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(3 Le. | Afrocentrism Mythical Pasts and Imagined Homes a STEPHEN HOWE v oa Pom wy Firs published by Verso 1098, "2 Stephen Howe 88 Paperback edition fist pubis! hy Verso 1) ‘© Stephen Howe 180 AIL rts reserved The night of Stephen Howe to be enti the ator ofthis work Tha heen assert! by him sn secorance ih te Copyright Designs nd Patents et HSS Verso UK: 6 Meard Street, Landon WIV IHR USA: THO Varick Street, New York NY 1001-466 Vers is the imprint of Neve Left Books ISBN L-asonsaies itis Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A cataeyge rece for this books able Irom the Brits Library Library of Congress Cstalogingin Publication Dats ‘catalog recon for dis ok aaa Frode Lary of Ca Typeset by SetSpstem Ll, Saffron Walden, Essex Printed by Biceles Li, Cnilonl and King’s Lyi Contents Preface to the Paperback Edition Acknowledgements ANote on Language, Terminology and S Ineoduetion 1 Race: What's in a Name? 2 Pan-Aftiea ism ane Négritude 3 African Origins and the Claim of Primacy 4 Diasporie Images of Africa before Afrocentrist 5. The Birth of Afrocentrism 6 The Masonic Connection Caribbean Currents Afro-Ameriea as Nation, and as Internal Colony 9 Aftican Cultures and the New World 10. Hamites, Semites and Siatue-Stealers IT The Lure of Egypt 12 Nubia and “Inner Af State-Buileling the Ideological Uses of African w CONTENTS 13. African Unity and Afvican Philosophy 14 Cheikh Anta Diop 15 Martin Bernal 16 Wild Afvocentricity 17) Moleli Asante: Godfather of Afrocentrism 18. The Network, the School and the Fellow-Travellers 19. Afrocentrism and Sei 20. Pyychology, Race and Magic Melanin 21 Polemics and Prejudices: Sex, Race, Religion and Afrocentrism Bibliography Index 156 163 193 215, 230 240 259 265 ey 287 397 Preface to the Paperback Edition ‘The paperback 1 Afmwensrism does not allow of substantial updating or revision to the main text= which would perhaps in any case be premature. It does, howes yble me to comment briefly on some early responses to the book, and to note a few especially important new developments relevant to its themes ‘One pioneer Afrocentric writer whom I discuss critically but, I hope. respectfully below, John Henrik Clarke, has passed away since cation, Many of Clarke’s ideas were, as [have suggested, exaggerated or ‘wrong; but his life ~ story of determined struggle against poverty and dis- nination ~ should be saluted. Meanwhile, another writer whose views I ise very sharply here was, even before the first edition went to press, ‘embroiled in very public controversy over alleged personal and academic improprieties — leaving a legacy of enduring turmoil in the university departinent where he works. Several readers have asked why Ajracentriom did not refer to those disputes. The reason is simple: Iam concerned with that individual’s shodely ideas, not his allegedly shoddy personal behaviour: Pre-eminent among the new publications in the field is Afolopia: The Roos of African American Poplar History, by Wilson Jeremiah Moses (Cambridge, 1998). Its main theme is the ‘prehistory’ of Afrocentrism, in the thought of various nineteenth and early twentieth century Afro- American writers: something which I could treat only briefly below. Moses, the foremost living authority on African-American intellectual history, also brings to this subject a far greater weight of scholarship than I could ever ¢ tending even further back in time than | for athers est clear examples of black American, ‘Africanist’ writing [had known of were from the 1820s, but Moses finds precursors in the 1790s, He also suggests that, although a very wide range of influences fed into ninetcenth-century Afrocenttism, including mystical andl Masonic ones, the latter’s importance has been exaggerated, and that the most significant input came from fundamentalist Christianity. This isa revision which [am happy to accept. Moyes also angues for a more nuanced and in part sympathetic appraisal of the romantic Afrocentrist tradition than [or most other commentators

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