Marimba Ani (born Dona Richards) is an anthropologist and

African Studies African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's history (pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial), demography ...

scholar best known for her work ''Yurugu'', a comprehensive critique of European thought and culture, and her coining of the term "

Maafa The ''Maafa'', the African Holocaust, the Holocaust of Enslavement, or the Black Holocaust are political neologisms which have been popularized since 1988Barndt, Joseph. ''Understanding and Dismantling Racism: The Twenty-First Century''. 2007 ...

" for the African holocaust.

Life and work

Marimba Ani completed her BA degree at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

, and holds MA and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from the Graduate Faculty of the

New School University The New School is a private research university in New York City. It was founded in 1919 as The New School for Social Research with an original mission dedicated to academic freedom and intellectual inquiry and a home for progressive thinkers. ...

. In 1964, during

Freedom Summer Freedom Summer, also known as the Freedom Summer Project or the Mississippi Summer Project, was a volunteer campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississip ...

, she served as an

SNCC The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC, often pronounced ) was the principal channel of student commitment in the United States to the civil rights movement during the 1960s. Emerging in 1960 from the student-led sit-ins at segreg ...

field secretary, and married civil-rights activist Bob Moses; they divorced in 1966. She has taught as a Professor of African Studies in the Department of Black and Puerto Rican Studies at

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools. It also adm ...

in New York City, and is credited with introducing the term

to describe the African holocaust.

''Yurugu''

Ani's 1994 work, ''Yurugu: An Afrikan-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior'', examined the influence of European culture on the formation of modern institutional frameworks, through

colonialism Colonialism is a practice or policy of control by one people or power over other people or areas, often by establishing colonies and generally with the aim of economic dominance. In the process of colonisation, colonisers may impose their rel ...

and

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power ( economic and ...

, from an African perspective. Described by the author as an "intentionally aggressive polemic", the book derives its title from a Dogon legend of an incomplete and destructive being rejected by its creator. Examining the causes of global

white supremacy White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...

, Ani argued that European thought implicitly believes in its own superiority, stating: "European culture is unique in the assertion of political interest". In ''Yurugu'', Ani proposed a tripartite conceptualization of culture, based on the concepts of #''Asili'', the central seed or "germinating matrix" of a culture, #''Utamawazo'', "culturally structured thought" or worldview, "the way in which the thought of members of a culture must be patterned if the ''asili'' is to be fulfilled", and #''Utamaroho'', a culture's "vital force" or "energy source", which "gives it its emotional tone and motivates the collective behavior of its members". The terms Ani uses in this framework are based on

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa * Swahili culture Swahili culture is the culture of ...

. ''Asili'' is a common Swahili word meaning "origin" or "essence"; ''utamawazo'' and ''utamaroho'' are neologisms created by Ani, based on the Swahili words ''utamaduni'' ("civilisation"), ''wazo'' ("thought") and ''roho'' ("spirit life"). The ''utamawazo'' and ''utamaroho'' are not viewed as separate from the ''asili'', but as its manifestations, which are "born out of the ''asili'' and, in turn, affirm it." Ani characterised the ''asili'' of European culture as dominated by the concepts of separation and control, with separation establishing dichotomies like "man" and "nature", "the European" and "the other", "thought" and "emotion" – separations that in effect end up negating the existence of "the other", who or which becomes subservient to the needs of (European) man. Control is disguised in universalism as in reality "the use of abstract 'universal' formulations in the European experience has been to control people, to impress them, and to intimidate them." According to Ani's model, the ''utamawazo'' of European culture "is structured by ideology and bio-cultural experience", and its ''utamaroho'' or vital force is domination, reflected in all European-based structures and the imposition of Western values and civilisation on peoples around the world, destroying cultures and languages in the name of progress. The book also addresses the use of the term

, based on a Swahili word meaning "great disaster", to describe

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

. African-centered thinkers have subsequently popularized and expanded on Ani's conceptualization. Citing both the centuries-long history of slavery and more recent examples like the Tuskegee study, Ani argued that Europeans and white ''Americans'' have an "enormous capacity for the perpetration of physical violence against other cultures" that had resulted in "antihuman, genocidal" treatment of blacks.

Critical reception

Philip Higgs, in ''African Voices in Education'', describes ''Yurugu'' as an "excellent delineation of the ethics of harmonious coexistence between human beings", but cites the book's "overlooking of structures of social inequality and conflict that one finds in all societies, including indigenous ones," as a weakness.

Molefi Kete Asante Molefi Kete Asante ( ; born Arthur Lee Smith Jr.; August 14, 1942) is an American professor and philosopher. He is a leading figure in the fields of African-American studies, African studies, and communication studies. He is currently professor ...

describes ''Yurugu'' as an "elegant work".

,
Afrocentricity, Race, and Reason
, in Manning Marable, ed., ''Dispatches from the Ebony Tower: intellectuals confront the African American experience'' (New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2000), , page=198. Accessed: July 4, 2011. Stephen Howe accuses Ani of having little interest in actual Africa (beyond romance) and challenges her critique of "Eurocentric" logic since she invests heavily in its usage in the book.

Publications

* "The Ideology of European Dominance," ''The Western Journal of Black Studies''. Vol. 3, No. 4, Winter, 1979, and ''Présence Africaine'', No. 111, 3rd Quarterly, 1979. * "European Mythology: The Ideology of Progress," in M. Asante and A. Vandi (eds), ''Contemporary Black Thought'', Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1980 (59-79). * ''Let The Circle Be Unbroken: The Implications of African Spirituality in the Diaspora''. New York: Nkonimfo Publications, 1988 (orig. 1980). * "Let The Circle Be Unbroken: The Implications of African-American Spirituality," ''Présence Africaine''. No. 117-118, 1981. * "The Nyama of the Blacksmith: The Metaphysical Significance of Metallurgy in Africa," ''Journal of Black Studies''. Vol. 12, No. 2, December 1981. * "The African 'Aesthetic' and National Consciousness," in Kariamu Welsh-Asante (ed.), ''The African Aesthetic'', Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Press, 1993 (63-82) * ''Yurugu: An Afrikan-centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior''. Trenton: Africa World Press, 1994. * "The African Asili," in ''Selected Papers from the Proceedings of the Conference on Ethics, Higher Education and Social Responsibility'', Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1996. * "To Heal a People", in Erriel Kofi Addae (ed.), ''To Heal a People: Afrikan Scholars Defining a New Reality'', Columbia, MD.: Kujichagulia Press, 1996 (91-125). * "Writing as a means of enabling Afrikan Self-determination," in Elizabeth Nuñez and Brenda M. Greene (eds), ''Defining Ourselves; Black Writers in the 90's'', New York: Peter Lang, 1999 (209–211).

References

External links