Civilisations vol. 58 (1)

Spring 2009

American Afrocentrisms
Mythologies and Social Practices

Guest editor: Pauline Guedj

Since the 1990s, an ever-growing number of books have focused on Afrocentrism. Aiming, as stated by one of the field’s foremost propagators, Molefi Asante, at “putting Africa at the center of human history”, that theory has being strongly provocative. It comes as no surprise that « anti-Afrocentrist » historians and anthropologists alike have sharply criticized same, arguing that the fundamental keystones of Afrocentrism – the existence of a cultural unity in Africa, the blackness of the population of ancient Egypt and the Egyptian ancestry to the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome – have yet to be scientifically proven.
Without denying the interests of anti-afrocentrist contributions, the articles comprising this special issue are not intended to champion or challenge either side of the aforementioned debate. Rather, it will be our goal to consider Afrocentrism as an anthropological, historical and sociological construction, a social production born out of Black nationalism and of Black peoples’ ongoing battle against racism and oppression.

The issue will specifically concentrate on the manifestations of Afrocentrism in the United States, where it has existed in embryo since the beginning of the twentieth century. Articles will place afrocentrism in its historical and sociological context and will analyze its effects on various social practices including religion, education, politics, trade and art. As such, the popular Afrocentrism addressed in this issue, as distinguished from the Afrocentrism of academic circles, will reflect that which is prevalent amongst various social categories of the African-American population, and which anthropologists, sociologists and historians constantly encounter in connection with their research in the United States.

Articles comprising this thematic issue can adopt various angles (historical, anthropological, sociological) and address the different aspects of social life that have been impacted by afrocentrism (politics, religion, art, economy…).

Key words : Afrocentrism, United States, African Americans, Black nationalism, Social practices.

Propositions of articles either in English or French (title + 250 words abstract) should be sent before the 1st May 2008 both to the editorial board of the journal (civilisations@ulb.ac.be and jnoret@ulb.ac.be) and to the guest editor of the journal issue, Pauline Guedj (guedjpp@aol.com).

Civilisations is a bi-annual peer-reviewed journal published by the Institute of Sociology of the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Published continuously since 1951, it encourages submissions of articles, in English or in French, on a wide range of topic consistent with anthropology, without any geographic or historical constraint. Civilisations welcome especially articles at the interface between anthropology and other social sciences in order to better understand the processes of society building.

Information for authors available on http://www.ulb.ac.be/is/revciv.html#presentation