Nationbuilding: Theory & Practice in Afrikan Centered Education – Second Edition (1992) by Kwame Agyei Akoto

Description

Kwame Agyei Akoto defines nationbuilding as “the conscious and focused application of our people’s collective resources, energies, and knowledge to the task of liberating and developing the psychic and physical space that we identify as ours. It involves the development of behaviors, values, languages, institutions, and physical structures that elucidate our history and culture, concertize and protect the present, and insure the future identity and independence of the nation. Nationbuilding is the deliberate, keenly directed and focused, and energetic projection of the national culture, and the collective identity. Nationbuilding is occasioned by the generation and release of tremendous amounts of energy, not unlike a pregnancy and a new birth or a spring thunderstorm and the new growth following.” (page 3)

In this second edition to his masterwork, Nationbuilding: Theory & Practice in Afrikan Centered Education, Akoto outlines a program for orienting Afrikan minds into Afrikan community organizing.

About the Author

Kwame Agyei Akoto (1948-2019) was a scholar, educator, institution builder and author. Akoto was one of the founders of the NationHouse Positive Action Center – which has provided a rigorous African-centered education to students ranging from pre-school through high school, for nearly 50 years. He served as the executive director for NationHouse. Akoto (a.k.a. Isaac T. Hargrove) hailed from Columbus, Mississippi and received his baccalaureate and master’s degrees from Howard University in Washington, D. C.