Jacob H. Carruthers and the Restoration of an African Worldview - (Critical Africana Studies) by Kamau Rashid (Hardcover)

About the Book

This book examines the ideas and work of Jacob H. Carruthers, a key architect of the Nile Valley Studies Movement and a major theorist in the development of the African-centered paradigm. It explicates Carruthers's significant contributions and examines the theoretical and pra...

Book Synopsis

This book examines the ideas and work of Jacob H. Carruthers, a key architect of the Nile Valley Studies Movement and a major theorist in the development of the African-centered paradigm. It explicates Carruthers's significant contributions and examines the theoretical and practical implications of his work.

Review Quotes

A proverb in the Akan tradition states Apɔnkyerɛne wu a, na yɛhunu ne tenten 'It is when the frog dies that we see its length.' Jacob H. Carruthers and the Restoration of an African Worldview: Finding Our Way through the Desert by Kamau Rashid serves as the blueprint and template for what an intellectual biography can and should be. This meticulous treatise on the voluminous contributions of Baba Jedi Shemsu Jehuty provides both the reader familiar with his work as well as any who may only be introduced to him by means of this book, with much to contemplate. Rashid has done well in ensuring that Baba Jedi continues to speak to current and future generations in profound ways that contribute to the restoration of our worldview.

There are only a handful of scholars that could even venture to write a book on Jacob Carruthers, one of the most important African centered thinkers of the 20th century, because the task calls for much more than a surface descriptive treatment and the scholar has to have thorough familiarity with a wide range of texts, especially Kemetic (Ancient Egyptian). Kamau Rashid is the perfect scholar for this task and this book is a masterpiece that narratively situates and explains the depth and meaning of Carruthers' life and work. Written with empathy and deep insight, Rashid allows Carruthers to speak for himself throughout while deftly providing the reader with all of the essential historical, intellectual, cultural, and political context. This book is needed and Rashid has delivered, to both a popular audience and specialists, a work that will be read and widely used for many years to come.

This book brings critical attention to the broad contours of the intellectual project of Jacob H. Carruthers, Jr. In marshalling a synthesis of the themes embedded in his works, Kamau Rashid has provided us with a guide to understanding how Carruthers understood the relationship between African-centered knowledge production and liberation. The clarity of this divine conversation has never been more urgent.

About the Author

Kamau Rashid is professor and founding director of the Leadership, Equity, & Inquiry doctoral program at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago.