Africana Studies Commons^™

Mashin’ Up Stratified Blackness: Unpacking The Communal Responsibility Of Black International/Immigrant Academics To Black American Academics, Candice Peters, Abigail Smith

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

Our duoethnographic inquiry, grounded in Intersectionality, addresses the following questions: How do intersectionality and internationalization complicate Black diasporic dynamics within the United States? What communal responsibilities do Black international/immigrant people hold toward Black American people within the U.S. academy? Through critical engagement with three previously published poems, we foreground the communal responsibility that arises at the hands of internationalization and unpack the intertwined realities of anti-Blackness, racialized hierarchies, and diasporic dynamics. Our findings unmask three themes: (1) evolving understandings of race across transnational contexts, (2) Black intraracial stratification, and (3) taking up responsibility. We conclude by urging a (re)commitment to …

Digitalverse And The African Narratives: Ai As A New Platform For African Cultural Preservation, Mudasiru Babatunde Sulaiman Mr, Tajudeen Salaudeen

Tête à Tête: Journal of Francophone Studies

Abstract

This article delves into the concept of digital universe as a transforming digital system for the preservation of African culture, with a target on the unique role of artificial intelligence (AI) as a means of storytelling and cultural continuity. For long, there have been problems of availability of sustainable digital infrastructure where African storytelling can be preserved. This study therefore examines the intersection of AI and African storytelling through emerging digital projects, virtual storytelling spaces, and tools that digitize and translate African languages and oral traditions. It argues that AI not only expands the reach of African cultural narratives, …

Piercing The Veil In Sinners: Theological Insights From The Juke Joint, Antonio D. Sison Cpps

Journal of Religion & Film

Celebrated as a critical and commercial success, Ryan Coogler’s genre-defying opus Sinners has also been considered as one of the most culturally significant films of 2025. It also promises to be one of the most theologically resonant films of the year. This is evinced not only in its thematic and literary bases but, importantly, in its very audiovisual language and grammar, its stylistic strategies qua film. As reasoned in this essay, Coogler’s film is a rich locus theologicus, a nexus for theological discovery and insight.Sinners kindles the hermeneutical impulse to dialogue with African American/Pan-Africa theologies exemplified by the …

On Monstrous Work & Radical Satisfaction: Black Women Writing Under Segregation, Courtney Thorsson

Criticism

Review of Monstrous Work & Radical Satisfaction: Black Women Writing Under Segregation by Eve Dunbar.

Border Fascism And The Fascistization Of Society, Nicholas P. De Genova

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

The massive destruction and social dislocation wrought by capitalist crisis has culminated, historically, in the brutal cataclysms of fascism and other forms of authoritarian rule. Today, across the globe, we are confronted with the aggressive advance and entrenchment of a variety of such authoritarian political projects. Anxious discourses about ascendant fascism have become perfectly mainstream. These developments command our acute attention and critical analysis. This essay addresses these dire questions and the conceptual vexations surrounding the concept of fascism, particularly as it has been elaborated in various Marxist analyses.  Specifically, much of the debate around fascism as an analytical category …

“Ite Missa Est”: How Can The Altar Alter Attitudes And Actions?, Ebenezer Akesseh

Journal of Global Catholicism

This paper brings into focus the relationship between personal agency and so-

cial structure, demonstrating that what we celebrate on the altar forms within

us the proper dispositions that can help prevent the occurrence of corruption.

The first part examines corruption from a socio-cultural perspective and ex-

plains the incidence and effects of corruption. The second part discusses the

relationship between worship and the formation of actions and attitudes. It

highlights the need to embody the social implications of our celebrations. Using

responses from interviewees, the third part illustrates that the celebration of the

Eucharist shapes the commitments and conduct …

Editor's Introduction, Brent H. Otto S.J.

Journal of Global Catholicism

No abstract provided.

Possibilities Of Being: Black Women's Storytelling As Archival Undoing, Dasharah Green

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation constructs a discursive genealogy of Black women’s storytelling, positioning its art and aesthetics as a form of colonial archival undoing. Each chapter explores how transmission and documentation can transform—and circumvent—traditional colonial archives. Beginning at the start of the twentieth-century to present, this project traces the discursive legacies of Zora Neale Hurston, Audre Lorde, Michelle Cliff, and Staceyann Chin, examining each writer as a site of becoming as they individually (and collectively) seek to articulate an expansive idea of a Black world that constitutes a broader understanding of Black freedom. They each share a common goal of creating a …

"Is This America?" Fannie Lou Hamer, Humanity, Citizenship And The Struggle For Inclusive Democracy, Rhonda Chambers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the life, political rhetoric, and enduring legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer, focusing on how her lived experiences under Jim Crow shaped the development of a distinctive political voice grounded in dignity, moral conviction, and democratic struggle.  Born into a Mississippi sharecropping family and denied the educational and political opportunities afforded to white Americans, Hamer developed an understanding of injustice through the realities of racial and economic oppression. Her experience with segregation, voter suppression, violence, and the Black church became central to the way she understood citizenship and was able to articulate the demands of freedom.

Through an …

Decolonizing Communication Pedagogy: Toward An Afro-Rhetorical Framework, Lionnell Smith

Journal of Communication Pedagogy

This essay introduces Afro-rhetorical pedagogy as a decolonial framework for communication pedagogy. Building on Adam Key’s 2022 call for an Applied Africana Studies framework for public speaking pedagogy, this essay conceptualizes Afro-rhetorical pedagogy grounded in Afrocentric thought and African communication theory. Through a close reading of Molefi Kete Asante’s 2011 address on African curriculum, this essay establishes three foundational principles for Afro-rhetorical pedagogy: (a) epistemological agency, (b) decolonized knowledge production, and (c) institutional reconstruction. This pedagogical framework addresses communication education’s reproduction of white cultural hegemony by promoting African-centered principles, practices, and precepts that reposition communication pedagogy as a more liberatory …

Speaking Back Through Stories: Storytelling And The Politics Of Resistance, Korka Sall

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Black women have long served as storytellers, knowledge producers, and custodians of collective memory across Africa and its diaspora. Through oral traditions, literature, and film, they have created networks for the circulation of knowledge while fostering Pan-African consciousness, preserving cultural heritage, and educating communities about identity, justice, and self-determination. Their narratives challenge systems of colonialism, patriarchy, and historical erasure by centering Black women's voices and lived experiences within transnational conversations about history, culture, and belonging. This paper examines Aminata Sow Fall's Le Revenant (1976), Bessie Head's short story "Life" (1977), and Diabou Bessane's documentary Les Mamans de l'Indépendance …

Winnie's Feminism: A Tribute To Mama Dr. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela As A Radical Feminist From 1986-2018, Anna Lefatshe Moagi

Wagadu: A Journal of Transnational Women's & Gender Studies

Growing up in South Africa and having read several “tell-all” biographies by influential women have made this researcher aware of the struggles of women to be recognised and valued within their social environments. The many names that come to mind, when speaking of women’s voices that challenged their position in our society, belong to those of struggle veterans such as Adelaide Tambo, Ruth First, Lilian Ngoyi, Albertina Sisulu, Thandi Modise, Baleka Mbethe, Leymah Gbowee, Ruth Mompati, Charlotte Maxeke, Joice Majuru, Thuli Madontsela and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela. Their as women leaders roles remain undervalued (Shekhawat 2015). These phenomenal influential women and many …

Senghor, Negritude And African Political Theology Senghor’S Eucharist: Negritude And African Political Theology, Rev. Fr. Basile Sede Noujio (Ph.D.)

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Flows That Teach: Multimodal Hip-Hop Pedagogy For Equity In Special Education, Camille O'Quin, Sara Jozwik

Journal of the Arts and Special Education

Hip-Hop can be more than a soundtrack played at home, it can be a bridge between culture, language, and learning at school. This article shows how Hip-Hop pedagogy, translanguaging, and code-meshing can support students with disabilities, especially those who speak African American Vernacular English (AAVE), in the classroom setting. Grounded in culturally relevant pedagogy and translanguaging theory, the approach uses rhythm, storytelling, and performance to build narrative fluency, language awareness, and confidence. Examples include students drafting rap verses about personal experiences, holding structured cypher circles to practice turn-taking and self-expression, and blending AAVE with Mainstream American English in writing for …

A Poetic Call For And A Reflection And Commentary On Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, And Compassion, Carroy U. Ferguson

Psychology Faculty Publication Series

Finding a published poem I had written as a teenager, titled “The Heavens Weep.” this article uses that poem as the basis for a commentary that reflects on the state of the world today (2026),  As a commentary, the article uses the poetic and metaphoric words in the poem as a relevant "reality check" for what is still going on today.  In essence, the commentary is about a call for Clarity, Understanding, Hope, Courage, and Compassion, or what I call Archetypal Energies, Higher Vibrational Energies that operate deep within our individual and collective psyches to creatively urge us to "see" …

Book Review - Ayodeji Olukoju And Tokunbo A. Ayoola (Eds.), Politics, Economy, And Society In Twentieth Century Nigeria, (Lanham, Md: Lexington Books, 2023), Xvii + 328 Pp. $120.00. Hardback. Isbn: 978-1-66692-996-6., Omon M. Osiki

Global Africa: Journal of African and African Diaspora Studies

No abstract provided.

Book Review - Lindsay Pérez Huber And Susana Muñoz, Why They Hate Us: How Racist Rhetoric Impacts Education, (New York, Ny: Teachers College Press, 2021), 240 Pages, Isbn: 0807764981, Olufemi Oyebade

Global Africa: Journal of African and African Diaspora Studies

No abstract provided.

Southern History Remixed: Conversation With Dr. Michael Bertrand1 On His Book, Southern History Remixed, (Gainesville, Fl: University Press Of Florida, 2024), 322 Pp., Sheri Bartlett Browne

Global Africa: Journal of African and African Diaspora Studies

No abstract provided.

Myth, Spirituality, And Thought Patterns In Two African And Brazilian Ritual Dramas, Dele Layiwola

Global Africa: Journal of African and African Diaspora Studies

This essay conceptualizes and historicizes the phenomena of religion, custom, and belief systems by utilizing two celebrated dramatic texts and performances as practical illustrations of the complex roles they play in the social, political, and cultural lives of human beings, irrespective of their geographical locations. The arguments demonstrate that religion or spirituality is a given phenomenon in the personal and public lives of the denizens of various societies. It possesses its own logic and rules, which may not be mutually compatible, nevertheless constitute a constant universal principle. The paper employs dramatized examples to show that in classical or modern times, …

Ikenga: Symbolism, Spirituality, And Sociocultural Importance In Igbo Traditional Belief Systems, Chinyere Ndubuisi

Global Africa: Journal of African and African Diaspora Studies

The Ikenga, a noteworthy relic of the Igbo people of southern Nigeria, is examined in this paper as a major art object for a better understanding of African traditional religions and belief systems. Ikenga is a wooden sculpture traditionally made to represent an individual's power, achievements, and spiritual essence among the Igbo. Ikenga is ascribed the embodiment of the relationship between personal action, ancestral respect, and divinity within Igbo mythology. Within the framework of Igbo traditional religion, this paper examines the ontological significance, spiritual purposes, and social consequences of the Ikenga. The symbolic relevance of Ikenga as both a personal …