African Diva

“The Intellectual and Institutional Development of Africana Studies” specifically discusses the progression of Africana studies in higher education originating from the communities. The author, Harris Jr (2001), documents the evolution of African studies within four stages of development. These stages span from the 1890s to present day, beginning from documentation to Scientific racism to Black campus movement to refinement.Africana studies began through the documentation of the history and culture of African-Americans to preserve their history, most especially within the academic spaces.

 This led to the next stage that focused on defending and re-categorizing black history as its truthful nature, whereas white scholars would try to degrade the recorded history. After, there sparked activism within college campuses after the assassination of Martin Luther King, initiating the creation of the Africana studies department to begin educating students on the history that was demonized and invalidated due to its revelation of behaviors that wanted to be erased. Presently, Africana studies contain more than just the history of Black American history; including Africology which consists of the global African diaspora and afrocentricity.

The article, “Sociology of Africa: A Non-Orientalist Approach to African, Africana, and Black Studies” by Tugrul Keskin discusses the bias in how Africa is not only perceived, but studied as well through its eurocentric perspective. Keskin (2014) critiques the eurocentric bias because it limits the perception and understanding of Africa, as well as how the bias degrades the cultures being studied. Therefore, the author proposes a new method for studying the sociology of Africa, in order to make the learning unbiased and decolonized from the eurocentric perspective. That allows a more extensive study of Africa, thoroughly understanding and explaining the different societal dynamics and culture insights from an indigenous perspective. 

This would offer a magnified lens into Africa, providing a comprehensive study similar to those about Europe and the western world. Orientalism reduces the portrayal of Africa, establishing an inferiority, while not allowing for further research. The opposition of orientalism would combat against western theories and convey an honest and authentic framework for the sociology of Africa, through its histories and realities of the present. 

In the book, The Negro and Language by Frantz Fanon, the chapter titled Black skin, white masks discusses the challenges that were faced people who are colonized in regards to language. Fanon (1967) utilized the example of language to explain how colonization pushes for the erasure of the original culture of the colonized in order for them to assimilate to the culture of the colonizer in the guise of equality, however it appears to be more like supremacy. Fanon (1967) describes language as “it means above all to assume a culture, to support the weight of civilization”  (Fanon, 1967, p. 17-18). Language is heavily important within a society and it was wielded as a way to alienate, discriminate, and used as a standard for others to follow. 

Fanon (1967) emphasizes how the eurocentric lens or the colonizer’s perspective held a fixed picture of the black man which is to demoralize and dehumanize them if they are not able to assimilate with them. Unfortunately, even those that try to assimilate with the colonizer’s standard and language in order to obtain upward mobility in class remain as outsiders never being completely accepted into the culture due to their race. Therefore, there becomes this battle within the colonized where they are not accepted by the colonized or the colonizer and it begets alienation. 

In the article, “Anthropology, Afrocentricity, and African American Studies: Toward a Sincere Discipline” by Jonathan Gayles, the author discusses how afrocentricity is not a subject that is evaluated or even used in order to understand the life of African Americans and Black people all over the world. Afrocentricity is known to be an intellectual framework that centers around the African people, history and experiences. Gayles (2008) believes that the afrocentric framework should be included within the anthropological and Africana studies as a perspective, most especially when the studies revolve around African/Diaspora culture. 

This perspective critiques the absence of afrocentricity in the subject of anthropology, displaying how it is mainly biased towards a eurocentric lens. Gayles (2008) explains that afrocentricity will bring an understanding of race and culture in a more holistic and vast manner. It would allow a more in-depth understanding through the African perspective, allowing them to have control of their narrative and how they want it to be portrayed. The integration of afrocentricity will create a difference and expand the mindset of how people learn about African and diaspora culture. 

Works Cited 

In the documentary, Paris is Burning, the audience is able to take an inside look of the Black and POC LGBTQ community and into their subculture of “house” culture. It displays the consequences of oppressive systems that forces and creates this bond within the LGBTQ community in their activities, forming a safe community for those who have been exiled from their original homes. Livingston (1991) interviewed different people that were involved in the “house” culture, providing an insight of the progression of their lives to the very point of the filming of the documentary. The documentary gives a bittersweet illustration of a diversified community that lacks protection and societal support, while creating houses for those within the LGBTQ community that were not able to find homes. However, the film received criticism from a renowned author, bell hooks, because of what the documentary was able to encapsulate and what seemed to be an avoidance of discussing the institutions and powers that force the subculture of house. 

In the chapter, "Is Paris Burning?”, from bell hooks’ book, Black looks: Race and representation, hooks expresses her criticism of the documentary on how it did not involve certain discussions that would be important and explanatory within the film. Author hooks discussed that the film’s focus lies mainly on the pageantry of the ballroom and house culture.  “Much of the film's focus on pageantry takes the ritual of the black drag ball and makes it spectacle” (hooks, 1992, p. 150). hooks also believes that the documentary lacked the depth from a filmmaker that is a white lesbian filmmaker because the film was created from the author’s specific perspective (hooks, 1992).  

Works Cited Livingston, J. (Director). (1991). Paris is Burning [Film]. Academy Entertainment