BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Dr. Marimba Ani has been involved in the Afrikan Liberation Movement since her work as a Field Organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee in Mississippi from l963 to l966. In l967, after having traveled in Afrika, she began formal study of the nature of Afrikan Civilization in the attempt to determine how the process of culture formation could be used to achieve self-determination for Afrikan people on the Continent and in the Diaspora. Because of this commitment she has become involved in the process of Afrikan-centered reconceptualization and the creation of a theoretical framework which will address the needs of Afrikan people to analyze phenomena from the perspective of their collective interests, values and vision.
Dr. Ani has, in this pursuit, created the Afrikan-centered theoretical concepts of Asili, Utamawazo, and Utamaroho, and the Maat/Maafa/Sankofa Paradigm as part of the endeavor to develop an Afrikan Cultural Science which will be pragmatic for the reconstruction of Afrikan Civilization. The term Maafa was developed and presented in her book, Let The Circle Be Unbroken, in 1980, and has subsequently been embraced by the Pan-Afrikan Community world-wide to refer to the systematic attempt to destroy Afrikan Civilization and to dominate and exploit Afrikan people through capture, transport (the Middle Passage), 300 years of chattel enslavement and continuing cultural genocide. Introduction of the term Maafa has allowed people of Afrikan descent to claim and define their own reality in their own terms..
In addition, Marimba Ani’s thorough and systematic critique of the European paradigm demonstrates the anti-Afrikan nature of European thought and behavior.
The following are a few of her scholarly writings:
“The Ideology of European Dominance,” The Western Journal of Black Studies, Vol.3, No.4, Winter, 1979 and Presence Africaine, No.III, 3rd Quarter. 1979.
“European Mythology: The Ideology of Progress,” Contemporary Black Thought, eds. Molefi Asante and Abdulai Vandi, Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1980., pp.59-79.
Let The Circle Be Unbroken: The Implications of Afrikan Spirituality in the Diaspora. New York: Nkonimfo Press, 1988 (1980 orig.)
Yurugu: An Afrikan-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior. Trenton: Africa World Press, 1994.
“To Be Afrikan,” The State of The Race, eds. Kamara and Van Der Meer. Boston: Diaspora Press, 2004.
Marimba Ani is a Pan-Afrikan activist and organizer. She has coordinated several Rites of Passage processes. She was the founding Director of the Afrikan Heritage Afterschool Program in Harlem, N.Y. from 1983 to 1998, and is actively involved in the Afrikan Reparations Movement. She holds a BA degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago, and MA and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from the New School University. A retired Professor of Afrikan Studies at Hunter College, she now lives in Atlanta, and lectures nationally. Her daughter, Dzifa, is a practicing Physician Assistant, and also lives in Atlanta, with her husband Ajisafe Adetutu.
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Phone: +1 800 603 6035