This article discusses the importance of family practices to children's acquisition of literacy and describes attempts to influence such practices through the institution of family literacy programmes. One of these is the Family Literacy Project in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, which both served as a model and provided material for a similar…

Presents the basic principles of two systems for notating African music and dance: Labanotation (created to record and analyze movements) and Greenotation (created to notate musical instruments of Africa and to parallel Labanotation whereby both music and dance are incorporated into one integrated score). (KH)

The Black anthropologist, Vera Mae Green, is featured in this analysis of the concept of soul as applied to African-Americans. Music and dance are used to express soul in cultural context. But soul is also a force, an energy which encompasses the Black experience and makes Black culture persevere. (VM)

Argues that Black families must be judged on their own terms, not by White, western standards. Discusses Africanism in Black kinship networks and extended family structure under slavery and the contemporary Black family. Emphasizes the importance of these characteristics as a source of strength among Blacks. (CMG)

Describes health and nutritional practices and beliefs among Black Americans, from slavery to the present. Links such practices and beliefs to social, political, and ideological factors. (GC)

Growing numbers of people in South Africa see technology as the key to economic prosperity and science as the key to technology. However, unemployment rates in many African countries remain high which leads to cynicism about investing in scientific research. Reviews and discusses culture, myths, and challenges faced in Africa. (DKM)

Discusses the interrelatedness of personality and race and identifies African self-extension orientation and African self-consciousness as constituting the core of Black personality. (Author/DA)

Blacks, now distributed throughout the world, have everywhere maintained some Africanisms that reflect their cultural heritage. An awareness of these Africanisms can unite Blacks throughout the diaspora and contribute to their international quest for liberation and national identity. (KH)

Discusses the Eurocentric nature of the United States social reality, and investigates psychological and mental health implications for the African-American community. Outlines the basic themes, emphases and criteria of Euro-American cosmology and describes how it can come to dominate the Afro-American's self-consciousness. Suggests ways to…

Researchers of Black American culture argue that interpretations of their experience are skewed by academe's Western perspective, and are becoming champions of Afrocentricity. (MSE)

Analyzes the biculturality of Black Americans, who have both Afrocentric and Eurocentric elements in their culture. Discusses factors of biculturality (education, punishment/reward, the institutionalization of white culture, religion, white power, and whites' numerical superiority). Evaluates qualitative differences between black and white…

Storytelling is a common African tradition, and although it has many varieties, two pervasive themes are harmony with nature and concord in a cultural setting. These themes take form in stories of conflict resolution, rites of passage, and fantastic dramatization of events. (MSE)

Explores use and performance of music in the Black church through examination of (1) the events that led to the conversion of Blacks to Christianity; (2) the formation of independent Black religious groups; and (3) the social and cultural milieu that fostered the development of a unique Black religious music. (Author/ML)

Discusses the diverse cultures in Africa, and the effects of colonization by the French, English, and Portuguese. Explores how culture is used for political purposes in emerging African nations and as a tool for rewriting a past misinterpreted by colonial powers. Discusses issues of cultural pluralism in African countries. (JS)

Discusses use of the term "African-American" in the context of relationships among country of origin, identification with that country, and the American experience. Finds no association between name identification and current Black social movements. Suggests that the issue should not overshadow continued effort to gain economic stability…