Africology: An Introductory Descriptive Review of Disciplinary Ancestry

Africology: An Introductory Descriptive Review of Disciplinary Ancestry Uzong, E. (1969). Africology. The Union Academic Council Series, African Studies, Volume 1. London, United Kingdom: Union Academic Council for African Studies. A foundational, holistic approach to the concept of Africology first appeared as the topic of a monograph produced for the Union Academic Council for African Studies in London in 1969, and the concept has more recently been the topic of monographs by scholars based in the United States of America and South Africa.1 The discipline now known as "Africology, the Afrocentric study of African phenomena, represents an oasis of innovation in progressive venues," and it is one of the most significant fields of study in higher education since its institutional emergence in 1968 as Black Studies at San Francisco State College (now San Francisco State University).According to MolefiKete Asante, a prominent Africologist and creator of the first Ph.D. program in the discipline at Temple University in 1987, the unique contribution of this interdisciplinary field of study is directly tied to its Afrocentric approach to understanding the African world from its origins that can be traced to the beginning of the human species in Africa to the voluntary migrations and forced dispersals of African people to other continents across millennia.