Afrocentrism

Afrocentrism is an intellectual movement and attitude that emphasizes the role of African people in the world's history, ideas and culture. Afrocentrism tends to be a continuum: and while moderate Afrocentrism is not often objected to, there are some very controversial historical claims made by more 'hard-line' Afrocentrists. A widely repeated example is the claim that many of the philosophical and intellectual advances made in ancient Greece are actually appropriations from Egypt, which is often taken to be a representative of a pan-African identity. Claims, for instance, that Socrates was a black, sub-Saharan African, or that Greek philosophers stole their ideas from a highly sophisticated sub-Saharan African culture, tend to get short shrift from most historians. Afrocentrism tends to play a therapeutic role: it is supposed to be used as a way of giving a sense of pride to African-Americans suffering from discrimination. Some see it as playing the role of a distraction: instead of fighting discrimination today, it gives people a 'noble myth', disrespecting them as individuals by thinking they require pseudohistorical myth rather than an honest appreciation of the facts.