Skip to Main Content

Center For Africana Studies

Africana Studies > News and Publications > Student Voices > Archives 2007

Archives:

Student Voices in Africana Studies 2007

 

Bedelia RichardsDear Readers:

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Student Voices in Africana Studies, an on-line newsletter showcasing a collection of personal reflection essays from students enrolled in an Introduction to African American Studies course. The primary objective of this course was to introduce students to the origins and emergence of African American/Black Studies as an academic discipline in the American Academy. Accordingly, the course content was centered primarily on the social realities of people of African descent residing in the United States. Course readings also examined key historical, social and cultural issues connecting people of African descent in the United States with their African ancestors and to their Diaspora counterparts in the English Speaking Caribbean. Specific topics included evidence of pre-Columbian African migrations to the Americas and cultural exchanges with Native Americans, the more recent history of African enslavement, its varied meanings and consequences. This historical background set the stage for readings on more contemporary issues such as afrocentricity and its relationship to Black feminist thought, Black identity and its representations in American popular culture, Garveyism and its influence on the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica.

I have decided to preview the students' essays in this edition with a personal reflection of my own to serve as an introduction and overview for the five student essays contained within this volume. In these essays students critically engage with ideas and concepts that they have encountered in course readings and relate this information to their own life experiences. Students reflect upon issues such as

  • why it is important to study the contributions of people of African descent in the Americas
  • why labeling African Americans as 'forced immigrant' is a misnomer
  • the meaning of race among Black immigrants and
  • the Black feminist critique of Afrocentrism.

These student essays present analyses of complex ideas with clarity and enthusiasm. I know that you will enjoy reading their work.

 

Bedelia Nicola Richards, Editor
Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology