By Demetrius Dillard
Black scholarship is so much broader than America.
Though America is historically known to produce some of the most prominent and powerful scholars, including Frederick Douglass, W.E.B.DuBois, James Baldwin, Anna Julia Cooper, Zora Neale Hurston, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Cornel West and a host others, Black ingenuity and scholarship long predates America.
In fact, the intellectual achievements of Black people are far broader than documented history, one could argue.
Over the course of human civilization, as one writer put it, Black scholars have substantially contributed to overall global knowledge production by providing critical and analytical insights into culture, literature, arts and politics. Influential Black thinkers have fought what seemed to be an uphill battle of acceptance in mainstream academia, though recent history does reflect some positive change.
With ongoing intellectual advancements, emerging educational systems and literary expression, virtually every geographical region in the world has produced – and is producing – Black scholars.
One non-American scholar in particular who has been held in high regard, especially among Black American intellectuals and academics, is Chiekh Anta Diop. A prominent Senegalese historian and anthropologist in the mid-to-late 20th century, Diop was responsible for some of the most brilliant and perceptive research and concepts still prevalent in many college classrooms today.
Lecturers, professors and essayists all over the world often cite Diop’s work as he has one of the most recognizable names in the context of global Black scholarship. An African University in Senegal bears his name: The Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar.
Considered a giant among African thinkers and leaders, Diop gained international acclaim for “revolutionizing the understanding of the African origin of civilization and Africa’s great contributions to the world.”
Diop was also considered an Egyptologist who excelled in chemistry, physics, linguistics and philosophy.
This piece will highlight three more international Black scholars who have made respectable contributions to global knowledge.
Africa: PLO Lumumba
Patrick Loch Otieno Lumumba is a Kenyan professor, lecturer and lawyer. He has traveled the world leading discussions and lectures on a range of subjects, earning critical acclaim as one of the African Diaspora’s leading intellectual voices.
The 62-year-old is among the world’s most accomplished Black intellectuals, is the director of the Kenya School of Law and has offered insightful commentary on a number of well-known media and political platforms.
Lumumba has authored several books and delivered numerous speeches in Africa and outside the continent. In January 2019, he was the featured speaker at a program at Howard University.
In 1990, Lumumba founded the PLO Lumumba Foundation, a charitable Pan-African organization dedicated to fostering self-determination, leadership and development across Africa. He also founded the Association of the Citizens Against Corruption (ACAC) and Movement for Dialogue and Non-Violence (MODAN).
Lumumba has been esteemed as one of the 100 most influential Africans. He is an outspoken advocate for African unity and progress.
Jamaica: Kwasi Konadu
Born on the Caribbean island of Jamaica, Kwasi Konadu is a scholar whose research focuses on the histories of Africa and its worldwide diasporas. He is also a spiritualist healer and a publisher of scholarly books (via Diasporic Africa Press Inc.) on African world histories and cultures.
“My life work is devoted to knowledge production, healing and health, and the worldwide communities and struggles of peoples of African ancestry,” he wrote.
Koandu has taught at Colgate University, where he was the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Endowed Chair and Professor of African History and Africana Studies. His written work is, for the most part, centered around African and African diasporic histories along with some major themes prevalent in world history.
Europe: Daphné Budasz
Budasz is a PhD researcher in history at the European University Institute and a reputable Black scholar based in Italy.
Also a decolonial and antiracist activist, Budasz’s research interests include the history of gender, sexuality, race, colonialism, (de)coloniality, East Africa, colonial memory and legacies in Europe.
Some projects she has spearheaded include Radio Cavolo, EUI’s researcher-led web radio platform and the EUI Decolonizing Initiative – of which she is the co-founder — which aims to “decolonize knowledge and practice at the European University Institute by creating a forum for dialogue and change which challenges colonial privilege, narratives and assumptions.”
Perhaps most notably, Budasz is responsible for her role in organizing Black History Month at EUI. The initiative is now in its fifth year.
Inspired by the creative work of Afro-descendant artists, scholars and activists, along with an encounter with media artist Justin Randolph Thompson, Budasz started the Black History Month project/initiative at EUI during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
“The idea of organi[z]ing BHM at the EUI came from personal motivations and chance encounters. When I first came to the EUI in 2018, I was struck by the quasi-absence of raciali[z]ed people, especially people of African descent,” Budasz said.
“When I arrived, I met only one fellow researcher who identified as Black. Despite the presence of researchers and faculty members coming from all parts of Europe and the Institute’s self-proclaimed diversity, the EUI appeared to me as more racially and ethnically homogenous than any other university I had gone to before.”
