Africology and the Puzzle of Nomenclature

Abstract

This article seeks to survey a number of names offered for the discipline that originated as Black Studies. Taking the position that practice is not arbitrary, although naming could be quite arbitrary, the author examines the practice of the field to suggest that those who see the study as a discipline have participated in Afrocentric analysis or critiques of African phenomena. Thus, the name Africology is suggested as the referent for Afrocentric analyses and critiques.