Paper Summary:

The paper relates in descriptive terms the understanding of many African Americans that knowledge, values and principles are necessary to fulfill their ambition of self definition and development. The paper highlights with examples and discussion, the necessity for African Americans to recognize their cultural knowledge, values and principles and to self define or self develop to prevent loss of identity.

Outline:
Essential knowledge
Important principles and values

From the Paper:

"Knowledge is definitely power, and the knowledge of one's roots and heritage is empowering for the individual of African America descent. In an introduction to an article entitled, Black Homeland Black Diaspora, Drachler emphasizes the importance of acknowledging one's African roots, cultures, and customs. However, Drachler also writes how this knowledge can become quite confusing with the pressure to be Americanized into a universal melting pot. This search for an "identity of wholeness and pride [...] have offered themselves, pointing toward Africa [...] the ancestral homeland" (Draschler 8-9). Drachler lists several "main tendencies" that have been attempted by African Americans to gain self-knowledge and awareness."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Achebe, Chinua. Girls at War and Other Stories. Dead Men's Path. Oxford, England: Heinemann Educational, 1972.
• Achebe, Chinua. A Tribute to James Baldwin. Spelling Our Proper Name. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.
• Ani, Marimba. Let the Circle Be Unbroken. New York: Nkonimfo Publications, 1980.
• Chinweizu. Decolonizing the African Mind. Nigeria: Pero Press, 1975.
• Drachler, Jacob. "Black Homeland Black Diaspora: Cross- urrrents of the African Relationship." Daedalus 95.1 (1966): 2-14.

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