Roots and Resonance: The African Paradigm of Afrocentricism

Narinder K. Sharma; Niharika

Vol-10,Issue-1,January - February 2025

Author: Narinder K. Sharma, Niharika

Keywords: Culture, postmodern, discourse, dialectics, paradigm, Afrocentricism.

Abstract: Afrocentricity is an approach that aims to revitalise the conversation about African aesthetics, politics, and cultural connections. Through a process that involves revisiting and reinterpreting the works of well-known African authors, this technique challenges the long-held beliefs that Africans are backward and lack civilisation. The postmodern literary environment of the postcolonial period has enabled these authors to discover their voices and critically evaluate the limitations placed on their cultural manifestations. Africans and authors of African ancestry have been given the required motivation to break out from traditional patterns as a result of the resurrection of postcolonial literature, which was followed by the Afrocentric movement. This movement calls into question and critiques the unfavourable cultural attitudes and acts of Europeans against African people. Ultimately, Afrocentricity seeks to improve Africans' mental health on the continent and abroad. Promoting a cultural renaissance will accomplish this by recovering and redefining African identity and legacy. It is in this larger context that the present paper attempts to analyse the emergence of postcolonial dynamics shaped by social and cultural disruptions and dialectical disputes vis-à-vis the African paradigm of Afrocentrism, keeping in view the dialectical transition from colonial to postcolonial thought.

Article Info: Received: 07 Jan 2025; Received in revised form: 04 Feb 2025; Accepted: 09 Feb 2025; Available online: 14 Feb 2025

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.101.21