Oral history is empowering because it initiates African agency while creating primary documents for future research and historical interpretation. An oral history interview with Molefi Kete Asante, conducted by historian Diane D. Turner, reveals aspects of his early life with autobiographical sketches about his mother, father, and the community where he was raised. The interview moves from personal accounts of his childhood to his academic career and his transformation from Arthur L. Smith, to Molefi Kete Asante. Asante addresses questions around a variety of topics, including key issues in Black Studies. Asante discusses the intellectual and developmental process that brought him to construct the theory of Afrocentricity and how our nation's first Ph.D. program in African American Studies was established at Temple University under his leadership.
The Hollywood industrial complex delivers entertainment to millions of people through the manipulation of images on the silver screen. Hollywood images of Africans in Africa and its Diaspora begin with negative stereotypes and gross misrepresentations about the Black experience. Yet, there are other images of Blacks that are more diverse and realistic. Haile Gerima has been at the forefront of the Black independent film movement to eradicate stereotypes while offering wholesome and complex stories about what it means to be Black from an international perspective. In the following interview conducted by historian Diane D. Turner and Muata Kamdibe, Gerima brings to light his early influences and his journey from Gonder, Ethiopia, to the United States. He gives insight into how he becomes one of the most important Black independent filmmakers in the history of Black film. He also provides information about the struggles to create meaningful Black films as well as his analysis of Black filmmakers and the Black film industry.
My own transformation came about as a direct result of being introduced to African (Black) ideas that did not insult my own personhood, but guided me, invigorated me, and lifted me beyond the white supremacist theories that confined me and my people to the toilets of other people's promise and progress.
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