I am professor and Founding Director of the Leadership, Equity, and Inquiry doctoral program at Northeastern Illinois University. My research explores Black/African critical social thought, culture, and cultural resistance. Phone: 773-442-5378 Address: 5500 N. Saint Louis Avenue Chicago, IL 60625
The African combat arts have been central to the struggle of African people for self-determinatio... more The African combat arts have been central to the struggle of African people for self-determination. They have been critical as vehicles of resistance, while also serving a number of important social roles such as being a basis for group cohesion, expressing the kinesthetics of African culture, functioning as a venue for various African musical traditions, and—most notably—providing a means for self-protection. One additional and significant role that these arts have taken on is as a means for cultural reclamation for African people and also as healing modalities. This essay explores the latter theme, examining how such healing is enacted through the learning and practice of Capoeira.
Moja: Interdisciplinary Journal of Africana Studies, 2021
Language, beyond its utility as a medium of communication, is also a signifier of political and e... more Language, beyond its utility as a medium of communication, is also a signifier of political and economic power. It is also, perhaps most importantly, an expressive instrument of a people's worldview. Thus, as Africans have and continue to struggle for self-determination in the world, they are often beset by an ongoing dependency on the very languages of those peoples who are the architects and stewards of the system opposed to such liberatory ends. This essay seeks to examine the intersections of language and decolonization with respect to African people. It offers a critical examination of several notable proposals and seeks to explicate the indispensability of language as a key element in the contested terrain of African consciousness.
Maat is one of the principle ideals of Ancient Kemet. Maat expresses how the people of Kemet perc... more Maat is one of the principle ideals of Ancient Kemet. Maat expresses how the people of Kemet perceived the universe, as well as the social ideals which they believed created a harmonious society. Succinctly stated, Maat exemplifies order, justice, righteousness, and truth within society. Maat is an operative concept, one that does not exist as a static idea, but as a set of ideals and actions wedded for the sake of creating a healthy society. This paper explores the social infrastructure that gives expression to Maat, enabling it to shape the dynamics of African life in antiquity. I extend this analysis to the present and the condition of isfet which besets the African world community. This paper seeks to answer whether Maat, as a comprehensive social practice, can inform the work of reclaiming African culture and restoring African sovereignty. In this vein I will explore Maat and African views of the cosmos, the ontology of the human being, the plight of the African world community in the 21st Century, and the capacity of Maat to renew our work and vision for an empowered African world community. I will argue that Maat is not only a framework for understanding and practicing Kemetic culture, but also provides a corresponding mandate for reshaping the world.
This paper seeks to explore the Pan-Africanism of W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) and its interconnect... more This paper seeks to explore the Pan-Africanism of W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) and its interconnections with the Pan-African thought and practice of Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) with respect to the capacity of education to serve as an engine of social transformation. Herein, the author contends that their ideas represent a liberatory philosophy of education, one that elucidated how education can serve the ends of social transformation. Additionally, this essay discusses a conceptual modeI based upon the Akan notion of nokware (“truth”), which is proposed as the basis of a Pan-African critical theory, that is a philosophical model concerning itself with the transformation and liberation of the African world.
This paper argues that Hip Hop represents a potent resource in the conceptualization of social ju... more This paper argues that Hip Hop represents a potent resource in the conceptualization of social justice pedagogy in urban communities. It seeks to conceptualize a Hip Hop pedagogy that also answers the challenge of African-centered education wherein Hip Hop becomes expressive of the intergenerational legacy of social critique and activism in African communities. Herein Hip Hop's utility as a vehicle of critical literacy is explored, seeking to answer the question of how Hip Hop pedagogy can inform resistance to the political-economies of racism, white supremacy and neoliberalism.
This paper offers a theoretical analysis race and racism as products of the TransAtlantic Slave T... more This paper offers a theoretical analysis race and racism as products of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade System. The author endeavors to demonstrate the continued power of the system of racism and its deleterious impact on the life chances of people of African descent. Particular social and institutional contexts are examined in order to demonstrate the intractability of white supremacy. Lastly, the author offers insights on how the recommendations of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade Project can serve to address the vexing legacy of the maafa.
Carter G. Woodson has characterized the education-socialization process afforded to Africans in A... more Carter G. Woodson has characterized the education-socialization process afforded to Africans in America as part and parcel of an institutional imperative for racial subordination. Woodson called this debilitating process mis-education and suggested that its effects permeated the social fabric of the African community. Over the last 30 years African-Centered scholars have echoed Woodson's contention by critiquing and offering alternatives to the conceptual and institutional framework of miseducation. In Intellectual Warfare Jacob H. Carruthers articulates the challenges and success of this effort. He demonstrates the inter-generational nature of this struggle and situates Woodson's ideas within the framework of the contemporary African-Centered paradigm. This paper endeavors at a synthesis of these two men's ideas and seeks to reflect an inter-generational dialogue regarding education-socialization and social change in the African community.
In addition to its beginnings within legal scholarship, Critical Race Theory (CRT) is intimately ... more In addition to its beginnings within legal scholarship, Critical Race Theory (CRT) is intimately aligned with the long tradition of African American social critique, which sought to interrogate the intractable nature of racism and White supremacy. Within this intellectual tradition, the works of W.E.B. Du Bois are of critical significance. Du Bois’ critique of racism, in addition to his theories of education, anticipate many key aspects of CRT. Additionally, Du Bois illuminates fruitful spaces that are of great relevance to contemporary scholars engaged in a critical analysis of race and racism in their global and domestic contexts, within both education and the broader society.
Finding Our Way Through the Desert: Jacob H. Carruthers and the Restoration of an African Worldvi... more Finding Our Way Through the Desert: Jacob H. Carruthers and the Restoration of an African Worldview offers a critical examination of the ideas and work of Carruthers, a key architect of the African-centered paradigm and a major contributor to its application to the study of Nile Valley culture and civilization. Herein, Kamau Rashid explicates some of Carruthers’s principal contributions, the theoretical and practical implications of his work, and how Carruthers’s work is situated in the stream of Black intellectual genealogy. Essential to this book are Carruthers’s concerns about the vital importance of Black intellectuals in the illumination of new visions of future possibility for African people. The centrality of African history and culture as resources in the transformation of consciousness and ultimately the revitalization of an African worldview were key elements in Carruthers’s conceptualization of two interrelated imperatives—the re-Africanization of Black consciousness and the transformation of reality. Composed of three parts, this book discusses various themes including Black education, disciplinary knowledge and knowledge construction, indigenous African cosmologies, African deep thought, institutional formation, revolutionary struggle, history and historiography to explore the implications of Carruthers’s thinking to the ongoing malaise of African people globally.
The African combat arts have been central to the struggle of African people for self-determinatio... more The African combat arts have been central to the struggle of African people for self-determination. They have been critical as vehicles of resistance, while also serving a number of important social roles such as being a basis for group cohesion, expressing the kinesthetics of African culture, functioning as a venue for various African musical traditions, and—most notably—providing a means for self-protection. One additional and significant role that these arts have taken on is as a means for cultural reclamation for African people and also as healing modalities. This essay explores the latter theme, examining how such healing is enacted through the learning and practice of Capoeira.
Moja: Interdisciplinary Journal of Africana Studies, 2021
Language, beyond its utility as a medium of communication, is also a signifier of political and e... more Language, beyond its utility as a medium of communication, is also a signifier of political and economic power. It is also, perhaps most importantly, an expressive instrument of a people's worldview. Thus, as Africans have and continue to struggle for self-determination in the world, they are often beset by an ongoing dependency on the very languages of those peoples who are the architects and stewards of the system opposed to such liberatory ends. This essay seeks to examine the intersections of language and decolonization with respect to African people. It offers a critical examination of several notable proposals and seeks to explicate the indispensability of language as a key element in the contested terrain of African consciousness.
Maat is one of the principle ideals of Ancient Kemet. Maat expresses how the people of Kemet perc... more Maat is one of the principle ideals of Ancient Kemet. Maat expresses how the people of Kemet perceived the universe, as well as the social ideals which they believed created a harmonious society. Succinctly stated, Maat exemplifies order, justice, righteousness, and truth within society. Maat is an operative concept, one that does not exist as a static idea, but as a set of ideals and actions wedded for the sake of creating a healthy society. This paper explores the social infrastructure that gives expression to Maat, enabling it to shape the dynamics of African life in antiquity. I extend this analysis to the present and the condition of isfet which besets the African world community. This paper seeks to answer whether Maat, as a comprehensive social practice, can inform the work of reclaiming African culture and restoring African sovereignty. In this vein I will explore Maat and African views of the cosmos, the ontology of the human being, the plight of the African world community in the 21st Century, and the capacity of Maat to renew our work and vision for an empowered African world community. I will argue that Maat is not only a framework for understanding and practicing Kemetic culture, but also provides a corresponding mandate for reshaping the world.
This paper seeks to explore the Pan-Africanism of W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) and its interconnect... more This paper seeks to explore the Pan-Africanism of W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963) and its interconnections with the Pan-African thought and practice of Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) with respect to the capacity of education to serve as an engine of social transformation. Herein, the author contends that their ideas represent a liberatory philosophy of education, one that elucidated how education can serve the ends of social transformation. Additionally, this essay discusses a conceptual modeI based upon the Akan notion of nokware (“truth”), which is proposed as the basis of a Pan-African critical theory, that is a philosophical model concerning itself with the transformation and liberation of the African world.
This paper argues that Hip Hop represents a potent resource in the conceptualization of social ju... more This paper argues that Hip Hop represents a potent resource in the conceptualization of social justice pedagogy in urban communities. It seeks to conceptualize a Hip Hop pedagogy that also answers the challenge of African-centered education wherein Hip Hop becomes expressive of the intergenerational legacy of social critique and activism in African communities. Herein Hip Hop's utility as a vehicle of critical literacy is explored, seeking to answer the question of how Hip Hop pedagogy can inform resistance to the political-economies of racism, white supremacy and neoliberalism.
This paper offers a theoretical analysis race and racism as products of the TransAtlantic Slave T... more This paper offers a theoretical analysis race and racism as products of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade System. The author endeavors to demonstrate the continued power of the system of racism and its deleterious impact on the life chances of people of African descent. Particular social and institutional contexts are examined in order to demonstrate the intractability of white supremacy. Lastly, the author offers insights on how the recommendations of the TransAtlantic Slave Trade Project can serve to address the vexing legacy of the maafa.
Carter G. Woodson has characterized the education-socialization process afforded to Africans in A... more Carter G. Woodson has characterized the education-socialization process afforded to Africans in America as part and parcel of an institutional imperative for racial subordination. Woodson called this debilitating process mis-education and suggested that its effects permeated the social fabric of the African community. Over the last 30 years African-Centered scholars have echoed Woodson's contention by critiquing and offering alternatives to the conceptual and institutional framework of miseducation. In Intellectual Warfare Jacob H. Carruthers articulates the challenges and success of this effort. He demonstrates the inter-generational nature of this struggle and situates Woodson's ideas within the framework of the contemporary African-Centered paradigm. This paper endeavors at a synthesis of these two men's ideas and seeks to reflect an inter-generational dialogue regarding education-socialization and social change in the African community.
In addition to its beginnings within legal scholarship, Critical Race Theory (CRT) is intimately ... more In addition to its beginnings within legal scholarship, Critical Race Theory (CRT) is intimately aligned with the long tradition of African American social critique, which sought to interrogate the intractable nature of racism and White supremacy. Within this intellectual tradition, the works of W.E.B. Du Bois are of critical significance. Du Bois’ critique of racism, in addition to his theories of education, anticipate many key aspects of CRT. Additionally, Du Bois illuminates fruitful spaces that are of great relevance to contemporary scholars engaged in a critical analysis of race and racism in their global and domestic contexts, within both education and the broader society.
Finding Our Way Through the Desert: Jacob H. Carruthers and the Restoration of an African Worldvi... more Finding Our Way Through the Desert: Jacob H. Carruthers and the Restoration of an African Worldview offers a critical examination of the ideas and work of Carruthers, a key architect of the African-centered paradigm and a major contributor to its application to the study of Nile Valley culture and civilization. Herein, Kamau Rashid explicates some of Carruthers’s principal contributions, the theoretical and practical implications of his work, and how Carruthers’s work is situated in the stream of Black intellectual genealogy. Essential to this book are Carruthers’s concerns about the vital importance of Black intellectuals in the illumination of new visions of future possibility for African people. The centrality of African history and culture as resources in the transformation of consciousness and ultimately the revitalization of an African worldview were key elements in Carruthers’s conceptualization of two interrelated imperatives—the re-Africanization of Black consciousness and the transformation of reality. Composed of three parts, this book discusses various themes including Black education, disciplinary knowledge and knowledge construction, indigenous African cosmologies, African deep thought, institutional formation, revolutionary struggle, history and historiography to explore the implications of Carruthers’s thinking to the ongoing malaise of African people globally.
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