Literature review on afrocentric research methodology

In the context of reassessing the aspects of social justice, social equity, and equitable treatment of perpetrators of the same crime irrespective of race or ethnicity, there has been a reinforced probing into the importance of the concept of Afrocentricity. Not only as a research paradigm, but also as a way of approaching towards analysing those socio-economic factors that lead to criminal acts, the concept of Afrocentricity has been gradually gaining prominence in the field of research and practice in myriads of countries having African population, and in this respect, South Africa is no exception. From the perspective of understanding the social conditions of the African populations across South Africa in connection with the negative outcomes in the contexts of the criminal justice system of the country, there has been a surge in the need of understanding the holistic African perspective, entailing the African worldview, to determine how social justice can be provided to the African populations in parity with their social and economic needs, cropping out of their ethnic traditions and legacies. All the blacks are syncretic Africans, believing in a single worldview and value system that reflects their African legacies, and based on this notion, the concept of Afrocentrism has continued to perpetuate into the world of research in different disciplines, including criminology.

The primary objective of the present literature review, hence, is to ascertain the importance of the concept and to explore the significance and nature of the Afrocentric research methodology. For the concerned purpose, the present literature review will explore the concept of Afrocentricity, Afro-sensed research and Indigenous knowledge, characteristics of Afrocentric research methods, framework for Indigenous research, and the core consideration to research methodologies in the African context.

What is Afrocentricity

Providing an explicit commentary on the concept of Afrocentricity, Abarry (1990) has stated that Afrocentricity, from the conceptual perspective denotes the urge to endorse the recommendation that in order to understand the social, economic, and conflicting viewpoints of the African population, not only in Africa but also in different other parts of the world, it is essential to conduct an authentic study of peoples of African descent. In this respect, the Author has referred to Afrocentricity as a means for conducting a meaningful and authentic study of peoples of African descent from the African perspective as the centre and not as a periphery (Abarry, 1990). In other words, Afrocentricity is an approach to develop a deeper insight into the way of life of people of African descents, making Africa, its culture, and its value system as subject and not an object (Abarry, 1990). What Abarry (1990) has pointed out is that Afrocentricity is a humanistic philosophy which is both complex and multidisciplinary, revealing itself as a scholarly research methodology and as a mode of practical implementation and action. In the context of fields like criminology, where Eurocentric ideologies have always dominated the ideologies of other cultures, there has been a need to introduce the concept of Afrocentricity which is aimed at liberating the research and study of African propels from the hegemony of the Eurocentric socio-economic (and even criminological) perspectives (Abarry, 1990). Even though Afrocentricity, both as a concept and as a research methodology, in its non-hegemonic form, has continued to acknowledge the existence and importance of parallel worldviews, including the ones that are Eurocentric, in its pure form, Afrocentricity has always strives for paving the way for the surfacing of the true picture of the people of African origin by liberating the research studies and perspectives on them from the clutches of the ethnocentric paradigms propelled by Eurocentric approaches and dominations (Abarry, 1990). Abarry (1990), in a nutshell, has defined Afrocentricity as an alternative perspective that paves the way for the emergence of a valid procedure through which genuine, healthy, and unbiased scholarship on African peoples can be pursued without getting enchained within the biased and pigeonholed viewpoints of the Eurocentric scholarship. Moreover, Chawane (2016) pointing towards the history of emergence of the concept of Afrocentricity has stated that even though inconclusive, the history of the inception and gradual evolution of the concept of Afrocentricity may be traced back to the influential works of Marcus Garvey that were published in 1954, propagating an Africa-centric ideology that gradually developed into the concept and research methodology of Afrocentricity. The author has conveyed that gaining momentum during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America, the philosophy of Afrocentricity was institutionalised by the Temple Circle constituted by the scholars of Temple University School (Chawane, 2016). But Chawane (2016), referring to Verharen (2000), has argued that the concept of Afrocentricity got its prominence in the works of Asante during the 1980s in which Asante developed an epistemological and methodological foundations for an Afrocentric curriculum that was ought to be based on a purely African perspective that aimed at facilitating a global understanding of the African legacy and the African value and belief system. Moreover, resonating with Abarry (1990), Chawane (2016) has pointed out that Afrocentricity is an approach upholding the notion of compelling all blacks, both in Africa and outside Africa, to look at the African scholarship and knowledge from an African perspective, suggesting looking at matters at hand from an African standpoint and such viewpoint should be applied to every social, economic, and political matters that pertain to the black people in any part of the world where they are either the majority or minority. Afrocentricity is not only a concept or a research methodology, but it is also a guideline providing guidance to every African on how to study their own origin and Africa from a purely African perspective. What Chawane (2016) has conveyed is that Afrocentricity compels Africans to view themselves in the centre of their own history, thereby, empowering them to consider themselves as agents, actors, and active participants in the process of ushering their betterment rather than standing like outsiders and onlookers, being periphery of the political, social, and economic systems that are dominated by ethnocentric ideologies that despise the African spirit. Moreover, if Asante (2001) has defined Afrocentricity as a manner of thought and action in which predomination of the centrality of African interests, values, and perspectives can be observed and if he has suggested that Afrocentricity is actually an exercise in the African knowledge and historical perspective, then Early et al. (1994) have considered Afrocentricity as an intellectual movement, a political view, and a historical evolution that emphasises the achievements and accomplishments of the African people both within and outside Africa. Reed, Lawson and Gibbs (1997), have defined Afrocentricity as a force that has transformed the attitudes, beliefs, values and behaviours of the Africans, encouraging Africans to believe in their own centrality and active participation in their own change movement for benefit, and from the concerned perspective, Afrocentricity can be considered as a means for rediscovering the African legacy, entailing its value and belief systems.Moreover, emphasising the importance of Afrocentricity in the lives of the African peoples, both within and outside Africa, the authors have stated that to many blacks Afrocentricity has an emotional as well as psychological appeal, primarily due to the fact that the tendency of Afrocentricity to place Africans at the centre of the worldview makes it easier for people of African descents find meaning out of the identity crisis that they often suffer in countries where majority is white (Besides, Reed, Lawson and Gibbs, 1997). Besides, Reed, Lawson and Gibbs (1997) have also conveyed that the tendency and the preference of myriads of Africans to give their children African name instead of European, and especially Christian names (which was a norm during the colonial period), is a pointer to the fact that Afrocentricity has an emotional and psychological appeal to myriads of people of African descent. Furthermore, resonating with many African scholars, Asante (2001) has pointed out that Afrocentricity has been more appealing to people of African descent primarily because many middle class Africans believe that the historical role played by Africans has been undermined and overlooked by the Eurocentric historical discourses and hence, there is a need of resurrection of the African importance through the enhancement of Afrocentric scholarship, having the potential to resurrect the African legacy.

Chukwuokolo (2009), on the other hand, has defined Afrocentricity as an embodiment of the African centricity that postulates that Africans should be given back their intellectual pride being the originators of the first human civilisation. But resonating with almost every of the aforesaid scholars, Chawane (2016) has pointed out that Afrocentricity, as the term suggest, is an African-centred concept and research approach that calls for ushering a change in the way the world has been viewing people of African descents in every aspect of the social, political and economic life. What Chawane (2016) has suggested is that the concept and the research methodology of Afrocentricity should be upheld in the context of acknowledging the African identity, encompassing all the attributes of their independent existence that emphasises the centrality of the African voices and the African experiences in a thorough and effective manner and in an unprecedented way. Olutola (2013), on the other hand, has pointed out that there is an utter need of integrating wholly the concept of Afrocentricity into the criminal justice system and in the academic infrastructure on which the knowledge of criminology is based. In this respect, the author has conveyed that even though majority of criminological theories support studying crime and the pattern of crime for addressing and mitigating criminality and the acts of crime, in reality, majority of such theories have been developed outside the domain of the African sentiment (Olutola, 2013). In other words, Olutola (2013) has suggested that there is a need of promoting and integrating the Afrocentric view in the criminal justice systems of African countries and of those countries where of people of African descent are minorities because the majority of criminology theories have kept at bay the African context, considering the same as either unimportant or redundant. This has led to scapegoating and victimisation of myriads of black peoples across the globe, triggering more the need of promotion, support, and proliferation of the concept and approach of Afrocentricity (Olutola, 2013). Besides, Schoeman (2019), resonating with Olutola (2013) has pointe out that how the South African criminal justice system is direly in need of extensively and explicitly integrating the concept of Afrocentricity in order to address and overcome the criminological, social, cultural, and political disparities. In this respect, the author has stated that as South Africa is a country ingrained with a dichotomous criminal justice system that has continued to overlook the direct or indirect impact of crime on secondary victims of crime, who, particularly, have been observed to be people of African descent, there is a need of developing an inclusive criminal justice system that is sensitive to the African value system and cultural aspects (and the social needs of the people of African descent) (Schoeman, 2019). What Schoeman (2019) has argued is that the retributive justice system of South Africa tends to be exclusive, keeping out an Afro-sensed viewpoint that has continued to victimize the people of African descent in many ways. Hence, criminal justice practitioners, especially in South Africa, has pointed out by Schoeman (2019), needs to become more Afrocentric than Eurocentric in their approaches.

Afro-sensed research and Indigenous knowledge

Afro-sensed research, a concept stemming out of the concept and approach of Afrocentricity, refers to the socio-economic and political concern that is concentrated on the need of advancing the interests of the African people through realising the culture, value, and belief systems of the people of African descent. To understand the concept of Afro-sensed research, one may refer to Masoga and Shokane (2019) who, citing Masoga and Kaya (2011), have pointed out that the Afro-sensed research approach is grounded in the belief that no community can actually advance in the development of Africa until and unless those communities get involved in the process of taking African societies and cultures seriously. The authors have conveyed that Afro-sensed research approach is inherently related with the concept of sustainable livelihood approaches because of the fact that both have adopted to guide the theoretical framework meant for probing into the conditions of the lives of the people of African descent and addressing and mitigating the problems faced by them in the social, economic, and political spheres (Masoga and Shokane, 2019). In this respect, it has to be noted that Masoga and Shokane (2019) has identified Afro-sensed research approach as a qualitative research methodology that follows a descriptive and explorative design for the purpose of finding out how the integration of Indigenous knowledge of the African legacy into the social work and environmental education can contribute to the efforts of bettering the socio-political and economic environments in which the people of African descent live. In other words, what Masoga and Shokane (2019) have postulated is that Afro-sensed research methodology and approach is a way of enhancing the overall research approach that is meant for giving voice to the marginalised black people in myriads of white-dominated society and they have hypothesised that integrating the Afro-sensed approach into the body of research for ascertaining the social, economic, and political conditions of people across the African continent can eventually pave the way for the global African scholarship to find out possible solutions to the multitude of problems faced by the Africans within Africa. Moreover, putting more emphasis on the need of integrating the Afro-sensed approach in the overall research approaches for developing the conditions of the South Africans of African descent, Shokane and Masoga (2018) have conveyed the necessity of the multicultural society of South Africa to adopt the concept and approach of Afro-sensitivity in order to understand the real needs and requirements of the people of African descent. The authors have highlighted how entailing Indigenous knowledge, the Afro-sensed research approach can gradually encourage local cultures and contexts to become more sensitive to the needs and requirements of the people of African descent, thereby, steering the South African society towards the direction of egalitarianism (Shokane and Masoga, 2018). What Shokane and Masoga (2018) have postulated is that an Afro-sensed research approach is the key to bettering the lives of millions of South Africans of African descent because the approach has the potential to encourage people of other descents, within the South African society to grow a sense of respect for the cultural differences and uniqueness that people of African descent have.

Moreover, in the context of criminology, for helping the justice system across the globe, and particularly in countries like South Africa and the United States, in refraining from discriminations and disparities, the need of integrating the Afro-sensed research approach has been deemed appropriate by myriads of African and non-African scholars. In this respect, Blitz et al., 2021 have pointed out how for the sake of overcoming the colonial menace of putting in dustbin the significance of indigenous perspectives on social injustice and void of social equality, majority of African scholarship has embarked on the process of revitalising Afro-sensed research in the spheres of criminology too, so that the pigeonholed views against people of African descent (which unduly victimizes black, making them look like born criminals) can be addressed, challenged and refuted. Blitz et al., 2021 have also conveyed that for challenging the propagations of Eurocentric scholarship, condemning the term ‘indigenous’ as something inferior or even ‘dirty’, the African scholarship, in countries within Africa (including South Africa) and outside Africa has strived for integrating Indigenous knowledge to solidify and strengthen Afro-sensed research from the perspective of valuing the significance of the concept of Afrocentricity. Besides, to overcome the injustice that has been continually perpetuated against the people of African descent in the domain of criminology, scapegoating such people and subjecting them to racism and undue retribution, there has been a need of embracing Afro-sensed research (Blitz et al., 2021). Blitz et al. (2021) have also pointed out that Afro-sensed research has a linear relationship with the process of promoting Indigenous knowledge, especially in the context of understanding the injustices perpetuated against people of African descent by the Eurocentric criminal justice systems around the world, pivotally due to the fact that until and unless indigeneity is not powerfully demonstrated as a weapon against injustice propelled against people of African descent, the criminal justice system of countries like South Africa will remain highly predominated by an apathy towards considering the socio-political needs of such people. Moreover, the authors have pointed out that as means for overcoming the agonies of the colonial experience, especially in the context of being subjected to the undue processes of the Eurocentric criminal justice system that brutally punished people of African descent for either no or trivial causes, the Afro-sensed research approach surfaced as a powerful weapon for the African scholarship (Blitz et al., 2021).

Characteristics of Afrocentric research methods and Framework for Indigenous research

Emphasising the importance of integrating the value proposition for the African viewpoint, considering it a centrality in terms of addressing and mitigating the anomalies and disparities faced by myriads of Africans in African nations and innumerable people of African descent outside Africa, Pellerin (2012) has discussed extensively the characteristics of Afrocentric research methodology. The author has suggested that is it only ensuring proper presence of the characteristics of Afrocentricity that the Afrocentric research method can be effectively applied in terms of interpreting the Africana phenomena in a successful way (Pellerin, 2012). At the core, as Pellerin (2012) has suggested, the Afrocentric research methods have to be characterised by engendering a culturally appropriate conceptualisation of the Africana reality precisely. The author, pointing out the characteristics of Afrocentric research methods, and referring to Mazama (2003), has stated that the primary characteristics of Afrocentric research methods, in any field of research, including criminology and social justice, entail the intention of guiding and informing all inquiry about the Africana phenomena; giving importance to the spiritual in its due place; getting immersed in the subject and his or her subjective views if necessary; indulging in wholism; considering intuition as a valid source of information; not considering everything as measurable; and making sure that the knowledge generated is liberating and emancipating in nature. Besides, Banks (1992) emphasising the characteristics of Afrocentric research methodology has highlighted the fact that Afrocentric research methodology should indulge in the absolute and not in the comparative, thereby, paving the way for integrating a collaborative inflow of Africana people’s historical and cultural lives. The author has also pointed out that among the primary characteristics of Afrocentric research method is to standardise the foundation for scholarship produced for the purpose of highlighting important social, political, economic, and cultural concerning people of African descent (Banks, 1992). Besides, putting more emphasis on strengthening the Afrocentric research methodology through establishing an effective framework of Indigenous research, Reviere (2001) has stated that the framework of Indigenous knowledge obtainment and enhancement should be based on the process of investigating pertinent research questions legitimately and effectively from the Indigenous standpoint alone, without adulterating the same with Eurocentric dogmas or stereotypes. The framework should entail the process of embedding assumptions with valid and evidence-based Indigenous knowledge developed through determining and probing into the myriads of Indigenous facets of socio-economic, political, ideological, and cultural problems (Reviere, 2001).

Core consideration to research methodologies in the African context

Emphasising the significance of the Afro-sensed research approach in conjunction with the importance of Indigenous knowledge, Shokane and Masoga (2018) have pointed out that in a multicultural society like South Africa where diverse indigenous cultural communications interact and intersect, socially, politically, and economically, in crises periods social workers need to embrace the Afro-sensed research approach and develop a better understand of the Indigenous knowledge to help victims of crimes and the marginalised population find their voices. In this respect, Shokane and Masoga (2018) have identified Afro-sensed research as a way of addressing those social injustices that have oppressed and suppressed majority of people of African descent across South Africa, and in many other countries where such people are minorities. Moreover, the authors have called for a transformational social work ingrained with Indigenous knowledge and the Afro-sensed intentions for addressing the inequalities in the criminal and social justice system of South Africa (Shokane and Masoga, 2018).  Shokane and Masoga (2018), hailing the importance of an Afro-sensed research approach in conjoined with Indigenous knowledge, have suggested that especially in South Africa, social workers, for the purpose of addressing the woes of the marginalised population, should intervene in a culturally-sensed manner that will make them more capable of discovering the uniqueness in local indigenous ways within specific black communities that have historically been deprived of their social justice and criminal justice rights. In this respect, Shokane and Masoga (2018) have considered Afro-sensed research and Indigenous knowledge as tools for ushering social change and criminal justice reform in South Africa. McKenzie, Mji and Gcaza (2014) have postulated that application of Afro-sensed research can eventually enhance the Indigenous knowledge base of both the scholarship and practitioners of social work and criminal justice through infusing cultural sensitivity for those who have not been aware of the need of remaining culturally sensitive and empathetic in terms of addressing the mitigating the problems faced by the minority blacks in different parts of the world. The authors have stated that a heighten awareness about the need of including indigenous knowledge in the design and implementation of research in Africa is essential for the Eurocentric scholars to gradually develop Afro-sense that can make them more capable of understanding the social, political, and economic needs of the Africans, putting themselves into their shoes (McKenzie, Mji and Gcaza, 2014). The Afro-sensed research paradigm, in this respect, confirms the necessity of supporting and promoting Afrocentricity among scholars interested in addressing and mitigating the multitude of problems faced by people of African descent both in Africa and outside Africa so that the scholarship can embark on a research process that is both emancipatory and participatory in nature, valuing the need of including indigenous knowledge and peoples simultaneously (McKenzie, Mji and Gcaza, 2014). Moreover, the authors have pointed out that it is imperative to promote Afro-sensed research because the said research paradigm has the potential to bring back to the centre the Africans and the people of African descent in the context of addressing and mitigating all those social, economic and political problems that they have continued to face worldwide, making it sure that their voices not anymore remain unheard and their suggestions and recommendations remain in the side line due to the predominance of the Eurocentric social, political, and economic ideologies(McKenzie, Mji and Gcaza, 2014).

Conclusion

The primary objective of the present literature review was to ascertain the importance of the concept of Afrocentricity and to explore the significance and nature of the Afrocentric research methodology. For the concerned purpose, the present literature review explored the concept of Afrocentricity, Afro-sensed research and Indigenous knowledge, characteristics of Afrocentric research methods, framework for Indigenous research, and the core consideration to research methodologies in the African context. The review indicated that from the perspective of understanding the social conditions of the African populations across South Africa in connection with the negative outcomes in the contexts of the criminal justice system of the country, there has been a surge in the need of understanding the holistic African perspective, entailing the African worldview, to determine how social justice can be provided to the African populations in parity with their social and economic needs, cropping out of their ethnic traditions and legacies.The literature review revealed that the concept of Afrocentricity when conjoined with the Afro-sensed research paradigm and the importance Indigenous knowledge can produce an Afrocentric research methodology that can bring to centre the African scholarship for the purpose of effectively addressing the social, political, economic, and cultural issues (and disparities) concerning the people of African descent both in South Africa and in those countries where such peoples are minorities. The review revealed that in the context of the criminal justice system there is a need of integrating the Africana phenomena, entailing the value of the African belief systems and worldview, pivotally due to the fact that such integration can be the key to addressing different types of disparities plaguing the lives of people of African descent without and outside Africa.