Afrocentric Innovations in Higher Education

By Abul Pitre

Afrocentric Innovations in Higher Education steps beyond the traditional texts centered on limited improvements to higher education by reconceptualizing and outlining Afrocentric interventions that enhance and improve the education of specifically people of African descent. This volume includes seven essays that highlight the transformative power of Africana Studies as a fundamentally liberatory discipline. In these thought provoking essays, readers encounter Afrocentric concepts that reevaluate the intent and design of higher education as a precursor for improving the educational outcomes and experiences of Black students. Afrocentric Innovations in Higher Education provides well-researched and pioneering perspectives on student services, teacher preparation, Africana Studies, career preparation, and the role of Africana Studies in Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RowmanLittlefield
• Release date: Nov 13, 2023
• ISBN: 9780761874218

Book preview

Introduction

Abul Pitre and Vida A. Robertson‌‌‌

Education is an important element in the struggle for human rights. It is the means to help our children and our people rediscover their identity and thereby increase their self respect. Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs only to the people who prepare for it today.—Malcolm X (1964)

Education has long been held as the cornerstone of African American social, political, and economic advancement. For this reason, the education of African American students continues to be a major topic of discussion among a wide range of invested parties (parents, educators, administrators, and community leaders). While much of the discourse concerning the culturally responsive and pedagogically effective education of African American students is centered around K–12 education, there remains outstanding concerns that frustrate the innovative implementation of a higher education intervention.

Such interventions include increasing access of African Americans to higher education, addressing the needs of first-generation students, revising faculty preparation and expectation, implementing Africana curricular improvements, and reimagining the role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the 21st century, among many other topics (Conyers, Edwards, & Thomspon, 2020).

Accordingly, the following volume highlights and explores new and innovative approaches for improving and implementing Afrocentric education models and pedagogical practices in higher education. To fully understand the institutional barriers of universal and high-quality Black education in the United States, one needs to only look at the history of the African American experience. U.S. history clearly demonstrates that the first enslaved African peoples brought to America endured an educational process established to dehumanize and strip them of their cultural knowledge, as a means of devaluing their great ancestral history and ultimately disrupting their sense of community.

As these peoples were kidnapped and sold from plantation to plantation, enslaved Africans in the Americas were forcibly denied their language, religion, culture, and original names. The subsequent indoctrination of white supremacist norms and coerced assimilation irreparably altered the culture and consciousness of enslaved Africans in the U.S. The vicious cycle of chattel slavery, which lasted for at least a 300-year period, caused diasporic Africans in America to lose knowledge of the African peoples from which they originated.

Most scholars contend that the first Africans enslaved in America arrived in 1619, on the English pirate ship named the White Lion (History.com Editors, 2019). However, others maintain that African enslavement began in 1555 and underwent a 64-year process of strategically and intentionally turning diasporic African men and women into slaves. During those 64 years, the slavers ardently sought to erase the historical memory and cultural legacy of these African peoples, resulting in a form of necrophilia which led to labeling them as Negroes. Elijah Muhammad, in critiquing the term Negro, wrote that it did not describe Black people. Regarding the term Negro, he said,

Are we representing ourselves as Negroes and colored people in the ancient history of black men? Our search of the ancient history of the black man of the earth will prove that not once in time were Negroes or colored people living in Asia or Africa. How did we come by those names? The names are from the slave-masters. They have called us by their names and the nicknames used among themselves. (Muhammad, 1965, p. 34–35)

Malcolm X echoed Elijah Muhammad’s teaching saying,

The worst trick of all is when he names us Negro and calls us Negro . . . Negro doesn’t tell you anything . . . It doesn’t give you culture-there is no such thing as Negro culture, it doesn’t exist. The land doesn’t exist, the culture doesn’t exist, the language doesn’t exist, and the man doesn’t exist. They take you out of existence by calling you Negro. (Shabazz, 1970, p. 15–16)

Such commentaries created a level of critical consciousness in Black youth, who realized that U.S, higher education is fundamentally an expansive propaganda campaign in Whiteness studies. These students embraced the insights of Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who noted that the inferiority of the Negro is drilled into him in almost every class he enters and in almost every book he studies (Woodson, 1933/2006). University coursework, like that of preparatory education, extols the hidden curriculum of white supremacy and Black self-hatred. This instigated Black student protest against the Eurocentric education they received. The 1960s marked a high point in students protesting the systemic educational, political, and social injustices against the African American community.

Institutions of higher education emerged as battle grounds for students advocating for more courses on the African diaspora and the African American experience. Scholar activists like Malcolm X inspired students to engage in an introspective consideration of the psychological trauma inflicted on the African diaspora by their indiscriminate subscription to post-colonial socialization practices, which undermine their safety and self-worth. For Malcolm X, African-centered, or Africana education and Eurocentric ways of thinking differ not simply in focus but, more profoundly, in purpose.

This argument was best articulated in his 1963 speech to the Northern Negro Grass Roots Leadership Conference where he explores the psychosocial differences of the Field Negro and the House Negro (Shabazz, 1970). The House Negro saw himself through and aligned himself with his enslaver. His slave master was his benefactor and model. He would say things like we sick, referring to when the slave master was ill. On the other hand, the Field Negro understood his condition from the African-centered perspective of the Black community. As such, the Field Negro recognized the function and scope of his enslavement. If the master’s house burned downed, it would be in the best interest of those enslaved. Critical consciousness and self-determination are cornerstones of authentic Africana education.

Inspired by Malcolm X, students at San Francisco State University held the longest strike and it resulted in the establishment of the first Department of Black studies (T’Shaka, 2012). Nathan Hare, the Chair of Black studies at San Francisco State University, envisioned a Communiversity. A Communiversity meant that the knowledge and innovation produced in Black studies programs would be invested in the diasporic African communities from which they came. Likewise, the Black community must play a dynamic role in research in the Black studies programs (Karenga, 2002).

Today, universities across the country offer courses in Black studies and have Black student unions to address the needs of African American students. Despite these academic interventions, Black students in higher education still find themselves in hostile and oppressive learning environments. If one considers the universities that comprise the Power Five Football Conferences and the Ivy Leagues, it becomes evident that most students and faculty that attend and work at these prestigious institutions are White. Their curriculum, culture, and capacity are almost exclusively Eurocentric and designed for the purpose of empowering the next generation of colonizers.

Despite the increasing number of African American students attending these schools and the overwhelming economic contributions that Black student-athletes bring to these universities and the states in which they reside, the state legislators that govern them, erect barriers and create policies that are incompatible with the needs of Black people. For example, in Florida its governor, along with the legislative body, voted to ban courses such as Critical Race Theory and didn’t allow an Advanced Placement African Studies course to be taught. At the same time, the state’s major higher education institutions, University of Florida, Florida State University, and the University of Miami, capitalize on Black athletes playing sports. In Texas, the state legislature passed Senate Bill 17, which requires universities to close their diversity, equity, and inclusion offices. The largely White Republican majority forced legislation that bans mandatory diversity training, prevents departments from asking for applicant diversity statements, and requires the creation of policies to check employees’ efforts to foster diversity. Arizona, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, North Carolina and many other states have passed similar legislation intended to reduce African American enrollment and undermine minority student success.

The noticeable absence of Black faculty and administration at these institutions is another clear example of systemic racism in higher education. Even in cases when Black administrators and faculty are appointed, they are often treated as second class professionals and unfairly burdened with the task of identifying and subverting longstanding educational inequities. Similarly, at Historically Black colleges and universities, administrators encounter the effects of white dominance in the form of internalized racism, state sanctioned curriculum, endemic underfunding, and high rates of turnover in leadership positions. The threat of white supremacy on institutions of higher education is as prevalent now as it was in the 1960s.

This is the context and motivation for the scholarly contributions found in this volume, which focuses on Africana innovations in higher education. The volume is not exhaustive in covering every aspect of the higher education experience for Africana people, but it does offer unique perspectives that address some of their higher education concerns. Some of these innovative perspectives include using an African-centered model such as Kasserian Ingera for interrogating the systemic inequities of African American men in higher education. The volume also engages in topics such as the reimagining of the Introduction to Africana Studies courses in consideration with the specific needs of African American students. Other chapters address a wide range of pedagogical and institutional challenges that impede our efforts to create truly liberatory models of higher education. Contributors to this volume offer profound insights into historical considerations, pedagogical concerns, and structural issues such as Nation of Islam teacher preparation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities, the intersectional history of Africana studies, and the formation of HBCUs.

What You Will Find in the Chapters

In Chapter 1, Kasserian Ingera: Achieving Black Male Collegiate Success through Afrostructual Interventions, the author discusses the challenges higher education institutions face in developing a comprehensive model for African American male academic achievement. He uses the Kenyan term Kasserian Ingera, which explores the needs of African American male students in higher education. In part, he argues that educators must structurally change the current systems that are in place. The chapter offers a critique of the Eurocentric educational system and offers road map that can lead to the success of African American males enrolled in higher education institutions.

Chapter 2, An Afrocentric Approach to Teacher Preparation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), explores an approach to teacher preparation that infuses an Afrocentric perspective, which includes the Nation of Islam as it relates to teacher preparation at Historically Black Colleges and Universities. The chapter draws from Carter G. Woodson’s critiques of Black education as a forerunner to the Afrocentric approach to education. It infuses discussion of the Nation of Islam’s model of education, particularly highlighting Malcolm X and his educational experiences in the Nation of Islam to prepare future educators. In critiquing the absence of an Afrocentric approach to teacher preparation in HBCUs, the chapter offers ideas about the ways these colleges and universities can infuse innovative models and, in doing so, also address social injustice.

Chapter 3, African American Studies and African American History: Pedagogical Approaches to Introductory Courses in Black Studies, offers new insights about introducing students to Black studies. The author recommends that two courses be developed to give students a more detailed understanding of the discipline. The first course would entail an Introduction to African American Studies and would be centered on the evolution of the discipline. The second course would be an African American history course, which would focus on important figures, movements, organizations, events, and ideas that are not a part of the mainstream discourse.

Chapter 4, "Epistemological Reparations: An Afrocentric Approach within Black Studies," explores how Black studies is a vibrant part of the reparations project for people of African descent. It particularly focuses on Afrocentricity as a framework in Black studies to understand ways of knowing how the discipline can be aligned with the reparations project.

Chapter 5, A Value-Added Module for Introduction to Africana Studies: Speaking in the Disciplines and Africana Market Value, provides insights about how students can articulate their training in Black studies as an asset. It offers a comprehensive response to the question of what students can do with a degree in Africana studies. The chapter provides innovative ideas for strategically thinking about how students majoring and minoring in Africana studies can leverage their degrees as a value-added asset to employers.

In Chapter 6, Africana Studies, Urban/Afrocentric Education and Afrocentricity: An Innovativeness of Axiology, the author discusses the connection between Africana studies and urban education. Included in the discussion is  a deep consideration of Afrocentricity in relationship to urban higher education. A discussion of the definition of Afrocentricity highlights how it can be used in the context of consciousness and its connections to community.

Chapter 7, Making Gumbo: Africana Studies & HBCUs at the Crossroads highlights how the Africana studies and HBCUs came to be as a result of their exclusion from mainstream educational institutions. It provides a historical narrative to understand how HBCUs and Africana studies were not necessarily intended to survive as spaces of liberation. The chapter posits that it is time for HBCUs to embrace Africana studies as the intellectual foundation from which these universities could address student and community needs.

This volume offers some innovative ideas that address the needs of Africana students matriculating in higher education institutions. The re-emergence of neo-fascist racism, which sought to keep Black people from an education that could transform and empower their communities has created a new wave of resistance. It is time to inspire a new generation of students to clap back at the ideologues who are aggressively pursuing policies that enforce new forms of enslavement.

References

Conyers, J., Edwards, C., & Thompson, K. (Eds.). (2020). African Americans in Higher Education: A Critical Study of Social and Philosophical Foundations of Africana Culture. Meyers Press.

History.com Editors. (2019, August 13). First enslaved Africans arrive in Jamestown, setting the stage for slavery in North America. HISTORY; A&E Television Networks. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-african-slave-ship-arrives-jamestown-colony

Karenga, M. (2002). Introduction to Black Studies. University of Sankore Press.

Muhammad, E. (1965). Message to the