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Molefi Kete Asante (born August 14, 1942) is an African American scholar and professor of African American studies at Temple University.

Career

Molefi Kete Asante launched an international movement to gain international credibility for the field, expounding his theory of Afrocentricity, a re-examination of traditional scholarship from the perspective of African and African diaspora peoples. He created the world's first Ph.D. program in African American studies in 1988 at Temple University and established the first conference for graduate students in the field of African American Studies.

Asante co-founded the Journal of Black Studies in 1969, co-authored the Encyclopedia of Black Studies with Ama Mazama, and co-authored the Handbook of Black Studies with Maulana Karenga. He wrote the two most important works of theory in the field and named the field "Afrology," which was later called "Africology" by Winston Van Horne. Asante has published more than sixty books and more than 300 papers and articles, and has directed more than 125 Ph.D. dissertations.

Black Issues in Higher Education recognized Asante as one of the most influential leaders in the last 15 years. He has received more than one hundred awards for scholarship and activism against racism.

Biography

Molefi Kete Asante was born Arthur Lee Smith, Jr. in Valdosta, Georgia, one of sixteen children of laborers Arthur and Lillie Smith. His father worked first in a peanut warehouse and then on the Georgia-Southern Railways.

Asante changed his name to reject a slave name and to reflect his claim to be descended in part from the Ashanti people of West Africa. His maternal mitochondrial DNA is traced to Nubian heritage in Sudan and his paternal Y-Chromosome ancestry goes back to the Yoruba in Nigeria.

The first member of his family to graduate from college, Asante received his B.A. from Oklahoma Christian University in 1964, his M.A. from Pepperdine University in 1965, and his Ph.D. from University of California, Los Angeles in 1968, all in communication studies. He was appointed a full professor at the age of 30 at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.

Asante is married to Ana Yenenga. They have two children, Kasina Eka, who writes poetry and paints, and M.K. Asante, Jr., a filmmaker, author, and professor.

Filmography

Asante has appeared in many documentary works, including The Faces of Evil, Marshall Keeble, and 500 Years Later. He has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs on BBC, NBC, ABC, CNN, TNT, MSNBC, and CBS.

References

1. "Molefi Kete Asante, Professor, Department of African American Studies" (html). Temple University faculty page.
2. Molefi Kete Asante at UNESCO in Paris, 21 September 2006. "The World of the African Writer and Artist Fifty Years After the 1956 Conference" (html). AALBC.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
3. Diane D. Turner. "An Oral History Interview: Molefi Kete Asante" (html). Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 32, No. 6 (July 2002) pp. 711-734.

Ronald Jackson and Sonja Brown Givens, Black Pioneers in Communication Research. New York: Taylor and Francis, 2007.

Jon Spayde, “People Who Could Change Your Life: 1995 Visionaries” Utne Magazine (Profile).

Christopher Williams, “In defence of materialism: a critique of Afrocentric ontology,” Race and Class, Vol. 47, no. 1, 2005

Dhyana Ziegler, Molefi Kete Asante: In Praise and Criticism. Nashville: Winston Derek, 1995.

External links

• Official Web site
• Molefi Asante at IMDb
• Selected Work of Molefi Asante

• 1942 births
• Living people
• African American writers
• American academics
• Pan-Africanism
• African-American studies scholars
• University of California, Los Angeles alumni
• Temple University faculty