An Introduction to African-Centered Sociology: Worldview, Epistemology, and Social Theory

Abstract

Current advances in Africana (Black) Studies utilize an African-centered conceptual framework in the study of Africana life, history, and culture. This conceptual framework has been utilized and expanded on by those developing scholarship in the sub-discipline areas of Africana Studies, including African-centered psychology, history, and literature. However, to date the articulation of an African-centered sociology, grounded in an African-centered conceptual framework, has not developed; neither has it occurred for African-centered sociology as a sub-discipline of Africana Studies, a sub-discipline of traditional sociology, or as a stand-alone discipline, itself. After a review of the worldview concept and framework and an analysis of the intellectual history of Black Sociology, this article then discusses the possibility of an African-centered sociology contingent upon the usage of an African worldview as the conceptual framework. Finally, the impacts of an African-centered epistemology and African-centered social theory are considered for the future of African-centered sociology.