For nearly sixty years, Black/ Africana Studies has been an established discipline in Higher Education. With key textbooks such as Maulana Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies[^1], and Delores P. Aldridge and Carlene Young’s Out of the Revolution: The Development of Africana Studies[^2] as influential introductory texts, and Serie McDougal, III’s Research Methods in Africana Studies[^3], and James B. Stewart’s Transdisciplinary Methods: (TASR): Reframing Research In Black and Africana Studies[^4], as critical text on the unique methodologies Africana Studies offers to the academy, the discipline has more than established itself as a viable academic enterprise worthy of serious and depthful study. It is appropriate, then, that Africana Studies luminaries Nah Dove and Molefi Asante bring The Black Lexicon: Key Concepts in the Discipline of Africology[^5] the students and scholars. This inspired book offers a non-exhaustive list of key-terms and concepts in Africana Studies serving as a resource for engaging meaning and significance of specialized terminology in the discipline.

Every discipline has its own theories, philosophies, approaches, and lexicon. This book serves as a resource for scholars and students of Africana Studies to learn, employ, and expand on these foundational terms and concepts. From “Africa” to “Wondimamachinet,” Key Concepts in the Discipline of Africology offers a glossary of terms for Africana Studies, including relationships between words and concepts. In addition, the book includes an Annotated Bibliography for serious scholars and students in Africana Studies, encouraging them and directing them toward essential texts for further reading.

The strength of The Black Lexicon: Key Concepts in the Discipline of Africology is the diversity of use. It is rudimentary enough to use in an entry level course, where students can be introduced to specialized disciplinary terms in Africana Studies. Furthermore, the book is comprehensive and depthful enough for graduate students, who are expected to master and apply key-terms and concepts at a more sophisticated level, to use as a resource in their studies. The Annotated Bibliography assists graduate students in familiarizing themselves with the foundational, or canonical, texts in Africana Studies. In fact, The Black Lexicon: Key Concepts in the Discipline of Africology can be used throughout one’s undergraduate and graduate career as a constant and continued resource. Lastly, scholars can use this book not only for teaching and mentoring purposes, but also as a resource for understanding the scholarly genealogy of terms while tracking discursive traditions and schools of thought. Essentially, Key Concepts in the Discipline of Africology is useful at multiple academic levels.

Ultimately, The Black Lexicon: Key Concepts in the Discipline of Africology is a must-have book for those interested in the building blocks of Africana Studies. The glossary of terms, lexicon, and Annotated Bibliography make it a unique resource for scholars and students in this specialized discipline. Key Concepts in the Discipline of Africology, then, reveals and highlights over fifty years of scholarly development in Africana Studies and the language that frames and grounds the discipline.

[^1]: Maulana Karenga, Introduction to Black Studies, 4th Edition (Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press, 2010).

[^2]: Delores P. Aldridge and Carlene Young, Out of the Revolution: The Development of Africana Studies (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2000).

[^3]: Serie McDougal, III, Research Methods in Africana Studies (New York: Peter Lang, 2017).

[^4]: James B. Stewart, Transdisciplinary Methods (TASR): Reframing Research in Black and Africana Studies (New York: Universal Write Publications, 2026).

[^5]: Nah Dove and Molefi Kete Asante, Key Concepts in the Discipline of Africology (New York: Universal Write Publications, 2026).