Defines and describes Afrocentricity, suggesting that Afrocentricity within the academic context is best understood as a paradigm. Explains how Afrocentricity meets the definition of a paradigm, examining the affective, cognitive, and conative aspects of the Afrocentric paradigm (metaphysical and sociological) and looking at the structural and…

This exploratory study examined the relationships between Africentric values, racial/ethnic identity, neighborhood satisfaction, and academic self-efficacy beliefs among 88 African American elementary school children. Results indicated that Africentric values and neighborhood satisfaction were both predictive of academic self-efficacy beliefs.…

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…

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…

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,…

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.…

Intergenerational kinship and multigenerational families (three or more generations) have been a source of strength for African Americans. This article presents a culturally responsive intergenerational practice model for working with African American families that draws on this legacy. The model looks at intergenerational kinship and…

Issues connected with children's welfare and child development are appearing on national and international agendas with greater prominence and frequency. However, the international image of children is becoming increasingly homogeneous and Western-derived, with an associated erosion of the diversity of child contexts. This essay explores the…

Article examines the rapid change that major facets of cultural pluralism are undergoing in Nigeria. (Author/RK)

Describes the development and validation of the Africultural Coping Systems Inventory, a measure of culture-specific coping strategies used by African Americans in stressful situations that is grounded in African-centered concepts. Data from African American adults indicated that a four-factor model best represented the group's culture-specific…

For the African-American family, life ain't been no crystal stair. The African-American family has trotted for over 400 years through a wilderness of racism, poverty, discrimination of all kinds, crossing seas of monsters and forests of demons. Yet, despite the numerous obstacles and attacks that society has mounted against it since slavery, the…

Discusses some of the common characteristics of African children wherever they may be, noting their cultural traits inevitably influence their progress in school, specifically when the children are in non-African school settings such as those in the United States. Describes children's role in African society, parental role in character building,…

Discusses similarities in the contemporary crafts from Africa, the Caribbean, and the Sea Island region of the United States as evidence of African cultural survivals. (GC)

Examines the economic activity, language, world view, kinship patterns, and religion of contemporary Sea Islanders in order to illustrate the Islands' cultural conservatism and, thus, their appropriateness for the study of Africanism in the United States. (GC)

Africa produces imaginative and authentic literature whose texture makes it impossible to think of Africans as statistics. African writers, however have to struggle to get recognized in America due to their culture and other racial and social differences, hence suggesting that efforts should be made to give authentic African literature its due.