Criticisms of Afrocentrism

Adherents of Afrocentrism have been criticised for advancing their ideology in terms of pseudohistory.

=="Not Out of Africa"==
Among these critics are Mary Lefkowitz, who contends Afrocentric historical claims are grounded in identity politics and myth rather than sound scholarship. Lefkowitz rejects George G. M. James's views on Egypt, on the grounds that his sources predated the deciphering of Egyptian hieroglyphs and that his theories were overturned by later findings. She contends that actual ancient Egyptian texts showed little similarity to Greek philosophy and that Bernal underestimated the distinctiveness of Greek intellectual culture. Lefkowitz has criticized Afrocentricity as "an excuse to teach myth as history"
Her most recent book History Lesson (Yale University Press, April 2008) is a personal account of the way she was attacked for simply stating the facts. For example, her pointing out that Aristotle could not have stolen his ideas from the great Library at Alexandria because the library was founded after his death (by his pupil Alexander the Great) was countered by Afrocentrists not by disproving her statements but by accusing her of being racist.

Other criticisms
Other critics of the Afrocentric approach in the study of history include the late Egyptologist Frank Yurco, and African-American history professor Clarence E. Walker who has stated that Afrocentrism is:
"a mythology that is racist, reactionary, essentially therapeutic and is eurocentrism in black face."

Cain Hope Felder, a Professor of New Testament Language and Literature at Howard University and supporter of Afrocentric ideas, has warned Afrocentrists to avoid certain pitfalls. These include:

* Demonizing categorically all white people, without careful differentiation between persons of goodwill and those who consciously perpetuate racism.

* Adopting multiculturalism as a curricular alternative that eliminates, marginalizes, or vilifies European heritage to the point that Europe epitomizes all the evil in the world.

* Gross over-generalizations and using factually or incorrect material is bad history and bad scholarship.

Nathan Glazer writes that although Afrocentricity can mean many things, the popular press has generally given most attention to its most outlandish theories. Glazer supports many of the findings in Mary Lefkowitz book Not Out of Africa but also recognizes that Afrocentricity may, at times, take the form of legitimate and relevant scholarship.

Often, the work that critics of Afrocentricity call "bad scholarship" is also rejected by Afrocentrists. Adisa A. Alkebulan writes that critics have used claims of what she calls "a few non-Afrocentrists" as "an indictment against Afrocentricity."

Robert Todd Carroll in ' refers to Afrocentrism as "pseudohistorical", and argues that the prime goal of Afrocentrism is to encourage black nationalism as well as ethnic pride in order to effectively combat the destructive consequences of cultural and universal racism.

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