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Introduction to Black Studies
In this new edition, Dr Maulana Karenga has again compiled the latest material from a vast array of sources in the seven core areas of Black history, religion, sociology, politics, economics, creative production and psychology. He critically engages the most recent theories, research and developments in the discipline, bringing a fresh approach in response to new research and new interpretations within the Black Studies project.
- GenresPoliticsAfrican American
578 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2002
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June 14, 2024
A TEXT OFFERING A “DEFINITIVE INTRODUCTION TO THE DISCIPLINE”
Dr. Maulana Karenga (born 1941) is an author, political activist, and was Chairman of the Africana Studies Department at CSU Long Beach until his retirement in 2002; he is perhaps best known as the creator of Kwanzaa, which he developed in 1966.
He wrote in the Preface to the first (1982) edition of this book, “This text is … a contribution to the efforts to develop a standard body of discipline-specific literature for Black Studies. Its basic aim is to offer a definitive introduction to the discipline. Moreover, as an introductory text, it seeks to provide the student with a concise but substantive intellectual base for a critical understanding and discussion of Black Studies… stress is placed on inquiry and analysis as key to building the student’s intellectual base in the discipline… This enterprise is self-consciously Afrocentric, critical and corrective in response to the internal demands of the discipline itself, whose subject matter and academic and social mission clearly demand this approach. An Afrocentric approach is essentially intellectual inquiry and production centered on an in the image and interest of African peoples.”
In the Introduction, he explains, “Black Studies advocates were first concerned with the low number of Blacks on campus which they saw as a racist exclusion to maintain the white monopoly on critical knowledge and to thwart the rise of a Black intelligentsia capable of effectively leading and serving Blacks. Thus, one of their first demands was a special admission and recruitment efforts to correct this problem. Second, Black Studies advocates were concerned with treatment of Black students on campus… in terms of news reports, counselling, instruction, representation on decision-making bodies, etc. The concern was to make Blacks respected and politically effective on campus and in campus politics in the broadest sense of the word.” (Pg. 12) He adds, “there are really only two basic arguments against Black Studies, i.e., a charge of academic insubstantiality and its having a political character. These arguments, however, do not really hold weight given Black Studies’ twenty-seven year history of teaching, research, intellectual production and service to students and the university.” (Pg. 14-15)
He states, “The scope of Black Studies is expressed in its definition and by the parameters it has set for itself as a interdisciplinary or multi-field discipline. Black Studies is the systematic and critical study of the multidimensional aspects of Black thought and practice in their current and historical unfolding… As a discipline dedicated to an inclusive and holistic study of Black life, Black Studies contains subject areas in social science and in humanities as well as any other subject areas within the Black experience.” (Pg. 21-22) He adds, “But Black Studies must and does bring its own critique, challenge and contribution or it is not a specific discipline only a variant discourse within other disciplines.” (Pg. 23)
He clarifies, “As an intellectual category, Afrocentricity is relatively new, emerging in the late70s and finding its most definitive treatment then in a work by Molefi Asante titled ‘Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change and published in 1980… ‘Afrocentricity’ is… used in my work rather than ‘Afrocentrism’ for several reasons. First, it is to stress its intellectual value as distinct from its ideological use. For in the final analysis, it must prove its value as an intellectual category regardless of the ideological use advocates and critics make of it. Second, Afrocentricity is preferable to Afrocentrism to clearly distinguish it from Eurocentrism which is an ideology and practice of domination and exclusion based on the fundamental assumption that all relevance and value are centered in European culture and peoples are at best marginal and at worse irrelevant. Afrocentricity is not built on or conceived as a denial of worth and values to others.” (Pg. 34-35)
He points out, “It is [Cheikh Anta] Diop who, in fact, pioneered the African focus on Egypt as a classical African civilization… Diop presented several arguments for the African or Black character of Egypt… It is important to note here, however, that Diop is not obliged to prove that all Egyptians look like a Eurocentric conception of a prototypical West African. For Africa is the home of humanity as well as human civilization and thus would, of necessity, show varied physical features… So it is, in a sense, playing Europe’s racial game to concede that Egyptians are white or Asian if they don’t look like a Eurocentric version of a West African. Ethiopians and Somalis, perhaps, resemble the ancient Egyptians and ancient Nubian more than any other peoples and they are, even by Eurocentric standards, African.” (Pg. 52-53)
He observes, “Invariably students of Black Studies raise the question of why did Africa with all its glory and achievement fall to the European advance. There are several reasons… First of all, one should know that all civilizations… eventually decline for various internal and external reasons… So it should not be seen as a special weakness or oddity that the civilizations of Africa eventually declined and fell to the onslaught of Europe.” (Pg. 103)
He continues, “one must realize that Africa did not fall; separate empires, states, nations and ethnic groups were eventually conquered and colonized. To talk of Africa as if it were a self-conscious political unit rather than mostly a geographical face with various cultural similarities is to obscure the reality and damage clarity… There was no capital or central government for Africa. Africa was a continent in itself, but not self-consciously for itself. Only with the rise of Pan-Africanism did the peoples of Africa begin to see and define themselves as one… With these observations in mind, one can begin to answer the question by citing Europe’s technological advantage … there were three things which Europe possessed which would eventually give them a technological advantage over Africa: (1) guns; (2) long distance ships; and (3) capitalism as a system of production.” (Pg. 104-105) He goes on, “A fourth factor which led to the decline of African societies… was internal and external problems of the various societies … the class divisions and antagonisms in African societies were often played on… Finally, African societies … except for Islamic societies… .lacked a unifying ideology…” (Pg. 107)
Turning to slavery, he notes, “the category ‘trade’ does not reveal the reality of the process… although there were transactions between Europeans and Africans which would be called commerce in enslaved persons, ‘on the whole the process by which captives were obtained on African soil was not trade at all.’ … Secondly, Europeans do not escape moral indictment by blaming Arabs and Africans for participation in the trade… one discovers that what looked like an Arab-controlled trade was in fact a European dominated trade with Europeans using Arabs as middle men… granted Arabs had slaves before Europeans demanded them for their labor systems, Arab slavery was domestic and escapable… In terms of African involvement, it is true also that Africans enslaved others before the coming and demands of the European. But… African enslavement was in no way like European enslavement… Secondly, it is the European demand which forced Africans into a system whose implications few Africans realized at first… Thirdly… Africans also resisted this commerce in enslaved persons.” (Pg. 117-118)
He suggests, “Given the severity of the political-economic problems of the inner city, the question of what is to be done and who is to do it are necessarily related… Undoubtedly the most important resource structure… in solving Black problems is the Black community itself. Regardless of external goodwill, a people must initiate and lead the struggle for its own liberation.” (Pg. 374-375)
He cites Alvin Poissaint, who “rushes to say that regardless of the blame that white society must shoulder for the Black condition, Blacks, in the final analysis, must move to intervene and transform their own lives and life-conditions. Essentially this means development of community programs which check the negatives and support development of ‘deep self-love that ends the self-defeating behavior among ourselves.’” (Pg. 445-446)
He concludes, “Black Studies’ need to defend itself is at the same time a demand to develop itself… Black Studies has shown a remarkable capacity for development and expansion and must continue to do so… The key to Black Studies continued growth and expansion and its continued vanguard role in the multicultural challenge to the established order paradigm, then, is its maintaining its open-textured, open-ended character which allows for an encourages the creative challenge of diversity and an intellectual rigor and relevance which both disarms its severest critics and honors its original academic and social mission.” (Pg. 504-505)
This is an excellent “textbook” and overview of Black Studies.
Dr. Maulana Karenga (born 1941) is an author, political activist, and was Chairman of the Africana Studies Department at CSU Long Beach until his retirement in 2002; he is perhaps best known as the creator of Kwanzaa, which he developed in 1966.
He wrote in the Preface to the first (1982) edition of this book, “This text is … a contribution to the efforts to develop a standard body of discipline-specific literature for Black Studies. Its basic aim is to offer a definitive introduction to the discipline. Moreover, as an introductory text, it seeks to provide the student with a concise but substantive intellectual base for a critical understanding and discussion of Black Studies… stress is placed on inquiry and analysis as key to building the student’s intellectual base in the discipline… This enterprise is self-consciously Afrocentric, critical and corrective in response to the internal demands of the discipline itself, whose subject matter and academic and social mission clearly demand this approach. An Afrocentric approach is essentially intellectual inquiry and production centered on an in the image and interest of African peoples.”
In the Introduction, he explains, “Black Studies advocates were first concerned with the low number of Blacks on campus which they saw as a racist exclusion to maintain the white monopoly on critical knowledge and to thwart the rise of a Black intelligentsia capable of effectively leading and serving Blacks. Thus, one of their first demands was a special admission and recruitment efforts to correct this problem. Second, Black Studies advocates were concerned with treatment of Black students on campus… in terms of news reports, counselling, instruction, representation on decision-making bodies, etc. The concern was to make Blacks respected and politically effective on campus and in campus politics in the broadest sense of the word.” (Pg. 12) He adds, “there are really only two basic arguments against Black Studies, i.e., a charge of academic insubstantiality and its having a political character. These arguments, however, do not really hold weight given Black Studies’ twenty-seven year history of teaching, research, intellectual production and service to students and the university.” (Pg. 14-15)
He states, “The scope of Black Studies is expressed in its definition and by the parameters it has set for itself as a interdisciplinary or multi-field discipline. Black Studies is the systematic and critical study of the multidimensional aspects of Black thought and practice in their current and historical unfolding… As a discipline dedicated to an inclusive and holistic study of Black life, Black Studies contains subject areas in social science and in humanities as well as any other subject areas within the Black experience.” (Pg. 21-22) He adds, “But Black Studies must and does bring its own critique, challenge and contribution or it is not a specific discipline only a variant discourse within other disciplines.” (Pg. 23)
He clarifies, “As an intellectual category, Afrocentricity is relatively new, emerging in the late70s and finding its most definitive treatment then in a work by Molefi Asante titled ‘Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change and published in 1980… ‘Afrocentricity’ is… used in my work rather than ‘Afrocentrism’ for several reasons. First, it is to stress its intellectual value as distinct from its ideological use. For in the final analysis, it must prove its value as an intellectual category regardless of the ideological use advocates and critics make of it. Second, Afrocentricity is preferable to Afrocentrism to clearly distinguish it from Eurocentrism which is an ideology and practice of domination and exclusion based on the fundamental assumption that all relevance and value are centered in European culture and peoples are at best marginal and at worse irrelevant. Afrocentricity is not built on or conceived as a denial of worth and values to others.” (Pg. 34-35)
He points out, “It is [Cheikh Anta] Diop who, in fact, pioneered the African focus on Egypt as a classical African civilization… Diop presented several arguments for the African or Black character of Egypt… It is important to note here, however, that Diop is not obliged to prove that all Egyptians look like a Eurocentric conception of a prototypical West African. For Africa is the home of humanity as well as human civilization and thus would, of necessity, show varied physical features… So it is, in a sense, playing Europe’s racial game to concede that Egyptians are white or Asian if they don’t look like a Eurocentric version of a West African. Ethiopians and Somalis, perhaps, resemble the ancient Egyptians and ancient Nubian more than any other peoples and they are, even by Eurocentric standards, African.” (Pg. 52-53)
He observes, “Invariably students of Black Studies raise the question of why did Africa with all its glory and achievement fall to the European advance. There are several reasons… First of all, one should know that all civilizations… eventually decline for various internal and external reasons… So it should not be seen as a special weakness or oddity that the civilizations of Africa eventually declined and fell to the onslaught of Europe.” (Pg. 103)
He continues, “one must realize that Africa did not fall; separate empires, states, nations and ethnic groups were eventually conquered and colonized. To talk of Africa as if it were a self-conscious political unit rather than mostly a geographical face with various cultural similarities is to obscure the reality and damage clarity… There was no capital or central government for Africa. Africa was a continent in itself, but not self-consciously for itself. Only with the rise of Pan-Africanism did the peoples of Africa begin to see and define themselves as one… With these observations in mind, one can begin to answer the question by citing Europe’s technological advantage … there were three things which Europe possessed which would eventually give them a technological advantage over Africa: (1) guns; (2) long distance ships; and (3) capitalism as a system of production.” (Pg. 104-105) He goes on, “A fourth factor which led to the decline of African societies… was internal and external problems of the various societies … the class divisions and antagonisms in African societies were often played on… Finally, African societies … except for Islamic societies… .lacked a unifying ideology…” (Pg. 107)
Turning to slavery, he notes, “the category ‘trade’ does not reveal the reality of the process… although there were transactions between Europeans and Africans which would be called commerce in enslaved persons, ‘on the whole the process by which captives were obtained on African soil was not trade at all.’ … Secondly, Europeans do not escape moral indictment by blaming Arabs and Africans for participation in the trade… one discovers that what looked like an Arab-controlled trade was in fact a European dominated trade with Europeans using Arabs as middle men… granted Arabs had slaves before Europeans demanded them for their labor systems, Arab slavery was domestic and escapable… In terms of African involvement, it is true also that Africans enslaved others before the coming and demands of the European. But… African enslavement was in no way like European enslavement… Secondly, it is the European demand which forced Africans into a system whose implications few Africans realized at first… Thirdly… Africans also resisted this commerce in enslaved persons.” (Pg. 117-118)
He suggests, “Given the severity of the political-economic problems of the inner city, the question of what is to be done and who is to do it are necessarily related… Undoubtedly the most important resource structure… in solving Black problems is the Black community itself. Regardless of external goodwill, a people must initiate and lead the struggle for its own liberation.” (Pg. 374-375)
He cites Alvin Poissaint, who “rushes to say that regardless of the blame that white society must shoulder for the Black condition, Blacks, in the final analysis, must move to intervene and transform their own lives and life-conditions. Essentially this means development of community programs which check the negatives and support development of ‘deep self-love that ends the self-defeating behavior among ourselves.’” (Pg. 445-446)
He concludes, “Black Studies’ need to defend itself is at the same time a demand to develop itself… Black Studies has shown a remarkable capacity for development and expansion and must continue to do so… The key to Black Studies continued growth and expansion and its continued vanguard role in the multicultural challenge to the established order paradigm, then, is its maintaining its open-textured, open-ended character which allows for an encourages the creative challenge of diversity and an intellectual rigor and relevance which both disarms its severest critics and honors its original academic and social mission.” (Pg. 504-505)
This is an excellent “textbook” and overview of Black Studies.
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August 1, 2016This was my text book for school and I don't think I will ever be done reading and reading it, it did however give me a lot more to think about and to read, it is a good book for starting my quest in the study of Afro. Amer. Studies. I am looking forward to more advanced studies but I will also continue coming back to books like this one.
December 22, 2007
i don't know how valid a lot of stuff is that he says, but it's a good book to read if you're interested in the african american movement, afrocentrism, etc.
July 3, 2009
Only on Chapter One ... good material but the guy is pretty damn verbose..
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews