A Discourse on Black Studies

Abstract

This article seeks to examine the current phase in the discipline with a projection of what it could be in the future if researchers reevaluate their responses from the standpoint of African people as subjects instead of objects. Research centered on African agency and centeredness asks different questions than does that which views Africans as problems or issues to be handled by Eurocentric examinations. Thus, the building of departments, the administrative unit for programs and disciplines, must begin with the view that African American studies (Africology, Africana studies, Black studies, etc.) is not merely history, sociology, or literature. What researchers in this field do, by virtue of their disciplinary and philosophical orientation, is something entirely different and is based on an exposure to a new paradigm that is deeply embedded in the notion and practice of African agency.