Molefi Kete Asante

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The Afrocentric way, summed up by Asante in precepts called Njia (Kiswahili for 'the way'), stresses inner strength, pan-African pride and unity, reverence for ancestors, and other values as both a fulfillment of African-Americans' yearning and their most potent path to mental and intellectual freedom. Far beyond cultural grounding, Afrocentricity is a way of liberation through 'seeing ourselves located in the center of our own historical context and not on the fringe of something else,' Asante explains.

That something else, of course, is European civilization, and Asante's bracing and precise critique of Eurocentric assumptions (including those fossilized in simple English words--why is jungle a byword for menace, and steppe, the stomping ground of white barbarians, a neutral term?) is meant to unlock even the small locks that could imprison the African-American mind.

It surprises and saddens Asante that some see this perspective as divisive. 'Under all the media misinterpretations,' he says, 'I can feel rage. There is fury too in African-Americans, as they react to what they see as white domination. But Afrocentricity is about African-Americans assuming their own agency in the world, their role and destiny as actors, not acted-upon. With agency comes accountability, responsibility, and the spirit of the Egyptian goddess Ma`at: harmony, justice, righteousness.

'I try to teach the people I come into contact with that it's both necessary and possible to work toward being fully human, toward a world where rage doesn't overcome reason.'

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