Center of Pan-African Culture

". . . To dominate a people is, above all, to take up arms to destroy, or at least to neutralize, to paralyze, its cultural life. For, with a strong indigenous cultural life, foreign domination cannot be sure of its perpetuation. The value of culture as an element of resistance to foreign domination lies in the fact that culture is the vigorous manifestation on the ideological or idealist plane of the physical and historical reality of the society that is dominated or to be dominated. Culture is simultaneously the fruit of a people's history and a determinant of history, by the positive or negative influence which it exerts on the evolution of relationships between man and his environment, among men or groups of men within a society, as well as among different societies."

The Center of Pan-African Culture (CP-AC) is the premier programming entity of the Department of Pan-African Culture. It was founded in 1970 by the Black United Students (BUS) for the purpose of promoting the cultural traditions of African people. Its original location was in the Ward House, which stood on the site now occupied by the Business Administration Building. In 1971 the center moved to the second floor of Rockwell Hall. In 1972 it moved to its present location. The African Community Theatre's Mbárí Mbáyò Theatres I and II were established 1981 on the first floor of Franklin Hall, forming the CP-AC Annex.

The Center of Pan-African Culture is an integral part of the Department of Pan-African Studies, but is cooperatively administered by the department, the Black United Students, the Black Graduate Students Association, the Black Greek Council, and a number of University faculty and administrators who serve on the center's Advisory Board. It must, however, be kept in mind that the center is another institution established on the Kent Campus, which needs the continuing attention of African American students, faculty and staff, and the community at large to remain at Kent State University and grow.

Recognizing that the multifaceted cultural contributions of the world's African peoples have been too long ignored, the Center exploits the knowledge and talents of black students, faculty and staff, as well as those of persons outside the University community to educate the total community and to foster an appreciation by that community of the cultural heritage of Africa, the Caribbean, and African America.

The Center also complements the department's curriculum by sponsoring lectures, tele-conferences, colloquia, conferences, and workshops that relate directly to knowledge imparted in the courses for which students have registered.

In 1966, Frantz Fanon, a psychiatrist from the French West Indies colony of Martinique and fighter in the Algerian Revolution, wrote in his The Wretched of the Earth . . .

"Come, then, comrades; it would be as well to decide at once to change our ways. We must shake off the heavy darkness in which we were plunged, and leave it behind. The new day which is already at hand must find us firm, prudent, and resolute.
"We must leave our dreams and abandon our old beliefs and friendships from the time before life began. Let us waste no timein sterile litanies and nauseating mimicry. Leave this Europe where they are never done talking of Man, yet murder men everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own streets, in all the corners of the globe. For centuries they have stifled almost the whole of humanity in the name of a so-called spiritual experience. Look at them today swaying between atomic and spiritual disintegration. . . .

"So, my brothers, how is it that we do not understand that we have better things to do than to follow . . . Europe? . . .

"Come, then, comrades, the European game has finally ended; we must find something different. We today can do everything, so long as we do not imitate Europe, so long as we are not obsessed by the desire to catch up with Europe.

"Europe now lives at such a mad, reckless pace that she has shaken off all guidance and all reason, and she is running headlong into the abyss; we would do well to avoid it with all possible speed."

The Center of Pan-African Culture takes a position similar to Fanon's. We firmly believe that by accenting the cultural heritage of Africa and its peoples scattered throughout the world, we will progress, renounce imitating others, and again achieve our premier position at the apex of the civilization of In maximizing the utility of the Center, its staff, and Advisory Board, the department and the Black United Students, as partners, introduce cultural programming not only to Dr. Francis E. Dorsey, complement academic activities with extra-curricular content but also to provide a living manifestation of the past and present lives of the peoples of the Pan-African world. In this manner, the Center provides a setting for the development of a community of learners seriously working to create an appreciation of their African past, present, and future . . .

THE CENTER OF PAN-AFRICAN CULTURE STANDS AS A CELEBRATION AND A TRIBUTE TO THE TRADITIONAL VALUES, CONCEPTS OF BEAUTY, CHERISHED DREAMS, AND SECURED PROSPERITY OF AFRICAN PEOPLE. THE CENTER OF PAN-AFRICAN CULTURE IS DESIGNED TO ENHANCE THE TWIN CONCEPTS OF SELF RELIANCE AND SELF DETERMINATION (KUJICHAGULIA) FOR ALL PEOPLE OF AFRICAN DESCENT.

Inasmuch as the Center invites and encourages participation by all sectors of the campus and surrounding communities interested in benefiting from its activities, the physical facilities of the Center afford a wide range of programming possibilities. These facilities include eight (8) class rooms, the Mbárí Mbáyò Lecture Hall, the Uumbaji Art Gallery and Formal Lounge, the informal el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz (Malcolm X) Lounge (which has limited food service capabilities), and the Henry Dumas Memorial Library. The Center also provides reading rooms, equipment for exhibiting works of art, space for dances and other social functions, VanDer Zee darkroom and studio, and equipment for audio-visual presentations.

The Center has its main office in Room 101 in Oscar Ritchie Hall. The African Community Theatre, the department's theatre program, is located in the Center's Annex on the first floor of Franklin Hall. Its entrance is on the South Lincoln Street side of the building. The office is in room 208A. For information about the African Community Theatre, call (216) 672-7937.