Work · African & Africana Philosophy
Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change
Programmatic book that gave the approach its name: people of African descent should take their bearings from African history and values rather than from a European perspective presented as universal; a collective consciousness is to guide social change.
Introduction
Molefi Kete Asante published “Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change” in 1980 in Buffalo with his own small press, Amulefi; revised editions followed in 1988 and 2003. The short book is a programme: African Americans, Asante argues, have been taught to see themselves through a European perspective that presents itself as universal, and they must regain a centre in African history and values. He draws on the work of Cheikh Anta Diop on the African character of ancient Egypt, on the Kawaida philosophy of Maulana Karenga and on the political tradition of Garvey, Du Bois and Malcolm X, and he describes Afrocentricity as a collective consciousness that should guide culture, education and politics. The book introduced the term that later named a school of Africana studies, developed theoretically in The Afrocentric Idea (1987) and debated and criticised, among others by Kwame Anthony Appiah and Paul Gilroy.
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