Sankofa (Re)search Model: (Re)membering, (Re)storing, and (Re)birthing Black Boys and Men

Lawson Bush V, Ph.D. is the Chair of Pan-African Studies department at Cal State LA. Rooted in Pan-Africanism, Nana Dr. Bush employs a Pentecostal-revolutionary pedagogy – teaching from and to the spirit to foster a liberatory praxis. His approach to teaching is reflected in his research as he aims to contemporaneously disrupt power relations and to build programs, institutions, and states on the best of African philosophies and practices. He has published 5 books, including The Plan: A Guide for Women Raising African American Boys from Conception to College and The Plan Workbook, and 36 academic articles. Most notably, he published the first-ever comprehensive theory concerning Black boys and men called African American Male Theory (AAMT). Nana is a traditional Akan priest and healer. He is the father or baba of many children, but he has 3 biological – two daughters, one a medical doctor, one in medical school, and a son in his second year at Howard University.

Edward C. Bush Ph.D. is the President of Cosumnes River College in Sacramento, with a career in higher education since 1995 and extensive experience in the California Community College System. He holds a Ph.D. in Urban Educational Leadership from Claremont Graduate University Dr. Bush is recognized for his innovative leadership, focusing on student success, equity, diversity, and access. Dr. Bush is a co-founder A²MEND, a non-profit improving educational outcomes for men of color, and serves as the Chairperson for the All African Diaspora Educational Summit.

Amiri Mahnzili, Ph.D. is an author and theorist whose work and research centers on a Pan-Afrikan theoretical approach to pedagogy. Obtaining his PhD from Claremont Graduate University in Cultural Studies with an emphasis on Africana Studies, Dr. Mahnzili’s dissertation Reshaping Black Brilliance: Toward the Development and Implementation of a Pan-Afrikan Pedagogy explores a multitude of themes concerning the lived experiences of the Afrikan Diaspora including but not limited to: Afrofuturism, Ante-Modernity, Anti-Colonial Movements, and pre-colonial Afrikan epistemology. Dr. Mahnzili also conducts Rites-of-Passage manhood training programs for young men throughout Southern California, which proved an instrumental resource for his theorizations for this text. Dr. Mahnzili’s love and passion for Afrikan/Black people is exuded in his works and theorizations, his desire for Afrikan people to think beyond the confines and limitations of oppression and anti-Blackness in order to imagine a world and existence beyond these restricting ideations of the Black experience. Dr. Mahnzili is a loving father to his two children, Aynalem and Adonai, and a committed husband to his wife, Elilta.