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Post-war development economics drew broadly from an array of different theoretical approaches, including theorizing from the south. Academic economists and policy makers in African countries openly and critically debated alternative possibilities from different theoretical traditions. As the multi-paradigmatic approach was under assault, the great development economist Albert Hirschman reminded us, in 1981, that this transcendence beyond monoeconomics arose out of the 'unprecedented discredit of orthodox economics' from within the economics establishment following the Great Depression and that the reassertion of neoclassical economics was somewhat predictable. The unevenness of the patterns of development provided the opening for the wholesale attack on development economics. Following the crisis of the universities in the 1980s, brought on to some degree by donors like the World Bank, economics departments on the African continent were reconstituted and reshaped in the image of the monoeconomics of the West. Capacity building efforts emphasized a single theoretical paradigm aimed in part at supporting structural adjustment policies. The African Economic Research Consortium, based in Nairobi and founded in 1988, played a key role in transforming the economics profession in Africa. The paper will map out the institutional dynamics and the consequences of reconstructing economic departments and government agencies in African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the epistemic politics at work in radically contrasting academic representations of African university futures. Euro-American policy entrepreneurs and research funders call for major investments in Africa's scientific research training capacity to strengthen the continent's integration into a global knowledge system. Meanwhile, African social scientists and humanities scholars critique the epistemological hegemony of 'Western' models of the academy, and call for the decolonisation of African universities. This paper sets out a three-step approach to dealing with the politicisation of 'academography' (Thorkelson 2016) in this decolonial moment. The first step is to acknowledge how epistemic power relations shape all analytical moves. The second is to recognise that 'generative antagonisms' (Burawoy 2004) are inherent to disciplinary knowledge production. The third is to develop an ethnographic sensitivity to everyday academic practice within these institutional worlds and epistemic cultures. Together these moves offer space for dialogue between different visions of African higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a theoretical synthesis of entrepreneurial education in African universities. It argues that these models are deeply influenced by colonial legacies, which perpetuate disempowerment and dependency. The paper advocates for a transformative decolonial approach, stressing the need to reimagine and restructure entrepreneurial education in a way that aligns it with African realities, values, and aspirations. The paper underscores the importance of integrating indigenous knowledge systems, local contexts, and African philosophies into the educational curriculum. This integration ensures that the learning experience is relevant, contextual, and empowering for African university students. By presenting a range of arguments, the paper establishes a framework for a decolonial approach to entrepreneurial education. It demonstrates the potential of such models to foster innovation, self-reliance, and critical thinking. In conclusion, the paper asserts that decolonising entrepreneurial education in African universities is essential for nurturing a generation of entrepreneurs who possess economic acumen, cultural grounding, and social responsibility. This paper contributes to the existing knowledge by offering a theoretical framework for decolonial entrepreneurial education. It also provides practical insights for implementation and highlights the transformative potential of such education in shaping the future of African nations.

Purpose: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in enormous challenges, but also presented opportunities that have notable implications for the future. The aim of this paper is to explore and discuss the experiences, perspectives, challenges and opportunities of Library and Information Science Educators (LISE) during the pandemic. The aim is articulated in the following three research questions: How is the COVID-19 pandemic experienced by LISE and in research? What are the perceptions formed during the period? And what are the challenges and opportunities? Design/methodology/approach: This is an interpretivist qualitative study informed by disaster management theories. The study involved the content analysis of existing literature with a focus on COVID-19 and higher education, particularly LISE, in conjunction with an open-ended email questionnaire that was sent to selected LIS educators/faculty/staff from major LIS Schools from eight sub-Saharan African countries. The author used personal experiences and observation to supplement the data and the interpretation. Findings: Results show more similarities than differences in how the COVID-19 pandemic is experienced and perceived, as well as the challenges and opportunities that it brings to the sector. As a whole, political factors are most pronounced, meaning that administration and decision-making need more attention in the sector. Also notable is that opportunities are mostly linked to technological factors, which will determine the "new normal" for LISE in the future. Almost all the narratives focused on the middle level of (during) the disaster life cycle, which is understandable as the complete cycle of the disaster is yet to come, likely when COVID-19 ceases to be a threat. Research limitations/implications: The sample was small, as related studies focus more on COVID-19 and higher education, with hardly any focusing on LISE. The COVID-19 pandemic has not ended, so the disaster management life cycle cannot be fully exploited. Furthermore, the author's categorization of responses within PEST was largely judgmental. Practical implications: New research, teaching and learning developmental paths have been created for LISE. The study provides practical reflection on the effects of COVID-19 on the sector and HEIs that can inform discourse and responses to the pandemic. Originality/value: The study explores a new research domain in LISE and due to limited research in the domain brings together important voices/narratives – based on their experiences – of LIS educators in Africa on the research area. Further, it proposes the future of LISE under COVID-19 within the 4IR framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of libraries in preparing students to thrive during their studies and innovate after university is growing in importance. Information is more easily accessible through digital channels and is increasingly abundant. Generative Artificial intelligence (AI) adds to this reality and increases the need for digitally driven information literacy skills. This paper aims to guide librarians by discussing the digitalization of information creation, retrieval, and use. It recommends the training of both digital and information literacy for students. Librarians are called upon to provide clear guidelines to their universities to steer the use of generative AI. The implications of digital information sources and generative AI are discussed with the role of librarians in context. Information literacy and digital literacy are related. Academic libraries should include digital topics in information literacy training. Information literacy should be trained at the start of university education and before students begin dissertation writing. University libraries should propose guidelines for the use of generative artificial intelligence tools by students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As former colonies of Western imperial powers, virtually all aspects of African life have been invaded by forces of Western hegemony. Colonial mentality is the blind assimilation or internalisation of the colonial powers’ socio-cultural forms resulting in the destructive and disruptive abandonment of the ways of life of the colonies. As it applies to Africa, colonial mentality is a product of African cultural invasion in which, having been exposed to colonial experience for a long time, an average African has internalised foreign ideas and ideals—so much so that she has lost the authentic African ways of life in the process. Using philosophical methods of argumentation and critical engagements, this paper contends that a connection exists between colonial mentality and the observed failure of African universities to efficiently effectuate their relevance as Africa’s development partners. The paper identifies four key areas in which colonial mentality plays out most profoundly in African universities, namely, the nature of knowledge produced, the mode of certification, the language of instruction, and research funding. The paper argues that the incursion of colonial mentality in these vital areas continues to impede African universities’ capacity to substantively contribute to African development drives and aspirations. Given this close nexus, the paper maintains that African universities may never realise their potential as a critical sector in African development discourse. This qualitative research is based on critical inquiry through a process of identifying, questioning and assessing deeply held assumptions about Western hegemony. The paper concludes that decolonisation in learning spaces can only be a feasible project if it is accorded the seriousness that it deserves by all stakeholders both within and outside the university.

This paper critically analyses state-of-the-art practices in African scholarship on tourism and hospitality. This broad aim translates into two objectives. The first was a bibliometric analysis of the publication patterns of Africa-based scholars in four leading tourism and hospitality management journals between 1990 and 2010. The second objective identified the challenges to getting research articles published in high-impact journals. The results suggest that within the 20-year period, very few research articles were published albeit by single authors. The subject content of the journal articles focused on tourist perceptions and behaviour mostly produced by universities and institutions in South Africa, Kenya and Botswana. The research field was also generally under studied with its attendant axiomatic reliance upon Western/Eurocentric canon. Furthermore, the major identified bottlenecks to research productivity were mostly human-induced. Against this backdrop, the study argues that considerable efforts are needed to develop a culture that encourages research publications in high impact journals from an African worldview. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although the cradle of university education is traced to Africa, modern university education in Africa emanated from European systems which set the tone for their replication on the continent through colonialism. For ideological and other reasons, African universities were subjected to significant violations of their institutional autonomy after independence, which trickled down to affect academics and students alike and thereby violated academic freedom generally. One major area where the abuses centred was the appointment of political leaders to occupy the high echelons of university management and to run the universities as political organs of the one-party systems in vogue at the time. Discussion of this subject has mainly centred on critiquing the excesses of immediate post-colonial governments, sometimes with no linkage to academic freedom. Where academic freedom is introduced into the discourse, the key components of the concept of academic freedom are not clearly delineated and discussed in a manner that links one component to the other. This paper aims to fill this gap. It does so by developing a theoretical framework for academic freedom which is used to analyse and categorise violations of academic freedom under its five pillars - institutional autonomy, self-governance, tenure, individual rights and freedoms for academics, and individual rights and freedoms for students. The paper also examines the factors responsible for the violations of academic freedom and their impact on the evolution of higher education in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaboration between international development NGOs and Africa's national knowledge institutes, particularly universities, is receiving increasing support from global policy-makers and donor agencies. In spite of this, little is reported about the practice of such collaboration. This paper helps fill this lack of knowledge. It shares findings from a research project by a consortium of four international NGOs exploring the potential for collaboration with knowledge institutes in Burundi, DR Congo, Liberia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda. The findings are based on analysis of interviews with NGO managers in these countries and on subsequent interviews by these NGO managers of staff in national knowledge institutes. The views of the NGO managers regarding collaboration lean towards scepticism, in keeping with the limited literature on the matter. However, after interviewing staff in the knowledge institutes, the NGO managers did find potential for collaboration based on personal relations and meeting both parties' more immediate interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the center of the issues about knowledge production and its circulation in Africa are the following critical questions: How does an African society learn things? What does it learn? And what does it do with the learned information? An attempt to dialectically reply to these questions leads us to discuss the issue about the quest for transformation of society from the dynamics of research and the power of knowledge. A reflection on the processes and mechanisms through which knowledge is produced in Africa is not a technical and linear exercise. Various issues related to the conceptualization of what knowledge production entails in contemporary Africa are raised as well as epistemological foundation of definitions, conceptualization and consumption of this knowledge are also examined. Furthermore, other vital questions of knowledge production for whom and for what are also analyzed within the intent of continuously searching for new paradigms as necessary in the struggles for social transformation in Africa. There is no single method, discipline or approach through which knowledge can be produced universally or internationally and be used to either transform a given society or to maintain its status quo. Knowledge production has specific actors, consumers and institutions, and the processes of knowledge production are essentially social and political. The producers have their interests, just as the consumers have theirs. By and large, this paper is a generalized critical reflection on knowledge production in Africa within the existing political systems or regimes, with a special attention being paid to the question of epistemology and research for social transformation. My claims and arguments are contextualized by the imperatives of contemporary African politics, which are synthesized in the policies and practices of colonial Africa, those of post-colonial Africa, of neoliberal globalism, and the agendas that emerged out the social struggles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A vibrant higher education sector is a cornerstone to the production and application of cutting-edge knowledge and human resources relevant to spearheading socioeconomic development. While this is true, Africa has a discouraging performance in research, as compared with other world regions. In raising its research performance, Africa is now receiving considerable attention to revitalize its higher education sector from both global and local forces. In a bid to enhance success of different local and global interventions that Africa is currently receiving, it is imperative to revisit the past to comprehend what has made Africa’s higher education research be where it is today. Informed by the postcolonial theory, this paper seeks to establish the historical antecedents that have undermined the development of research in Africa. Several antecedents are established including the role of colonial higher education policies, incompatible supranational donor policies, unstable political landscape, interrupted academic freedom and autonomy, and unfamiliar language of academic, research and scholarly communication. The paper argues that any initiative that aimed at revitalizing research in Africa should place the present higher education research doldrums in its wider sociohistorical context where Africa’s higher education sector had been hindered for decades by challenges, as discussed in this paper.

AbstractStudies on reasons accounting for the difficulties in learning public administration is relatively new in the public administration literature though many findings exist regarding students’ difficulties in the study of different subject areas. This paper examines whether the perceived reasons in other subjects are real in the study of public administration in African universities. Using a quantitative method and sample N = 650, data were gathered from university students studying public administration in Ghana and Nigeria. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. This study reveals a correlation between concept difficulty and students lacking opportunity for group studies, syllabus wideness, and textbook/slides not being easy to follow as real reasons accounting for concept difficulty in the study of public administration in African universities. This study concludes that the three reasons outlined are not perceived but real reasons accounting for difficulties in the study of public administration in African universities. Appropriate remediating measures are recommended to bolster the study of the subject in African universities.

African knowledge remains at best on the margins, struggling for an epistemological foothold in the face of an ever dominant Western canon. At worst, African knowledge is disparaged, depreciated, and dismissed. It is often ignored even by African scholars who, having gained control of the academy in the postcolonial context, seemingly remain mesmerized by the Western canon in most dimensions of thought, inquiry, theorization, culture (classical as well as popular), and ideology. Such is the hegemonic influence of historical legacy and current power relations in the production and dissemination of knowledge. This paper argues that African knowledge, given appropriate impetus, can serve as a powerful stimulus to development. Against the backdrop of intractable development challenges, the paper will explore the role of African universities in the creation, dissemination, and support of African knowledge; and the preservation of indigenous knowledge. Since a scholarly effort towards integrating an African ethos into discourse, consciousness, and praxis is critical, this paper will consider transformative action for African human development and outline key priorities for African universities to position African knowledge for successful development effectively, and thereby provide an alternative canonical perspective more resonant with the aspirations, interests, and development agenda of the continent.

The role of African higher education institutions has been embedded within the socio-economic and historical contexts of the continent. Understanding the nature of African universities, their roles in African societies, and their place in the global knowledge system demands comprehensive reflection of the historical trajectories of the sector itself. In order to re-imagine the future of African higher education, it is important not only to reconstruct the past by uncovering facts but also to deconstruct it by challenging the nature of established truth on which historical evidences are created. This article challenges and deconstructs dominant narratives on the historical trajectories and configurations of progress in African higher education systems. The article provides a thorough analysis of major trends, developments and challenges that the sector has been facing through time with the intention of reimaging and constructing the notion of a new or alternative future that addresses the recurrent challenges of the sector. The notion of creating the new African university carries a fundamental inquiry asking: 'What it means to be an African university?' 'What role do they play in African societies?' and 'How do African institutions manage to strike a balance between the individual, social and corporate responsibilities interacting with their stakeholders?' This article interrogates the intricate pattern of interactions among African societies and higher education institutions, reflecting on historical trends and critical challenges facing the sector that have been negatively impacting the pace of realising the desired future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After centuries of denial, suppression and marginalization, the contributions of Afro-Hispanics/Latinos to the arts, culture, and the Spanish spoken in the Americas is gradually gaining recognition as Afro-descendants pursue their quest for visibility and space in Spanish America. Hand in hand with this development is the young generation of Afro-Latinos who, are proud to identify with the black race. Ironically, the young African student has very little knowledge of the presence and actual situation of Afro-descendants in Spanish-speaking America. This is because many African universities still follow the old colonial system which excludes knowledge of the presence and cultures of the once enslaved Africans in the Spanish speaking world. Thus, while Afro-descendants are fighting for visibility and recognition in Spanish America, they remain almost invisible in the African continent. The aim of this paper is to propose a curriculum, Afro-Hispanic Peoples and Culture, as a general studies course in African universities. Such a curriculum would create in Africa the much-needed visibility and contributions of Afro-descendants in Spanish-speaking America, and also foster collaborative works between young African academics and their counterparts in the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research attributes the problem of weak research productivity of academics in African universities primarily to institutional resource poverty and inadequate research skills. However, there has been little attention to research cultures and the role of leaders in fostering productive ones. Drawing from the literature on organizational culture, this study examines the role of university leaders in developing research cultures. The study explores how institution leaders do this within the higher education contexts in their countries. The empirical work is based on qualitative interviews with senior and mid-level university leaders in six countries in sub-Saharan Africa. While all of the leaders espoused clear views about the elements of a productive research culture, results indicate a significant gap remains between espoused values for research and the actual research culture. Theoretically, the research extends the concept of research cultures by demonstrating the complex dynamics between research cultures, culture embedding mechanisms, and leader behavior within contextual constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students’ understanding of public administration (PA) plays an important role in ensuring the quality of human resources that African universities produce. Using a quantitative approach and sample N ​= ​650, this paper draws on empirical evidences of students lived expereinces of what they consider difficult in the study of PA in Ghana and Nigeria; establishing relations between selected variables and perceived difficulties. The study concludes that, African university students not having previous backgrounds in PA and syllabus being too wide accounts for difficulties in the study of PA; there is a statistically significant difference regarding bureaucracy, ethics, corruption, and arms of government between lower levels and upper level African university students on the perceived difficulty in the study of PA and there is a statistically significant difference between Bachelor of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science Public Administration among African university students in all concepts observed except government, public policy, politics and defining PA. We suggest teaching PA is remodeled as a study of classroom training that places students understanding at its core.

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After centuries of denial, suppression and marginalization, the contributions of Afro-Hispanics/Latinos to the arts, culture, and the Spanish spoken in the Americas is gradually gaining recognition as Afro-descendants pursue their quest for visibility and space in Spanish America. Hand in hand with this development is the young generation of Afro-Latinos who, are proud to identify with the black race. Ironically, the young African student has very little knowledge of the presence and actual situation of Afro-descendants in Spanish-speaking America. This is because many African universities still follow the old colonial system which excludes knowledge of the presence and cultures of the once enslaved Africans in the Spanish speaking world. Thus, while Afro-descendants are fighting for visibility and recognition in Spanish America, they remain almost invisible in the African continent. The aim of this paper is to propose a curriculum, Afro-Hispanic Peoples and Culture, as a general studies course in African universities. Such a curriculum would create in Africa the much-needed visibility and contributions of Afro-descendants in Spanish-speaking America, and also foster collaborative works between young African academics and their counterparts in the Americas.

If universities are supported by the communities in which they are embedded, then solving their communities' problems must be a critical university ethical goal. The essay's first part examines philosophy's roles in directing university research in such disciplines as the natural and social sciences, history, art and mathematics. Of particular interest are the roles that information and communication technology (ICT) might play in the dissemination of research results in universities' supporting communities. The Pan-African thinker W.E.B. Du Bois believed that virtually all humans are capable of profiting from a university education. ICT must be critical to African universities' discharge of their ethical responsibilities to their communities. The first part's conclusion suggests three ways whereby African universities may advance toward Du Bois's goal. The essay's second part proposes a curriculum for Fort Hare University in Alice and East London in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province. As both an urban and rural university, Fort Hare presents a unique opportunity for examining university-community relationships. The essay's conclusion argues that African universities must play a critical role in constructing African self-knowledge. Critical to university and alumni contributions to re-thinking African identity, will be the inclusion of curricular material specific to the cultures of communities selected for university outreach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of health policy and systems research and analysis (HPSR+A) is widely recognized. Universities are central to strengthening and sustaining the HPSR+A capacity as they teach the next generation of decision-makers and health professionals. However, little is known about the capacity of universities, specifically, to develop the field. In this article, we report results of capacity self- assessments by seven universities within five African countries, conducted through the Consortium for Health Policy and Systems Analysis in Africa (CHEPSAA). The capacity assessments focused on both capacity ‘assets’ and ‘needs’, and covered the wider context, as well as organizational and individual capacity levels. Six thematic areas of capacity were examined: leadership and governance, organizations’ resources, scope of HPSR+A teaching and research, communication, networking and getting research into policy and practice (GRIPP), demand for HPRS+A and resource environment. The self-assessments by each university used combinations of document reviews, semi-structured interviews and staff surveys, followed by comparative analysis. A framework approach, guided by the six thematic areas, was used to analyse data. We found that HPSR+A is an international priority, and an existing activity in Africa, though still neglected field with challenges including its reliance on unpredictable international funding. All universities have capacity assets, such as ongoing HPSR+A teaching and research. There are, however, varying levels of assets (such as differences in staff numbers, group sizes and amount of HPSR+A teaching and research), which, combined with different capacity needs at all three levels (such as individual training, improvement in systems for quality assurance and fostering demand for HPSR+A work), can shape a future agenda for HPSR+A capacity strengthening. Capacity assets and needs at different levels appear related. Possible integrated strategies for strengthening universities’ capacity include: refining HPSR+A vision, mainstreaming the subject into under- and post-graduate teaching, developing emerging leaders and aligning HPSR+A capacity strengthening within the wider organizational development. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in Africa face the challenge of responding to the expanding demand for tertiary education while maintaining or enhancing the quality of their course offerings. This has led to some HEIs introducing interactive web technologies to support their distance teaching and learning practices. However, academic staff at these institutions may struggle to provide sufficient support to online learners in part due to inadequate staff capacity in terms of familiarity with and use of online communication tools. This paper reports the practical experiences of building academic staff capacity within three southern Africa institutions, in order to initiate skills development and introduce foundational concepts in support of engaging online learners. The design of the course material is discussed and the experiences of the facilitators and participants are examined.

We discuss how academically-based interdisciplinary teams can address the extreme challenges of the world's poorest by increasing access to the basic necessities of life. The essay's first part illustrates the evolving commitment of research universities to develop ethical solutions for populations whose survival is at risk and whose quality of life is deeply impaired. The second part proposes a rationale for university responsibility to solve the problems of impoverished populations at a geographical remove. It also presents a framework for integrating science, engineering and ethics in the efforts of multidisciplinary teams dedicated to this task. The essay's third part illustrates the efforts of Howard University researchers to join forces with African university colleagues in fleshing out a model for sustainable and ethical global development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bologna Process experienced a rapidly growing and an unexpected level of support. The authors revisit the key moments of the strategic promotion of the Bologna model and address the issue of the advantages other countries from other continents might gain from lining up with versions of the Bologna model. During the first years, the Process drew on a wide variety of practices and methods, but once it was taken out of Europe, it turned into a closed system based on strict principles. Europe still expresses doubts but it spreads its certainties as it integrates them in its new Licence-Master-Doctorate (LMD) system, which is presented as universally relevant, even though they represent only one particular means of conceiving, addressing and resolving the problems of higher education systems. The example of the export of such a model in Africa can lead people to worry that it might add up to nothing more than a ‘sovereignty bubble’ in a political system that sorely needs to encourage creativity, critical stances and collective endeavours. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses the implications of the tuition fees disparities that persist within African universities whereby various students are charged fees on the grounds of being either domestic or international student. The primary goal of the author is not only to sensitise debates around this highly neglected issue but also to produce a useful sociological framework capable of enabling Africans to participate in their own educational development wherever they may choose to study. The author sampled tuition fees practices from three universities in Africa to demonstrate how such arbitrary policy impinges on current discourse on Africanisation of higher education in very complex and subtle ways. The author equally drew credence from the thinking of the Bologna Process and the challenges such development presents to the African continent. Without disregarding recent efforts within the continent, however, this author argues that attempts towards the promotion of an all-inclusive higher education environment within Africa while neglecting the implications contingent on such differential tuition fees practices within Africa’s universities negates all efforts towards true Africanisation. Consequently, the author calls for the issue of domestic and international tuition fees to be included on the agenda of various efforts towards the harmonization of African higher education. It is hoped that such move would help strengthen the Africanisation project. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Policy makers have increasingly recognised the role which universities can play in economic growth in recent years. One consequence of this has been a dramatic growth in university research management systems in developed countries. The lack of such systems in African universities threatens to further widen their relative disadvantage in securing and managing external funding. Recent surveys demonstrate growing awareness of this among the universities themselves, and that support has been received from a range of international donors to address the problem. This, however, has not yet succeeded in the creation of sustainable long-term structures at institutional level. A more coherent approach to the problem will be required over the next decade, and a framework is suggested to guide this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes the formation of time-honored cooperative and educational partnerships between historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States and universities in Africa using state-of-the-art technology. Emerging electronic communication implements and the availability of information driven by the various campus networks should be key resources to support these collaborative efforts. The potential benefits of the information superhighway for the African continent and participating HBCUs can be immense. An advanced information infrastructure will enable the future African labor force to compete and win in the global economy, generating competitive and gainful employment opportunities for the African people as well as economic development and growth for the continent. Moreover, such a joint venture will, in many ways, provide African Americans with additional opportunities to connect to their roots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]