Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T21:32:57.830Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

#HerskovitsMustFall? A Meditation on Whiteness, African Studies, and the Unfinished Business of 1968

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2019

Jean M. Allman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

Why is African Studies in North America dominated by white scholars? In this reflection piece, the 2018 president of the African Studies Association revisits the organization’s sixty-year history, exposing the processes by which white privilege was hardwired into African Studies at the organization’s founding in 1957 and then secured first by the displacement of the much older tradition of African American scholarship on Africa and second by the “recolonization American-style” of knowledge production on the continent in the postcolonial era.

Résumé:

Pourquoi les études africaines en Amérique du Nord sont-elles dominées par des chercheurs blancs ? Dans cet article de réflexion, le président de l’African Studies Association revient sur les soixante ans d’histoire de l’organisation, exposant les processus par lesquels le privilège des Blancs a été intégré dans les études africaines lors de la fondation de l’organisation en 1957, d’abord par le déplacement de la tradition beaucoup plus ancienne de l’érudition afro-américaine sur l’Afrique puis solidifié par la « recolonisation à l’américaine » de la production de connaissances sur le continent dans l’ère postcoloniale.

Resumo:

Por que motivo os Estudos Africanos são, na América do Norte, dominados por académicos brancos? Neste ensaio, o presidente da Associação de Estudos Africanos de 2018 percorre os sessenta anos de história da organização, para explicar os processos através dos quais o privilégio branco se tornou parte integrante dos Estudos Africanos aquando da fundação da Associação, em 1957, e de que modo foi depois consolidado, em primeiro lugar, através da alienação da corrente académica afro-americana dedicada a África, cujas raízes eram bem mais antigas, e, em segundo lugar, na era pós-colonial, através da produção de conhecimento de tipo “americano e recolonizador”.

Keywords

African StudiesAfrican American StudiesArea StudiesBlack Studiesdecolonizationknowledge productionMelville J. Herskovits
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 62 , Issue 3 , September 2019 , pp. 6 - 39
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Editor’s note: This article is a revised version of the Presidential Address given at the 61st Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, November 2018, Atlanta, GA.

References

African Studies Association Papers. Northwestern University, Africana Mss. 7: Records of the Board of Directors; Records of the Annual Meeting; Administrative Files; Committee Records; Publication Records.Google Scholar
Allman, Jean M. 2013. “Kwame Nkrumah, African Studies, and the Politics of Knowledge Production in the Black Star of Africa.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 48 (2): 181–203.Google Scholar
Association of Concerned Africa Scholars. 1996. “The Ghettoization Debate: Africa, Africans and African Studies.” Bulletin [special issue] 46: 1–43.Google Scholar
Aubrey, Lisa Asili. 2002. “African Americans in the United States and African Studies.” African Issues 30 (2): 19–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carter, Gwendolen. 1983. “The Founding of the African Studies Association.” African Studies Review 26 (3/4): 5–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chachage, Chambi. 2019. “From Ghettoizing to Gentrifying African Studies.” Africa Blogging. https://www.africablogging.org/from-ghettoizing-to-gentrifying-african-studies/.Google Scholar
Challenor, Herschelle Sullivan. 1969. “No Longer at Ease: Confrontation at the 12th Annual African Studies Association Meeting at Montreal.” Africa Today 16 (5/6): 4–7.Google Scholar
Challenor, Herschelle Sullivan. 2002. “African Studies at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.” African Issues 30 (2): 24–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, John Henrik. Papers. Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, MG572, Boxes 37 and 38 [on the African Heritage Studies Association].Google Scholar
Clarke, John Henrik. 1970. “Confrontation at Montreal: The Fight to Reclaim African History.” Negro Digest (February): 10–15 and 59–64.Google Scholar
Curtin, Philip. March 3, 1995. “Ghettoizing African History.” The Chronicle of Higher Education.Google Scholar
Gershenhorn, Jerry. 2004. Melville J. Herskovits and the Racial Politics of Knowledge Production. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Gershenhorn, Jerry. 2009. “‘Not an Academic Affair’: African American Scholars and the Development of African Studies Programs in the United States, 1942–1960.” The Journal of African American History 94 (1): 44–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greene, Sandra. 1999. “Symbols and Social Activism: An Agenda for African Studies and the ASA for the 21st Century.” African Studies Review 42 (2): 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grubbs, Larry. 2009. Secular Missionaries: Americans and African Development in the 1960s. Amherst, Mass.: University of Massachusetts Press.Google Scholar
Guyer, Jane I. 1996. African Studies in the United States: A Perspective. Atlanta: African Studies Association Press.Google Scholar
Herskovits, Melville J. Papers. Northwestern University, Africana Mss. 6.Google Scholar
Herskovits, Melville J. 1958. “Some Thoughts on American Research in Africa.” African Studies Bulletin 1 (2): 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hountondji, Paulin J. 2009. “Knowledge of Africa, Knowledge by Africans: Two Perspectives on African Studies.” RCCS Annual Review 1 (1): 121–31. https://journals.openedition.org/rccsar/174.Google Scholar
Isaacman, Allen. 2003. “Legacies of Engagement: Scholarship Informed by Political Commitment.” African Studies Review 46 (1): 1–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kothor, Marius. 2019. “Race and Politics of Knowledge Production in African Studies.” Black Perspectives. https://www.aaihs.org/race-and-the-politics-of-knowledge-production-in-african-studies/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=race-and-the-politics-of-knowledge-production-in-african-studies.Google Scholar
Mama, Amina. 2007. “Is It Ethical to Study Africa? Preliminary Thoughts on Scholarship and Freedom.” African Studies Review 50 (1): 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, William G. 2011. “The Rise of African Studies (USA) and the Transnational Study of Africa.” African Studies Review 54 (1): 59–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, William G., and West, Michael O.. 1999. “The Ascent, Triumph, and Disintegration of the Africanist Enterprise, USA.” In Out of One, Many Africas: Reconstructing the Study and Meaning of Africa, edited by Martin, William G. and West, Michael O., 85–122. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Miller, Joseph C. 2007. “Life Begins at Fifty: African Studies Enters Its Age of Awareness.” African Studies Review 50 (2): 1–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mkandawire, Thandika. 1997. “The Social Sciences in Africa: Breaking Local Barriers and Negotiating International Presence: The Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola Distinguished Lecture Presented to the 1996 African Studies Association Annual Meeting.” African Studies Review 40 (2): 15–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owomoyela, Oyekan. 1994. “With Friends Like These . . . A Critique of Pervasive Anti-Africanisms in Current African Studies Epistemology and Methodology.” African Studies Review 37 (3): 77–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pailey, Robtel Neajai. 2016. “Where is the ‘African’ in African Studies?” African Arguments. https://africanarguments.org/author/robtel-neajai-pailey/.Google Scholar
Pierre, Jemima. 2013. The Predicament of Blackness: Postcolonial Ghana and the Politics of Race. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Pritchett, James. 2014. “Reflections on the State of African Studies: Presidential Lecture.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdmXDYZPz8g.Google Scholar
Robinson, Pearl T. 2007. “Area Studies in Search of Africa: The Case of the United States.” In The Study of Africa: Global and Transnational Engagements, Vol. 22, edited by Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe. 235–76. Dakar: CODESRIA.Google Scholar
Robinson, Pearl T. 2008. “Ralph Bunche and African Studies: Reflections on the Politics of Knowledge.” African Studies Review 51 (1): 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Searles, Michael. 1969. “The Meaning of the A.S.A. Black Caucus at the Eleventh Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.” Africa Today 16 (2): 13.Google Scholar
Skinner, Elliott P. 1976. “African Studies, 1955–1975: An Afro-American Perspective.” Issue: A Quarterly Journal of Africanist Opinion 6 (2/3): 57–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sklar, Richard. 1969. “Politics and Scholarship.” Africa Today 16 (5/6): 11–12.Google Scholar
Smith, Llewellyn (producer and director). 2009. Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness. Cambridge, Mass.: Vital Pictures.Google Scholar
Stuckey, Sterling. February 13, 1971. “Black Studies and White Myths.” The New York Times.Google Scholar
Turner, James, and Murapa, Rukudzo. 1969. “Africa: Conflict in Black and White.” Africa Today 16 (5/6): 13–14.Google Scholar
van den Berghe, Pierre L. 1969. “The Montreal Affair: Revolution or Racism?” Africa Today 16 (5/6): 10–11.Google Scholar
Vitalis, Robert. 2015. White World Order, Black Power Politics: The Birth of American International Relations. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Wallerstein, Immanuel. 1969. “Africa, America, and the Africanists.” Africa Today 15 (5/6): 12–13.Google Scholar
Washington Task Force on African Affairs. 1969. “Washington Task Force Black Paper on Institutional Racism.” African Studies Review 16 (5/6): 25–31.Google Scholar
West, Michael O., and Martin, William G.. 1999. “Introduction: The Rival Africas and Paradigms of Africanists and Africans at Home and Abroad.” In Out of One, Many Africas: Reconstructing the Study and Meaning of Africa, edited by Martin, William G. and West, Michael O., 1–36. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe. 1997. “The Perpetual Solitudes and Crises of African Studies in the United States.” Africa Today 44 (2): 193–210.Google Scholar
Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe, ed. 2007/2008. The Study of Africa: Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Encounters, Vol. 1 Global and Transnational Engagements, Vol. 2. Dakar: CODESRIA.Google Scholar
Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe. 2010. “African Diasporas: Toward a Global History.” African Studies Review 53 (1): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar