3.3: Positions in the Field

Positions in the Field

Given the transdisciplinary disposition and intellectual elasticity of Africana studies, it offers a wide array of varying, or even competing positions. To provide a complete and comprehensive overview of the varying positions would require a whole text within itself. For the purpose of this section four foundational positions within the discipline are used to explore how they each inform the fugitive knowledge and laboratory pedagogy of Africana Studies: Pan-Afrikanism, Black Study, Fugitivity, and the Spiritual nature of Afrikan education.

Pan-Afrikanism

Pan-Afrikanism could be understood as an objective, the total liberation and unification of Afrika and the Afrikan diaspora. Pan-Afrikanism is also instructive as it provides a framework for identifying Afrikan descended people as one distinct group, while being attentive to and celebrating the vast cultural diversity that resides within the Afrikan diaspora. This seemingly small detail becomes of vital importance, as it diminishes schools of thought that seek to bifurcate the intellectual capacity found in Afrikan antiquity from the intellectual capacity of Afrikans living and being within the confines of Western modernity. Expressions of political Pan-Afrikanism has inspired many Africana Studies practitioners and has helped establish several departments and programs of Pan-African Studies throughout various universities including, but not limited to: Syracuse University, Temple University, Clemson University, Kent State University, University of Louisville, California State University Los Angeles, and California State University Northridge. Pan-Afrikanism’s political accomplishments include a series of congresses and conferences that would culminate in Ghana’s independence from British colonialism in 1957. Historically, Pan-Afrikanism signifies the anti-colonial and anti-racist liberation movements that spread throughout the continent of Afrika, the Caribbean, and the Americas. Pan-Afrikanism is also informed by a series of core principles:

• Afrika as the homeland of Afrikans and persons of Afrikan origin
• Solidarity among all people of Afrikan descent
• Belief in a distinct Afrikan personality
• Rehabilitation of Afrika’s past
• Pride in Afrikan culture
• Afrika for Afrikans in church and state
• The hope for a united and glorious future Africa.^[54]

 

 Within the ideological formulations of the various Pan-African Conferences and Congresses can be located pedagogical principles that would forever shape the development of Africana Studies and guide the intellectual production of its practitioners. Also, within the series of Pan-African Conferences and Congresses are central figures in the formative stages of Africana thought. To highlight the pedagogical offerings of the 1900 Pan-Afrikan Congregation, it becomes important to explore the details offered in the addresses made over the course of the three days, through an engagement with the work of Hakim Adi’s  Pan-Africanism: A History. The renowned historian and pedagogue Anna J. Cooper attended the congregation and offered her paper “A Plea for Race Individuality” in which she argued, “The Negro’s nature was artistic and religious. This artistic and spiritual disposition she pleaded must not been allowed to be soiled by the ephemeral materialistic civilization of the Anglo-Saxon.”^[55]  Edward W. Blyden is a prominent progenitor of Pan-Afrikanism, who proves insightful for approximating the pedagogical thrust of the Pan-Afrikan movement. Detailing Blyden’s pedagogical contributions Adi asserts,“Blyden continued to exhort others in the diaspora to return to Africa and establish a ‘home and nationality’ of their own… He was also an advocate of establishing a West African university to train West Africans for self government and to build West African unity… He also believed that Africans must develop an education suited to their own needs, history and culture and he encouraged the study of African languages and Arabic.”^[56] Reverend H. Smith in the paper “Some Startling Historical Facts of the History of the Negro” argued, “that the marvelous Ancient Egyptian civilization owed its stimulus and impetus to the neighboring southern city-states now known as Sudan, Ethiopia, and Nubia… all that was great and distinguished— architecturally, religiously, and in the sense of civilization— had its rise in the lower country.’ Contrary to popular impression, the Negro race had a grand and noble past and he hoped that it would have a yet grander and nobler future.”^[57]

In the addresses delivered by Cooper, Blyden and Smith we can uncover a semblance of the pedagogy that informed the congregation. Cooper sought to center the spiritual nature of Afrikan people in a world that placed hyper emphasis on materialism. Blyden centered a focus on Afrika and the need for Afrikan educational institutions. Smith’s work sought to recast who were the progenitors of the Nile Valley civilization, highlighting their Afrikan origins. The critique and corrective work employed by Cooper, Blyden and Smith is in direct alignment with the pedagogical approach of many Africana theorists and practitioners. In fact, the critique and corrective work employed by Cooper, Blyden,  and Smith is a personification of the type of critique and corrective work that is emblematic of the discipline of Africana studies. In all, we can glean from the above offerings of Blyden, Smith, and Cooper the fundamental pedagogical components of the emerging Pan-Afrikan movement: emphasized Afrika and Afrikan unity, the spirituality of Afrikan people, the Afrikan origins of civilization, along with educating Afrikan people on the importance of self government and establishing an education system that is designed to address the needs of the Afrikan masses. The congregation of 1900 culminated with the formation of the (Pan-African Association) which identified 5 objectives:

1. To secure civil and political rights for Africans and their descendants throughout the world
2. To encourage friendly relations between the Caucasian and African races
3. To encourage African peoples everywhere in educational, industrial, and commercial enterprise;
4. To approach Governments and influence legislation in the interest of the black races;
5. To ameliorate the conditions of the oppressed Negro in Africa, America, the British Empire, and other parts of the world.^[58]

 

The formation of the Pan-African Association and the objectives the Association produced were grand advancements for the Pan-Afrikan struggle, yet were a far cry from the revolutionary Pan-Afrikanism that was employed to liberate Ghana in 1957. In fact, high value was placed on convincing colonial and oppressive governments to see the humanity and worth of Afrikan people. To highlight the seeming shortcomings of what Reiland Rabaka in his text  Routledge Handbook of Pan-Africanism refers to as “embryonic Pan-Africanism” does not devalue the work of the movement or its organizers, to look at both sides (positive/negative) of a phenomena is to as Rabaka posits, “Embrac[e] what I term dialectical Pan-Africanism, which critically engages the beauty and ugliness of Pan-Africanism.”^[59]

Embryonic Pan-Afrikanism had not built up the audacity to out right call for self determination, opting instead to place a heavy emphasis on commercial enterprise. Rabaka, referencing the work of Vincent Bakpetu Thompson Africa and Unity: The Evolution of Pan Africanism in which Thompson argues, “The first phase of Pan-Africanism, between 1900 and 1945, remained in the realm of ideas… The second phase aided by many factors, chief among them was the second world war, which began in 1958 after Ghana’s attainment of sovereign status. The experiences of war brought to the Congress of 1945 individuals whose minds were already made up on the future of colonialism in their territories. They injected a note of militancy which was taken back to Africa and heightened the struggles for national independence. From 1958 onwards the notion of Pan- Africa has moved into the realm of practical politics.”^[60]It is without question that Pan-Afrikanism’s evolution into a liberatory revolutionary practice would not be possible without the formation of Pan-Afrikan ideas and theories, this fact also speaks to Pan-Afrikanism’s theoretical and practical elasticity. In an attempt to simplify the complexities of Pan-Afrikanism while still being attentive to it’s elasticity Rabaka posits, “In the simplest terms, Pan-Africanism is a simultaneously intellectual, cultural, social, political, economic, and artistic project that calls for the unification and liberation of all peoples of African ancestry, both on the African continent and in the African diaspora.”^[61] Rabaka continues, "In the broadest sense, Pan-Africanism refers to a movement and ideology centered on the belief that peoples of African descent throughout the continent and in the diaspora share a common past and destiny. This shared understanding of the past and future informs how people of African descent mobilize against racial discrimination, colonization, and economic, political, and cultural oppression.”^[62]

Rabaka’s attentiveness to the elasticity of Pan-Afrikanism allows him to highlight Pan-Afrikanism’s ability to be simple yet complex, both theory and practice, intellectual, social, cultural, political and economic, while simultaneously being attentive to both Afrika’s past and Afrika’s future. The elasticity of Pan-Afrikanism is emblematic and informs Africana Studies and its work. Pan-Afrikanism’s comprehensiveness allows for the type of wide ranging, trans-global, and trans-disciplinary intellectual production that set Africana Studies apart from many disciplines. Pan-Afrikanism as a pedagogical practice informs schools of thought like Afrikan-Centered practices and pedagogy, which seeks to center the culture of students. In efforts to cultivate an educational experience that is catered and specified to meet the culturally specific needs of each student. Peter Murrell is one of the foremost authors on Afrikan-Centered pedagogy, his text African-Centered Pedagogy: Developing Schools of Achievement for African American Children is foundational for unpacking Afrikan centered approaches to education.  Within the pages of African-Centered Pedagogy Murrell argues, "But effective practice does not lie in the bifurcation of, or balance between, African American culture versus mainstream culture. Rather, the ecology of cultural practices emerging from home, school, and heritages of people is the issue of balance to be resolved. The responsibilities and effectiveness of a teacher are defined, in part, by the pervasive influence of language and culture on classroom activities.".^[63]

Historically, for all cultures, and Afrikan culture specifically, symbols operated and continue to operate as a form of language. Hence, if “the responsibilities and effectiveness of a teacher are defined, in part, by the pervasive influence of language and culture on [the] classroom,” then Afrikan symbols can operate as a profound pedagogical tool. Asa Hillard offers supreme insight into the foundational role of symbols in Afrikan education, "Umeh emphasized the central role played by symbols in the education/socialization process. The symbol is the icon, of course, that carries many layers and levels of meaning. African students are trained from the beginning to expect layer upon layer of meaning in the things that are presented. In a way, dealing with symbols sets up students to be continual probers who search for deeper meanings.^[64]

Hilliard details further, “Africans are taught from the beginning to be “abstract” thinkers; but more than that, since so many African symbols deal directly with the sacred, we can say that we are taught to be sacred thinkers.”^[65] The employment of symbols not only grounds the learner in their culturally specified heritage, but according to Hillard, it provides learners with access to sacred modes of thinking and being. In keeping with the educational practices in many Afrikan societies, nature plays a tremendous role in the pedagogical practice. Returning to the work of Hillard, we find a detailed articulation of nature's instructive role in the pedagogical process in Afrikan societies as he asserts, Umeh discusses the power of nature to teach. His specific reference is to animals. He explains the way that he learned certain things through longtime, systematic observation of birds that were helpful in developing healing practices… However, it is not merely a bird or animal, but Nature itself that was in a constant process of revelation."^[66]Hillard is attentive to the ability of nature to serve as a symbol and work as a language, least we not neglect Murrell’s contention, “the responsibilities and effectiveness of a teacher are defined, in part, by the pervasive influence of language and culture on [the] classroom.” Hillard’s work points readers to the effectiveness of nature to serve as a teacher in the very same capacity that Murrell deems effective, as Hillard posits, “The learner who has self control, who can forget self, and who can reason analogically, will be able to use the symbols of Nature to ‘discover’ wonder upon wonders.”^[67]

The work of Murrell, and Hillard provide the groundwork for Pan-Afrikanism’s instructiveness within the classroom and the discipline of Africana Studies as a whole. Murrell points to the reality that the classroom must be structured in the “ecology of cultural practices emerging from home, school, and heritages of people,” gaging the effectiveness of the educator by her ability to employ a “pervasive influence of language and culture on [the] classroom.” Hillard is attentive to and highlights the use of symbols as a means to engage learners in abstract and sacred/spiritual thinking. Both Hillard and Somé are instructive for situating nature’s foundational role in the classroom, positioning nature as  a historic master teacher of sorts, in the Afrikan pedagogical pantheon.

Black Study/The Undercommons

Black Study/The Undercommons at their core serve as critiques of the modern university, aligned to a large degree, with the critical contentions of Woodson, Black Study seeks to offer an alternative to the Neo-liberal capture of the university in general and of Black/Africana studies in particular. Not only does Black study serve as a critique of the modern university and modes of schooling, it seeks to offer a safe space for the cultivation of radical Black thought, what Stefano Harney and Fred Moten refer to as “The Undercommons.” The work of Harney and Moten provide the perfect contextualization to properly situate the educator's relationship to the modern university; it must be subversive, dwelling in the maroon community. Harney and Moten are attentive to the fact that the “maroon community” is “where the work gets done.” In the academic setting, a form of work is study. Harney and Moten posit, “Some still stay, committed to black study in the university’s undercommon rooms. They study without an end, plan without a pause, rebel without a policy, conserve without a patrimony.”^[68] For Harney and Moten the undercommon or Black study space is below the university or in “a study group, to others in a nurse’s room, to others in a barber shop, to others in a squat, a dump, a woods, a bed, an embrace.”^[69] What becomes apparent and instructive about this space for Black Study or The Undercommons, is it is not a space within the confines of the classroom or university. At best, it can be found below the university. The undercommons is in direct conversation with the fourth objective of Africana studies, establishing a close and intimate relationship between the campus and community. Returning to the work of Karenga which informs us that, "Cultivation, maintenance, and continuous expansion of a mutually beneficial relationship between the campus and the community… Thus,  the classic alienation between the intellectual and the community would be prevented in an ongoing mutually beneficial exchange, where knowledge is shared and applied in the service of liberation and development of the Black community."^[70]

The undercommons and spaces for Black Study are positioned as localities that exist within the broader “community” that exist beyond the university. Emphasizing not only the need to be connected to the broader community, but also the existence of a cultural community wealth that can be instructive for aspects of epistemological production within the university as well. Black Study not only serves as a critique, it also operates at the level of refusal, a negation of the lies and distortions of schooling and the modern university, a call for truth and action. Joshua Myers in the text Of Black Study posits, "Black Study means that tradition of refusal of the knowledge of the world as it was given to us by those committed to colonial and racial order— and all the ways we still experience it, the many othering practices it granted… It is in refusing that we created Black Study as the place— in the margin and contentedly so— that challenged everything the university handed down to us as the only possible reality."^[71]The aforementioned of Black Study and The Undercommons does the type of work that is central to the Africana Studies praxis, continuing the legacy of staunch critique and corrective work that the discipline is founded on.

Fugitivity            

Fugitivity could best be understood as the act of stealing one’s self, being in a constant state of flight from capture. In the plantation society, where Afrikan people were reduced to property, the act of attempting to free yourself from enslavement inherently made you a fugitive and subject to capture and returned to the plantation that owned you. The act of learning for Afrikan people within these restrictive conditions was a criminal act. The multitude of anti-literacy laws and acts against the education of the enslaved, made even possessing a piece of literature a criminal act ensuring mutilation and brutality. In fact, the plantation society perceived the act of learning for the enslaved would make them unfit for enslavement. No one is fit for enslavement, and the process of learning would in fact make the enslaved viscerally conscious of how unfit they are for the conditions of enslavement. Jarvis Givens, in his text Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson & the Art of Black Teaching affirms, “The criminality of black learning was a psychosocial reality. According to Fredrick Douglass’s master: a slave having learned to read and write was a slave ‘running away with himself’: stealing oneself... The theft of one's mind was directly relational to, perhaps even a precondition for, the theft of one’s body.”^[72]

In direct conversation with stealing one’s body and mind. Africana studies’ liberatory capacity serves as fugitive pedagogy, aimed not only to emancipate the Black mind, body, and spirit but serves as a social corrective force that seeks to eliminate the conditions that create the possibilities for systems of oppression. Fugitive learning practices ensured that the Afrikan student would stop at nothing, to obtain an education or secure some form of learning. The work of Jarvis Givens’ School Clothes: A Collective Memoir of Black Student Witness is instructive for properly understanding the lengths Afrikan students went through in order to obtain an education. Givens provides an account of Richard Parker’s clandestine curriculum affirming, "born enslaved in Virginia in 1806, Parker routinely carried a book—on his head— concealed under a hat. This clandestine curriculum was part of the education Parker pieced together through a combination of subversive acts— all of which were legally forbidden. Beneath Parker’s hat was an inner world of desire and striving."^[73]Givens provides another example through the testimony of Mary Jones, "Jones recalled how enslaved people on her Mississippi plantation stole away at night to climb into a pit in the ground— under the earth— ‘an some niggah dat had some learning would have a school.’ In 1848 Charity Bowery, a sixty-five-year-old freed woman from North Carolina, recalled: "On Sundays, I have seen the negroes up in the country going away under large oaks, and in secret places, sitting in the woods with spelling books."^[74]Givens positions these acts as Fugitive learning practices arguing, "under a hat, the earth, under the radar of white surveillance— the fundamental politics of black education emerged. Fugitive learning was constituted by the secret and subtle forms of educational resistance that black students enacted, even as they performed staged acts of compliance in the coercive presence of white authoritative power. Black learners’ choreographed dance between coerced compliance and subterfuge formed a core aspect of their disposition and academic identities.^[75]

For Givens, these acts of subversion be they, “under a hat, the earth, [or] under the radar of white surveillance,”speak to the “fundamental politics of black education.” Yet, as a complement to Givens’ assertion, I argue that these practices are examples of Afrikan learners doing all in their power to obtain an education that will allow them to manifest their divine destiny (nkrabea). The social conditions that outlawed Afrikan educational attainment, contextualizes the need for the fugitive nature of these educational practices. The dominant culture perceived Afrikan people thinking/learning as an act tantamount to rebellion. In fact, for many within the dominant society, Afrikan literacy was synonymous with insurrection. These fear based sentiments spawned the anti-literacy laws that emerged as a response to Afrikan insurrection. Givens provides further insight arguing, "White suspicion of black education took root in the Americas well before the nineteenth-century slave revolts listed above. For instance, the 1740 Negro Act in South Carolina prohibited teaching slaves to write as a response to the Stono Slave Rebellion of 1739, the largest slave uprising during the colonial era. The suppression of black literacy, as a matter of law, precedes US independence. The intentional underdevelopment of black educational life on North American soil is older than the United States itself."^[76]

While Afrikan educational advancement was a manifestation of  Afrikan people’s desire to fulfill their destiny, we cannot ignore the ever present danger faced by Afrikan people in their attempts to gain education. The anti-literacy laws that prevented Afrikan literacy were as unreasonable as the consequences were vicious. Givens provides the appropriate insight into the cruelty enacted upon the Black body that sought to pursue literacy,"Papa Dallas recalled how the overseer found him trying to read and write under the big oak tree on the Mississippi plantation… Mississippi law made black literacy and criminality equal transgression… The overseer made an example of the young boy, whipping him in front of the other slaves. As if beating him wasn’t enough, the overseer then put acid in his eyes, to permanently fix him."^[77] Givens continues, "From Papa Dallas’s mouth to Stewart’s ears, the  words of the overseer are remembered and passed on: ‘Let this be a lesson to all of you darkies. You ain’t got no right to learn to read!’… Stewart was to bear witness and live life in defiance of the overseer’s proclamation. She was to live life in refusal of this lie. These were her marching orders."^[78]Fugitive educational practices were instructive not only for the discipline who employed fugitive practices for its emergence but also for future leaders and movements. You see examples of these fugitive practices employed as political strategy in the likes of SNCC’s Tent City.

The spiritual nature of Afrikan education

The spiritual nature of Afrikan education, is the most foundational component of the Afrikan educational scope. Returning to Afrikan antiquity, there was never a separation between the priest and the professor; they occupied the same role and function. Asa Hilliard proves to be quite instructive as he posits, "The deep well of traditional African education and socialization process were rooted in a world view where there was a belief in human perfectibility, the belief that humans could indeed become more like god. Basic skills were merely the lowest level of education. The development of character, humanity and spirituality were higher levels of attainment."^[79]Hillard properly situated the true rationale and impetus behind Afrikan educational attainment, the highest development of spirituality. The work of Malidoma P. Somé becomes generative, in particular, his text Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman. In this text, as it pertains to education Somé posits, “In this case, education is meant to ‘bring out’ what is already inside of each person, and though ancient in origin, this focus also remains as a central theme of many indigenous African systems of education today.”^[80]According to Somé the purpose of education is to “bring out” what is already inside. Naturally, the subsequent line of inquiry becomes what do the Dagara believe is “inside” that needs to be brought out? Again we return to the words of Somé, "The Dagara believe that every individual comes to this life with a special destiny, some names are programmatic. They describe the task of their bearers and constitute a continual reminder to the child of the responsibilities that are waiting ahead. A person’s life project is therefore inscribed in the name she/he carries.”^[81]

Hence what lies inside someone is their destiny, their life’s project. Consequently, for the Dagara, education is intended to bring one to, and “bring out” one's destiny or life project. This drastically shifts the conversations around academic success and achievement for Afrikan people. For what value does a degree hold, given the aforementioned definition of schooling, in juxtaposition to obtaining the highest level of spirituality and fulfilling one’s purpose. To add further insight into the Afrikan conceptualization of learning being a lifelong spiritual endeavor, the work of Kwame Gyekye An Essay on African Philosophical Thought: The Akan Conceptual Scheme provides the ideal point of entry as Gyekye posits, “The basis of the assertion that nyansa [(thinking)] is inborn is the Akan belief that it is the spirit (sunsum) of a person that makes nyansa possible (sunsum no na ema nyansa), and that thinking is in fact a function of the spirit (adwen no wo sunsum no mu). According to the Akan conception of the person, sunsum (Spirit) is an innate faculty possessed by a person at birth.”^[82] Gyekye and the (Akan) situate thinking as an innate function of the spirit, the idea that spirit is a faculty that is possessed at birth. Gyekye goes on to describe the Ōkra (soul) as follows,

The ōkra is said to be that which constitutes the innermost self, the essence, of the individual person. Ōkra is the individual's life, for which reason it is usually referred to as ōkrateasefo, that is, the living soul, a seeming tautology that is yet significant. The expression is intended to emphasize that ōkra is identical with life. The ōkra is the embodiment and transmitter of the individual’s destiny (fate: nkrabea). It is explained as a spark of the Supreme Being (Onyame) in man. It is thus described as divine and as having an antemundane existence with the Supreme Being.^[83]

Gyekye describes the Sunsum (Spirit) as follows, "Sunsum is another of the constituent elements of the person. It has usually been rendered in English as ‘spirit.’ It has already been observed that sunsum is used both generically to refer to all unperceivable, mystical beings and forces in Akan ontology, and specifically to refer to the activating principle in the person."^[84] The Akan conceptualization of the being also becomes instructive for the ways in which they tie the ōkra (soul) to an individual's destiny, as affirmed by Gyekye, “The ōkra is the embodiment and transmitter of the individual’s destiny (fate: nkrabea).” As the Akan proverb states, “All men have one head but heads differ.” Providing further insight to the proverb Gyekye posits, “That is, all people are basically alike as people - they differ in their fortunes, luck, capacities, etc.” Like Somé and the Dagara,  for the Akan, a person’s destiny is almost ontological, informing and shaping all aspects of their being. For the Akan, the distinguishing qualities of an individual is connected to that individual’s destiny. As Gyekye further details, "In Akan conceptions each person is unique, for, as they often say, ‘each and his destiny,’ that is, each person has his own destiny. A person’s destiny is the crucial determinant or basis of individuality and uniqueness. The characteristics of individuals reflect the differences in their destiny.'^[85]

In Akan conceptualization, a person’s destiny is a predetermined divine appointment assigned to you by the Supreme Being, which dictates the essence of your being, as Gyekye posits, "Akan thinkers hold that every human being has a destiny that was fixed beforehand… It is held that before the soul sets out to enter the world, it takes leave of or bids farewell (kra) to the Supreme Being, Onyame. At this juncture it receives from Onyame the message (nkra) that will determine the course of the individual's life on earth. From the outset, that is, in Akan conceptions there is a close link between destiny and the soul."^[86]The spiritual component of Afrikan education is to situate the learning in the understanding of their purpose and destiny. Hence the educational process is intended to actuate the learner's purpose. Yet, if spiritually grounding the learner in their purpose becomes the purpose of education, what becomes the opportunities and possibilities for Africana Studies? The next section looks toward Afrofuturism as the opportunity and possibility for Africana Studies.

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Endnotes

^[54] Esedebe, P. Olisanwuche. Pan Africanism: The Idea and Movement 1776-1963. Washington D.C.: Howard University Press. 1982. 3

^[55] Adi, Hakim. Pan Africanism: A History. New York: Bloomsbury Academy. 2018. 52

^[56] Ibid. 13

^[57] Ibid. 52

^[58] Ibid. 53

^[59] Rabaka, Reiland. Routledge Handbook of Pan Africanism. New York: Routledge Taylor and

Francis Group. 2020. 3

^[60] Ibid. 4

^[61] Ibid. 8

^[62] Ibid. 9

^[63] Murrell, Peter C. African-Centered Pedagogy: Developing Schools of Achievement for African American Children. Albany: State University of New York Press. 2002. 115

^[64] Hillard, Asa G. SBA: The Reawakening of the African Mind. Gainesville: Makare Publishing

Company. 1998. 96

^[65] Ibid. 96

^[66] Ibid. 97

^[67] Ibid. 97

^[68] Harney, Stefano and Moten, Fred. The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study.

Brooklyn: Autonomedia, 2013. 67

^[69] Ibid. 68

^[70] Karenga, Maulana. IBS: Introduction into Black Studies. Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press, 2010. 18

^[71] Myers, Joshua. Of Black Study. Las Vegas: Pluto Press, 2023. 8

^[72] Givens, Jarvis R. Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson & the Art of Black Teaching.

Massachusetts. Harvard University Press. 2021. 12

^[73]  Givens, Jarvis G. School Clothes: A Collective Memoir of Black Student Witness. Boston: Beacon Press. 2023. 53

^[74] Ibid. 55

^[75] Ibid. 55

^[76] Ibid. 64

^[77] Ibid. 93

^[78] Ibid. 94

^[79] Hillard, Așa G. SBA: The Reawakening of the African Mind. Gainesville: Makare Publishing. 1997. 108

^[80] Somé, Malidoma P. Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman. New York: Penguin Group. 1994. 51

^[81] Ibid.1

^[82] Gyekye, Kwame. An  Essay on African Philosophical Thought: The Akan Conceptual Scheme.

Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1987. 62

^[83] Ibid. 85

^[84] Ibid. 88

^[85] Ibid. 89

^[86] Ibid. 89