to master white cultural information. By centering or empowering their students of color, teachers can reduce feelings of dislocation engendered by our society's predominantly "white self-esteem" curricula.…

The article highlights the realities and dynamics facing researchers researching indigenous African culture. The cultural aspirations, understandings, and practices of African indigenous people should position researchers to implement and organize the research process. Suggestions are also made for implementing the "Afrocentric method," and how to…

Literature that speculates about the future omits African-Americans. Racism and unemployment have caused this group to swell the ranks of the underclass. Thus, as a group, blacks have been written off as obsolete and useless. Most at risk for joining the underclass is the black male. Because of the way Western males are socialized to be strong and…

The Afrocentric theories of Molefi Kete Asante are examined as they relate to drama. It is argued that the fundamental principle in understanding African-American drama rests on viewing it as a means of total creation deriving power from the interaction of the self, the community, and the cosmos. (SLD)

It is traditional among some peoples of the world to celebrate an individual's coming-of-age with ritual. Through these ceremonies, and the tests which sometimes accompany them, a society socializes its youth and transforms them inwardly by molding their moral and mental disposition. Without such ritualization there is a breakdown in the…

Six articles in this feature section emphasize the value of African dance in all levels of education. The articles address aspects of African dance ranging from its historical and philosophical underpinnings to applications from the elementary to the college level. (SM)

The study of controversies about the legitimacy and historical groundedness of assertions about African civilization is used to support an Afrocological teaching approach to African civilization, exploring the content of the American college curriculum. There is a historically factual basis for a holistic pedagogical approach to African…

Presents a case study of controversies related to African studies and makes the case for an Africological pedagogical approach to African Civilization. The title "African Civilization" reflects the African place in the whole of world civilization even though that place is itself a multiple entity. (SLD)

Proposes the consideration of the Nguzo Saba as a foundation for African American college student development theory, focusing on: racial/ethnic identity theories; the history of Kwanzaa; the origins of Kwanzaa (African and African American origins); and practical applications of the Nguzo Saba's seven principles (unity, self-determination,…

Responds to two opening articles by Parham ("Cycles of Psychological Nigrescence") and Helms ("Considering Some Methodological Issues in Racial Identity Counseling Research"). The epistemological foundations of the (Non-African-based) source model of Black identity are examined from an Afrocentric perspective. (TE)

The attempt by many urban school districts to develop African curricula creates a dilemma, because it usually places an African-centered program in a multicultural curriculum that is centered in the European-American educational tradition. Currently, some elements of an African and African-centered curriculum may be found in the multicultural…