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Journal of Black Studies http:/fibs.sagepub.com/ Afrocentricity as a Generative Idea in the Study of African ‘American Drama Nilgun Anadolu Okur, Joumal of Black Studies 1993 24: 88 DOI: 10.1177/002193479302400106 The online version of this article can be found at: http:/bs.sagepub.com/content/24/1/88, Published by: @SAGE nttp:!Awww.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for Journal of Black Studies can be found at: Email Alerts: hitpi/ibs.sagepub.comlegialerts ‘Subscriptions: http:ps.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://w. sagepub.comijournalsReprints.nav Permissions: http:/iwww.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations: tp:/Ibs. sagepub.com/content/24/1/88.refs html >> Version of Record - Sep 1, 1993 What is This? AFROCENTRICITY AS A GENERATIVE IDEA IN THE STUDY OF AFRICAN AMERICAN DRAMA NILGUN ANADOLU OKUR Temple University Molefi Kete Asante has established a theoretical perspective that recognizes the centrality of African ideals and ideas as starting places for the analysis and synthesis of African phenomenon (Asante, 1987). Using the term Afrocentricity, Asante presents it as critical theory and method which serves as a generative concept. First introduced in his now classic book, Afrocentricity, the theory has gained prominence in all academic circles. By 1988 Temple University had started the first doctoral pro- gram in African American Studies. Nearly 40 graduate students centered to study from an Afrocentric perspective the nature of the African world’s culture and history. The fact that more than 400 people applied to the department for graduate studies in the first 2 years indicates a growing interest in the intellectual idea articulated by Asante. Moreover, an increasing demand within the African ‘American community for higher education and university degrees, as well as graduate study, seems to bring about other developments and new theories of social change as in the case of the Afrocentric perspective. Afrocentricity developed as a paradigm based on work since the 1960s. Black Studies programs—which really gained departmental status—most often provided the link to an Afrocentric paradigm but they are not necessarily viewed as the direct precursor of Afro- centricity today. The key figures in the early Black Studies move- ment were scholars such as Nathan Hare, Vincent Harding, James JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES, Wo. 24, September 195 8-108 (© 199 Sage Pbicnons, be. 88 ‘Okur/ AFROCENTRICITY IN DRAMA 89 ‘Stewart, Wade Nobles, William Nelson, Sonia Sanchez, Talmadge Anderson, Molefi K. Asante, James Turner, Linda Myers, and Maulena Karenga. However, the most important contribution to Afrocentric theory is made in the major works of Asante who views Afrocentricity as the continuation of a tradition that runs back to Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, Frantz Fanon, Elijah Muhammad, and Malcom X. Asante has formulated Afrocentricity in his three important works, respectively, Afrocentricity (1988), The Afrocen- tric Idea (1987), and Kemet, Afrocentricity and Knowledge (1990). It is the purpose of this essay to examine Asante’s theories in light of the field of drama. Although he has lately written on “Afrocentricity and the Critique of Drama,” I shall concentrate on the implications for drama in his earlier works. This is not to say that his later works are not useful to this discussion but rather that his article in the Western Journal of Black Studies (1990) on drama is more a critical work than a theoretical one. To adequately assess his contribution to our understanding of African American theater, T will juxtapose some Eurocentric ideas to his work and then hopefully conclude with a harmonious synthesis in the Asantean manner. “AFROLOGY” OR “AFRICALOGY” Afrology is defined as the study of concepts, issues, behaviors with particular bases in the African world, either on the continent of Africa (continental), or on other lands where Africans are now settled (diasporan). Afrology or Africalogy is an inclusive disci- pline; it brings together creative, political, and geographic dimen- sions of Africans or African-based cultures. Black Studies, African Studies, and Aftican American Studies are essentially Afrological studies, that is, persons within departments or programs with such names are usually engaged in the Afrocentric study of concepts, issues, and behaviors in the African world, Indeed, Asante says, “Afrology is the crystallization of notions and methods of African social scientists and humanists.” He continues, “Afrology is not merely the study of black people, but an approach, a methodological 90 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / SEPTEMBER 1993 and functional perspective. The method which makes Afrological study distinct is Afrocentricity” (Asante, 1988, pp. 59-60). Not all African American historians, critics, and sociologists who have made excellent studies are Afrologists, because it is “neither a matter of color, nor theme that determines one’s expertise asan Afrologist.Itisthe Afrocentric method which makes Afrologi- cal study” (Asante, 1988, p. 60). On the other hand, not anyone studying Africans can be considered an Afrologist; for instance, black person studying English literature may be a scholar, but not an Afrologist by the virtue of his scholarship. If he studies English literature Afrocentrically, he becomes an Afrologist” (Asante, 1988). ‘An Afrologist must possess three basic qualities: competence, clarity of perspective, and understanding of the subject. There are ‘two theoretical propositions upon which Afrology is founded: 1. Aftology is primarily “for Africa.” that is, it aims to create a collective wall from the creative, political, and geographic dimen- sions of Black people from various pars ofthe world. 2. Second, the Afrologist, by virtue of his perspective, participates in the development of new concepts and directions. An Afrologist is a person capable of understanding many points of view because he values diversity of opinion rather than sameness of opinions (Asante, 1988). A good example that illustrates this view is pointed to by Asante himself in his work Afrocentrcity: ‘Whereas a white communication scholar may define a speech. “an uninterrupted spoken discourse given before an audi- ence,” an afrologist looking at the same object, a speech, would possible derive a different definition ... and say that a speech is a highly interrupted spoken discourse... because he knows that in te black cultural audiences the speakers arc interrupted by shouts of “amen,” “hallelujah,” and “righton. Further the afrologist would demonstrate that these intrjec- tions are not interruptions at all but affirmations and thatthe speech cannot be complete without the interchange of vocal expressions. Antiphony becomes central tothe black commu- nicative process. (Asante, 1988, 62-63) ‘Thus an Afrologist who is Afrocentric is first expected to know, recognize, and formulate the characteristics of his own culture and (Okue/ AFROCENTRICITY INDRAMA 91 later, by virtue of his Afrocentric perspective, other cultures and viewpoints. Hopefully, by then, conventional education systems will include mote “pluralistic perspectives” and shed their Euro- centric hegemony. Asadiscipline Afrology is permanently realized in the American academia and seems to multiply gradually in progressive universi- ties both in Africa and the Americas. For instance, in the 1993-94 academic year it is reported that Temple University’s Ph.D. pro- ‘gramin African American Studies will have more than 200 graduate students. “APRO-AMERICA” By “Afro-America” the Afrocentrist means the “domicile of people of African descent in the Americas.” Besides the United States, Brazil, Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Mexico, Cen- tral America, and the West Indies are included in Afro-America, the population of Brazil is more than 50% African and the United States has nearly 15% African Americans. AFROCENTRICITY AND “REDEFINITION” Afrocentricity calls for a “redefinition” or “elimination” of cer- tain terms that connote racism or prejudice. Most of these terms are derived from Asante’s work titled Afrocentricity (Asante, 1988, p46): rnon-White colored ttibe Negro ‘minority Bushman pyemy African dialects jungle sub-Saharan chief native Aftican slaves Black Africa primitive personally believe terms like “slave narrative,” “third world peo- ple,” “third world countries,” “the Dark continent” or “universally 92. JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / SEPTEMBER 1993 accepted” need redefinition as well because language can interfere with thoughts in the effort to gain essential ground. “EUROCENTRIC’ In previous works Ihave used “Eurocentric” to define European- oriented Wester perspective in opposition to the term “Afrocent- ric” that places Aftica and African-related issues at its center. 1 never intend to question validity of any Eurocentric tradition within its own context. Rather my aim is to emphasize that, although nei- ther the Eurocentric view nor the Afrocentric view represents the overall view of reality (because each can perceive only one part of reality), Eurocentric aspirations often tend to be promoted as “uni- versal” and “world-defining,” Therefore, itis important to explain Afrocentricity, which does not have similar aspirations, but rather seeks pluralism without hierarchy. For instance, Leslie Fiedler emphasized in Love and Death in the American Novel that romance was a central theme in literature (Fiedler, 1966). The author might have been familiar with the classics of American, British, and most European literature. Yet his vision obviously excludes the rest of the world literature, particu larly African and Asian literature, as well as Middle Eastern and ‘Turkish literature, in which romance is generally treated asa variety ora subtheme. Charles Larson, who was teaching an English literature course in Nigeria in the 1970s, had encountered the difficulty of groping for words to explain the work of Thomas Hardy to his African students. Larson’s students did not understand the idea of kissing in the Victorian novel. Larson concluded that kissing and descrip- tion of kissing have not found counterparts in the African novel— not by then, at least. He wrote, “Usually when we try to force the concept of universality on someone who is not western, I think we are implying that our own culture should be standard of measure~ ment” (Larson, 1973, pp. 463-467). Fiedler’s assertion on “love story” sounds as “universal” as, another Eurocentric reasoning that is imposed on world literature. Because there are some cultural areas where the love story—in the Okur/ AFROCENTRICITY IN DRAMA 93 sense described in Western literature—is either nonexistent or different in its own cultural context. Meanwhile, one counterargu- ment maintains that there are no major African novels where the plot progresses because of a hero's attemptto attract a mate (Asante, 1987). Ngugi Wa Thiong’6, the Kenyan novelist and playwright, in a critical analysis of African education system reveals how Eurocen- tric objectives were operated in African schools for quite a long time. He says: ‘The syllabus ofthe English Department meant a study of the history of English literature from Shakespeare, Spencer, and Milton to James Joyce and T. S. Eliot, I. A. Richards and the inevitable FR. Leavis. Matthew Arnold's quest for the sweetness and light of & hellenized English middle class; T. S. Eliot’s high culture of an ‘Anglo-Catholic feudal tradition, suspiciously close to the culture of, the “high table” and to the racial doctrines of those born to rule; the Leavisite selected “Great Tradition of English Literature” and his insistence on the moral significance of literature; these great three dominated our daily essays. How many seminars we spent on de- tecting this moral significance in every paragraph, in every word, even in Shakespeare's commas and fullsiops?. ..In drama Aeschylus, ‘Sophocles and Aristotle or Ibsen, Chekhov, Strindberg and Synge, ‘though quaint and strange in their very unEinglishness . . . even at its most human and universal, necessarily reflected the European experience of history ‘African children who encountered literature in colonial schools. ‘and universities were thus experiencing the world as defined and reflected in the European experience of history. Their entire way of Jooking at the world, even the world of the immediate environment, as Eurocentic. Europe was the center of the universe. The earth moved around the European intellectual scholarly axis. (Thiong'0, 1986, p. 93) Thiong’o concluded that in post-World War II days economic control of the African people in Kenya was thus effected through politics and culture, In 1968 there was a big debate about the change of syllabus in the Literature Department at the University of Nairobi where Thiong’o taught. Not until 1973, when the majority of the staff members appointed were Africans was the syllabus reorga- 94 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / SEPTEMBER 1993, nized to reflect new perspectives in the line of Thiong’o’s view- point: ‘We want to establish the centrality of Africa in the department... Education is a means of knowledge about ourselves. Therefore, after we have examined ourselves, we radiate outwards and dis- cover peoples and worlds around us. With Africa at the center of things, not existing as an appendix or a satelite of other countries and literatures, things must be seen from the African perspective. (Thiong’o, 1969, p. 150) ‘Thiong’o rejected the European education system mostly because he believed imposition of foreign languages on Africans further the oppression of the people because their chances for mental liberation become remote (Thiong’o, 1983). In fact, the same is true when Euro-American tradition is to be evaluated in the light of African, Asian, or other critical traditions. Yet I want to emphasize in this context that in shaping a meaningful analysis of Aftican American drama and literature Asante’s method is derived from the African American context itself, Afrocentricity is a comparatively young perspective in the arena of critical methods, yet itis a definitive and promising one in the quest for a medium to correct misunderstand- ings and reconcile differences. EFFECT OF VALUE JUDGMENTS ON ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN DRAMA. To draw attention to the fundamental differences that exist ‘between the inherent qualities of African American dramatic tradi- tion and the dramatic tradition of the West, assess the intial models in both traditions. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), sometimes described by Westerners as “the master of all who know” (Asante, 1987, p. 8), is known to have ‘an enormous impact on the development of Westem science and literature, atleast until the 17th century in Europe. Although little of his work belongs to literature, the influence of the Poetics, which ‘Okut/ AFROCENTRICITY IN DRAMA 95 he intended as an analysis of Greek tragedy (together with comic and epic), was long felt even after his era because his follow- ers made it “a canon of right composition with which to condemn as heretics any playwrights who violated its laws” (Wamock & Anderson, 1950, p. 28). Aristotle viewed tragedy as an imitation of an action that is “probable, that might happen.” Tragedy aimed, in his assessment, to call forth the emotions of pity and fear by a spectacle that imitated tragic reality and thus purge the spectator of his accumulation of these upsetting emotions. This purging effect in tragedy was Aristotle’s famous doctrine of catharsis. Union of action (or a single plot) with its climax embedded in a “beginning, a middle, and end” unity of time and place as classical doctrines were derived from his Poetics too. Aristotle defined the proper hero for tragedy as an essentially good man witha tragic fault that causes his downfall. Eventually, quite a few definitions were directly absorbed by the aesthetic realms of the following eras to set the standards toward the development of Western tradition in drama and theater. Through this gradual accumulation there developed a tradition in terms of artistic creation in drama that tends to test most creations against, Aristotelian standards rather than other paradigms that were set simultaneously. Indeed, Aristotle's impact on Western critical spectives appears to be so profound that some critics still trace it in modern drama: His definition of the proper hero for tragedy ... is readily applied to Shakespeare's heroes as well as to Oedipus and is still substan- tially true of tragic characters in modern drama. Indeed, despite the different theater that inspired Aristotle's treatise, itis surprising to observe how much of his advice is still illustrated in the drama of ‘our day, not through conscious imitation but merely as sound prac- tice in reaching an audience. (Warnock & Anderson, 1950, p. 286) Aristotle's position was revered also in the development of philosophy. He always occupied a privileged position as the major philosophical authority behind European cultural outlook from the 13th century until Nietzsche at the end of the 19th century (Driver, 1980). In the 19th century the impactof rising scientific knowledge, 96 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / SEPTEMBER 1993 industrialism, the evolution theory of Charles Darwin, and the strong realistic quality in literature, as well as in other forms of art, left litle space for “a poet to describe a thing that might happen”; instead it dictated to him to “record” (Warnock & Anderson, 1950, p. 286). Yet Aristotle's mode! still found expression in many re- spects but largely in dramatic formulations. In 1922 Eugene O'Neill ‘was to voice his affinity with Greek masters when he outlined his sense of the tragic, objecting that: People talk of the tragedy {in his plays} and call it “sordid,” “depressing,” “pessimistic” —the words usually applied to anything ofa tragic nature. But tragedy, I think, has the meaning the Greeks ‘gave it. To them it brought exaltation, an urge toward life and ever, ‘more life. It raised them to deeper spiritual understandings and released them from the petty greed of everyday existence. When they saw a tragedy on the stage they fel their own hopeless hopes ennobled in art... . Any victory we may win (he insisted) is never the one we dreamed of winning. (Bigsby, 1982, p. 43) O'Neill generally held the vision of Greek tradition in his mind as the essence of creative mode and he-claimed his objective asawriter ‘was “to see the transfiguring nobility of tragedy, inas near the Greek sense as one can grasp it, in seemingly the most ignoble, debased lines” (Bigsby, 1982, p. 45). O’Neill was so highly convinced that theater should be modeled after Greeks, he could assert as late as in 1925, “where the theatre is concerned, one must have a dream, and a Greek dream in tragedy is the noblest ever!” (Bigsby, 1982). Examples provided explain there is a Greek heritage in Euro- American dramatic tradition as well. Yet what I meant in “The Crit- ical Tradition” with “linear progression” was to refer to Aristotle’s strict formulations on plot, character, and language as “involving a single dimension.” For instance, he attributed primary importance to action, that is, Plot, which he also called Fable. Aristotle con- cluded: “Itis the action, that is the end and purpose of tragedy... .a tragedy is impossible without action; but there may be one with- out Character” (Wamock & Anderson, 1950, p. 290). Thus in Aristotle's view characters ranked only second in importance, and the third place he gave to “Thought,” whereas Language (which he (Okur/ AFROCENTRICITY INDRAMA._ 97 called “Diction of the personages”) was only the fourth in terms of importance. Music, which he called “Melody” was “the greatest of the pleasurable accessories” and “Spectacle, the least artistic of all the parts” ranked as the fifth and sixth dimensions in his under- standing of drama. Aristotle provided numerous definitions within Poetics, much of which do not comply or seem probable in modem drama or art. For example, his definition of beauty in art is quite restricted: “To be beautiful, living creature, and every whole made up of parts, must not only present a certain order in its arrangement of parts, but also be of a certain definite magnitude” (Warnock & Anderson, 1950, p. 291). On the other hand, with reference to dramatic concepts as “unity of action,” which he insisted on—and “unity of time and place,” which were inferred on him later on—Aristotle’s position seems to represent a limited viewpoint to the expectations of a modem audience as itis equally the same in the hierarchical presentation of plot, character, and language. Yet it must be remembered that art communicates the values of its culture (Molette & Molette, 1986). 1n300 B.C. the religious character of a Greek play dictated stylized, rather than realistic, production. Because violent action was not to ‘be shown on the stage, plays were to consist of brief plots with few characters and single action. In short, the limitations and variations ‘were superimposed by the conventions and the value estimates of Greek culture, As Molette and Molette (1986, p. 10) argue, “art is limited by the values of its culture to communication modes and ‘messages that are acceptable to the values of that culture,” In this context itis proper to assert that African American drama too grows out of Aftican American culture and its historical legacy. ‘To project valid insights into the artistic creations of African Amer- ican culture some exposure to its aesthetic foundations seems vital. ‘Therefore, the following section is devoted to an analysis and interpretation of African American sensibilities that play essential roles (along with other elements) in the formation of Aftican Amer- ican drama’s unique texture. Meanwhile, itis important to note that this aims not to draw conclusions upon the differences between Eurocentric and Afrocentric perspectives but rather to validate the necessity of an Afrocentric viewpoint as a critical method that re- 98 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / SEPTEMBER 1993 quires total immersion into the roots of African American cultural experience, “SOUL AND BODY,” “ART AND LIFE)” “CIRCULAR VS. LINEAR”: AFRICAN AMERICAN SENSIBILITIES TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF AFRICAN AMERICAN DRAMATIC TRADITION African Americans in the United States have always maintained spiritual connections with Africa and Africans. Aftican manifesta- tions are so deeply engraved into African American culture that it is of primary importance to explain the traditional African world- view before any analysis of African American cultural and literary characteristics. ‘SOUL AND BODY The concept “soul” is fundamental to the understanding of the phenomenon of Aftican American experience. Dona Richards has explained soul as “the poetic expression which in one word encap- sulates the complexity and depth of the African-American ethos” (Richards, 1985, p. 224). Leonard Barrett asserts: “Soul signifies the moral and emotional fiber of the Black man.” The potency of this quality makes ita force which, he says, demonstrates “strength, power, intense effort and will to live.” As Leonard Barrett puts it: Soul-force is that power of the Black man which turns sorrow into joy, crying into laughter, defeat into victory. It i patience while suffering, determination while frustrated and hope while in despair It derives its impetus from the ancestral heritage of Africa, its refinement from the bondage of slavery, and its continuing vitality from the conflict of the present. (Barret, 1974, 224) In the words of two African American critics, “soul-force” then becomes “the basic ingredient of black survival” (Barrett, 1974). On a philosophical level, soul indicates a conception of human nature, and this understanding of soul opposes the rationalistic (Otur/ AFROCENTRICITY INDRAMA 99 epistemology of the Western metaphysics that maintains the es- sence of man’s being becomes “thought” in isolation from other functions, sensations, and responses. Indeed, rationalization, objec- tification, and the conception of nature as a mechanism, every part of which follows exact and logical formulas, endured in Western intellectual tradition for quite a long time. Descartes (1596-1650), ‘who included one of the most famous statements into philoso- phy by “cogito, ergo sum” (“I think, therefore Iam"), explains that ‘man is distinguished fom other animals by possessing an immortal soul, Descartes also claims that soul or mind exists only for (that is, is only perceived by) the understanding. He refers to heart as a “warm organ,” and explains how, from this warm organ, all the motions and passions of the body can be explained by mechanics (Bronowski & Mazliah, 1960, p. 228). Descartes established a sharp dualism between mind and matter; he rejected man’s passions as irvtational intrusions, and distrusted the imagination as a source of delusions. Descartes’ scientific worldview, and his introduction of rational- ism—of logically deriving effects from causes—into philosophy, does not wholly explain African intellectual and aesthetic tradition that highly values human response, emotional involvement, and identification in human beings’ relationship to the universe. In this, context, Richards (1985) insists, “it is precisely that quality of ‘human response to which the concept ‘soul’ refers.” Moreover, it is that ability of the human being to feel, which is, in terms of the African worldview, essentially human. Yet Richards remarks that “this ability to fee!” is not set in contradistinction to thought; rather the two—thought and feeling—are understood to be inextricable and to be necessary for an accurate perception of reality” (Richards, 1985, p. 225). In fact, in the African view, soul represents the essence of a hu- ‘man being; itis this aspect that is perceived as determining quality in African drama and literature, art and aesthetics, and music and dance that also expresses the individual’s harmonious existence with her or his immediate environment and from there to a large circle, thats, the universe. For the African “universe” is conceived as a unified spiritual totality and African critics refer to it as 100 JOURNAL OF BLACK STUDIES / SEPTEMBER 1993 cosmos—meaning that all being is organically interrelated and interdependent, As Richards puts it: ‘The essence of the African cosmos is spiritual reality; that is its fundamental nature, its primary essence. But realities are not con- ceived as being in irreconcilable opposition, as they are in the West, and spirit is not separate from matter. Both spiritual and material being are necessary in order for there to be a meaningful reality. While spiritual being gives force and energy to matter, material being gives form to spirit. Enlightenment and the acquisition of wisdom and knowledge depends to a significant degree on being able to apprehend spirit in matte. This crucial difference in Euro- pean and African thought helps explain the specialness of African American spirituality. (Richards, 1985, p. 210). After briefly summarizing how “soul and body” or “spirit and matter” are entwined as a harmonious unit in African American cculture, itis proper to set about for an explanation of the idea of art and creative process in African American culture, ART AND LIFE, Harmony, the determining mode of African worldview, finds expression in almost all aspects of African American experience. ‘Artand creative process, too, is harmonized through interaction of form and content in African American perspective. Asante, who is primarily a theoretician on communication, approaches creativity from the viewpoint of communication and expresses the unifica- tion of form and content as follows: “Since form and content are activity, force unifies what is called form and content in creative expression . .. the creative production is ‘an experience.’ ” Asante contends: ‘The creative production is “an experience” or a happening occur- ring within and outside the speaker's soul. Thus, unlike the Euro- “American, the Aftican seeks the totality of an experience, concept ‘or system. Traditional African society looked for unity of the whole rather than specifics of the whole; such a concentration, which also emphasized synthesis more than analysis, contributed to commu- (Otur/ AFROCENTRICITY INDRAMA 101 nity stability because considerations in the whole were more pro-

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