An Oral History Interview

Abstract

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.

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“…Asante (born Arthur Lee Smith Jnr) was born in 1942 [ 16 ]. He was involved with the civil rights movement while still in high school, thus embarking on a lifelong process of advocating Black rights [ 17 ].…”