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Why Afrocentricity? The Importance of an African-Centered Approach in Anti-Racism
By Shingi Mavima, Ph.D., The University of Toledo
Special to The Truth

In this teach-in I argued the merits of culturally-relevant pedagogy, highlighting the
deficiencies of the status quo: a Eurocentric paradigm that is often presented as 'universal'.  An Afrocentric paradigm provides an alternative in which all people’s experiences—not just
Africans but inclusive of Europeans and others—are valued.


The idea of Afrocentricity comes from Civil Rights literature. C. T. Keto described an
African-Centered Paradigm as providing a framework for the centering of knowledge about
Africans, at home and abroad, on the experience of Africans as subjects of history. M. Asante
defied Afrocentricity as placing African ideals at the center of any analysis that involves African culture and behavior. (M. Asante.)

The universalizing approach of the Eurocentric paradigm has throughout Western history denigrated Africans and African Americans. Most basically, this approach has treated African
communities as objects in knowledge. The need is for a shift from Africans and Africans being objects to being subjects, voicing their own experiences and being heard as authoritative. This is what it means to center on African experience.

The ultimate goal, instead of a universal approach to education and understanding society, is to achieve a pluriversal orientation that allows different experiences and voices to be understood and valued through their specific lens and not as inferior to the predetermined
standard situated in another's experience.

Dr. Mavima’s full presentation and references for further study can be accessed in the Anti-
Racism Teach-Ins archive, on the Sojourner’s Truth website at thetruthtoledo.com.


 

 

   
   


Copyright © 2019 by [The Sojourner's Truth]. All rights reserved.
Revised: 08/13/20 10:44:54 -0400.


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