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Afrocentrism
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"Afrocentrism is a critical perspective that places African ideals at the center of any analysis that involves African culture and behavior." (Yearwood, Black Film as a Signifying Practice, 75). By this definition, essentially what Afrocentric film philosophy means is that the content, structure, and evaluation of black cinema must be based on the black experience. In an Afrocentric context, black film becomes "…legitimate cultural expression…" (Yearwood, Black Film as a Signifying Practice, 8). Because the majority of film is based on the dominant, white society's experience and culture, Afrocentric philosophy calls for the formation of a new cinematic language. Gladstone Yearwood asserts that the best black cinema deals with models that differ from classical cinema ("Introduction," 10).
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Afrocentrism is fast becoming institutionalized in the United States, the center of its storm. The recent spate of academic codifications of the phenomenon, journalistic accounts of its "street" manifestations, reactions to it from diverse institutions (e.g. Euro-American and African-American newsmagazines) and perspectives, say as much. It is tempting to think Afrocentrism, as many emergency experts in the press have done, under the general umbrella of fad and consumerism and the increasing purchasing power of blacks. After all, the most popular and visible modes of dissemination of Afrocentrism are items of consumption: clothing, hairstyle, paintings, sculptures, children's toys, books. But there is something else more profound than this.
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Until the publication of Bernal's work in the late 1980s, the White academic establishment took little notice of what was emerging as "Afrocentrism." However, Black nationalist historiography had already put down deep roots in the African American community. In the nineteenth century writers like Edward Blyden and Martin Delany pointed the way. In the twentieth century J. A. Rogers and others emphasized the Black contributions to "High Cultures" of the Old World, contributions which they argued had been for too long denied. At the same time, religious groups, like the Moorish Science Temple and, later, the Nation of Islam, created a completely alternative cosmology and narrative for African Americans. This responded to the predominant ideology of White supremacy and created a universal history in which the North American racial hierarchy was turned on its head. Blacks were the original people and whites were a devolution.
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According to Afrocentrism, African history and culture began in ancient Egypt, which was the birthplace of world civilization. Egypt presided over a unified black Africa until its ideas and technologies were stolen and its record of accomplishments obscured by Europeans. Afrocentrists assert that traditional African culture contrasts with European culture in being more informed by its history (“circular” rather than “linear”); more cooperative; more intuitive; and more closely integrated with the spiritual world of gods and ghosts. Renewed attention to this culture, they argue, can benefit African Americans psychologically by reminding them that their own culture, which was long devalued by Americans of European descent, has a rich and ancient heritage. In addition to emphasizing the past, Afrocentrism encourages the preservation and elevation of contemporary African American culture as manifested in language, cuisine, music, dance, and clothing.
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The origins of Afrocentrism can be found in the work of African-American and Caribbean intellectuals early in the twentieth century. Publications such as The Crisis and the Journal of Negro History sought to counter the prevailing view in the West that Africa had contributed nothing of value to human history that was not the result of incursions by Europeans and Arabs. These journals asserted the fundamental blackness of ancient Egypt and investigated the history of black Africa. Editor of The Crisis W.E.B. DuBois researched West African culture and attempted to construct a pan-Africanist value system based on West African traditions. DuBois later envisioned and received funding from then Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah to produce an Encyclopedia Africana that would chronicle the history and cultures of black Africa, but he died before the work could be completed.
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Afrocentrism was influenced by several earlier black nationalist movements, including Ethiopianism and Pan-Africanism. The latter became a major presence in the United States and elsewhere with the emergence of the Jamaican activist Marcus Garvey, who promoted the idea of an African diaspora and called for a separate African state for black Americans. Garvey's bitter enemy, W.E.B. Du Bois, who helped to found the integration-minded National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) in 1909, was ... interested in Pan-Africanism and organized world conferences on the subject from 1919 to 1927. Other antecedents included the Negritude literary movement, launched in France in the 1930s by Francophone African intellectuals such as Léopold Senghor, and the Nation of Islam, whose leaders—including Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X—preached not only the need for a black homeland but also the cultural and genetic superiority of blacks.
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Afrocentrism