Defending the Paradigm

Abstract

Recent attacks on Africana studies follow a historic path of institutionalized racism in the academy and its custodians questioning the discipline’s relevance. These ongoing attacks demonstrate this society’s refusal to allow African people’s full participation within it. Therefore, the assault on Africana studies is really an assault on African people. This article seeks to remind scholars in African studies that the Afrocentric idea has been the guiding paradigm of the discipline and it not only needs to be defended, but Afrocentric scholarship needs to be vigorously pursued. The paradigm distinguishes this discipline from all others. This article also confronts the false notion of Afrocentrism and critics’ use of the claims of a few non-Afrocentrists as an indictment against the Afrocentric movement. In defending and reasserting the Afrocentric paradigm, this article sets out to further define Afrocentricity. Finally, it addresses the false claims attributed to it by its critics.