Towards an Understanding of Africology

New Sixth Edition Now Available!

Since 1968 when the first Black Studies department was established at San Francisco State University, more than three hundred other departments, programs and centers have surfaced on various campuses of the nation, including Ph.D. programs.

Towards an Understanding of Africology, now in its 6th edition, represents an essential reading for students, teachers/researchers, and administrators who seek a concise, clear and comprehensive understanding of the evolution, philosophical and theoretical foundation, mission, and functional value of Africology/Black Studies in academe and human society at large.

Serving as a comprehensive text for undergraduate and introductory graduate-level courses in Black Studies, Towards an Understanding of Africology by Victor O. Okafor:

• Includes a set of both new and significantly updated chapters (including one on "Black Lives Matter (BLM) Goes Global-George Floyd and the hot summer of 2020, a Survey of Emergent Grassroots Protests & Public Perceptions of Justice").
• Recognizes the global context of American and African American history, and the universality of the African experience.
• Discusses the evolution, scope, and philosophical and theoretical foundation of Black Studies.
• Includes updated research and scholarship on Africa as the cradle of humankind - including recent archaeological and genetic studies.
• Examines the functional value of Black Studies/Africology in the age of multiculturalism and cyberspace educational technology.
• Elaborately clarifies misconceptions about the Afrocentric/African-Centered paradigm as a conceptual framework.