The African Centered Education Movement has
brought a new meaning to the annual African American History
Month celebrations that have become so popular. That new meaning
of African Centered thought, as defined by Dr. Wade Nobles,
“is nothing more than a term categorizing a quality of thought
and practice which is rooted in the cultural image and interest
of African people and which represents and reflects the life
experiences, history and traditions of African people as the
center of analyses.” With this definition it is clear that
we must study the liberation of African people.
Dr. Nobles further states that African Centered
thought is, “the intellectual and philosophical foundations
upon which African people should create their own scientific
criterion for authenticating human reality.”
Through the African Centered Education Movement,
African American History Month has now become the catalyst
for the intense study of Africa and the history of African
people throughout the world 365 days a year. We must pay particular
attention in our studies to the history of the Reparations
Movement.
Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who founded, in February
of 1926, what at that time was called “Negro History Week,”
would indeed be inspired by the continuing discussion and
debate over the infusion of the contributions of African people
in all subjects. Dr. Woodson was deeply concerned that the
contributions of African people to this society and the world
were not given their proper recognition.
Dr. Woodson’s great book The
miseducation of the Negro,
written in 1933, described in the first chapter titled, “The
Seat of the Trouble,” the essence of what the African Centered
Curriculum Movement is battling against today - 74 years later.
Dr. Woodson explained that, “Of the hundreds
of Negro high schools recently examined (1933) by an expert
in the United States Bureau of Education only eighteen offer
a course taking up the history of the Negro, and in most of
the Negro colleges and universities where the Negro is thought
of, the race is studied only as a problem or dismissed as
of little consequence.”
Continuing on, Dr. Woodson gave an example
of, “an officer of a Negro university, thinking that an additional
course on the Negro should be given there, called upon a Negro
Doctor of Philosophy on the faculty to offer such work. He
promptly informed the officer that he knew nothing about the
Negro. He did not go to school to waste his time that way.
He went to be educated in a system which dismissed the Negro
as a nonentity.”
Obviously, since the writing of this great
book, we have come a long way in our battle against challenging
the white supremacy foundation of the American public school
curriculum. However, we still have a long way to go!
The Black Movement of the 1960s gave us the
impetus to reexamine our history and its impact on this country
and the world. This movement brought on renewed interest,
on the part of our people, to study our history.
We
moved from the use of the term “Negro” in referring to ourselves
and began to use “Black” as the more appropriate way to describe
who we are. We went from Black History Week to Black History
Month. In fact, some of us began to refer to the month of
February as Black Liberation Month.
It was through the movement of the 1960s, particularly
the Black Power Phase that we began to re-identify with our
homeland - Africa, and the interconnection of African people
throughout the world.
The Black student movement of the 1960s sparked
demands for courses in Black Studies that lead to the famous
strike at San Francisco State University. After a long battle
with the administration of the university, the students finally
won a victory for the first Black Studies Program to be established
at an American college or university. As a result, a movement
for Black Studies erupted all over America and stimulated
at the elementary and secondary levels, demands for courses
dealing with Black History.
As we have come full circle today in our general
acceptance of being African People, whose ancestral homeland
is Africa, we are also beginning to recognize that African
American History Month celebrations and activities are great,
but the contributions of African people must be emphasized
throughout the year.
There is no question that the setting aside
of the month of February, as an extension of Dr. Woodson’s
original idea of “Negro History Week” is something we need
vigorously to continue to support and institutionalize. We
are quite clear that the real meaning of African American
History Month, in this era, is to take the spirit from all
the celebrations, great speeches, great entertainment and
festive events to establish as a major agenda item in our
movement, the serious study, 365 days a year, of the contributions
of African people.
The objective of the current African Centered
Education Movement is to take control of the education of
African people in America, as we struggle to insure that the
truth is taught in all institutions, in our communities and
particularly in our schools.
We must
take the spirit of African American History Month to another
level. Our history must be studied throughout the year!
BlackCommentator.com
columnist
Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman of the National
Black United Front (NBUF).
Click
here to contact Dr. Worrill.