Afrocentrism: Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes

The study of history hinges on the honest search for truth. Even though everyone has biases, it is critical that the ideal of objectivity be something that scholars strive for. Eurocentrism is a betrayal of this ideal as is Afrocentrism. In this volume, Stephen Howe critiques Afrocentrism from its earliest origins to the present day. The results are devastating. Over and over again Howe documents that the difference between Afrocentrists and mainline historians of Africana is that the Afrocentrists abandon widely accepted canons of evidence in favor of ideology. Howe analyzes most of the prominent Afrocentrist thinkers such as Molefi Asante, Martin Bernal, Cheikh Anta Diop, etc., and finds them to be less than objective in their approach to history. Howe also discusses the various strands of thought that have gone into Afrocentric thinking over the years, the origins of which are more obscure. Bottom line, it is not an acceptable corrective of Eurocentric history to swing to the opposite extreme and imagine a history of Africa and the African diaspora. If you want to understand this history, try John Hope Franklin, Sterling Stuckey, Robin D. G. Kelley, James Horton, Franklin Knight, or any other of a great number of scholars who stick to accepted standards of historical evidence without betraying their heritage.

I found this an excellent introduction to Afrocentrism from a studied, academic viewpoint. Howe shows himself to be sympathetic to the political motivations of early 'Afrocentric' scholars while showing the poverty of the genre as a tool for historical research. He is able to savage the 'romantic racialism' and mythologising of modern proponents, littering his argument with direct quotes. (Frances Cress Welsing was my favourite.)Howe draws parallels with Eurocentric racist ideas, showing how modern Afrocentrism is often reverse racism, a mirroring of the prejudices of white America and Europe. However, while drawing parallels, he is careful not to draw an equal sign - acknowledging issues of power and powerlessness. He castigates Afrocentrism's inherent conservatism, its focus on the 'traditional' family unit - dominant male, dutiful wife, etc - and its failure to address socio- and politico-economic issues in modern-day US, European and African societies. A 'must have' book.

Howe has placed the ideology of afrocentrism where it truly belongs in the trash bin of wishfull thinking> I find, unlike other reviewers, that the author is extremely fair with those writers such as Molefi Asante whose insistance on the black racial purity of Egypt makes one wonder "who is actaully a racist"? Probably the best chapter which explains the desperate attempt by african americans to hitch their star to Egypt is chapter 11. In short this chapter reonforces what is well known: that Egypt is made up of peoples from the Berbers of northern Africa to the people of what is now the Sudan. It should also be stated that Egyptian culture was in full swing before the Nubians began their rise to power..The ties of Sub-Saharan Africa to African Americans is nothing but wishfull thinking..

A superb book. Anyone who still believes in the comedy-scholarship of Afrocentrism after reading this is either nuts, wilfully blind or believes that Africans discovered America. A clear debunking and humiliation of the Afrocentrics and their pseudo-nonsense by a disinterested and knowledgeable academic.

Stephen Howe's "Afrocentrism : Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes" is a brilliant response to the all too prevalent 'neo-nazi' styled propaganda pseudo-sciences within the Afrocentric movement. Along with other distinguished historians, such as Prof. Mary Lefkowitz ('Not Out Of Africa' and 'Black Athena Revisited'), his book joins the small but ever growing list of brave intellectuals who have successfully challenged the politically correct 'racial myth history', with overwhelming doses of historical truth and reality. Those who criticize it are more interested in promoting self-serving racist myth histories, rather than a search for historical reality and honesty.A great book for those who seek the truth in history. Add it to your library.