The Scholars and Their Contributions
Molefi Kete Asante
Biographical Sketch
Current Position: Professor, Department of African American Studies, Temple University
Education: Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
M.A., Perpperdine University Los Angeles
B.A., Oklahoma Christian College
Contributions to the Field:
Dr. Molefi Kete Asante established the first doctoral program in African American Studies. He has authored
over 200 scholarly articles and forty-five books. He is one of the ten most widely cited African Americans
and has directed more than sixty Ph.D. Dissertations in communication and Africology. Dr. Asante is the
founder of Afrocentricity and his books Afrocentricity, The Afrocentric Idea, Kemit, Afrocentricity and
Knowledge are key works in the field. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Black Studies.
Publications: African American Culture (1999), The Afrocentric Idea, (1998), Malcolm X As Cultural Hero
and Other Afrocentric Essays (1994), Activity Book for African American HIstory: A Journey of Liberation,
(1996), Activity Book for Classical Africa (1995), African Culture (1985), Afrocentricity (1989), The
Egyptian Philosophers: Ancient African Voices from Imhotep to Akhenaten (2000), Thunder and Silence:
The Mass Media in Africa (1992), Kemit, Afrocentricity and Knowledge (1990)
A Philosophical Position
"Human changes are not only suggested in association with freedom, they are essential to all of our liberty.
Freedom is indivisible. If we want it for ourselves then we must treasure it for others. In this way we protect
freedom for all. Wherever in the earth enslavement exists it must be eradicated, that must be our cry as we
look towards an earth free of intolerance, prejudice, racism, and ethnic animosities"
(
www.asante.net/articles/index01.html).
"We are increasingly confronted with two problems: (1) assuring self determination and (2) protecting
minority rights. Both of these problems are solvable within the framework of classical African cultures.
There is no reason for a person or group of people, that is, ethnic group or national group to assume that the
society is exclusively theirs" (
www.asante.net/articles/index01.html).