agency; they possessed the means to center them-
selves within the expansive legacy of black history
and culture. Using the writer as an example, Asante
defined the basis of the term: “Dislocation exists
when a writer seems to be out of synchrony with
his or her historical/cultural location. Determining
historical/cultural location becomes one of the
major tasks of the Afrocentric scholar. Relocation
occurs when a writer who has been dislocated
rediscovers historical and cultural motifs that serve
as signposts in the intellectual or creative pursuit.”
Four fundamental premises of cultural reloca-
tion for Africana people are (a) self-definition,
(b) self-determination, (c) a consciousness of vic-
tory, and (d) access to ancient, traditional, and
modern legacies and aspects of the African experi-
ence. Within the Africana experience, cultural relo-
cation is evident in all areas of black life. In the area
of religion, cultural relocation is found in the man-
ifestation of Africana religion around the globe in
the forms of Vodun and Ifa. In psychology, cultural
relocation is found in the African personality theo-
ries of scholars and therapists such as Linda James
Myers, Kofi Kambon, Joseph Baldwin, Ama
Mazama, Yvonne Bell, Daudi Azibo, Wade Nobles,
Jerome Schiele, and Na’im Akbar. In black art, cul-
tural relocation themes are found in the work of
John Biggers and many others. Cultural relocation
is evident in the development of the Kawaida the-
ory and the African American holiday Kwanzaa by
Maulana Karenga. Politically, cultural relocation is
demonstrated in the work of TransAfrica, the black
American lobby for Africa and the Caribbean
founded by Randall Robinson and in the legacy of
black political conventions of the 1960s and 1970s.
Katherine Olukemi BankoleSeealsoAfricism
Further Readings
Ani, M. (1994).Yurugu:An African-Centered Critique
of European Thought and Behavior. Trenton, NJ:
Africa World Press.
Asante, M. K. (1988).Afrocentricity. Trenton, NJ:
Africa World Press.
Asante, M. K. (1990). Afrocentricity and the Critique of
Drama.The Western Journal of Black Studies, 14 (2),
136–141.
Asante, M. K. (1990).Kemet,Afrocentricity,and
Knowledge.Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Asante, M. K. (1992, April). The Painful Demise of
Eurocentrism.The World and I, pp. 305–311.
Asante, M. K. (1998).The Afrocentric Idea.
Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Harris, N. (1992). A Philosophical Basis for an
Afrocentric Orientation.The Western Journal of
Black Studies, 16 (3), 154–159.
Karenga, M. (2002).Introduction to Black Studies. Los
Angeles: University of Sankore Press.
Mazama, A. (2001). The Afrocentric Paradigm:
Contours and Definitions.Journal of Black Studies,
31 (4), 387–405.CURSE
In Africa, a curse is any attempt to use an invoca-
tion to cause harm to someone. An utterance
whose cause is to do damage to the intended vic-
tim is a curse. It may be uttered by an individual
with a particular religious or moral status. In such
a situation, it is often considered necessary for the
victim to invoke an ancestor, spirit, or deity to
respond. Ordinary people have been known in
some cases to curse their enemies, but for the
curse to be accepted as significant and real, the
maker of the curse must have credibility, that is,
must be seen as capable of offering the curse.
In African thought, it does not take an expert
to determine whether a person has been cursed,
although it will take an expert to help a person
overcome the curse. When physical or mental
harm occurs in a person’s life to a degree more
than in the life of a neighbor, it is often said that
the person is cursed. This means that the cursed
person, in an African sense, has done something
that brings about the curse. In the case of an
entire village that does not seem to be able to
succeed well, it may be that someone from the
village has violated an oath or taboo and is
responsible for the curse on the village. Of
course, it may also be that a curser is jealous or
envious of someone and therefore decides to
curse the person or a whole village.
From the earliest times in ancient Africa,
curses were used to frighten enemies and explain
certain conditions of harm that came to people.188 Curse