Black/Africana Communication Theory

Most Western-driven theories do not have a place in Black communicative experience, especially in Africa. Many scholars interested in articulating and interrogating Black communication scholarship are therefore at the crossroads of either having to use Western-driven theory to explain a Black communication dynamic, or have to use hypothetical rules to achieve their objectives, since they cannot find compelling Black communication theories to use as reference. Colonization and the African slave trade brought with it assimilationist tendencies that have dealt a serious blow on the cognition of most Blacks on the continent and abroad. As a result, their interpersonal as well as in-group dialogic communication had witnessed dramatic shifts.

Black/Africana Communication Theory assembles skilled communicologists who propose uniquely Black-driven theories that stand the test of time. Throughout the volume’s fifteen chapters theories including but not limited to Afrocentricity, Afro-Cultural Mulatto, Venerative Speech Theory, Africana Symbolic Contextualism Theory, HaramBuntu-Government-Diaspora Communications Theory, Consciencist Communication Theory and Racial Democracy Effect Theory are introduced and discussed.

1. Introduction (Kehbuma Langmia).-Part I Afrocentric Communication Theories.- 2. The Classical African Concept of Maat and Human Communication (Molefi Kete Asante).- 3. Cognitive Hiatus and the White Validation Syndrome: An Afrocentric Analysis (Ama Mazama).- Part II Africana Communication Theories.- 4. Igbo Communication Styles: Conceptualizing Ethnic Communication Theory (Uchenna Onuzulike).- 5. Kuelekea Nadharia Ujamaa Mawasiliano: Toward a Familyhood Communication Theory (Abdul Karim Bangura).- 6. Afro-Cultural Mulatto Communication Theory (Kehbuma Langmia).- 7. Venerative Speech Theory and African Communalism: A Geo-Cultural Perspective (Bala A. Musa).- 8. Africana Symbolic Contextualism Theory (Faith Nguru and Agnes Lucy Lando).- 9. The HaramBuntu-Government-Diaspora Relationship Management Theory (Stella-Monica N. Mpande).- 10. Dynamism:N’digbo and Communication in Post-Modernism (Chuka Onwumechili).- 11. Consciencist Communication Theory: Expanding the Epistemology on Nkrumahism (Abdul Karim Bangura).- Part III African American Communication Theories.- 12. Afrocentricity of the Whole: Bringing Women and LGBTQIA Voices in from the Theoretical Margins (Natalie Hopkinson and Taryn K. Myers).- 13. New Frames: A Pastiche of Theoretical Approaches to Examine African American and Diasporic Communication (Gracie Lawson-Borders).- Part IV Latin America & Caribbean Communication Theories.- 14. Creolized Media Theory: An Examination of Local Cable Television in Jamaica as Hybrid Upstarts (Nickesia S. Gordon).- 15. Caribbean Communication: Social Mediation Through the Caribbean ICT Virtual Community (CIVIC) (Roger Caruth).- 16. Color Privileges, Humor, and Dialogues: Theorizing How People of African Descent in Brazil Communicatively Manage Stigmatization and Racial Discrimination (Juliana Maria da Silva Trammel).