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Mark Your Calendar: 2026 Spring CENFAD Speaker Series Schedule
Full text linkThis is the table of contents for Strategic Visions Vol. 25 (No. I) Fall 2025.
 
A Critical Exposition of the Role of Women Principles in West African Dance Traditions
No full textDance in the West African societies reflects the people’s experiences that has been developed over time. It comprises established beliefs, practices, ethics and ethos that are conveyed into expressive movements and gestures that are geared towards preserving community structures of a particular group of people. With these functions established, gender roles are essential in the realization of these practices. However, many European historians have interpreted the role of women in African dance as “erotic,” “exotic,” and “sexually suggestive” in ways to suggest they are functionally and comparatively lower compared to men. These narratives have devoid scholars the opportunities inherent in the role of women as technically and structurally influential in how dances are performed. I suggest here a change in how women principles in West African dance traditions are defined and how they manifest in various ways, including movements, themes and roles that highlight femininity, strength, empowerment and spirituality within the context of performance and custodians of these dance traditions. I argue that to appreciate the role of the women principles within West African dance traditions, it is crucial to understand the content and context within which the dance is being performed and how their bodies contribute to the overall meaning-making process. Using qualitative method of participant observation, interviews, related literature and incorporating my personal dancing experience as a principal female dancer, teacher, mentor, and creator, I explore the significant role women play as custodians in the propagation of West African dance forms as well as their political dissemination of these functions. Though there has been some attempt to address these concerns, there is the need to emphasis the values displayed when the woman exhibits such corporeality. This paper contributes much needed data to the epistemological gap addressing negative stereotypes and misconceptions of women in West African dance forms. The study will be useful to individuals and researchers in the field of West African dance research and movement analysis
Mark Your Calendar: April 3-4, 2026: Peace in the Age of Forever Wars
No full textInterview with Dr. Lee-Ann Chae and Dr. Petra Goedde about the Peace in the Age of Forever Wars Symposium (April 3-4, 2026
2025 Winner of Edwin H. Sherman Prize: Georgette Uwera Nyiraneza, Yale University
Full text linkEssay by Georgette Uwera Nyiraneza, Yale University, the 2025 Winner of Edwin H. Sherman Priz
American Bias in Political Journalism: Via the Israel-Hamas War and the Russo-Ukrainian War
No full textPersonal and political biases are difficult to set aside in journalism, especially when reporting on international political conflicts, involving parties connected to the United States and its political allies. In this paper, I explored the importance of political allyship between the United States and other states to address how these relationships could impact the integrity and impartial nature of journalism. Based on the information provided in the literature review regarding the political history of journalism in the United States and how news outlets served as politicians’ mouthpieces for the general public, I have theorized that the United States’ relationship with other foreign states, and America’s involvement in foreign political affairs is likely to have a significant impact on both the quality and quantity of political news articles about violent conflicts and events. In order to examine the relationship between American foreign policy and impartial journalism, I have examined the prevalence of specific topics, and inclusion, as well as the language used in the headlines of articles that are marketed as an impartial, reliable source as they relate to the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, following to spike in violence following October 7th, 2023, and the Ukrainian-Russian Conflicting following the February 24, 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Through this study and the use of case studies and literary analysis, my hypothesis regarding American foreign policy and allyship has a great impact on the quantity and quality of the events covered in the articles from the New York Times was supported by the results of the study
Afrikan Liberation Movements in the Maafa: A History of Victorious Consciousness
Full text linkLiberation is a language for the oppressed. It is whispered within the prayers of the hopeless, sung inside the hymns of the voiceless, and remembered by the descendants of the forgotten. Afrikan liberation exists beyond oppression. Afrikan liberation, defined here, is the ability to define reality to achieve holism. To begin this journey, we must start with Afrikan history. History does not always give us answers. It reveals how our predecessors grappled with the same questions. What is the process of liberation? What is the function? What are its qualities? How do we classify the different manifestations? To determine the answer, we must investigate the problem. The answers to these inquiries are riddled in the histories of our Afrikan ancestors. To this end, contemporary scholars must examine the most potent manifestation of oppression in human history, the Great Maafa. In particular, the scope of this ongoing study encompasses Afrikan liberation movements across North America during the Plantation Era (1600-1865 CE). It should be noted that the objective is to center the cultural narratives of our Afrikan ancestors and to understand the lessons left by their legacy. This article will analyze three prominent Afrikan liberation movements: the Haitian Revolution, Nat Turner\u27s Rebellion, and the Maroon Wars. To accomplish this task, we will explore the accelerants and retardants for these monumental historical events. Henceforth, this author endeavors to restore Ma\u27at by balancing the scales of history
Interviews with CENFAD Fall 2025 Speakers: Dr. Gretchen Heefner
Full text linkInterviews with Dr. Gretchen Heefne
Specializing Afrocentric Fields of Inquiry: Developing Ubiniology as an Africological Sub-Discipline
No full textIt has been established by several African-centered scholars that African civilizations are central to orienting the way African scholars engage with African history, heritage and culture. On the scholarship of Cheikh Anta Diop (1923-1986), the bulk of this engagement has centered on the ancient ḥꜥpy: Hapi (Nile) Valley, and in particular on the Empire of km.t: Kemet (Egypt). This paper argues that the discipline of Africology will advance by intentionally engaging with the history and culture of other classical African civilizations in an individual and systematic manner. The Kingdom of Benin, this article maintains, is a practical starting place for such undertakings, since there is more historical material–i.e., oral traditions, archaeology, artifacts, historiographical sources, etc.–to work with here relative to most civilizations elsewhere in pre-colonial Africa. To demonstrate the value of studying Benin from an Africological perspective, I use the administrative structure of Benin to demonstrate how the Uzama Nihinrọn–Benin’s royal council–performs the same function as councils in other African states historically. I present Benin’s administration as a case study in African cultural unity. Moreover, following the work of Osarẹn Ọmọregie, I argue that the term “Ubiniology” should be used in reference to this scholarly, Afrocentric study of Beninese history and culture
African American Christianity: From Kemet to Du Bois’s Black Church
Full text linkThis essay critically examines the African civilizational continuity of the Black Church, challenging the dominant Eurocentric narrative that situates it as a syncretic byproduct of enslavement rather than as an extension of African spiritual agency. Using an Afrocentric methodological framework, the study reinterprets W. E. B. Du Bois’s historiographical analysis in The Negro Church and The Souls of Black Folk argues that his reliance on Western epistemology limits his recognition of the Black Church\u27s deeper African origins. This research incorporates Asante’s Location Theory, Diop’s Two-Cradle Theory, and Obenga’s historiographical methods to reposition the Black Church within an unbroken continuum of African spirituality, extending from Kemet (Ancient Egypt) to contemporary African American religious institutions. Methodologically, this study employs a historical-comparative approach to analyze primary sources—including Du Bois\u27s sociological texts, Cheikh Anta Diop\u27s historiographical corrections, and James Cone\u27s Black Liberation Theology—alongside secondary sources from Africology and African religious studies. The data collection involves textual analysis of theological writings, historical accounts, and ethnographic evidence demonstrating African retentions in Black religious traditions. The findings reveal that the Black Church is not a hybridization of African and Christian elements but a continuation of African priestly governance structures, oral traditions, and cosmological epistemologies under Christian symbolism. Furthermore, the study critiques the theological limitations of Cone, Willie J. Jennings, and J. Kameron Carter, exposing their reliance on biblical reconciliation models that inadvertently sustain an anti-African theological framework. The results of this analysis indicate that Afrocentric historical theology must move beyond the creolization thesis and instead assert the Black Church as an African institution that predates and transcends biblical Christianity. This work advocates for a paradigm shift in Black theology that decenters biblical dependency, reclaims African epistemological autonomy, and repositions the Black Church within African civilizational continuity.