William S. Cook African History: One of the Original Seven Liberal Arts

Annotation

The lack of African history curricula in colleges and universities is a manifestation of influential American educators who have promoted the idea that Africa is irrelevant and inconsequential in today's global affairs. In this context, many educators have supported a racial ideology of falsified, delusional-based information about the accomplishments of Europeans and Euro-Americans in comparison with people of African descent that "was clearly established, protected, and perpetuated by the U.S. economic, political, educational, social, and cultural spheres." Although this perspective is one of the greatest falsehoods and misconceptions in the world, the educational system buttresses this misinformation by not positioning African history as a significant course of study within the Western liberal arts tradition. This work aims to correct this absence by presenting a comprehensive overview of the development of civilizations in Africa, the birthplace of humanity, as well as the history of Africa-oriented curricula in higher education.