 Dr.
Molefi Kete Asante is Professor, Department of African American
Studies at Temple University. Considered by his peers to be one
of the most distinguished contemporary scholars, Asante has published
61 books, among the most recent are Encyclopedia of Black Studies,
(2004), co-edited with Ama Mazama, Race, Rhetoric, and Identity:
The Architecton of Soul, Erasing Racism: The Survival of
the American Nation, (2003), Ancient Egyptian Philosophers
(2003), Scattered to the Wind, Custom and Culture of
Egypt, and 100 Greatest African Americans. The second
edition of his high school text, African American History: Journey
of Liberation, 2nd Edition, (2001), is used widely throughout
North America.
He has published more scholarly
books than any contemporary African author and has recently been
recognized as one of the ten most widely cited African Americans.
In addition, Black Issues in Higher Education recognized
him as one of the most influential leaders in the last 15 years.
Asante completed his M.A. at Pepperdine and received his Ph.D. from
UCLA at the age of 26 and was appointed a full professor at the
age of 30 at the State University of New York at Buffalo. At Temple
University he created the first Ph.D. Program in African American
Studies in 1987. He has directed more than 125 Ph.D. dissertations.
He has written more than 300 articles for journals and magazines
and is the founder of the theory of Afrocentricity.
Asante was born in Valdosta, Ga.,
one of sixteen children. He is a poet, dramatist, and a painter.
His work on African culture and philosophy has been cited by journals
such as the Journal of Black Studies, Journal of Communication,
American Scholar, Daedalus, Western Journal
of Black Studies, and Africaological Perspectives.
The Utne Reader called him one of the “100 Leading
Thinkers” in America and Asante was recommended in a survey
as one of the 25 influential African male leaders of the last two
hundred years. In 2001, Transition Magazine said “Asante
may be the most important professor in Black America.” He
has appeared on Nightline, Nighttalk, BET,
Macnell Lehrer News Hour, Today Show, the Tony
Brown Show, Night Watch, Like It Is and 60
Minutes. In 2002 he received the distinguished Douglas Ehninger
Award for Rhetorical Scholarship from the National Communication
Association. The African Union cited him as one of the twelve top
scholars of African descent when it invited him to give one of the
keynote addresses at the Conference of Intellectuals of Africa and
the Diaspora in Dakar in 2004. He was inducted into the Literary
Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent at the Gwendolyn Brooks
Center at Chicago State University in 2004.
Dr. Asante is the founding editor
of the Journal of Black Studies (1969) and was the President
of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee chapter at UCLA
in the 1960’s. In 1995 he was made a traditional king, Nana
Okru Asante Peasah, Kyldomhene of Tafo, Akyem, Ghana. Dr. Asante
has been or is presently a consultant for a dozen school districts.
An activist scholar, he believes it is not enough to know, one must
act to humanize the world.
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