The aim of this article is to analyze W.E.B. Du Bois's educational thought for its key contributions to contemporary Africana philosophy of education. To succinctly explore Du Bois's philosophy of education, the article outlines some of the ways his pedagogical theories and practices are inextricable from, and virtually incomprehensible without critically considering, his philosophy of history, concepts of culture, economic thought, and social and political philosophy. Arguing that many scholars have both masked and marred Du Bois's contributions to philosophy of education by focusing almost exclusively on his "talented tenth" theory, this study examines his educational thought after he produced the classic, "The Talented Tenth" (1903), essay. The article advances that Du Bois's revision of the talented tenth into a theory of the "guiding hundredth," which stresses struggle, sacrifice and service, group leadership, and African historical and cultural grounding, provides Africana philosophy of education with a pedagogical paradigm and provocative point of departure.
The riddles of revolutionary Fanonism -much more than Marxism in Blackface: Fanon's critical modification of Marxism in the anti-imperialist interests of Africa and Africans, among the other wretched of the earth It is important, at the outset, for us not to confuse what I am calling "revolutionary Fanonism" with Henry Louis Gates Jr's conception of "critical Fanonism." For Gates "critical Fanonism" entails not reading Frantz Fanon to ascertain what his lifework and legacy offers to the ongoing struggle against imperialism, but an intertextual exercise that critiques others' interpretations of Fanon, especially if the interpreters attempt to connect Fanon's critical thought to radical political practice. Gates (1999), sternly states "My intent is not to offer a reading of Fanon to supplant these others, but to read, even if summarily, some of these readings of Fanon" (252). Ultimately what Gates provides is a part post-structuralist, part postmodernist, and part post-colonialist read of Fanon that surreptitiously serves as a theoretical substitute for the Frantz Fanon who decidedly committed himself to: revolutionary decolonization; the Algerian revolution; revolutionary Pan-Africanism; revolutionary humanism; and a distinct African-centered brand of democratic socialism with serious implications for revolutionary re-Africanization. That Fanon, which is to say, the Fanon who revealingly wrote A Dying Colonialism (1965), Toward the African Revolution (1969) and, of course, The Wretched of the Earth (1968), is tellingly absent from Gates' Black Skin, White Masks-based read (or, rather, misread) of Fanon. In Gates' own words:Fanon's current fascination for us has something to do with the convergence of the problematic of colonialism with that of subject-formation. As a psychoanalyst of culture, as a champion of the wretched of the earth, he is an almost
This article utilizes W.E.B. Du Bois's often-overlooked classic essay "The Souls of White Folk" to develop a long overdue dialogue between Africana studies and critical white studies. It demonstrates the dialectical nature of Du Bois's philosophy of race and critical race theory by comparing and contrasting his groundbreaking critiques of racism in The Souls of Black Folk with his reconstructed and decidedly more radical critique of the political economy of race, racism, whiteness, and white supremacy in "The Souls of White Folk." The conception and critique of white supremacy that the author develops in this article does not seek to sidestep socio-legal race discourse as much as it intends to supplement it with the work of Du Bois et al. in philosophy of race, sociology of race, radical politics, and critical social theory. One of the main reasons this supplemental approach to critical white studies and critical race theory is important is because typically legal or lawfocused studies of race confine theorists to particular political, social, national, and/ or disciplinary discursive arenas, which is extremely problematic considering the fact that white supremacy is an international imperialist or global racist system.White folks know niggers talk, an they dont mind jes so long as nothing comes of it, so here goes. (Toomer 1993, p. 90) This race talk is, of course, a joke, and frequently it has driven me insane and probably will permanently in the future; and yet, seriously and soberly, we black folk are the salvation of mankind. (Du Bois 1995a, p.470) J Afr Am St (2007) 11:1-15
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