Dr. Molefi Kete Asante is a prolific global scholar with over 100 published books. He is the founding editor of the Journal of Black Studies, the father of the theory of Afrocentricity, and the creator of the first Ph.D. program in African American Studies.

Biography

Dr. Molefi Kete Asante is Professor Extraordinarius at the University of South Africa and professor in the Department of Africology at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.

Named one of the “100 Leading Thinkers” in America by Utne Reader, Asante is a Library of Congress History Maker who the New York Times describes as a scholar “known for his pioneering work in the area of Afrocentricity.”

The author of more than 100 books, translated into dozens of languages, Dr. Asante has published more than 500 articles and has been recognized as one of the ‘10 most widely cited African scholars.’

Dr. Asante was the President of the UCLA Chapter of the Civil Rights organization, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, in the 1960s. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, at the age of 26, and was appointed a full professor at the age of 30 at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

At Temple University he created the first Ph.D. Program in African American Studies in 1988. Since its inception, Dr. Asante has directed more than 140 Ph.D. dissertations. He is the Founding Editor of the Journal of Black Studies and founding director of UCLA’s Center for Afro-American Studies.

He is the founder of the theory of Afrocentricity, The Cheikh Anta Diop Conference, and the think-tank, The Molefi Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies in Philadelphia. An influential leader in education and a consultant for school districts seeking to build Afrocentric curricula, Dr. Asante wrote the mandatory African-American History course for Philadelphia School District.

Dr. Asante has been featured on 60 Minutes, BBC, CNN, and hundreds of international TV programs. He serves on the Thabo Mbeki African School of Leadership at UNISA and regularly consults with heads of state in Africa on issues related to the United States of Africa.  

Dr. Asante trained journalists in Zimbabwe immediately after the country’s liberation and was a mentor to the first group of journalists from the Zimbabwe Institute of Mass Communication. Asante is a Series Editor for the Anthem Press’ Africology and Routledge’s African Studies: History, Economic, Society.

In 1995 Dr. Asante was made a traditional king, Nana Okru Asante Peasah, Kyidomhene of Tafo, Akyem, Ghana. He was appointed a Wanadu of the Court of Hassimi Maiga, the Amiru of Gao, Songhay, Mali in 2009.

Dr. Asante has received honorary doctorates from Pepperdine University, Sojourner-Douglass College, the University of South Africa, and the University of New Haven. In 2019, the National Communication Association honored him as a NCA Distinguished Scholar, its highest honor, saying that his writings were “spectacular and profound”.  

Born one out of sixteen children in Valdosta, Georgia, Dr. Asante — through DNA — traced his heritage to the Kushite and Yoruba ethnic groups of Africa.

Dr. Asante lives with his wife, Ana Yenenga, in Philadelphia and has traveled to over 75 countries. He has three children, Mario, Eka, and MK Asante, who was born in Zimbabwe. He has six grandchildren, Jamar Ramses, Ayaana, Aion, Nova, Akira, and Akila.