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Indexicality: An Africological Method of Inquiry

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Indexicality: An Africological Method of Inquiry

Indexicality: An Africological Method of Inquiry

Description

Indexicality: An Africological Method of Inquiry by Dr. Molefi Kete Asante is both a groundbreaking theoretical text and a practical guide for conducting research rooted in the Afrocentric worldview. It offers scholars a definitive methodological framework for Africology, designed to analyze African phenomena through the lens of African agency, cultural systems, and historical continuity.

Building upon the intellectual foundations laid in Kemet, Afrocentricity, and Knowledge and enriched by decades of Africological scholarship, Asante addresses a pressing need for research methods aligned with the epistemological and ontological commitments of Africology.

Indexicality provides a structured process for inquiry that is culturally grounded, philosophically coherent, and methodologically precise. Asante unpacks how this approach can be used to:

  • Examine historical texts and cultural narratives with methods that honor African-centered interpretations.
  • Conduct linguistic and semiotic analyses that preserve the integrity of African worldviews.
  • Reframe classificatory systems to reflect African values and lived realities rather than imposed colonial categories.
  • Guide policy analysis, curriculum development, and applied social research that directly benefit African-descended communities.

Indexicality offers concrete tools that scholars can apply across disciplines from Africana Studies and political science to communication, linguistics, and education. Its practical applicability extends to archival research, oral history projects, cultural criticism, and the creation of knowledge systems that serve African people globally.

Drawing on the intellectual legacies of Yosef ben-Jochannon, Cheikh Anta Diop, and Jacob Carruthers, and building on the methodological innovations showcased in The Little Black Book Series: Research Methods for the African Diaspora, Asante positions Indexicality as a methodological cornerstone. With its combination of philosophical depth and actionable guidance, Indexicality is indispensable for researchers committed to the rigorous and emancipatory project of Africology.

 

Authors and Contributors

Molefi Kete Asante Ph.D.

Dr. Molefi Kete Asante is known for developing the method of Afrocentricity, a theory that emphasizes African culture and history from an African-centered perspective. Asante is a professor and former chair of the Department of Africology at Temple University, where he founded the PhD program in African-American Studies, and is the founding editor of the Journal of Black Studies. He is also the founder and president of the Molefi Kete Asante Institute.

Asante has been recognized as one of the ten most widely cited African Americans, with over 100 published books. In the 1990s, Black Issues in Higher Education recognized him as one of the most influential leaders of the decade. Dr. Molefi Kete Asante graduated from Oklahoma Christian College in l964. He entered Pepperdine soon afterwards, and completed his M.A. at Pepperdine University in l965. He received his Ph.D. from UCLA at the age of 26 in l968 and was appointed a full professor at the age of 30 at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He chaired the Communication Department at SUNY-Buffalo from l973-1980. He worked in Zimbabwe as a trainer of journalists from l980 to l982. In the Fall of l984, Dr. Asante became chair of the African American Studies Program at Temple University, where he created the first Ph.D. Program in African American Studies in 1987. He has directed more than 140 Ph.D. dissertations. He has written over 500 articles and essays for various journals, books, and magazines, and is the founder of the theory of Afrocentrism. Universal Write Publications is the pioneering social science press instrumental in a historic and legacy-making partnership, having published 15 of Dr. Molefi Kete Asante’s titles.

Dr. Molefi Kete Asante is the most published contemporary African American author. He has become the seminal theoretician of Afrocentric infusion into the curriculum, examining and advancing the agency-centered ideological position in the realm of education, culture, and science. Widely read and consulted, Dr. Asante and his books have inspired educators in the United States, South Africa, Nigeria, Canada, and Brazil.

 

Author profile

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