This book aims to show that the intellectual and activist/transformationist tradition of African people all over the world is a composite one, which transcends geographical, religious, language, and other apparent differences. Furthermore, this book explains that this composite African intellectual and activist/transformationist tradition consists of a great and high standard. Gray’s primary intent is to clarify and define the history of African-centered thought and its external and internal praxis, thereby offering an evaluative and creative tool for codifying it to fit present and future directions. By functioning as an intellectual and practical bridge, this compelling book aims to assist African people in their historical-intellectual and practical-transformational journey from where they are to where they need to be and from current realms of humanness and harmony to ever higher and deeper realms of humanness and harmony.

“Dr. Gray has provided an invaluable contribution to the continuing development of the field of Africana Studies. His comprehensive and lucid examination of Afrocentric thought and praxis not only demystifies the basic constructs undergirding the field, but also persuasively rebuts the criticisms offered by various Eurocentric writers. The synthesis of key concepts developed by various authors into ‘The Gray Template’ is a concrete example of the process of ‘discipline building.’ The instructional value of Gray’s work is significantly enhanced by the careful use of examples of Afrocentric praxis to complement the discussion of theoretical principles. This book is destined to become a standard in the field.”

--James B. Stewart
Professor of African and African American Studies
Penn State University
President, National Council for Black Studies

“While the west celebrated the arrival of the second millennium on January 1, 2000, I celebrated with the Egyptians the coming of the seventh millennium at the great Giza Pyramids. The centralness of Africa and Africans living in those five ‘missing’ millennia of human history and human achievement has its uncompromising advocates brilliantly presented and explicated in Dr. Gray’s Afrocentric Thought and Praxis. This treatise comes at a time when so much of the Europe-apologia Black scholarship on Africa still confines itself to the Christian era. A must read, particularly for Africans throughout the Diaspora.”

--David G. Du Bois
President, W.E.B. Du Bois Foundation
Amherst, Massachusetts

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

CECIL C. GRAY serves as Coordinator/Chairperson of African and African American Studies and as an Assistant Professor of Religion at Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He also teaches at Africa University in Zimbabwe.

CATEGORY
History, Politics/AFRICA