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Afrocentrism holds that Eurocentrism has led to the neglect or denial of the contributions of Africa's Original Peoples and focused instead on a generally European-centered model of world civilization and History . Therefore, Afrocentrism aims to shift the focus from a European-centered history to an Africa -centered history. More broadly, Afrocentrism is concerned with distinguishing the influence of Arab , European , and Asian peoples from indigenous African achievements. Many Afrocentrists consider the African identity of African-Americans to be more important than their American nationality. Afrocentrism is also a Scholarly , Historiographical approach to the study of World History , with connections to Black Civil Rights Movements and Anti-imperialist ideologies in the United States and the Caribbean . Some critics of Afrocentrism, however, claim it is often Dogmatic and unscientific. Afrocentrists typically focus on black Africa and black contributions and posit black, Nilotic origins for Western Civilization . Philosophically, Afrocentrism is often compared to Eurocentrism ; the validity of this comparison is heavily debated. EGYPT AND THE ARGUMENT OF AFRICAN CULTURAL UNITY Afrocentrism essentially makes the claim that early Dynastic Egypt was a black civilization, though the claim had already been made by some historians and Africanists for a century or more. Modern Geopolitics generally place Egypt in the Middle East ; however, geographically, the entirety of dynastic Egypt, as well as the modern-day nation (except for the Sinai Peninsula ) fall within the African continent. Afrocentrism argues that the salient, cultural characteristics of ancient Egypt are indigenous to Africa and that these features are present in other African civilizations. Critical of much of Mainstream Egyptology , Afrocentrists are of the opinion that the study of ancient Egyptian culture artificially disconnects it from other early African civilizations, such as Kerma and the Meroitic civilizations of Nubia —particularly in light of the fact that archaeological evidence clearly indicates a confluence among this cultural triad. This perspective, championed by the Senegal ese scholar Cheikh Anta Diop , is known formally as the Cultural Unity Theory. This theory has proponents outside Afrocentric circles, among them Bruce Williams of the Oriental Institute Of Chicago . Afrocentrists claim that these civilizations made significant contributions to ancient Greece and Rome during their formative periods. The more conventional belief among mainstream archaeologists and Egyptologists such as Frank J. Yurco and Fekri Hassan and historians is that the ancient Egyptian civilization was related, in terms of culture and are due to the exportation of cultural elements from the Nilotic civilizations, rather than the reverse. As the predynastic period of Egypt, as well as all three dynastic periods had origins in the non-Semitic south ( Naqada , Nubian C, Upper Egypt ), Afrocentrists argue it is illogical to insist on a non-African, Semitic origin of dynastic Egyptian civilization. This Afrocentric view finds itself in direct opposition to the conclusions of mainstream, Eurocentric scholars such as , who hailed from then Miletus , present day Turkey , was known to have calculated the height of the Egyptian Pyramid by its shadows, a proof that European philosophers went to Egypt to study. Francois Champollion described in his book ''L'Egypte'' the characteristics of the Egyptian people and their similarities to Nubians. In addition, Afrocentrism has growing popular support in Academia . Increasingly, American colleges are treating Afrocentrism as a rigorous discipline of study open to Peer Review . However, Egyptian frescoes frequently show Sub-Saharan Africans as distinct from themselves. One of Afrocentrism's most prominent critics, Mary Lefkowitz defending the mainstream view, has characterized Afrocentrism as "''an excuse to teach myth as history.''" Likewise, African-American History professor Clarence E. Walker has proclaimed it to be "''a mythology that is racist, reactionary, and essentially therapeutic.''" Afrocentrists, however, level similar charges at what they charge is a pronounced Eurocentrism in mainstream historical scholarship, and argue that the Afrocentrist approach merely attempts to set the historical record straight by overturning a false, Racially skewed Paradigm . HISTORY OF AFROCENTRISM journal ''The Crisis'' depicting "Ra-Maat-Neb, one of the black kings of the Upper Nile."]] The origins of Afrocentrism can be found in the work of African-American and Caribbean intellectuals early in the Twentieth Century . Publications such as '' The Crisis '' and the ''Journal of Negro History'' sought to counter the prevailing view in the West that Africa had contributed nothing of value to human history that was not the result of incursions by Europeans and Arab s. These journals asserted the fundamental blackness of ancient Egypt and investigated the history of black Africa. Editor of ''The Crisis'' W.E.B. DuBois researched West Africa n culture and attempted to construct a Pan-Africanist value system based on West African traditions. DuBois later envisioned and received funding from then Ghana ian president Kwame Nkrumah to produce an ''Encyclopedia Africana'' that would chronicle the history and cultures of black Africa, but he died before the work could be completed. Some aspects of DuBois's approach are evident in the work of Cheikh Anta Diop, who claimed to have identified a pan-African Protolanguage and to have proven that ancient Egyptians were, indeed, black Africans. Diop also drew from the ideas of George M. James , a follower of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey , who emphasized the importance of Ethiopia as a great, black civilization, and who argued that black peoples should develop pride in African history. James' book, ''Stolen Legacy'' (1954) is often cited as one of the foundational texts of Afrocentrism. James claimed that Greek Philosophy was "stolen" from ancient Egyptian traditions and that these had developed from distinctively African cultural roots. For James, the works of Aristotle and other Greek thinkers were, in fact, poor synopses of aspects of ancient Egyptian wisdom. According to James, the Greeks were a violent and quarrelsome people, unlike the Egyptians, and were not naturally capable of Philosophy . This conclusion may have been based on the fact that the period of Egyptian history regarded as the most prominent (14th B.C.E.) was considered the early dark age of Greek culture. The early sculptural and artistic achievements of pre-classical Greece had strong similarity to Egyptian sculptural style and artistic design. These ideas were not wholly new. 18th-century Masonic texts referenced ancient writings that claimed Greek philosophers had studied in Egypt. The poet William Blake had also attacked "''the stolen and perverted writings of Homer and Ovid , of Plato and Cicero ''," asserting that they were copies of more ancient Semitic texts. Such views were associated with Radical and Romantic thought that rejected Classical Greco-Roman culture as the model for civilization. James' distinct contribution was to tie these claims to an opposition between white European and black African identity, associating these alleged ancient Appropriation s of black wisdom with white, Imperialist exploitation of black peoples and the theft of artifacts from black African cultures. By claiming that the Greeks were barbaric and innately incapable of philosophy, he inverted normative imperialist racial hierarchies, which made the same claims about black Africans. Other writers copied James' approach, which led to claims that black Africans originated intellectual or technological achievements that later were claimed by whites. Today, most of these writings are not considered serious scholarship, and modern Afrocentricity writers have abandoned James' more extreme claims to concentrate on the notion that modern black peoples should center their understanding of culture and history on Africa. Molefi Kete Asante 's book ''Afrocentricity'' (1988) argues that African-Americans should look to African cultures "''as a critical corrective to a displaced agency among Africans''." Other authors have adapted James' assertion that Egyptian culture's influence on the Greeks has been underestimated. Among such scholars, the most influential is Martin Bernal , whose book '' Black Athena '' stressed influence of Afro-Asiatic and Semitic civilizations on Classical Greece . Other writers simply have focused on the study of indigenous African civilizations and peoples, with the aim of counteracting the emphasis placed on European and Arab influence on the continent. These Afrocentric scholars believe that historians must shift their attention away from European accomplishments and Europe-derived racist assumptions and, instead, emphasize the black origins of Mankind and black contributions to World History . They maintain that such a Paradigm Shift would result in significant attitudinal shifts in the West and elsewhere. Indeed, many claim that a dramatic shift already has occurred. As educational opportunities have broadened for peoples of color over the years, non-white scholars from many cultures increasingly have begun to examine anew the historical and Archaeological record. Some of their findings challenge the Eurocentric view of world history which for so many centuries devalued and appropriated, or simply ignored achievements by blacks and other non-Europeans. THE DEBATE OVER AFROCENTRISM Critics counter that much historical Afrocentric research simply lacks scientific merit and that it actually seeks to supplant and counter one form of racism with another, rather than attempt to arrive at the truth. Among these critics, Mary Lefkowitz 's ''Not out of Africa'' is regarded by some as the foremost critical work. In it, she contends Afrocentric historical claims are grounded in Identity Politics and Myth rather than sound scholarship. Like most other mainstream scholars, she rejects James' views on the ground that his sources predate the decipherment of Egyptian Hieroglyph s. She contends that actual ancient Egyptian texts show little similarity to Greek philosophy. She also contends that Bernal underestimates the distinctiveness of Greek intellectual culture. Asante, however, disputes her conclusions. Afrocentrism tends to emphasize the racial and cultural unity of Africa as a whole as the home of black, or " Africoid ," peoples. However, mainstream scholars assert that Afrocentrism relies on a projection of modern racial and geographical categories onto ancient cultures in which they simply did not exist. It is argued that in ancient Western culture, the distinction between Europe and Africa was not as important as the notion that civilized peoples ''encircled'' the Mediterranean sea. The farther from the Mediterranean they were, the more alien they were considered to be. This applied to all peoples. The equation of "African" with black identity has also been criticized, partly because movement of populations around the Mediterranean in ancient times makes any rigid distinctions among North Africa n, Asian, and European peoples of the area problematic; and partly because the notion of a unified "black" or Negroid race is itself considered to be unsustainable by many modern geneticists. Further, Diop's claim to have discovered a pan-African proto-language is rejected by almost all mainstream linguists. Although the Bantu language theory is still considered valid, if not in agreement with Diop's own. However, the concept of Race is not based on Genetics , which is a far more modern discipline, but on Phenotypes . Caucasians range from Iceland to India and from red, blond, brown, to black straight, wavy, or curly Hair and from fair to dark Skin . Black people range from West Africa, to India, to Australia and Melanesia , with a range of brown and wavy haired people to the darkest skinned people with the curliest hair. Similarly, the Afrocentric concept of a "global African community" has been reinforced by the findings of numerous anthropologists, historians and others, who claim the blacks of New Guinea , Melanesia, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia are no less "Negroid" than the blacks of North and sub-Saharan Africa. The issue with more respected mainstream viewpoint is that the definition of a Negroid phenotype begins to take a back seat to the genetic origins of those having negroid features. In addition, those people who fall in the extreme range of Caucasian furthest from the blond, and who also fall in the extreme range of black, furthest from the darkest, are contentiously placed in either one group or another. Afrocentricity contend, by pointing out that white society excluded Mixed People from being Caucasian, should not therefore lay historical claims to those who in history share identical phenotypes and mixture with modern black people. Especially when they live within the continent of Africa, and routinely intermarried with the darker skinned and more overtly black people of the region. Therefore for the Afrocentricity, the Ancient Egyptian, would socially fit within the black sphere. People generally think of themselves and others as belonging to races defined by Skin Color and Physiognomy and link this to ancestry. One of the impacts of this is that historical achievements are ascribed to races with which modern peoples identify themselves. Some insist that this approach violates the fundamental demand of history as a discipline, which should aspire to understand events as they occurred, not as they affect the Self-esteem of modern people. Afrocentrism, however, contend that race still exists as a Social and political construct. They argue that racist conventions propounded for centuries– that blacks had no civilization, no Written Language , no culture, and no history of any note before coming into contact with Europeans– make the racial identity of ancient Egypt an important issue. Moreover, they point out that these misconceptions have been consistently applied to a particular, broad category of Humanity based on the same "racial" phenotype and Lineage s. However, the matter of race became an important and enduring issue, Afrocentrism argues, when whites and others pronounced an entire segment of humanity inherently inferior. Further, such biases persist today. As a result, Afrocentrism contends, it is important to set the historical record straight within the context in which the history of human civilizations heretofore has been framed, taught and studied— and that is the context of race. Crucial to this aspect of the debate are arguments about whether the ancient Egyptians reasonably can be considered to have been black and the extent of significant cultural links between the blacks of sub-Saharan and North Africa. EGYPT AND BLACK IDENTITY See Also: Controversy over race of Ancient Egyptians Many Afrocentrics insist that ancient Egyptians were black African peoples, often emphasizing that this black identity was strongest in early Egyptian history, before the arrival of other people from Asia. BLACK-CENTERED HISTORY AND AFRICA The relationship among racial, cultural and continental identities is one of the more difficult problems in Afrocentic thought. In other instances, the concept of black racial identity has been used to include among "African" peoples populations generally thought of as non-Africans, such as the from Africa, and the entire population of the world might just as reasonably be considered part of an African race according to the Out Of Africa model of Human Migration . Studies show that some members of these darker-skinned Ethnic Groups — with the exception, of course, of the Olmecs— and " Mongoloid " East Asia ns are genetically closer to one another than they are to indigenous Africans. However, Afrocentrists point out that such genetic similarities are due to the fact that the aboriginal peoples of Asia were "Africoid" Negritos and Australoid types, who later Miscegenated and developed in isolation with populations of the eventually more dominant Mongoloid phenotype over time. This fact, they contend, does not change the fundamental black racial identity of these peoples based on the traditional metrics of the classic "Negroid" phenotype, physical similarities with other peoples classified as Negroid, presumptive patterns of prehistoric migrations and, in some cases, what they contend are cultural similarities. Arguments advancing the notion of racial similarities between a Nubian and a Dravidian, both classified as Negroid, Afrocentrists contend, are far more credible than those of between, say, a Swede and a modern-day Turk, both classified as Caucasian. Traditional racial classifications, after all, are not based on genetics, but on phenotype. In such matters, Afrocentrists adopt the Pan-Africanist perspective that such people of color are all "African people" or " Diasporic Africans." As Afrocentric scholar Runoko Rashidi writes, they are all part of the "global African community." In 2002, geneticist Spencer Wells completed a study of human out-migrations from Africa utilizing the DNA of San Bushmen of the Kalahari who, according to Wells, have the oldest human DNA on earth. Wells concluded from analysis of DNA specimens that the earliest human emigration from Africa of which there is definitive proof was that of San Bushmen to southern India (the modern Tamils, also known as "Dravidians") and then along coastal routes to Australia (the Aborigines), while shortly afterwards a second migration from Africa, also by San Bushmen, reached Central Asia, and thence covered most of the Eurasian continent. The Single Origin Hypothesis (also known as the "Out of Africa" hypothesis) posits that the Homo Sapiens evolved in Africa, later migrating and populating other continents, out-competing other related Species such as that exemplified by Java Man . A DIFFERENT WORLD-VIEW "''I am apt to suspect the Negroes...to be naturally inferior to the White. There never was a civilized nation of any other complexion than white....''" — David Hume , noted 18th Century European historian, philosopher and essayist "''When we classify mankind by color, the only one of the primary races...which has not made a creative contribution to any of our twenty-one civilizations is the black race.''" — Arnold J. Toynbee , respected 20th century scholar, historian and author "''A Black skin means membership in a race of men which has never created a civilization of any kind.''" — John Burgess , 20th century scholar and founder, '' Political Science Quarterly '' {Link without Title} Afrocentrics argue that such ignorance and blatant racism were common among mainstream-Eurocentric scholars, educators and historians well into the 20th century. They contend that the denial and denigration, as well as what they view as the attendant appropriation of, black historical achievement make the study of world history with new eyes an important undertaking. It is in this sense that the Afrocentrist paradigm legitimately may be considered to be "therapeutic." Despite the controversy often associated with it, Afrocentricity is a critical historiographical approach to history, based on a Weltanschauung which is fundamentally and radically different from that of many of their relatively recent, Eurocentric predecessors; but which harkens back to an earlier view of the history of world civilizations. It is the examination and analysis of existing scholarship, as well as the study of the original historical record itself, grounded in scholarly inquiry and rigorous research. LIST OF NOTABLE AFROCENTRIC HISTORIANS
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