• 848 pages
  • 7 x 10
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  • Paperback
  • Price: $46.95
  • EAN: 9781566394031
  • Publication: Jun 1996
Subjects

African Intellectual Heritage

A Book of Sources

edited by Molefi Kete Asante and Abu S. Abarry
  • Philadelphia Book Clinic Certificate of Award, 1997
  • Molefi Kete Asante, recipient of the 2019 Distinguished Scholar Award from the National Communication Association

Organized by major themes—such as creation stories, and resistance to oppression—this collection gather works of imagination, politics and history, religion, and culture from many societies and across recorded time. Asante and Abarry marshal together ancient, anonymous writers whose texts were originally written on stone and papyri and the well-known public figures of more recent times whose spoken and written words have shaped the intellectual history of the diaspora.

Within this remarkably wide-ranging volume are such sources as prayers and praise songs from ancient Kemet and Ethiopia along with African American spirituals; political commentary from C.L.R. James, Malcolm X, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Joseph Nyerere; stirring calls for social justice from David Walker, Abdias Nacimento, Franzo Fanon, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Featuring newly translated texts and documents published for the first time, the volume also includes an African chronology, a glossary, and an extensive bibliography. With this landmark book, Asante and Abarry offer a major contribution to the ongoing debates on defining the African canon.

Reviews

"This marvelous volume, African Intellectual Heritage, is indispensable for anyone interested in the life of the mind. Molefi Asante and Abu Abarry are to be congratulated for this fine gift." —Cornel West, Harvard University

"This impressive work shows a profound appreciation for African intellectual ideas." —H. Patrick Swygert, President, Howard University

"Remarkable for its extensive coverage of the African world, African Intellectual Heritage brings together the information for which scholars, students, and the general public have been waiting. Mary McLeod Bethune, Julius Nyerere, Marcus Garvey, and Ptahhotep in the same book! This is a bold and positive enterprise." —Rebecca Hankins, Senior Curator, Amistad Research Center, Tulane University

"This is not a book to be read at one or two settings; rather it should be treated as a Bible, studied slowly. Ponder the words and contemplate the ideas, allowing the information to seep into one's mind. ...African Intellectual Heritage: A Book of Sources should be a must for all academics, especially those in African/Black Studies area. This work is an important contribution to African/Black intellectualism." —MELUS

About the Author(s)

MOLEFI KETE ASANTE is professor and chair of African American Studies at Temple University and author of several books, including The Afrocentric Idea (Temple) and The Historical and Cultural Atlas of African Americans. ABU S. ABARRY is assistant chair of African American Studies at Temple University.