Black Studies in the 21st Century

Abstract

This article is concerned with the fact that Black studies (or African American studies, Africana studies, Pan-African studies, African Centered studies, Afrocentric studies, Africalogical studies, African and African Diaspora studies—they all basically mean the same thing) continues to have a contested existence in the U.S. academy. However, regardless of the ever-present need to validate itself, this field defies all attempts to silence its voice. The works of Black studies scholars are “here, there, and everywhere” if one cares to take the time to search and sift through the many scholarly contributions. Admittedly, the field is very diverse with numerous schools of thought. Yet rather than viewing this diversity as a problem, it should endorse the fact that Black studies continues to make strides in the academy. This is not to suggest that there are not problems facing its growth and development in the university systems; this article shall highlight a number, but it does make a worthwhile claim against any notion of a decline in the scholarly interest in peoples of African descent, in terms of history, culture, socioeconomics, and politics.

Colonial Discourse in Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Counter-Discourse of Decolonization in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

“…In Achebe's Things Fall Apart, the Igbo people live an organized and ordered life with their culture and traditions clearly defining their way of life. They have their own judicial system, which works perfectly well for them (Christian, 2006;Cross-examined, n.d.;Visser, 2011). The Europeans come in quietly with their religion and culture and bring about disintegration of the values that define Okonkwo's cultural community and his own sense of moral order with the collapse of the institutions he has fought so hard to sustain in the face of European colonialism.…”

The Aims and Methods of Liberal Education: Notes from a Nineteenth Century Pan-Africanist

“…But we must ask a question that Blyden did not answer (in his inaugural address at least) regarding the edification of Black lives: when is it that the use of these critical traditions, which are institutionally accepted in the Western academy, become a substitute for the pursuit of epistemic justice for Black peoples? For example, how many of us who research on cognate issues write and (non)reference as if Black Studies is epistemically inferior to postcolonial or post-structural studies (Christian 2006)?…”

The Derelictical Crisis of African American Philosophy: How African American Philosophy Fails to Contribute to the Study of African-Descended People

“…Recent paradigmatic challenges written in the Journal of Black Studies (Asante, 2006;Christian, 2006aChristian, , 2006bConyers, 2006) have led various scholars in Black Studies to begin looking to Lucius Outlaw's work on Africana philosophy as a reservoir from which reconstructive insights and the theoretical substantiations of social criticism might originate to improve the conditions of Africandescended people throughout the Diaspora. Ironically, African-centered thinkers like Reiland Rabaka, Maulana Karenga, and Magnus O. Bassey have praised Outlaw's position as the means through which African-centered theory can be realized as a critical social commentary on America's political ills (Bassey, 2007;Karenga, 2006).…”