Introduction to Africana Studies
This course introduces us to the discipline of Africana Studies.
Africana Studies is an area and discipline of study devoted to African
people.
Dr. Greg Carr, INstructor
Two-time Male HBCU Professor of the Year, Howard University Africana Studies and Howard University School of Law.
About this Course
Overview
Description
Instructor
Syllabus
Assignments
Live Schedule
Using the Africana Studies Conceptual Categories as an anchoring framework for listening and discussion, this one-hour weekly course of collective study explores ideas from and experiences of African people and communities over and across time and space in order to adapt, critique, and apply discoveries and insights to specific collective local, regional, and/or global needs.
Organized by the Africana Studies Conceptual Categories disciplinary framework, we will:
Organized by the Africana Studies Conceptual Categories disciplinary framework, we will:
- Share reflections on each week’s assigned readings, building both collective understanding and individual perspective and capacity to apply thinking work to our particular community circumstances.
- Contribute to the ongoing work of building archives of best practices, family and community narratives, and communal (“national” and transnational) narratives; and
- Develop forms and examples for identifying, adapting, and/or creating content and discussion-informed curriculum and teaching and learning practices in various learning spaces (e.g., school, after-school, community-based organizations, rites of passage, and similar programs, etc.).
Dr. Greg Carr
Greg Carr is Associate Professor of Africana Studies and Chair of the Department of Afro-American Studies at Howard University and Adjunct Faculty at the Howard School of Law. He holds a Ph.D. in African American Studies from Temple University and a JD from the Ohio State University College of Law. The School District of Philadelphia’s First Resident Scholar on Race and Culture (1999-2000), Dr. Carr led a team of academics and educators in the design of the curriculum framework for Philadelphia’s mandatory high school African American History course. These materials are the first to approach African American History using an Africana Studies methodology. He is a co-founder of the Philadelphia Freedom Schools Movement, a community-based academic initiative that has involved over 13,000 elementary, high school and college students.
Dr. Carr has presented his curriculum work for the Board of Public Education in Salvador, Bahia, and has lectured across the U.S. and in Ghana, Egypt, South Africa, Brazil, France, and England, among other places. His publications have appeared in, among other places, The African American Studies Reader, Socialism and Democracy, Africana Studies, Publications of the Modern Language Association of America,The National Urban League’s 2012 State of Black America and Malcolm X: A Historical Reader.
Dr. Carr is the first Vice President of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and a former member of the board of the National Council for Black Studies. He is a grantee of Howard’s Fund for Academic Excellence, invited lecturer on pedagogy from Howard’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Assessment, and has been named Professor of the Year three times by the Howard University Student Association, the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council and the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Association. As one of the faculty participants in the College of Arts and Sciences Summer Study Abroad Initiative, he has led or co-led student study courses in South Africa and/or Egypt six times. Dr. Carr is a member of the COAS Freshman Seminar Leadership Team and served as coordinator of the COAS Mellon Interdisciplinary Research Course Initiative.
He is the co-editor of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations’ multi-volume African World History Project and has represented Howard University as a spokesman in a wide range of print and electronic media, including Ebony Magazine, The New York Times, Washington Post, Le Monde, USA Today, MSNBC, National Public Radio, BBC America, C-SPAN, MTVu, Voice of America, the Tavis Smiley Show, the Dianne Rheim Show, Diverse Magazine and CNN, as well as a range of local radio, television and internet media outlets.
Dr. Carr is the first Vice President of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations and a former member of the board of the National Council for Black Studies. He is a grantee of Howard’s Fund for Academic Excellence, invited lecturer on pedagogy from Howard’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Assessment, and has been named Professor of the Year three times by the Howard University Student Association, the College of Arts and Sciences Student Council and the College of Arts and Sciences Honors Association. As one of the faculty participants in the College of Arts and Sciences Summer Study Abroad Initiative, he has led or co-led student study courses in South Africa and/or Egypt six times. Dr. Carr is a member of the COAS Freshman Seminar Leadership Team and served as coordinator of the COAS Mellon Interdisciplinary Research Course Initiative.
He is the co-editor of the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations’ multi-volume African World History Project and has represented Howard University as a spokesman in a wide range of print and electronic media, including Ebony Magazine, The New York Times, Washington Post, Le Monde, USA Today, MSNBC, National Public Radio, BBC America, C-SPAN, MTVu, Voice of America, the Tavis Smiley Show, the Dianne Rheim Show, Diverse Magazine and CNN, as well as a range of local radio, television and internet media outlets.
Conversation 1: Introduction to Course of Study - Framing Question 1
Framing Question 1: How do
we undertake the study of Africana?
See the Course Syllabus
See the Course Syllabus
Conversation 2: The History of Black Studies
Abdul Alkalimat, “Introduction,”
in Alkalimat, The History of Black Studies (London: Pluto Press,
2021): 1-10.
Greg Carr, “Towards an Intellectual History of Africana Studies: Genealogy and Normative Theory,” in Nathaniel Norment, Jr., Ed., The African American Studies Reader (2nd Ed). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press (2007), 438-453.
Conceptual Categories Chart [Syllabus].
Greg Carr, “Towards an Intellectual History of Africana Studies: Genealogy and Normative Theory,” in Nathaniel Norment, Jr., Ed., The African American Studies Reader (2nd Ed). Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press (2007), 438-453.
Conceptual Categories Chart [Syllabus].
Conversation 3: Social Structure
Greg Carr, “What Black Studies Is Not: Moving From Crisis to Liberation in Africana Intellectual Work,” Socialism and Democracy, 25:1 (2011), 178-191.
Conversation 4: Governance
Walter Rodney, “African History
and Culture ,” from Walter Rodney, The Groundings with My Brothers,
London: Verso Press (2019), pp. 33-51.
Conversation 5: Ways of
Knowing
John S. Wright, “Intellectual Life ” in Jack Salzman, David Lionel Smith and Cornel West, Eds., Encyclopedia of African American Culture and History. New York: Macmillan Library Reference (1996), pp. 1369-1390.
Conversation 6: Science and
Technology (Part 1)
Jacob H. Carruthers, Science
and Oppression . Chicago: Kemetic Institute, 2013.
Abdul Alkalimat, “Science and Technology in Black History ,” in Alkalimat, The Future of Black Studies. London: Pluto Press (2022), pp. 181-188.
Daylanne K. English, “Science” in Erica R. Edwards, Roderick A. Ferguson and Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, Eds., Keywords for African American Studies . New York: New York University Press (2018), pp. 189-193.
Shamira Ibrahim, “Fictions of History: Reanimating Black Lives by “Undisciplining Data” The Baffler No. 64 (July-August, 2022): pp. 117-122.
Abdul Alkalimat, “Science and Technology in Black History ,” in Alkalimat, The Future of Black Studies. London: Pluto Press (2022), pp. 181-188.
Daylanne K. English, “Science” in Erica R. Edwards, Roderick A. Ferguson and Jeffrey O.G. Ogbar, Eds., Keywords for African American Studies . New York: New York University Press (2018), pp. 189-193.
Shamira Ibrahim, “Fictions of History: Reanimating Black Lives by “Undisciplining Data” The Baffler No. 64 (July-August, 2022): pp. 117-122.
Conversation 7: Cultural
Meaning Making
Thompson, Robert Farris, African Art in Motion: Icon and Art . Los Angeles: University of California Press (1974), 1-45.
RFT Canonexten
RFT Canonexten
Conversation 8:
Movement and Memory
Vincent Harding, “Introduction,”
from Harding, There is a River : The Black Struggle for Freedom in
America New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (1981): pp. xi-xxvi.
Toni Cade Bambara, “Interview with Toni Cade Bamba ra” in Claudia Tate, Ed., Black Women Writers at Work. New York: Continuum Press (1983), 12-38.
Toni Cade Bambara, “Interview with Toni Cade Bamba ra” in Claudia Tate, Ed., Black Women Writers at Work. New York: Continuum Press (1983), 12-38.
Conversation 9: Framing Question 2
Framing Question 2: How did
Africans preserve their ways of life and use their identities and cultures as
means to resist enslavement?
Ayi Kwei Armah, The Eloquence of the Scribes. Popenguine, Senegal: Per Ankh (2006): Chapters 9-16.
Daniel P. Black, The Coming. New York: St. Martin’s (2015).
Ayi Kwei Armah, The Eloquence of the Scribes. Popenguine, Senegal: Per Ankh (2006): Chapters 9-16.
Daniel P. Black, The Coming. New York: St. Martin’s (2015).
Conversation 10: Framing Question 3
Framing Question 3: What
are some similarities and differences in practices of self-determination among
Africans in the US and their counterparts throughout the hemisphere?
Cedric J. Robinson, Black Movements in America. New York: Routledge (1997), Chapters 1-3.
Cedric J. Robinson, Black Movements in America. New York: Routledge (1997), Chapters 1-3.
Conversation 11: Framing Question 4
Framing Question 4: How did
Africans practice unity in thought and action beyond national boundaries in the
face of European and US imperialism?
Cedric J. Robinson, Black Movements in America. New York: Routledge (1997), Chapters 4-5.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Something Torn and New. New York: Basic Civitas (2009), Chapters 1-2.
Cedric J. Robinson, Black Movements in America. New York: Routledge (1997), Chapters 4-5.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Something Torn and New. New York: Basic Civitas (2009), Chapters 1-2.
Conversation 12: Framing Question 5
Framing Question 5: How did
Africans make sense of and participate in international developments?
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Something Torn and New. New York: Basic Civitas (2009), Chapters 4-5.
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Something Torn and New. New York: Basic Civitas (2009), Chapters 4-5.
Conversation 13: Framing Question 6
Framing Question 6: What
organizations, ideologies and leaders did Africans create in order to promote
and advance their collective interests?
Cedric J. Robinson, Black Movements in America. New York: Routledge (1997), Chapters 6.
Cedric J. Robinson, Black Movements in America. New York: Routledge (1997), Chapters 6.
Login for Assignments
Mondays at 8 p.m. ET in Knubia.
community.knarrative.com
- Intro to Africana Studies, 8-9 p.m. ET
- Office Hours, 9-10 p.m. ET
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This course introduces us to the discipline of Africana Studies. Africana Studies is an area and discipline of study devoted to African people. In includes the formations we have created over time to govern and interact with ourselves; the social structures we have both developed and become parts of; our ways of knowing and transmitting knowledge across time and space; our creation and adaptive uses of science and technology; and how we create culture to both mark specific moments in time and space as well as to preserve and highlight significant moments in our collective memory as we move through time and space.
The course we are undertaking is and cannot by definition be an “Introduction to African-American History” or “African Studies” or “African Diaspora” course, although it periodically follows parallel and sometimes similar narrative progressions to examine Africana experiences over time and space. Each of the other formations anchor their study of Africana life and ideas in one of the “traditional” (read Western-generated) academic disciplines. This distinction poses a challenge to those of us who frequently find it difficult to imagine that self-sustaining, critical, reflective, and, ultimately, disciplinary spaces exist for the examination of African life across the broadest arcs of time and space. As a result, the frequent conflation of Africana Studies with “African-American History,” “Diaspora Studies,” “Black Diaspora,” or other traditionally inter or multi-disciplinary academic projects is not unusual.
The course we are undertaking is and cannot by definition be an “Introduction to African-American History” or “African Studies” or “African Diaspora” course, although it periodically follows parallel and sometimes similar narrative progressions to examine Africana experiences over time and space. Each of the other formations anchor their study of Africana life and ideas in one of the “traditional” (read Western-generated) academic disciplines. This distinction poses a challenge to those of us who frequently find it difficult to imagine that self-sustaining, critical, reflective, and, ultimately, disciplinary spaces exist for the examination of African life across the broadest arcs of time and space. As a result, the frequent conflation of Africana Studies with “African-American History,” “Diaspora Studies,” “Black Diaspora,” or other traditionally inter or multi-disciplinary academic projects is not unusual.
Additionally, our course of study will be guided in part by collectively engaged texts (e.g., books, articles, films, recordings, etc.) but not anchored in these texts in the way we have been socialized to think of them in a course of study. The generative source of our collective work will be each of us as we contribute our memories, insights, and perspectives to a living syllabus (course of study). This work models the process of “jailbreaking” the “Black University” concept, in the spirit and intellectual thrust of its original meaning. The resulting work will be a steady work-in-progress, changing in scope and growing in authority as we add to it.
See the Course Syllabus tab for more information about this course.
See the Course Syllabus tab for more information about this course.
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Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology (Excerpt)
by Paul T. Nicholson and Ian Shaw (Editors)
Aimed primarily at Egyptologists and archaeologists, this book covers all aspects of craftwork in ancient Egypt, from the construction of the pyramids and the carving of statues to techniques of mummification, boat-building, jewelery making, ancient brewing, carpentry, hairstyling, tailoring and basket weaving. Drawing on archaeological, experimental, ethnographic and laboratory work, it is the first book since the 1920s to describe current research into the actual basics of life in Pharaonic Egypt
The Birds of Ancient Egypt (Excerpt)
by Patrick F Houlihan
The aim of this book is to provide a systematic survey of all the species represented in ancient Egyptian art and hieroglyphs. In addition the birds' role in secular and religious life is examined and an attempt is made to compare present day range with that of antiquity.
Celestial Sphere in Ancient Egypt
by Dr. Mario Beatty
In reading the introductory hymn to the sun-god Ra in the Papyrus of Ani, attention of authors was immediately attracted by the Egyptian word psdw. Neither of the major dictionaries of the ancient Egyptian language (LESKO, 1982; FAULKNER, 1991; Woterbuch de ERMAN et GRAPOW (1926) have this word with the determinative of the sun. In this paper, they show that it is an astronomical term which means the celestial sphere. (ANKH ARTICLE: N°4-5, 1995-1996 (PP. 215 - 221)
The Nine Petitions of the Farmer Whose Speech is Good
Excerpt by Jacob Carruthers
“Does the Word in Africa have a proper meaning? Could a diachronic study of the Word in Africa be undertaken? What is the meaningful particularity of the African Word since the Egyptian Mdw Ntr (hieroglyphs) to Nommo, the Spoken Word of the Dogon of Mali? All these questions pertaining to History and Philosophy are carefully and thoroughly examined in this book. It is a great honor to recommend this book not only to the specialist but to all those interested in conducting research in African and African American studies.” –Prof. Theophile Obenga
The Eloquent Peasant
Excerpt by Miriam Lichtheim
First published in 1973, this anthology has assumed classic status in the field of Egyptology and portrays the remarkable evolution of the literary forms of one of the world’s earliest civilizations. Beginning with the early and gradual evolution of Egyptian genres, it includes biographical and historical inscriptions carved on stone, the various classes of works written with pen on papyrus, and the mortuary literature that focuses on life after death. It then shows the culmination of these literary genres within the single period known as the New Kingdom (1550–1080 B.C.) and ends in the last millennium of Pharaonic civilization, from the tenth century B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era.
Translating Wordplay in the Eighth Petition of The Eloquent Peasant: A New Interpretation
by Dr. Mario Beatty
A close philological examination of wordplay in line B I, 337/B2, 72 in eighth petition of The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant yielded a variety of different and plausible translations. This paper seeks to explain the state of ambiguity that hovers over translating this line, examine major existing translations, and provide a new translation and interpretation of this line. The paper attempts to prove that the elaborate wordplay in this line actually refers to Thoth. As a result, the sequential narrative mode of exposition that invokes the role of Maat is rendered more intelligible as juxtaposed against and distinguished from Thoth. The paper will conclude by discussing the implications of this new interpretation in the context of the eigth petition and the broader context of the narrative.
On the Source of the Moon's Light in Ancient Egypt
by Dr. Mario Beatty
In this article, the author shows that the Ancient Egyptians seem to have discovered that the moon shines, but it does not shine from light of its own. It is borrowed light from the sun. In revealing this observation in Ancient Egypt, the author focuses on the Great Hymn to Thoth on the statue of Horemheb and selects passages from the Book of Coming Forth By Day. Based on Ancient Egyptian astronomical observations in these texts, there is significant evidence to conclude that they definitively observed during the New Kingdom (1600 B.C. - 1080 B.C.) that the source of the moon's light derived from the sun. In concluding, he briefly highlights the importance of this discovery relative to the history of astronomy. (ANKH ARTICLE: N°4-5, 1995-1996 (PP. 163 - 177)