Afrocentrism

Afrocentrism is a worldview or perspective that is centered on Africa and blacks. Afrocentric scholars typically claim that Western accounts of world history and civilization have neglected or systematically denied the contributions of indigenous, black African peoples. The term "Afrocentrism" thus implies a perspective which is in diametric opposition to that of Eurocentrism. However, it also often functions to distinguish the influence in Africa of Arab, European and Asian peoples from indigenous African achievements. This particular emphasis on Africa is historically tied to black civil rights movements and anti-imperialist ideologies in America and the Caribbean. In modern America, it is associated with African-centred educational policies that purport to be anti-racist.

Related Topics:
Worldview - Africa - Blacks - Western - Eurocentrism - Arab - European - Asian - America - Caribbean - Anti-racist

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Central to Afrocentrism is the fundamental reorientation of historical scholarship. Afrocentrism shifts the study and evaluation of world history and civilization from a traditionally Western, Eurocentric paradigm — that is, one which treats primarily white or European contributions and posits Greco-Roman beginnings of Western civilization — to one that treats primarily black Africa and black contributions and posits black Egyptian beginnings of Western civilization.

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