Pan-African Studies Research Articles

Black Studies in the 21st Century

This article is concerned with the fact that Black studies (or African American studies, Africana studies, Pan-African studies, African Centered studies, Afrocentric studies, Africalogical studies, African and African Diaspora studies—they all basically mean the same thing) continues to have a contested existence in the U.S. academy. However, regardless of the ever-present need to validate itself, this field defies all attempts to silence its voice. The works of Black studies scholars are “here, there, and everywhere” if one cares to take the time to search and sift through the many scholarly contributions. Admittedly, the field is very diverse with numerous schools of thought. Yet rather than viewing this diversity as a problem, it should endorse the fact that Black studies continues to make strides in the academy. This is not to suggest that there are not problems facing its growth and development in the university systems; this article shall highlight a number, but it does make a worthwhile claim against any notion of a decline in the scholarly interest in peoples of African descent, in terms of history, culture, socioeconomics, and politics.

Reconnecting Education to Social Justice

This special section of Amerasia Journal is a call to action for Ethnic Studies departments to take a major role in teacher preparation. Ethnic Studies departments were founded on the struggles of people (actually students) of color. At the guest editor's university - California State University, Northridge, which was formerly San Fernando Valley State College.Afro-American students in the late 1960s directly confronted the administration on its racism. In response, the administration brought in police who attacked, beat, and arrested the students. A coalition of Black, Latino, and White students closed down the university with a series of demonstrations, which culminated in a mass arrest. With support from nearby Afro-American and Mexican-American communities, the students ultimately gained major concessions from the university: a huge expansion of the Educational Opportunity Program and the formation of autonomous Pan African Studies and Chicano Studies departments. Today, to honor the legacy of the stu...

African People in the Global Village: An Introduction to Pan African Studies (review)

African People in the Global Village: An Introduction to Pan African Studies (review)

Wonders of the African Crisis

Wonders of the African World was a captivating program to watch. I saw it when the BBC spread the broadcast over six weeks in the UK but it was refreshing to watch it again packed into three days on the PBS here the US. I am disappointed that such a program was shown in the UK without a public debate whereas it has not gone unchallenged here in the US. This is probably a reflection of the fact that people of African descent are better organized in the US where they have successfully struggled for so many programs in Black Studies and Pan African Studies compared to the UK where such programs are almost completely non-existent. However, the lack of debate in the UK may be as a result of the disinterested way the BBC spread the broadcast over six weeks, making it more difficult to follow.

Pan Africanism in the African Diaspora: An Analysis of Modern Afrocentric Political Movements

This groundbreaking volume analyzes important case studies of Black political movements since the 1960s and the impact of the movements on the African-American community. Previous studies on this subject have been largely historical in nature, focusing on the thought of nineteenth-century Pan Africanist or early twentieth-century formal Pan African movements, such as those led by W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey. In this book, Walters analyzes heretofore largely unaddressed cases in which African-American societies forged connections with others in the Diaspora within the framework of significant political movements. He applies social science theory to the analysis of the cases, based on the proposition that Pan African studies - a subject within the broad field of Africana Studies - is itself very diverse and lends itself to analysis by an unlimited number of modern disciplinary approaches and perspectives. Walters uses the tools of comparative politics for examining similar Black and white social institutions and organizations in the United States and other countries and for creating a tailored Pan African perspective as a criteria with which to describe the interactive relationships between the American Black community and Blacks in Britain, South Africa, Brazil, and the Caribbean. He fashions a unique and radically new perspective and model for addressing the age-old question of the African continuum by advancing the notion that Pan Africanism can be about the struggle for community - a struggle not incompatible with efforts to change the State. His is a twenty-first century view of race relations and classes in the post-modern era of capitalism. Pan Africanism in the AfricanDiaspora is broadly a work of political science in that it is concerned with political phenomena and applies methods of analysis from that field. Nevertheless, it is also interdisciplinary in content, perspective, and analytical approach. Walters' new data transcends the notions pr

Introduction: An African Diaspora Perspective For Urban Anthropology

This special issue is the outgrowth of a 1985 American Anthropological Association symposium that the Association of Black Anthropologists (ABA) and the Society for Urban Anthropology (SUA) cosponsored.1 That session's and now this special issue's title plays on that of a recent book, BLACK FOLK HERE AND THERE: AN ESSAY IN HISTORY AND ANTHROPOLOGY, VOLUME I (1987)2 written by St. Clair Drake, to whom this two-phased project is dedicated. The title of Drake's publication in turn signals his debt to W.E.B. DuBois, the author of BLACK FOLK, THEN AND NOW: AN ESSAY IN THE HISTORY AND SOCIOLOGY OF THE NEGRO RACE (1939). The works of these two scholars, among many others, belong to an intellectual tradition too little known, understood, or appreciated beyond the boundaries of Black and Pan-African Studies, a framework for producing both knowledge and praxis. The purpose of this project has been threefold. First, we aim to bring the contributions of pioneers like Drake to the current discourse in mainstream anthropology, particularly to urban anthropology. Second, our objective is to demonstrate how the directions many urban anthropologists now follow have precedents not only in the commonly cited literature but also in neglected works certain Afro-American scholars produced in the periphery of American academic and intellectual life. Our third aim is to take a recurrent and key theme in Drake's works, viz., variant forms of domination and popular response in Africa and the African diaspora, and to address this broad problem from a variety of perspectives. With sociologist Horace Cayton, St. Clair Drake, while still a University of Chicago graduate student, wrote BLACK METROPOLIS: A STUDY OF NEGRO LIFE IN A NORTHERN CITY (1945). This book was an outcome of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) team-research effort that Lloyd Warner and Horace Cayton administered during the late 1930s. Before

On Critical and Administrative Research: A New Critical Analysis

Journal Article On Critical and Administrative Research: A New Critical Analysis Get access Dallas W. Smythe, Dallas W. Smythe 1Dallas W. Smythe is Professor of communications, Simon Fraser University. Tran Van Dinh is Professor in the Department of Pan-African Studies, Temple University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Tran Van Dinh Tran Van Dinh 1Dallas W. Smythe is Professor of communications, Simon Fraser University. Tran Van Dinh is Professor in the Department of Pan-African Studies, Temple University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Communication, Volume 33, Issue 3, September 1983, Pages 117–127, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1983.tb02413.x Published: 07 February 2006

University Students and Community Leaders: Awareness of Cross-Cultural Issues

Studies of university outreach programs have reported on recruiting efforts, adult education, extension courses, etc. There appears to be no research on interaction of academic institutions and multi-ethnic communities, or of students' involvement in community affairs. This study investigated awareness of cross-cultural issues of students and community leaders. 119 students in a Southern California university, departments of Education, Pan-African Studies, Psychology, and Sociology and 19 local community leaders responded to a questionnaire asking about awareness of issues, perceived role of the university, and knowledge of leaders in each sector. Students identified fewer issues than community leaders; community leaders foresaw a larger role for the university. Neither group recognized leaders of the other. Possible responses by the university to identified concerns are considered.

Ho Chi Minh as Communicator

Ho Chi Minh as Communicator Get access Tran Van Dinh Tran Van Dinh 1Tran Van Dinh, a former diplomat, teaches at the Institute of Pan African Studies, Temple University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Journal of Communication, Volume 26, Issue 4, December 1976, Pages 142–147, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.1976.tb01951.x Published: 07 February 2006