It
is a very important for African people in America
to educate and reeducate ourselves about our history and its relationship
to the important ideas that shape how we see the world.
We
are still challenged today to create an educational climate that
inspires African youth in America
to understand that the purpose of education is to develop the skills
and historical understanding of the past as it relates to the present
and future in preparation for working for self and the liberation
of African people.
This
is the challenge of the twenty-first-century to defeat the one hundred
year tradition established by white educational leaders who created
curriculums for Africans in America
designed to prepare them to work for white folks.
Dr.
Carter G. Woodson, who founded in February of 1926, what at the
time was called �Negro History Week,� would indeed be inspired by
the ongoing discussion and debate over the contributions of African
people to the history of the world.
The
movement led by Dr. Woodson helped lay the foundation for the current
African Centered Education Movement that has become the catalyst
for the intense study of Africa and the history
of African people throughout the world 365 days a year.
We
should all read or reread Dr. Jacob H. Carruthers� profound book,
Intellectual Warfare. African American History Month is
a very important, continuing effort, for us, as African people in
America to educate and reeducate
ourselves about our history and its relationship to the important
ideas that shape how we see the world. We must continue this effort
beyond African American History Month and carry it into the rest
of the year.
For
over thirty-five-years, Dr. Carruthers played a leading role as
a scholar and intellectual activist in the development of the African
Centered Education Movement.
Dr.
Carruthers was a tenured professor in the College
of Education�s Inner City Studies Education
undergraduate and graduate programs at Northeastern
Illinois University
in Chicago, Illinois and retired as Professor Emeritus. Along with Dr. Anderson
Thompson, Dr. Carruthers helped shape both the undergraduate and
graduate curricula that have become known throughout the country
for providing a theoretical and practical understanding of the impact
of the political, economic, social, and cultural forces on people
who live in the inner cities throughout the world. Of course, one
of the largest groups to live in the inner cities is African people.
Therefore,
a great deal of Dr. Carruthers� writings and lectures concentrated
on the white supremacy intellectual assault on African people and
the world. Dr. Carruthers has been magnificent in exposing the European
intellectual tyranny and its impact on the education of African
people.
It
was through his association with the late, great Senegalese scholar,
Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop and the late, great scholar / teacher, Dr.
John Henrik Clarke that helped propel the genius of Dr. Carruthers�
insight into the �Deep Well� of the African Worldview.
As
the founding President of the Association for the Study of Classical
African Civilizations (ASCAC), Dr. Carruthers helped shape an organizational
format for African Centered scholars, teachers, students, and the
overall African Community to have a collective vehicle in which
to pursue the building of the African Centered Education Movement.
His leadership, in this regard, has been monumental and inspiring
to hundreds of scholars, teachers, and students throughout the African
World Community.
In
this connection, Dr. Carruthers� book, Intellectual Warfare,
prepares us to function in the twenty-first-century with a sharper
understanding of our challenges as an African people.
The
book is organized into five sections. Part I: The Nature of the
War; Part II: Defenders of Western Civilization; Part III: Intellectual
Civil War; Part IV: The Champions of African Centered Thought; and
Part V: Toward the Restoration of African Civilizations.
In
the preface of Intellectual Warfare, Dr. Carruthers explains,
�These essays reflect the thought of the �Chicago
group� and the �African Community of Chicago.� I was simply a vehicle
through whom ideas flowed. Even the mistakes are our mistakes rather
than mine alone. The conceptualization of our work as Intellectual
Warfare emerged out of the actual battles in which we were engaged.�
In
the first chapter, Dr. Carruthers instructs us by pointing out,
�Thus, those who have been waging the long war to liberate African
history and culture have been fighting the following two battles:
(1) an international war against the European intellectuals and
(2) a civil war against the colonized African spokespersons who
are trained by Europeans to undermine African independence. The
war is truly, as Anderson Thompson says, a battle for the African
mind, or as Asa Hilliard and the First World Alliance put it, a
battle to free the African mind.�
Those
who believe in the just cause of the long war to liberate African
history and culture must read and reread and study Dr. Carruthers�
most insightful observations, wisdom, and his �Deep Well� of understanding
that is shared in Intellectual Warfare.
BlackCommentator.com
Columnist, Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman
of the National Black United Front (NBUF). Click here
to contact Dr. Worrill.
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