Molefi Kete Asante
14 August 1978
“As a people, our most cherished and valuable achievements are the achievements of spirit. With an Afrocentric spirit, all things can be made to happen; it is the source of genuine revolutionary commitment”
Image taken from The Cable
Molefi Kete Asante is a philosopher, educator, and author of more than 70 books. Asante is a significant figure in African American and African studies and is regarded as "one of the most distinguished contemporary scholars" by his colleagues. He is currently employed as a professor at Temple University in the Department of Africology; he also initiated the university's Ph.D. program in African American studies. Asante is well-known for his contributions to the Afrocentric worldview, which is the study of events and ideas from an African perspective.
Early Life
Molefi Asante was born Arthur Lee Smith Jr. on 14 August 1942 in Valdosta, Georgia, USA. He is of Sudanese (Nubian) and Nigerian (Yoruba) ancestry. Asante was the fourth child out of sixteen children in a huge family. His father, Arthur Lee Smith, worked in a peanut warehouse and later for the Georgia Southern Railroad, while his mother, Lillie B. Smith, was a domestic servant. He attended the Nashville Christian Institute, a residential school in Nashville, Tennessee, for black students founded by a Church of Christ. He returned to Georgia during the summers to work in the cotton and tobacco fields in order to raise money for his tuition. Asante was exposed to the civil rights movement during his senior year of high school and became involved by marching with the Fisk University student body.
Asante graduated from high school in 1960 and enrolled in a historically black university in Terrell, Texas, South-Western Christian College. While he was there, an intellectual Nigerian named Essien Essien encouraged him to learn more about Africa. Asante earned a bachelor's degree from Oklahoma Christian College in 1964 and a master's degree from Pepperdine University a year later. Not satisfied, Asante earned a Ph.D. in communication studies from UCLA in 1968, at the age of 26.
Career
Asante served as the Centre for AfroAmerican Studies director at UCLA for a brief period and co-founded the Journal of Black Studies with Robert Singleton in 1969. Additionally, he wrote Rhetoric of the Black Revolution, his study of the Civil Rights Movement, and one of the first. In 1972, Asante visited Ghana and the University of Ghana and decided to change his name from Arthur Smith to Molefi Kete Asante due to his visit. Molefi is a Sotho name that translates as "one who gives and maintains traditions." In 1973, he accepted a position as head of the Department of Communications at the State University of New York at Buffalo, which he held until 1980. While attending university, he developed the concept of intercultural and international communication and co-authored the first book in this field, The Handbook of Intercultural Communication, with his colleagues. Asante's work established him as a leader in communication education, supervising over one hundred doctoral dissertations. In 1986, Asante proposed the first African American studies doctoral program, which Temple University accepted, with the first classes beginning in 1988 and over 500 applicants.
Afrocentricity
In 1980, Asante was working at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when he published one of his most famous pieces of work, Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change. This was one of the first deep investigations into the concept of Afrocentricity, which gained momentum from the Black Power Movement in the late 1960s. Afrocentricity mainly focuses on self-determination and is a Pan-African viewpoint that puts Africans at the center of their narratives, changing how African-American history had been taught by Europeans.
In 1980, while working at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Asante published Afrocentricity: The Theory of Social Change, one of his most famous works. This was one of the first in-depth examinations of the concept of Afrocentricity, which gained popularity during the late 1960s Black Power Movement.
Afrocentricity is preoccupied with self-determination and is a Pan-African perspective that prioritizes Africans in their narratives, altering how Europeans teach African-American history.
Asante believes he founded the Afrocentric Movement, stating in an interview with Newsweek magazine that,
"Afrocentricity believes that in order to have a stable society, we must always have a society that respects differences."
In 1987, Asante published The Afrocentric Idea, in which he argued that Afrocentricity offers "not only a new perspective but also a new framework for understanding human behavior." Specific individuals, such as historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., criticized Asante's Afrocentric work, accusing him of implying that Europe is the source of evil and Africa is good.
Molefi Kete Asante continues to write and teach about African American studies at Temple University.
References
Afrocentrism | Definition, Examples, History, Beliefs, & Facts (2021). Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/Afrocentrism (Accessed: 24 May 2021). Biography | Dr. Molefi Kete Asante (2021).
Available at: http://www.asante.net/biography/ (Accessed: 24 May 2021). Faculty | College of Liberal Arts (2021).
Available at: https://liberalarts.temple.edu/academics/faculty/kete-asante-molefi (Accessed: 24 May 2021). Hornsby, A. (2007) Molefi Kete Asante/Arthur Lee Smith Jr. (1942- ) •,
Blackpast.org. Available at: https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/asante-molefi-ketearthur-lee-smith-jr-1942-2/ (Accessed: 24 May 2021).
TOP 6 QUOTES BY MOLEFI KETE ASANTE | A-Z Quotes (2021). Available at: https://www.azquotes.com/author/37257-Molefi_Kete_Asante (Accessed: 24 May 2021).
