Counterpoints-The Black Scholar Travelogue in Academia

This book draws inspiration from the author’s own scholarship on race, anti-Blackness, Indigeneity, and anti-colonial studies to offer the personal travelogue of a Black scholar in academia. The author reflects on how he came to a critical consciousness about critical issues of race, anti-Black racism, and anti-colonial studies in the 1980s. The intersecting theme of Black scholars’ responsibility for advancing a path of Blackcentricity wedded in Black and African Indigeneities to address global anti-Black racism and anti-Blackness is an important intellectual pursuit.

In the struggle for true liberation, our work for social justice, equity, decolonization, and the anti-colonial end is only possible if we embrace critical solidarity through Indigenous resistance and community building. We must all be part of an on-going struggle; those of us with the privilege of being familiar with history have a responsibility to mentor and be mentored by our young colleagues as a nurturing of the power of knowledge.

"How fortunate we are that in The Black Scholar Travelogue in Academia Professor George Jerry Sefa Dei provides a timely, comprehensive guide for practical/critical Black theorizing and counter- hegemonic knowledge production as a weapon of change and social transformation. Unapologetically embedded in his African Indigeneity, drawing on a powerful body of decolonizing scholarship, and deftly posing and courageously answering politically complex questions about race, identity and coloniality, his journey exemplifies the solidarity we need. My students really need this book. It is a tour de force."

— Joyce E. King, Benjamin E. Mays Endowed Chair for Urban Teaching, Learning & Leadership, Georgia State University

"George J. Sefa Dei is known internationally for his scholarship and activism, in pursuit of social justice and meaningful antiracist education, in a world disfigured by oppression and coloniality. In this landmark publication Dei reflects on his journey through academia; the past battles and continuing struggles that face anyone who is serious about challenging the Global forces of anti-Blackness. A powerful personal reflection on a storied career."

— David Gillborn, Editor- in- Chief of the international journal Race Ethnicity and Education

"A powerful plea from the heart for a respectful, peaceful, truly decolonised world from Nana, our foremost beloved Indigenous African scholar and sage. There can be no better message of love and hope for our times."

— Heidi Safia Mirza, Professor Emerita, University College London, author of Race, Gender, and Educational Desire

"Throughout his working life, Prof. Nana George Sefa Dei has engaged in liberatory scholarly praxis that extends beyond the academy and cuts across international frontiers. He has been fierce in challenging Euro-centric hegemonic discourses in education, and at the forefront of epistemic intervention in studies of race, racism, and coloniality/decoloniality. In this pursuit Dr. Dei has generated ideas, texts, and pedagogies as part of his offerings to ensure the creation a future worth living. His work is exemplary. And with it, he has changed the world.

In this current work, as Canada’s leading anti- colonial and critical race studies scholar, Dei fleshes out the problem of colonial violence in education, scholarship, and in social systems as a whole. At the heart of this work is the author’s examination of global anti-Black racism that has held the world in thrall. Dei critiques how this has robbed Black people of life, liberty, and happiness. Yet, influenced by his Akan cultural understandings and concepts of African indigeneity, Prof. Dei offers a vital antidote to this state of affair. This balm not only can heal Black trauma and pain, but also usher in a liberatory future for us all."

— Afua Cooper, Killam Research Professor, Dalhousie University