[Ads-l] Further Antedating of "Afrocentric"

[Shapiro, Fred]

Afrocentric (OED 1966)

Wilson Jeremiah Moses's book Afrotopia: The Roots of African American Popular History (1998), page 243, states:  "Du Bois used the term ["Afrocentric'] in his 'Provisional Draft: Not for General Distribution: Proposed Plans for an Encyclopedia Africana.'  The document is filed with Du Bois's letter to Daniel Walden, dated September 21, 1961, which Professor Walden generously donated to the Rare Books Room at the Pennsylvania State University library.  Although there is uncertainty concerning the date of the Provisional Draft, there is no doubt concerning the date of Information Report No. 2 ... which was published by the Secretariat for an Encyclopedia Africana in Accra (1962)."

On page 2 of the Afrotopia book, Moses writes that "the phrase 'Unashamedly Afrocentric' appeared in Information Report no. 2 and elsewhere in the series."

It appears that Information Report No. 2, published by the Secretariat for an Encyclopedia Africana, is held by the Harvard library.

Fred Shapiro

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