Knowledge From the Afrikan World, For the World

PMC Articles

The role of the Africentric worldview in the Liberatory process

PMCID: PMC10130429

PMID:

Abstract

As the Black Lives Matter movement brings increasing awareness to systemic racism in American society, the Eurocentric worldview and intellectual racism nonetheless remain prevalent. However, opportunity to engage with Africentric knowledge that could help counter the focus on Eurocentric worldview among adults remains limited in graduate courses. When such opportunities do arise, however, they are powerful and transformative. This paper conducts a case study of four students of African descent enrolled in graduate programs that engaged with Africentric knowledge. The results demonstrate that such experiences can create a powerful Liberatory transformation. The five step Liberatory process is a cognitive awakening and a discussion of the implications for practice and research are presented as well.

Full Text

In recent years, consciousness of racial identity issues has significantly increased in many regards. One principal manifestation of this heightened awareness is the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the resultant open acknowledgment of systemic racism in many aspects of contemporary American society (Hargons et al., 2017). However, even as the nation reckons with systemic racism in its more tangible forms, systemic intellectual racism remains more challenging to address (Dei and Linton, 2019). In particular, systemic intellectual racism is a product of the American educational system's foundation on a Eurocentric worldview that does not ascribe appropriate agency to African persons (McLeod et al., 2019). This blind spot in the educational system extends to adult education, a particularly troubling fact given the comprehensive and reflective nature of education for students who have already matured into adulthood.
When adult education meaningfully engages with racial identity, it can create a transformative, so-called “Liberatory” experience. This idea emerged in the field of Black psychology, for example, in the work of Grills et al. (2018), who reviewed the work of the Association of Black Psychologists' work through the development of models of psychological practice, theory, and strategies grounded in African-centered and Black psychology. Such efforts to design an educational experience that engages with students' racial background and fosters racial identification can make a beneficial impact, in terms of both overcoming existing intellectual blind spots as well as helping students of African descent gain a valuable understanding of their unique sociohistorical background (Kelly and Patrice, 2019). However, when adult education of people of African descent fails to incorporate an African-centric (or Africentric) worldview, the experience fails to provide adequate value for Black students and might reinforce existing intellectual blind spots. This, in turn, deprives people of African descent of an important chance to engage with their own heritage and kinship with the broader African diaspora.
Given the purpose of this study—to examine the experiences of doctoral students of African descent—a qualitative methodology was the most appropriate approach to conducting this research. Qualitative research is descriptive and exploratory, serving as an ideal means for examining phenomena that have been relegated to the periphery of existing research (Merriam and Tisdell, 2015). Because a qualitative method is open-ended, it accommodates the exploration of all potentially present perspectives and perceptions within a population of interest (Merriam and Tisdell, 2015). This makes the qualitative lens ideal for exploring the educational experiences of doctoral students of African descent and investigating the Liberatory, transformative processes that they might have undergone. This study is deeply subjective in nature as well as entirely exploratory, making it innately qualitative in nature. Further, I acknowledge my background affected the study to some extent; however, my experience also prove to be a significant resource in making sense of the literature on the topic.
This study employed a qualitative research design employed based on a case study approach. When conducting a case study, the researcher examines one or more specific cases in order to draw conclusions about the phenomenon as a whole as well as collect contextual information (Yin, 2017). In this case, the study was concerned with the contextual aspects of the participants' experiences. Moreover, the specific case under study is relatively unique in the adult educational milieu.
The theoretical framework for this study was critical race theory, which focuses on the lived experiences of ethnic minority communities in relation to race as well as race relations (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001). Researchers have noted that critical race theory can be utilized in evaluating the different ways in which racism and race indirectly as well as directly influence ethnic minorities (Yosso, 2005). Within the framework of critical race theory racism is viewed as both an individual and group level phenomenon that works on multiple levels, including systematic and institutional. Critical race theory considers how the social constructed nature of race results in racial inequity, prejudice, and subordination, which in this context concerns the marginalization of Africentric knowledge thorough excessive systematic and institutional focus on Eurocentric worldview.
Data collection for this study rested primarily upon the use of qualitative interviews with the participants. These interviews examined how the Africentric knowledge base impacted each participant affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally. Semi-structured interviews, which were the primary method for gathering qualitative data, enabled the researcher to understand the participants' opinions and perceptions (Kallio et al., 2016). The semi-structured interview is flexible yet structured; a structured interview guide and sample questions ensured that each interview captured the essential points and provided the freedom to ask follow-up or probing questions to fully understand key issues (Kallio et al., 2016).
In this study, the traditional methods of qualitative analysis, such as qualitative thematic analysis, were set aside in favor of an analytical approach based on the study's theoretical underpinnings. The analytical approach provides a theoretical basis for describing the Liberatory process of transformation from a Eurocentric to an African-centered worldview. First, the analysis drew on the concepts discussed in Woodson's (1933) The Mis-education of the Negro to understand, describe, and articulate the research participant's experience of intellectual racism in their formal educations whereby they were misinformed or ignorant about their intellectual and sociocultural history. In addition, the concept of the self was understood using Du Bois's concept of “The Dilemma of the Double Consciousness” (Du Bois, 1903). The concept of Liberation was a key analytical tool for understanding the process of becoming free from the ignorance of their intellectual and sociocultural history and the transformation in their worldview as they learned about their intellectual and sociocultural history. Finally, the Nguzo Saba or Seven Principles—Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamma (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity), and Imani (faith)—were used to determine how the Liberatory transformative process resulting from the study of the Africentric intellectual knowledge base manifested in their lives affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally. The results of this Africentric analysis follow.
Given that the pre-awareness stage was essentially a starting point, the step of summoning Selfethnic awareness represents the next meaningful step in the Liberatory process. This step corresponds to the participants' introduction to the Africentric intellectual knowledge base as a part of their curriculum. As highlighted in the pre-awareness step, part of the Liberatory process involves being freed from one's own negative self-image (Dhaliwal et al., 2020). Despite his head start in terms of Selfethnic identity, Mufasa was no less engaged at this stage, noting that, “It was a blessing for me to be able to again pursue this school of thought and be nurtured and be encouraged…it was sort of the natural thing for me to gravitate toward the Afrocentric paradigm.” In this sense, Mufasa's prior experiences strengthened his engagement with the Africentric knowledge base.
Selfethnic awareness is a cognitive encounter in which a person of African descent acknowledges an awareness of a sociocultural history that places them within the African diaspora. As a result of exposure to the Africentric knowledge base during graduate studies, a person of African descent makes a cognitive correlation between themselves and their racial group (Stanger, 2018). This is key to the Liberatory process.
To understand the need for a Liberatory process derived from engagement with African knowledge, it is important to begin from the standpoint of understanding the prevalence of the Eurocentric worldview in the US and elsewhere. According to Nathan Ron, one's “worldview” is their perspective on how humans think, behave, and act in the world (Ron, 2019). A Eurocentric worldview ascribes emphasis on individualism, material possessions, wealth, domination, and oppositional dialecticism (e.g., good vs. evil or right vs. wrong; Muradian, 2019). These characteristics of the Eurocentric worldview, which evolved from a long philosophical tradition with roots in ancient Greece and Rome, are deeply ingrained throughout Western society and reflect a European historical context (Akpan and Odohoedi, 2016). The Eurocentric worldview is not, conceptually speaking, either right or wrong, but, rather, a perspective appropriate for Europeans and those of European descent (McLeod et al., 2019).
Given that the appropriateness of Eurocentrism is defined in terms of Europeans and their descendants, it is appropriate to define a distinct, parallel worldview centered on Africa and those of African descent (Nwoye, 2017). According to Appiah-Kubi and Aabaa (2019), viewing the world from an African-centered position enables one to see cultural activities, social interactions, political situations, and other phenomena from an orientation that prioritizes the position and interest of African peoples. One who ascribes to an African-centered worldview emphasizes the group, cooperation, and spirituality (Schiele, 2017). A characteristic African-centered worldview views wealth as equivalent to well-being, sees beauty as measured by behavior, and strives to co-exist with nature rather than conquer it (Marimba, 2017). The most well-known term to represent an African-centered worldview is “Afrocentricity”, as defined by Asante (2003):
A mode of thought and action in which the centrality of African interest, values and perspectives predominate. In regards to theory, it is the placing of African people in the center of any analysis of African phenomena, in alignment with the theoretical framework of the study, critical race theory, which focuses on the experiences of ethnic minorities (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001). Thus, it is possible for anyone to master the discipline of seeking the location of Africans in a given phenomenon. In terms of action and behavior, it is a devotion to the idea that what is in the best interest of African consciousness is at the heart of ethical behavior. Finally, Afrocentricity seeks to enshrine the idea that blackness itself is a trope of ethics. Thus, to be black is to be against all forms of oppression, racism, classism, homophobia, patriarchy, child abuse, pedophilia and white racial domination (p. 2).
Given that many people share both African and European ancestry, the Africentric worldview is not, and need not be, the only worldview held by those of African descent, and yet the Africentric worldview nonetheless often holds a special significance for such persons. Africentrism encompasses not only a view of the world in which members of the African diaspora are actors and agents in their experiences, but also the knowledge that a positive image of the “self” exists and that the “self” is an intrinsic characteristic positively connected to race (Boutte et al., 2017).
A key component of Africentrism is the Nguzo Saba, which reflects “the seven African Centered, transcontinental and transgenerational values/principles: Nia (Purpose), Imani (Faith), Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (selfethnic determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamma (cooperative economics), and Kuumba (creativity)” (Colin, 1988, n.p). The Nguzo Saba, as described by Maulana Karenga, identifies the cultural behaviors indigenous to members of the African diaspora that are essential to an Africentric consciousness (Karenga, 1989). It reflects culturally grounded beliefs and principles. These concepts are a central underpinning of the present study.
Another key concept in this study is Assante's notion of the “Selfethnic,” whereby African peoples are positioned at the center of any analysis of African phenomena. This key concept denotes an analysis that leads to “Selfethnic” awareness by focusing on African people as subjects rather than objects (Colin and Scipio, 1989). Scipio Colin, who proposed the Selfethnic liberation, characterized it as a process to “establish principles that will liberate them from the destructive effects of socio-cultural and intellectual racism” (p. 16). Engaging the world through an Africentric worldview can, for those of African descent, give rise to a “Liberation” that places people of African descent at the center of the related analysis (Cook, 2019). This notion is central to understanding African-American racial identity as it accommodates an agent and actor analysis of all phenomena, counteracts the negative impact of intellectual and sociocultural racism, and therefore provides a path to the transformation of the “self” into the “Selfethnic” (Howard, 2009).
To understand this Liberatory process, it is necessary to first define Liberation. For this purpose, Liberation is taken to mean freedom—freedom of the body, spirit, and mind. More importantly, this freedom creates space for new concepts and ideas that are in the best interest of the individual as he or she relates to the collective (Asante, 2020). The Liberatory process of engaging with the Africentric knowledge base frees a person—one who would be better served by an Africentric worldview—from a Eurocentric worldview (Dalmage and Martinez, 2020). This Liberatory process as it manifests in graduate adult education programs is the focus of the present study. In this context, the Africentric knowledge base refers to the accumulated knowledge that has been established from examining the world through an Africentric worldview (Nwoye, 2017). In recent years, this knowledge base has become increasingly expansive and yet, within the context of the African diaspora, remains underutilized in many respects.
The findings of the study addressed a gap in the literature presented due to American educational system's foundation on a Eurocentric worldview that does not ascribe appropriate agency to African persons (McLeod et al., 2019). This blind spot in the educational system extends to adult education, a particularly troubling fact given the comprehensive and reflective nature of education for students who have already matured into adulthood. Broadly speaking, the results of this study demonstrate how, even in an era of lower racial awareness and activism than today's, simply being exposed to Africentric knowledge can be a powerful and transformative experience. The participants in this study gained knowledge of the Selfethnic and experienced a paradigmatic shift to African-centered values and beliefs. As was previously established, deep wisdom and understanding of the Selfethnic is the highest level of cognition that a person of African descent can experience during the Africentric Liberatory transformative process of self to Selfethnic. The person of African descent sheds Eurocentrically held values and beliefs and embraces African-centered values and beliefs. The person of African descent becomes a living example of the legacy, hopes, dreams, and knowledge of their ancestors, with a chosen commitment to serve as an agent and actor in the mission of extending Selfethnic Liberatory transformation to all members of the African diaspora. The values and beliefs exhibited in the behavior of a person who has been impacted by Selfethnic knowledge demonstrate a commitment to liberating other members of their race through their daily lives and work, as reflected in the Nguzo Saba (Lateef and Anthony, 2020).
In contextualizing the results of this study, it is important to emphasize that the data were collected in 2005, when issues of Africentricity were less at the forefront than they are today. At the time the study was conducted, the adult education program that the participants attended was highly experimental. Subsequent events, such as the election of President Obama (Sikanku, 2020) and the popularity of the movie Black Panther (Babb, 2020), have caused Africentricity and Selfethnic identification to become more mainstream than when the interviews were conducted. At the same time, however, the rise and ongoing prevalence of the Black Lives Matter protests provides convincing evidence that issues surrounding racism, intellectual and otherwise, are far from resolved (Hargons et al., 2017). On the contrary, systemic racism in the US remains ubiquitous and increasingly problematic. In adult education, this continues to be manifested in the lack of Africentric content, a shortcoming that should be immediately addressed. For these reasons, the results of this study continue to be relevant. If introduction to the Africentric knowledge base was effective for giving rise to a Liberatory experience in 2005, then this approach to combating the effects of systemic racism in adult education holds great promise for its application today.

Sections

"[{\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B16\", \"B11\", \"B23\"], \"section\": \"1. Introduction\", \"text\": \"In recent years, consciousness of racial identity issues has significantly increased in many regards. One principal manifestation of this heightened awareness is the emergence of the Black Lives Matter movement and the resultant open acknowledgment of systemic racism in many aspects of contemporary American society (Hargons et al., 2017). However, even as the nation reckons with systemic racism in its more tangible forms, systemic intellectual racism remains more challenging to address (Dei and Linton, 2019). In particular, systemic intellectual racism is a product of the American educational system's foundation on a Eurocentric worldview that does not ascribe appropriate agency to African persons (McLeod et al., 2019). This blind spot in the educational system extends to adult education, a particularly troubling fact given the comprehensive and reflective nature of education for students who have already matured into adulthood.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B15\", \"B20\"], \"section\": \"1. Introduction\", \"text\": \"When adult education meaningfully engages with racial identity, it can create a transformative, so-called \\u201cLiberatory\\u201d experience. This idea emerged in the field of Black psychology, for example, in the work of Grills et al. (2018), who reviewed the work of the Association of Black Psychologists' work through the development of models of psychological practice, theory, and strategies grounded in African-centered and Black psychology. Such efforts to design an educational experience that engages with students' racial background and fosters racial identification can make a beneficial impact, in terms of both overcoming existing intellectual blind spots as well as helping students of African descent gain a valuable understanding of their unique sociohistorical background (Kelly and Patrice, 2019). However, when adult education of people of African descent fails to incorporate an African-centric (or Africentric) worldview, the experience fails to provide adequate value for Black students and might reinforce existing intellectual blind spots. This, in turn, deprives people of African descent of an important chance to engage with their own heritage and kinship with the broader African diaspora.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B24\", \"B24\"], \"section\": \"2.1. Methodology and design\", \"text\": \"Given the purpose of this study\\u2014to examine the experiences of doctoral students of African descent\\u2014a qualitative methodology was the most appropriate approach to conducting this research. Qualitative research is descriptive and exploratory, serving as an ideal means for examining phenomena that have been relegated to the periphery of existing research (Merriam and Tisdell, 2015). Because a qualitative method is open-ended, it accommodates the exploration of all potentially present perspectives and perceptions within a population of interest (Merriam and Tisdell, 2015). This makes the qualitative lens ideal for exploring the educational experiences of doctoral students of African descent and investigating the Liberatory, transformative processes that they might have undergone. This study is deeply subjective in nature as well as entirely exploratory, making it innately qualitative in nature. Further, I acknowledge my background affected the study to some extent; however, my experience also prove to be a significant resource in making sense of the literature on the topic.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B32\"], \"section\": \"2.1. Methodology and design\", \"text\": \"This study employed a qualitative research design employed based on a case study approach. When conducting a case study, the researcher examines one or more specific cases in order to draw conclusions about the phenomenon as a whole as well as collect contextual information (Yin, 2017). In this case, the study was concerned with the contextual aspects of the participants' experiences. Moreover, the specific case under study is relatively unique in the adult educational milieu.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B12\", \"B33\"], \"section\": \"2.1. Methodology and design\", \"text\": \"The theoretical framework for this study was critical race theory, which focuses on the lived experiences of ethnic minority communities in relation to race as well as race relations (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001). Researchers have noted that critical race theory can be utilized in evaluating the different ways in which racism and race indirectly as well as directly influence ethnic minorities (Yosso, 2005). Within the framework of critical race theory racism is viewed as both an individual and group level phenomenon that works on multiple levels, including systematic and institutional. Critical race theory considers how the social constructed nature of race results in racial inequity, prejudice, and subordination, which in this context concerns the marginalization of Africentric knowledge thorough excessive systematic and institutional focus on Eurocentric worldview.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B18\", \"B18\"], \"section\": \"2.3. Data collection\", \"text\": \"Data collection for this study rested primarily upon the use of qualitative interviews with the participants. These interviews examined how the Africentric knowledge base impacted each participant affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally. Semi-structured interviews, which were the primary method for gathering qualitative data, enabled the researcher to understand the participants' opinions and perceptions (Kallio et al., 2016). The semi-structured interview is flexible yet structured; a structured interview guide and sample questions ensured that each interview captured the essential points and provided the freedom to ask follow-up or probing questions to fully understand key issues (Kallio et al., 2016).\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B31\", \"B14\"], \"section\": \"2.4. Data analysis\", \"text\": \"In this study, the traditional methods of qualitative analysis, such as qualitative thematic analysis, were set aside in favor of an analytical approach based on the study's theoretical underpinnings. The analytical approach provides a theoretical basis for describing the Liberatory process of transformation from a Eurocentric to an African-centered worldview. First, the analysis drew on the concepts discussed in Woodson's (1933) The Mis-education of the Negro to understand, describe, and articulate the research participant's experience of intellectual racism in their formal educations whereby they were misinformed or ignorant about their intellectual and sociocultural history. In addition, the concept of the self was understood using Du Bois's concept of \\u201cThe Dilemma of the Double Consciousness\\u201d (Du Bois, 1903). The concept of Liberation was a key analytical tool for understanding the process of becoming free from the ignorance of their intellectual and sociocultural history and the transformation in their worldview as they learned about their intellectual and sociocultural history. Finally, the Nguzo Saba or Seven Principles\\u2014Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamma (cooperative economics), Nia (purpose), Kuumba (creativity), and Imani (faith)\\u2014were used to determine how the Liberatory transformative process resulting from the study of the Africentric intellectual knowledge base manifested in their lives affectively, cognitively, and behaviorally. The results of this Africentric analysis follow.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B13\"], \"section\": \"3.3. Stage II: summoning to selfethnic awareness\", \"text\": \"Given that the pre-awareness stage was essentially a starting point, the step of summoning Selfethnic awareness represents the next meaningful step in the Liberatory process. This step corresponds to the participants' introduction to the Africentric intellectual knowledge base as a part of their curriculum. As highlighted in the pre-awareness step, part of the Liberatory process involves being freed from one's own negative self-image (Dhaliwal et al., 2020). Despite his head start in terms of Selfethnic identity, Mufasa was no less engaged at this stage, noting that, \\u201cIt was a blessing for me to be able to again pursue this school of thought and be nurtured and be encouraged\\u2026it was sort of the natural thing for me to gravitate toward the Afrocentric paradigm.\\u201d In this sense, Mufasa's prior experiences strengthened his engagement with the Africentric knowledge base.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B30\"], \"section\": \"3.3. Stage II: summoning to selfethnic awareness\", \"text\": \"Selfethnic awareness is a cognitive encounter in which a person of African descent acknowledges an awareness of a sociocultural history that places them within the African diaspora. As a result of exposure to the Africentric knowledge base during graduate studies, a person of African descent makes a cognitive correlation between themselves and their racial group (Stanger, 2018). This is key to the Liberatory process.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B27\", \"B25\", \"B1\", \"B23\"], \"section\": \"4. Discussion\", \"text\": \"To understand the need for a Liberatory process derived from engagement with African knowledge, it is important to begin from the standpoint of understanding the prevalence of the Eurocentric worldview in the US and elsewhere. According to Nathan Ron, one's \\u201cworldview\\u201d is their perspective on how humans think, behave, and act in the world (Ron, 2019). A Eurocentric worldview ascribes emphasis on individualism, material possessions, wealth, domination, and oppositional dialecticism (e.g., good vs. evil or right vs. wrong; Muradian, 2019). These characteristics of the Eurocentric worldview, which evolved from a long philosophical tradition with roots in ancient Greece and Rome, are deeply ingrained throughout Western society and reflect a European historical context (Akpan and Odohoedi, 2016). The Eurocentric worldview is not, conceptually speaking, either right or wrong, but, rather, a perspective appropriate for Europeans and those of European descent (McLeod et al., 2019).\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B26\", \"B2\", \"B28\", \"B22\", \"B3\"], \"section\": \"4. Discussion\", \"text\": \"Given that the appropriateness of Eurocentrism is defined in terms of Europeans and their descendants, it is appropriate to define a distinct, parallel worldview centered on Africa and those of African descent (Nwoye, 2017). According to Appiah-Kubi and Aabaa (2019), viewing the world from an African-centered position enables one to see cultural activities, social interactions, political situations, and other phenomena from an orientation that prioritizes the position and interest of African peoples. One who ascribes to an African-centered worldview emphasizes the group, cooperation, and spirituality (Schiele, 2017). A characteristic African-centered worldview views wealth as equivalent to well-being, sees beauty as measured by behavior, and strives to co-exist with nature rather than conquer it (Marimba, 2017). The most well-known term to represent an African-centered worldview is \\u201cAfrocentricity\\u201d, as defined by Asante (2003):\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B12\"], \"section\": \"4. Discussion\", \"text\": \"A mode of thought and action in which the centrality of African interest, values and perspectives predominate. In regards to theory, it is the placing of African people in the center of any analysis of African phenomena, in alignment with the theoretical framework of the study, critical race theory, which focuses on the experiences of ethnic minorities (Delgado and Stefancic, 2001). Thus, it is possible for anyone to master the discipline of seeking the location of Africans in a given phenomenon. In terms of action and behavior, it is a devotion to the idea that what is in the best interest of African consciousness is at the heart of ethical behavior. Finally, Afrocentricity seeks to enshrine the idea that blackness itself is a trope of ethics. Thus, to be black is to be against all forms of oppression, racism, classism, homophobia, patriarchy, child abuse, pedophilia and white racial domination (p. 2).\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B6\"], \"section\": \"4. Discussion\", \"text\": \"Given that many people share both African and European ancestry, the Africentric worldview is not, and need not be, the only worldview held by those of African descent, and yet the Africentric worldview nonetheless often holds a special significance for such persons. Africentrism encompasses not only a view of the world in which members of the African diaspora are actors and agents in their experiences, but also the knowledge that a positive image of the \\u201cself\\u201d exists and that the \\u201cself\\u201d is an intrinsic characteristic positively connected to race (Boutte et al., 2017).\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B8\", \"B19\"], \"section\": \"4. Discussion\", \"text\": \"A key component of Africentrism is the Nguzo Saba, which reflects \\u201cthe seven African Centered, transcontinental and transgenerational values/principles: Nia (Purpose), Imani (Faith), Umoja (unity), Kujichagulia (selfethnic determination), Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Ujamma (cooperative economics), and Kuumba (creativity)\\u201d (Colin, 1988, n.p). The Nguzo Saba, as described by Maulana Karenga, identifies the cultural behaviors indigenous to members of the African diaspora that are essential to an Africentric consciousness (Karenga, 1989). It reflects culturally grounded beliefs and principles. These concepts are a central underpinning of the present study.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B7\", \"B9\", \"B17\"], \"section\": \"4. Discussion\", \"text\": \"Another key concept in this study is Assante's notion of the \\u201cSelfethnic,\\u201d whereby African peoples are positioned at the center of any analysis of African phenomena. This key concept denotes an analysis that leads to \\u201cSelfethnic\\u201d awareness by focusing on African people as subjects rather than objects (Colin and Scipio, 1989). Scipio Colin, who proposed the Selfethnic liberation, characterized it as a process to \\u201cestablish principles that will liberate them from the destructive effects of socio-cultural and intellectual racism\\u201d (p. 16). Engaging the world through an Africentric worldview can, for those of African descent, give rise to a \\u201cLiberation\\u201d that places people of African descent at the center of the related analysis (Cook, 2019). This notion is central to understanding African-American racial identity as it accommodates an agent and actor analysis of all phenomena, counteracts the negative impact of intellectual and sociocultural racism, and therefore provides a path to the transformation of the \\u201cself\\u201d into the \\u201cSelfethnic\\u201d (Howard, 2009).\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B4\", \"B10\", \"B26\"], \"section\": \"4. Discussion\", \"text\": \"To understand this Liberatory process, it is necessary to first define Liberation. For this purpose, Liberation is taken to mean freedom\\u2014freedom of the body, spirit, and mind. More importantly, this freedom creates space for new concepts and ideas that are in the best interest of the individual as he or she relates to the collective (Asante, 2020). The Liberatory process of engaging with the Africentric knowledge base frees a person\\u2014one who would be better served by an Africentric worldview\\u2014from a Eurocentric worldview (Dalmage and Martinez, 2020). This Liberatory process as it manifests in graduate adult education programs is the focus of the present study. In this context, the Africentric knowledge base refers to the accumulated knowledge that has been established from examining the world through an Africentric worldview (Nwoye, 2017). In recent years, this knowledge base has become increasingly expansive and yet, within the context of the African diaspora, remains underutilized in many respects.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B23\", \"B21\"], \"section\": \"4.1. Implications\", \"text\": \"The findings of the study addressed a gap in the literature presented due to American educational system's foundation on a Eurocentric worldview that does not ascribe appropriate agency to African persons (McLeod et al., 2019). This blind spot in the educational system extends to adult education, a particularly troubling fact given the comprehensive and reflective nature of education for students who have already matured into adulthood. Broadly speaking, the results of this study demonstrate how, even in an era of lower racial awareness and activism than today's, simply being exposed to Africentric knowledge can be a powerful and transformative experience. The participants in this study gained knowledge of the Selfethnic and experienced a paradigmatic shift to African-centered values and beliefs. As was previously established, deep wisdom and understanding of the Selfethnic is the highest level of cognition that a person of African descent can experience during the Africentric Liberatory transformative process of self to Selfethnic. The person of African descent sheds Eurocentrically held values and beliefs and embraces African-centered values and beliefs. The person of African descent becomes a living example of the legacy, hopes, dreams, and knowledge of their ancestors, with a chosen commitment to serve as an agent and actor in the mission of extending Selfethnic Liberatory transformation to all members of the African diaspora. The values and beliefs exhibited in the behavior of a person who has been impacted by Selfethnic knowledge demonstrate a commitment to liberating other members of their race through their daily lives and work, as reflected in the Nguzo Saba (Lateef and Anthony, 2020).\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10130429\", \"pmid\": \"\", \"reference_ids\": [\"B29\", \"B5\", \"B16\"], \"section\": \"4.1. Implications\", \"text\": \"In contextualizing the results of this study, it is important to emphasize that the data were collected in 2005, when issues of Africentricity were less at the forefront than they are today. At the time the study was conducted, the adult education program that the participants attended was highly experimental. Subsequent events, such as the election of President Obama (Sikanku, 2020) and the popularity of the movie Black Panther (Babb, 2020), have caused Africentricity and Selfethnic identification to become more mainstream than when the interviews were conducted. At the same time, however, the rise and ongoing prevalence of the Black Lives Matter protests provides convincing evidence that issues surrounding racism, intellectual and otherwise, are far from resolved (Hargons et al., 2017). On the contrary, systemic racism in the US remains ubiquitous and increasingly problematic. In adult education, this continues to be manifested in the lack of Africentric content, a shortcoming that should be immediately addressed. For these reasons, the results of this study continue to be relevant. If introduction to the Africentric knowledge base was effective for giving rise to a Liberatory experience in 2005, then this approach to combating the effects of systemic racism in adult education holds great promise for its application today.\"}]"

Metadata

"{}"