Three types of intelligence exist in the world: creative
intelligence, recreative intelligence, and consumer
intelligence. The most valuable type of intelligence is that which communicates
with the whole earth by remaining open to associations, ideas, spaces, and
possibilities. Disciplined attitudes rooted in Afrocentric
images and symbols can create endless combinations; there are numerous examples
from our history of the constructive potential of creative combinations.
Re-creative intellectuals are able to take the vision of the
creative intellectuals to new heights. They do this by constantly seizing upon
ideas and propagating them with great clarity. Thus Malcolm X was the
reproductive mind for the work of Elijah Muhammad; Halisi
and Baraka propagated the works of Karenga; Lenin and Mao expounded the principles of Marx;
Jesus had twelve initial teachers; Muhammad sent Abu Bakr
and others to the various parts of the world; King had his Abernathy and
Jackson. These reproductive minds maybe creative in other areas but in the
situations mentioned they were recreative. Some of
the greatest people known in the history of the world are reproductive minds.
In Afrocentricity there will be numerous poets,
scholars, teachers, artists, and philosophers who will surpass those who laid
the foundation in terms of propagation
The third type of intelligence is that of the practical
intellectual who neither creates nor recreates but rather consumes and utilizes
ideas. In an Afrocentric society, all intelligence is
accepted as containing the Godforce. Yet it is
understood that not everyone can appropriate its power for every purpose. Some
people are actualizing and recreative, and still
others are actively practicing and consuming. There is nothing inherently wrong
with consumption; one must know what is being consumed
With this analysis of intelligence it becomes possible for
us to see the connectedness of intelligence to nature and culture. The Afrocentric perspective envisions one wholistic, organic process. Thus, all political, artistic,
economic, ethical and aesthetic issues are connected
to the context of Afrocentric knowledge. Everything that you do; all that you are and will become is
intricately wrapped with the Kente of culture.
Mind and matter, spirit and fact, truth and opinion, are all aspects or
dimensions of one vital process.
There can be no good intelligence except as it is reflected
in the nature of things. All propositions, statements about good, truth,
falsehood and evil rest with the Afrocentric
concept of nature. What is the nature of things? For us, naturalism in of
itself is inert and does not explain our spirituality, or vitality, our
creative and dynamic energy. Idealism begins with too much abstractness to
account for process; static concepts box in our vital nature as a people.
All things are possible as actions; all objects are integral
to nature as objects; and all phenomena are potentially good or evil according
to their cultural use. Afrocentricity views all things
as integrated with culture and nature. We are one. Facts, then, are not intelligence
or knowledge about things. The knowledge of a thing can only come through an
act of judgment involving concept and ideology. What concept
do you posses and in what ideological framework is it contained? These
questions speak to the direction, intensity, purpose, and identity of the
seeker. Reality exists not merely as a reality of facts but a reality of
creation and perception.
Intellectual Vigilance
Afrocentricity maintains
intellectual vigilance as the proper posture toward all scholarship which
ignores the origin of civilization in the highlands of East Africa. Our need is to advance the theory of Afrocentricity through critical attention to what is written
and spoken by those who profess knowledge regardless to their ancestry. Arnold
Toynbee, for example, wrote that whites founded four ancient civilizations
while blacks found none. This is not merely Eurocentricity;
it is malicious racism of the type we have confronted and exposed for the last
two hundred years. We know because of our Afrocentric consciousness that only one ancient
civilization could be considered European in origin, Greece.
And Greece
itself is a product of its interaction with African civilizations. Among
ancient civilizations Africans gave the world, Ethiopia, Nubia, Egypt, Cush,Axum, Ghana, Mali, and Songhay.
These ancient civilizations are responsible \ for medicine, science, the
concept of monarchies and divine-kingships,
and an Almighty God. Afrocentricity establishes a profound movement in critical
reading as well as critical thinking. To the degree that we begin to examine
the literary perspectives of black and white writers we will understand the
power of symbols.
Our collective consciousness must question writers who use
symbols and objects which do not contribute meaningfully to our victory. How
could a black writer be allowed to use symbols which contradict our existence
and we not raise our voices? Afrocentric criticism
must hold especially accountable the works of African, continental or diasporan. We have failed to be critical of the Alvin Aileys and Arthur Mitchells in
dance for example because we felt that we should not criticize blacks who are
creative. The times are surely different and we must now open the floodgates of
protest against any non- Afrocentric stances taken by
writers, authors, and other intellectuals or artists. Afrocentricity
sustains our lives through self affirmation.
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