Black/Africana Communication Theory

Kehbuma Langmia
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 black
/
africana
communication
theory

e d i t e d by
kehbuma langmia
Black/Africana Communication Theory
 Kehbuma Langmia
Editor

Black/Africana
Communication
Theory
Foreword by Ronald L. Jackson II
Editor
Kehbuma Langmia
Department of Strategic, Legal and
Management Communication
School of Communications
Howard University
Washington, DC, USA

ISBN 978-3-319-75446-8    ISBN 978-3-319-75447-5 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75447-5

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018934711

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of
translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on
microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval,
electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now
known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information
in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the
publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to
the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The
publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and
institutional affiliations.

Cover design by Fatima Jamadar

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer

International Publishing AG part of Springer Nature.
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
This book has been dedicated to those who fervently believe that Black
Scholars Matter.
 Foreword: A Tool for Understanding
the African Diaspora

The foundation of every Diaspora can be found in its ideals, mores, beliefs,
and culture—its way of doing things. Moreover, the basis for any curricu-
lum about that Diaspora resides within its theories. The theories foretell
the intricacies of the discursive practices that guide how citizens of the
Diaspora behave. To date there has been no one book that has been exclu-
sively dedicated to showcasing Black/Africana communication paradigms,
but now we have it in Kehbuma Langmia’s book Black/Africana Com­
munication Theory.
Of course the function of theories is to provide us with conceptual tools
to use when trying to make sense of what we are observing. The contem-
porary social landscape throughout the African Diaspora, no matter
whether it is in Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Australia,
Antarctica, or Europe, provides us with a plethora of phenomena to
explore no matter whether it is Boko Haram of Nigeria, the Stolen
Generation of Australia, the Afroasiatic identity of Ongota, or any number
of African places, events, rituals, and aboriginal people groups throughout
the Diaspora. While it is impossible to have a book with theories to suffi-
ciently describe every phenomenon what Black/Africana Communication
Theory offers is an ambitious explication of theories that rigorously unrav-
els an African-centered set of human experiences, habits, and practices.
The urgency of the need for intellectual minds to attend to the social
quagmires in which we find ourselves is significant now more than ever.
The African Diaspora is grasping for answers for the collapse of democra-
cies all around the world. Even in the United States the democratic ideal,
and its accompanying promises of freedom, equity, and fairness, is called

vii
viii FOREWORD: A TOOL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE AFRICAN DIASPORA

into question daily. Higher education institutions cannot decide whether

their principal interests are to prepare students to be global citizens or to
simply make money. While these are not mutually exclusive, since it is pos-
sible to have both coexist simultaneously, the neoliberalist charge to con-
stitute the national identities of all Americans on the basis of capitalism
alone is debilitating. It runs counter to African sensibilities, which value
the collective and seek to lift up others as we individually progress. In fact
what this book will show is that the notion of the individual is a principally
Western concept that seems misplaced when discussed alongside African
Diaspora perspectives.
What is not so strange within the Diaspora is the need to protect an
authentic sense of African values defined by ethics, language and discourse,
belonging, holism, interconnectedness, social support, and self-efficacy
through community. This need intensifies in places where African peoples
have been colonized, because they have already experienced an assault on
their cultural way of being. In many cases, whether through the Maafa
known as the holocaust of enslavement or through some other devastating
transition, the Diaspora spread geographically when Black people arrived
in places where they were subjugated. Under colonial rule, where in many
cases they were not permitted to speak their native tongue, they had to
find a way to adjust psychologically, linguistically, and culturally in order
to survive. The emergence of pidgins and eventually creoles often hap-
pened out of a need to communicate with other Africans during this dis-
persion and resettlement process where for example African people who
spoke Hausa had to learn to speak to other Africans who spoke Igbo,
Kiswahili, Yoruba, Zulu, Fulani, Berber, or one or more of almost a hun-
dred other languages spoken on the continent. One of the principal con-
sequences of colonialism was a gradual loss of various aspects of indigenous
African identities with each new generation detached from the physical
continent of Africa.
Retrieval over the custody of meanings, practices, mores, and values
reflecting classical African antiquity has been an uphill battle for Africans
who have been removed from Africa for several generations. The famous
Melville Herskovitz and E. Franklin Frazier debate discussed in Holloway’s
(2005) book Africanisms in American Culture attempts to grapple with
whether Blacks in America and elsewhere can legitimately claim an African
identity at all, or whether who they are today is to be regarded as some-
thing entirely separate and distinct from an indigenous African identity. In
other words, is there any such thing as an African carryover or continuity
or is that nonsense? This ultimately begs the question, for example, of
whether African Americans are more African or American.
 FOREWORD: A TOOL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
   ix

The fact that we continue to be compelled to ask this ontological and

cosmological question is a result of most of the African Diaspora’s physical
detachment from Africa and our divided cultural consciousness. Fortunately
we have had the benefit of many brilliant writers over the years such as
Chinua Achebe (2016), Chiek Anta Diop (1989, 1991), Jahnheinz Jahn
(1994), Marcel Griaule (1975), Chancellor Williams (1992), Molefi Asante
(2013), Maulana Karenga (2008), and others who have sought to not just
acknowledge the antecedent conditions that led to the spread of the
Diaspora but also work to reinstate the significance of human agency by
critiquing and establishing paradigms intended to reflect Africanity. They
understood the phrase “Know Thyself,” a phrase that emerged from early
African dynasties over 3000 years ago and has been claimed by Greek,
Chinese, Hindu, and other cultures throughout the world. The phrase sug-
gests more than what its literal meaning signifies, which presumably is to
get to know your origins and how you define yourself. It is also a phrase that
captures the past, present, and future implying self-knowledge across time.
In coming to know the people who belong to the African Diaspora we
need paradigms and models to help us make sense of the cultural behavior
and discourse patterns we are observing. For example how do the wailing
and memorial service practices in Ghana compare to the way we memori-
alize the deceased in Jamaica, Brazil, China, or the United States?
Questions like these encourage us to pause and consider the vastness of
the African continent as a point of origin for the Diaspora, a place with 54
independent countries and hundreds of languages. To say one’s ancestors
are from Africa is a complex assertion. One must take time to locate which
part of Africa and what traditions are distinctive to that region.
Recently I received my results from the Ancestry.com DNA test I took.
I was delighted to learn that the findings showed that I am 86 % African
with most of my ancestral heritage concentrated in Nigeria, Ghana,
Benin/Togo, and Cameroon. While this revelation was exciting I almost
immediately felt overwhelmed by how much I still have to learn about
those African countries. I have been reading about Africa for the last 30
years but I feel like I know almost nothing about my ancestral heritage. I
do not know much about the foods, languages, dialects, dress, rights of
passage, and collective identities of those regions. African Americans have
been told for centuries that they have African ancestral roots. This DNA
science helps us to move one step closer to understanding our family tree,
medical histories, and so on. Even still it takes books like Black/Africana
Communication Theory to guide us in our attempts to retrieve aspects of
our Diaspora culture.
x FOREWORD: A TOOL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE AFRICAN DIASPORA

What this book reveals, if you read closely, is that there are at least four
functions of the African Diaspora, and I suspect this is the case for all
Diasporas: (1) to coalesce dispersed people who share the same ancestral
origin; (2) to track and ensure African continuities, cultural carryovers, and
what Maulana Karenga (2008) calls kawaida (traditions) regardless of geo-
graphical location; (3) to solidify public remembrance and regard for
the history, heroes, aesthetics; and (4) to empower and facilitate agency of
the people of the Diaspora through shared values and stories of greatness.
The first function of coalescence is critically important because dispersed
peoples take on new national cultural norms and daily ways of being. They
are susceptible to the kind of cultural amnesia that Molefi Asante argues is
a product of a dislocated cultural consciousness. Even if the Diaspora suc-
ceeds with the first function the identities of the dispersed people needs to
be understood. There is a famous line in Spike Lee’s movie School Daze
where the character Julian/Dean Big Brother Al-might-ty (played by
Giancarlo Esposito) is invited to a rally about divestment from South Africa
and he disdainfully replies, “I’m from Detroit—Motown!” This is awfully
telling as we think about what happens when a people have lost connection
with their homeland. He did not imagine himself as African and recoiled at
the mere mention of such a linkage. The third function is to remember the
Diaspora through how we tell about our history. This retelling of history
signifies our desires and shapes our worldviews. This function of remem-
brance is just as much about telling the history as it is about the final func-
tion, which is empowerment. By empowerment I mean that Diasporas
function to help their dispersed people to cope psychologically, linguisti-
cally, and emotionally. It helps them to understand that they still have a
purpose and have the agency to find value and success in their lives. When
a child is introduced to heroes in their own respective culture it reminds
them that they are an offspring of greatness and a destiny of success is theirs
to achieve.
The functions of Diasporas are directly aligned with the paradigms that
essentially embody and re-enliven those functions. For example when Molefi
Asante’s (2013) discussed the concept of “afrocentricity” he describes it as
a lens through which we can conceptually address a sense of “decentered-
ness” among dispersed Africans “recognizing that Africans in the Diaspora
had been deliberately de-culturalized and made to accept the conqueror’s
codes of conduct and modes of behavior” (p. 31). The beauty of this book
Black/Africana Communication Theory edited by Kehbumia Langmia is
that we now have an additional communication-focused interdisciplinary
 FOREWORD: A TOOL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
   xi

resource that works to apprehend critical elements of the African Diaspora.

Its value will become increasingly more significant as the world becomes
more transient, as the digital Diasporas expand, and as those in the African
Diaspora seek to better understand their own ancestry.

University of Cincinnati Ronald L. Jackson

Cincinnati, OH, USA

References
Achebe, C. (2016). Arrow of God. New York: Penguin.
Asante, M. (2013). Afrocentricity: Imagination and Action. Malaysia: Multiversity
and Citizens International.
Diop, C. A. (1989). The African Origin of Civilization: Myth or Reality. Chicago:
Chicago Review Press.
Diop, C. A. (1991). Civilization or Barbarism: An Authentic Anthropology.
Chicago: Chicago Review Press.
Griaule, M. (1975). Conversations With Ogotemmeli: An Introduction to Dogon
Religious Ideas. London: International African Institute.
Holloway, J. E. (2005). Africanisms in American Culture. Bloomington, IN:
Indiana University Press.
Jahn, J. (1994). Muntu: African Culture and the Western World. New York: Grove.
Karenga, M. (2008). Kawaida and Questions of Life and Struggle: African
American, Pan-African and Global Issues. Los Angeles: University of Sankore
Press.
Williams, C. (1992). Destruction of Black Civilization: Great Issues of a Race from
4500 B.C. to 2000 A.D. Chicago: Third World Press.
 Acknowledgments

It is certainly an undisputable truism that hard work indeed pays dividends.

The scholars who answered the call from me to contribute to this volume
have done a memorable job for the next generation of scholars dedicated
to the cause of Black communication scholarship. The academic dividends
that will yield from their contributions would go a long way to water the
tree of genuine freedom of thought that has been absent in much of com-
munication theory for Black/Africana scholars. So, a work of this nature
has certainly come to fruition because of the help of dedicated and com-
mitted scholars who have adopted as their mantra, seeking the right path
to restore Black intelligentsia on the academic decision map of planet earth.
All the contributors were of the view that something ought to be done to
bring clarity and directives to bear on Black and Africana communication
theoretical groundings in scholarships that have tap roots on issues related
to the Black race. Most of the contributors worked under a tight schedule
from me and sometimes had to send their contributions during examina-
tion duress at their universities. For that, I must say, from the bottom of my
heart that I am profoundly grateful for your sacrifice and not only that, you
have become, “the change you want to see in the world” in the words of
Mathama Gandhi.

xiii
 Contents

1 Introduction   1
Kehbuma Langmia

Part I Afrocentric Communication Theories   9

2 The Classical African Concept of Maat and Human

Communication  11
Molefi Kete Asante

3 Cognitive Hiatus and the White Validation Syndrome:

An Afrocentric Analysis  25
Ama Mazama

Part II Africana Communication Theories  39

4 The Igbo Communication Style: Conceptualizing Ethnic

Communication Theory  41
Uchenna Onuzulike

xv
xvi Contents

5 Kuelekea Nadharia Ujamaa Mawasiliano: Toward

a Familyhood Communication Theory  61
Abdul Karim Bangura

6 Afro-Cultural Mulatto Communication Theory  85

Kehbuma Langmia

7 Venerative Speech Theory and African Communalism:

A Geo-Cultural Perspective 105
Bala A. Musa

8 Africana Symbolic Contextualism Theory 125

Faith Nguru and Agnes Lucy Lando

9 The HaramBuntu-Government-Diaspora Relationship

Management Theory 149
Stella-Monica N. Mpande

10 Dynamism: N’digbo and Communication

in Post-modernism 173
Chuka Onwumechili

11 Consciencist Communication Theory: Expanding

the Epistemology on Nkrumahism 191
Abdul Karim Bangura

Part III African American Communication Theories 213

12 Afrocentricity of the Whole: Bringing Women

and LGBTQIA Voices in from the Theoretical Margins 215
Natalie Hopkinson and Taryn K. Myers

13 New Frames: A Pastiche of Theoretical Approaches

to Examine African American and Diasporic
Communication 235
Gracie Lawson-Borders
 Contents 
   xvii

Part IV Latin America & Caribbean Communication

Theories 255

14 Creolized Media Theory: An Examination of Local Cable

Television in Jamaica as Hybrid Upstarts 257
Nickesia S. Gordon

15 Caribbean Communication: Social Mediation Through

the Caribbean ICT Virtual Community (CIVIC) 277
Roger Caruth

16 Color Privileges, Humor, and Dialogues: Theorizing

How People of African Descent in Brazil
Communicatively Manage Stigmatization and Racial
Discrimination 301
Juliana Maria (da Silva) Trammel

Index 339
 About the Editor

Kehbuma Langmia is Professor/Chair and Fulbright Scholar in the

Department of Strategic, Legal and Management Communications,
Howard University in Washington, DC, USA. Dr. Langmia has extensive
knowledge and expertise in Public Speaking, Information Communication
Technology (ICT), Intercultural Communication and Social Media. He
has published eleven books, fourteen book chapters and nine peer-­
reviewed journal articles nationally and internationally. He is the recipient
of the 2017 Toyin Falola Book Award for his most recent book,
Globalization and Cyberculture.

xix
 About the Authors

Molefi Kete Asante is Professor and Chair, Department of Africology,

Temple University, PA, USA. He is the author of 83 books including
Revolutionary Pedagogy.
Abdul Karim Bangura is a researcher-in-residence of Abrahamic
Connections and Islamic Peace Studies at American University’s Center
for Global Peace in Washington, DC, USA and a visiting graduate profes-
sor of several universities in Africa. He holds five PhDs in Political Science,
Development Economics, Linguistics, Computer Science, and
Mathematics. He is the author of more than 90 books and more than 600
scholarly articles. In addition to having received more than 50 prestigious
national and international awards, he is fluent in about a dozen African
and six European languages, and studying to increase his proficiency in
Arabic, Hebrew, and Hieroglyphics.
Roger Caruth holds a PhD in Mass Communication and Media Studies
from Howard University; JD from Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School;
and MPA and BA from Clark Atlanta University. He studied Mass Com­
munications in undergraduate studies and International Administration
and Development in graduate studies, and then went on to John Marshall
Law School where he received a Juris Doctor degree in 1999. Dr. Caruth
recently concluded a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Annenberg
School for Communication at University of Pennsylvania. His research
focuses on International Communications and the use of information
communications technologies (ICT) to improve the quality and standard
of life of Caribbean communities in the region and abroad.

xxi
xxii About the Authors

Nickesia S. Gordon is Associate Professor of Communication at Barry

University, Florida, USA. Her research focuses on globalization, media
and culture, communication for social change, as well as mass media and
popular culture. She also has an active research agenda in critical studies as
it relates to gender, race and nationality. She is co-editor of Reflections on
Gender from a Communication Point-of-View: Peace Studies: Edges and
Innovations Series and Still Searching for Our Mother’s Gardens: Experiences
of New, Tenure Track Women of Color at ‘Majority’ Institutions. She is also
author of Media and the Politics of Culture: The Case of Television
Privatization and Media Globalization in Jamaica 1990–2007.
Natalie Hopkinson is an assistant professor in the graduate program in
Communication, Culture and Media Studies at Howard University. A for-
mer staff writer, editor and cultural critic for the Washington Post and The
Root, she is the author of two books: Deconstructing Tyrone and Go-Go
Live. Her next book of essays on the arts and society in contemporary
Guyana was published in 2018 for The New Press. She holds a PhD in
journalism and public communication from the University of Maryland-­
College Park and a BA in Political Science from Howard University.
Agnes Lucy Lando is Associate Professor of Communication and Media
Studies at Daystar University, Kenya. She obtained her PhD in Social
Communication from The Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, in 2008.
She holds an MA in Human and Intercultural Communication and BA
in Audiovisual Productions. In October 2016, Lando became the first
African elected Board Member-at-Large of the International Communication
Association (ICA). Lando has publications in Communication Ethics,
Higher Education in Africa, The Critical Role of Crisis Communication
Plan in Corporations’ Crises Preparedness, Rumors on Social Media; and
Kenya’s subtle 2013 Post-Election Violence. She is the 2013 George
Gerbner Excellence Award recipient.
Gracie Lawson-Borders is Dean and Professor in the Cathy Hughes
School of Communications. She received her PhD from Wayne State
University, masters and bachelor’s degrees from Northwestern University
and Michigan State University, respectively. Her research examines media
coverage of minority groups and issues in the media, as well as media man-
agement, convergence, and new media. Her book Media Organizations
and Convergence: Case Studies of Media Convergence Pioneers focuses on
 About the Authors 
   xxiii

convergence of technologies in media organizations. Dr. Lawson-Borders

is a member of the policy board of the Howard Journal of Communications,
the advisory board of BlackPast.org, and the editorial board of the
International Journal on Media Management. She is a former journalist
who worked at The Chicago Tribune, Oakland Press and Akron Beacon
Journal.
Ama Mazama is Professor of Africology and African American Studies at
Temple University. She received her PhD in Linguistics from La Sorbonne,
Paris, with highest distinction and has published 20 books in French or
English, among which The Afrocentric Paradigm (2003) and The
Encyclopedia of Black Studies (2005), as well as over 100 articles in French
and English in national and international journals. Her main scholarly
interests are centered around Afrocentric theory and praxis. Dr. Mazama
serves as Graduate Director in her department, as well as co-editor in chief
and managing editor of the Journal of Black Studies.
Stella-Monica N. Mpande is a Faculty Program Coordinator and Senior
Lecturer at Johns Hopkins University, Washington DC, USA. Her research
focuses on development communication, international government public
relations and Diaspora affairs. She also has active research and work relat-
ing to organizational communication, media relations, international and
intercultural communication, transculturalism, and entrepreneurship.
Some of her publications have appeared in Enhancing Personal
Communication & Effectiveness: Custom Howard Edition for Howard
University, Social Media: Pedagogy and Practice, Quill and Scroll maga-
zine. She is also the online news anchor of Ndiho Media’s Africa Innovation
and Technology Chanel, which features young African entrepreneurs’
unique technological innovations to enhance their local and global
communities.
Bala A. Musa is Professor of Communication Studies at Azusa Pacific
University, CA, USA. He is recipient of the Clifford G. Christians Ethics
Research Award. He is series editor of Communication, Society and Change
in Africa. He is Fellow, National Mass Media Ethics Colloquium, and
Fellow, Multi-Ethnic Leadership Institute. His research interests include
communication ethics, communication and conflict, communication the-
ory, intercultural communication, social and new media communication,
development communication, and popular culture. He is the author and
xxiv About the Authors

(co)editor of numerous journal articles, books, and book chapters includ-

ing, From Twitter to Tahrir Square; and Communication, Culture and
Human Rights in Africa. Musa and his wife, Maureen, have three adult
children.
Taryn K. Myers is currently a doctoral student in the Communication,
Culture and Media Studies program at Howard University. Originally
from Baltimore, Maryland, Taryn received her BA and MS at Towson
University. As part of her thesis research project, Taryn conducted qualita-
tive interviews with residents of the Rakai community in Uganda to deter-
mine how the stigma of being associated with the first incidence of HIV/
AIDS has affected the town and its residents. This experience sparked
several epiphanies for Taryn: a belief in doing work that serves communi-
ties and an interest in the way marginalized communities counter media-­
constructed stigma.
Faith Nguru is Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academics Affairs, Riara
University, Kenya. She is a full professor of Communication and career
educationist. She earned an undergraduate degree in Communication and
a Masters’ degree in Christian Ministries from Daystar University; and
earned another Masters and a Doctorate degree in Mass Communication
from Bowling Green State University, OH, USA. Previously she served at
Daystar University as Head of Post Graduate Department; Dean, Faculty
of Arts; Director, Research, Publication and Consultancy and Dean,
School of Communication, Language and Performing Arts as well as
Coordinator of the Communication PhD Program. She has published a
book, journal articles, and book chapters.
Uchenna Onuzulike is Assistant Professor of Organizational Com­
munication at Bowie State University, USA. His research lies in (­ critical)
intercultural communication, theories, organizational communication,
ethnic and transnational identities/media, and Nollywood. He has a num-
ber of publications including peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.
His latest paper appeared in the Journal of International and Intercultural
Communication. He has presented approximately fifty papers at profes-
sional meetings and conferences. His 2014 dissertation, Ethnic and
Transnational Identities in the Diaspora: A Phenomenological Study of
Second-Generation Igbo-American Young Adults, won the Outstanding
Dissertation Award of the National Communication Association’s African
American Communication and Culture Division.
 About the Authors 
   xxv

Chuka Onwumechili is Professor of Strategic, Legal, and Management

Communication (SLMC) at Howard University in Washington, DC,
USA. Dr. Onwumechili has published over 10 books, numerous book
chapters, and several journal articles. He is the current editor of the
Howard Journal of Communications. Among his publications are In the
Deep Valley with Mountains to Climb: Exploring Identity and Multiple
Reacculturation, Organizational Culture in Nigeria: An Exploratory
Study, Nigerian Football: Interests, Marginalization, and Struggle, and
Privatization of the Electronic Media in Nigeria. He grew up in Nigeria
and lived among Igbo relatives, learning the culture and understanding
changes in the culture over time.
Juliana Maria (da Silva) Trammel is a tenured Associate Professor of
Strategic Communication and Program Assessment Coordinator in the
Department of Journalism & Mass Communications at Savannah State
University, GA, USA. Her research interests include the intersection of
gender, media, race, and human communication, with a special focus on
social media, women, and early childhood communication in Brazil. Her
most recent publications include “Breastfeeding Campaigns and Ethnic
Disparity in Brazil: The Representation of a Hegemonic Society and
Quasiperfect Experience” published by the Journal of Black Studies and
co-authored a book chapter titled “Social Media, Women, and
Empowerment: The Issues of Social Media Platforms by WNGOs in
Jamaica and Brazil”, published by the Studies in Media & Communications,
among other publications. In 2016, she also served as a contributing
writer for PR News. In addition to her scholarship, she has over 15 years
of communication-related experience including social advocacy on the
Capitol Hill, higher education administration, teaching, and consulting.
 List of Figures

Fig. 5.1 A theoretical framework of Ujamaa Nadharia Mawasiliano63

Fig. 6.1 Quadrant A 95
Fig. 6.2 Quadrant B 98
Fig. 6.3 Quadrant C 99
Fig. 6.4 Quadrant D 99
Fig. 8.1 Relationship between context and symbolic formation. Key:
Context 1: broad spiritual/religious context, Context 2: broad
community/ethnic group context, Context 3: personal
individual/family context, X: assumptions 135
Fig. 9.1 The HaramBuntu government-diaspora communication
model. Stage 4 adapted from Chaffee, S. H. and McLeod J. M.
(1973). Interpersonal perception and communication.
American Behavioural Scientist, 16, p. 483–488 158
Fig. 11.1 A theoretical framework of consciencist communication 193
Fig. 13.1 Diasporic communication 251
Fig. 14.1 Creolized media continuum 263
Fig. 15.1 Typology of virtual communities (adapted from Porter 2004) 282
Fig. 15.2 Six social technologies categories (adapted from Forrester
Tech­nographics, 2010) 288
Fig. 15.3 CIVIC themes 293
Fig. 16.1 Flux of cultural contribution from marginalized cultures
to the national scene 312
Fig. 16.2 Reoccurring triggers of racial descrimintion in Brazil 319
Fig. 16.3 Co-cultural communication techniques preferred by the sample 320
Fig. 16.4 Social spheres cited for their prevalence of racial
discrimination in Brazil 321

xxvii
xxviii List of Figures

Fig. 16.5 Comparison of techniques towards an aggressor of the same

phenotype vs. different phenotypes 323
Fig. 16.6 Self-identification by skin shade 327
Fig. 16.7 Cross-tabulation between self-identification by skin shade
(grouped by lighter and darker shades) and self-identification
using the terms “African descent” or “mixed” 327
Fig. 16.8 Cross-tabulation between self-identification by skin shade
(grouped by lighter and darker shades) and self-identification
using the terms “negro(a)” or “mulato(a)” 328
Fig. 16.9 Cross-tabulation between self-identification by skin shade
(grouped by lighter and darker shades) and perception towards
being own vulnerability to racial discrimination 328
 List of Tables

Table 8.1 Religious adherents in Kenya 128

Table 15.1 Summary of virtual community definitions from different
perspectives (adapted from Gupta and Kim 2004;
Laine 2006) 284
Table 15.2 CIVIC membership breakdown created by researcher, 2017 290
Table 16.1 Mean average of reaction towards an offender of a different
phenotype versus the same phenotype 323
Table 16.2 Comparison of common triggers of teasing in Brazil between
self and general 326

xxix
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Kehbuma Langmia

De-Westernization of communication theory is the ultimate aim of this

edited volume. This is in part because Min-Sun Kim cites Stephen LittleJohn
admitting that “communication theory in the United States is a Eurocentric
enterprise. That is, communication theory has a strong Western bias” (Min-
Sun 2002, p. 1). We intend to “correct” this bias through the panoply of
Afrocentric-driven theories in this collection. In fact, the Black race has
been despoiled of its inalienable right to self-hood and self-expression for
the longest period in human history. And given the fact that they, too, like
any other human species on planet earth have been given voice that distin-
guishes them from non-human subjects, it has become imperative for a
comprehensive study of this nature to examine the role of the Black voice
within the cosmological, and more importantly, the ontological human
communicative spaces. We did not want to fall prey to the Achebiana
African proverb that “unless the lions produce their own history, the story
of the hunt will glory only the hunter” (Achebe 2000, p. 73). We want the
story of the hunt in the future to be all inclusive. Of course, we are well
aware of the Eurocentric “standard” theories in communication that have
been tested and retested within the Black communication circle with little
or no success. We are also conscious of the contours of human communica-
tion that are rooted in the historical being of mankind, in the sense that no

K. Langmia (*)
Howard University, Washington, DC, USA

© The Author(s) 2018 1

K. Langmia (ed.), Black/Africana Communication Theory,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75447-5_1
2 K. LANGMIA

human creature on this universe can lay claim to a universal communicative

pattern that explains interpersonal, group, and mass communicative levels
for all human species on planet earth. To echo Patrice Loch Otieno
Lumumba, the celebrated Kenyan Law Professor, “Black people of African
descent are not descendants of a lesser God” (see Lumumba’s YouTube
Speech, Tanzania, 2017). We are all unique in our own ways because of the
geo-historical context of our birth. Consequently, assembling a coterie of
communication scholars of the Black race to theorize various unique com-
municative strands of their people in given settings at home on the conti-
nent and abroad has been long overdue. This is the driving force behind
the birth of this companion.
Additionally, a reading of Houston Baker’s “Critical Memory and the
Black Public Sphere” chapter in his brilliant edited volume title The Black
Public Sphere triggered our interest for this book. In it he argues that it is
not only the knowledge of the past that is critical in understanding African
Americans but a much more critical memory of that past. So, there is need
for theorizing Black/Africana communication that captures communica-
tion dynamics between and among the Black race on the continent and in
the Diaspora. Since the separation of the two ethnic groups almost 300
years ago, there have been contacts both physical and virtual between the
two groups. Some of the group communication traits that set them apart
from other ethnic groups constitute the research goal for this project.
Some of the known salient characteristics of Black intergroup communica-
tion theory are: (1) Inter-subjective thought sharing, (2) Communalism
(i.e., recognition of collective essence), and (3) Ethnocentrality (ethnic/
tribal affinities).
We are also aware of the fact that there have been several communica-
tion theories that have roots in European cultural, political, and historical
traditions. In fact, Young (2014) believes that the majority of theories
have what he calls “Western bias” (p. 29). Other scholars sharing that view
include, Craig and Muller (2007) and Hofstede (2007). This creates dif-
ficulty to burgeoning scholars whose research focus is on Africa/Black
ancestry or any other non-Western subjects. A few African-driven theories
have seen the light of day. For example, “Negritude” a term coined by
Leopold Sedar Senghor and now Molefi Asante’s Afrocentricity are
theories/paradigms that encapsulate the philosophical, cultural, socio-­
psychological, and political worldview of the Black man. But hardly do we
have unique Black communication theories that have captured the inter-­
human communication dynamics of Blacks in Tropical Africa, the United
 INTRODUCTION 3

States of America, the Caribbean, and Latin America during and after the
slave trade movements. Writing about Afrocentricity, Jackson (2003)
affirms that “Afrocentricity is a direct counter narrative to a most obvious
and hegemonic grand narrative presupposing that all that is not of Europe
is not of worth” (117). Of course, there is some worth in the communica-
tive dirges, divinations, incantations, myths, and folktales by Black folks on
the continent, and abroad and that is where their humanity has symbolic
meanings. Communality, group cohesion, love, and pain are always pres-
ent within in-group interaction within the Black community in any given
geographical location. The historical root of this tendency can be traced
back to communality in Africa pre-and post colonization. On the other
hand, a plethora of Western-driven theories have been criticized for guid-
ing Black-centered discourse notably, feminism that made scholars like
Patricia Phil Collins to come up with Black feminism to include the experi-
ence of Black women. Other scholars like Leslie Ogundibe preferred the
term “womanism” to include Black African women in the discourse of
feminist theory. Most Western-driven theories do not have a place in Black
communicative experience especially in Africa. A lot of scholars interested
in Black communication scholarship are on the crossroads of either using
a Western-driven theory to explain a Black communication dynamic or use
a hypothetical rule to achieve their objectives since they cannot find com-
pelling Black communication theories. This situation creates confusion in
the communication field.
A sizeable number of communication theories, which have roots in
Euro-American tradition and culture only, exists in literature. For instance,
Jürgen Habermas’ Public Sphere theory emanated from his observation of
Europeans using cafeteria, coffee shops, and saloons to discuss political
issues affecting the government of their countries. Agenda Setting Theory
by McCombs and Shaw was derived from the study carried out by voter
sampling in the USA in the 1930s. Cultivation Theory by George Gerbner
originated after the 1950s when television was having an impact on the
daily lives of people in the United States and people were cultivating vio-
lence and other attributes from it. The same can be said of the Internet
and Computer Mediated Communication Theory that is beginning to
take shape with the influence of computer communication. But most of
these theories are alien to the Black community communication experi-
ences. There are a plethora of forms of communicative attitudes and
behaviors rooted within the Black experience on the continent and abroad
that need theorization and that is the focus of this book.
4 K. LANGMIA

I am always reminded of my PhD defense on the influence of Internet

discourse in constructing the Black immigrant public sphere. One of my
chief examiners kept hammering on the fact that I used a European the-
ory, Habermas’ Public Sphere to discuss Black communicative experience
on the Internet. He wondered why I did not use a Black communication
theory. And my answer was simple: I have researched literature and have
not come across any appropriate Black communication theory necessary
for me to examine and validate my research questions. I was able to go
through that debacle by being forced to include it as a limitation in my
dissertation. And I did. Now is the time to resolve that limitation. We
need a book of this nature so that the next generation of Black communi-
cation scholars have readily available theoretical frameworks rooted in
their culture and experience to test in their research.
Several articles have appeared in journals and some book chapters on
and about Black communication theories. For instance, Owusu-Frempong
(2005), uses the Afrocentricity theoretical sign post to study the festival
ceremony in Africa. He argues that it helps readers understand the cul-
tural symbolisms of the rituals and customs in Africa. But he does not
elaborate if this can be functional in carrying out similar study with Blacks
in the Diaspora. Kelley (2002) theorizes on what she terms “Good
Speech” as a conduit that propels the discourse of African Americans in
political debates with their rival white counterparts in the United States.
The element of this good speech also has roots in Africa though she limits
her analysis to African Americans only. Martin et al. (2011) posit in their
article that their “study investigates conversational strategies used by
African Americans to communicate with European Americans” (p. 1).
Moore and Toliver (2010) conducted a focus group in a predominantly
white university campus to find out communicative patterns between
Black professors and Black students. Bassey (2007) and Molefi Asante
(1987) have described differing communication dynamics within the
Black community and beyond. But they have not described a communica-
tive pattern that is typically Black, rooted in the African continent be it
during group communication setting.
Afrocentricity has been widely acclaimed as the theory for African or
Black studies. But it is not typically a communication theory per se. It does
not address the contours of interpersonal/intercultural, mass, and group
communication dynamics between and among Blacks in Africa and abroad.
Black people the world over may have the different pigmentation and their
communicative skills have been influenced by Euro-American communi-
cative techniques. Maybe the modern communication characteristics have
 INTRODUCTION 5

infiltrated in-group communication within the Black community. It is

these tendencies that we seek to examine and describe in this book. African
slave trade and colonization brought with it assimilationist tendencies that
dealt a serious blow on the cognition of most Blacks on the continent and
abroad. As a result, their inter-personal as well as in-group dialogic com-
munication witnessed dramatic shifts. This shift differed from region to
region. The Gullah language still survived in North and South Carolina,
the ritualistic language still abounds in the “Kwanza” Black festival in
North America. The influence of globalization of Western social, eco-
nomic, political, and cultural life is having an effect on Black communica-
tion but somehow, the uniqueness of Black worldview still plays a part in
creating newness in Black communication. The power of the spoken word
known in the African American community as “Nommo” (Levine 1977)
and so on indicates that Black communication still survives but to create a
grand/mid-range theory that can capture the nature of in-group commu-
nication involving the young and the old generation is what is lacking in
Black communication scholarship.
This edited volume titled Black/Africana Communication Theory has
assembled skilled communicologists who have proposed Black-driven the-
ories that can stand the test of time. In Chap. 2, Molefi Kete Asante dem-
onstrates the strengths of the African cosmological communicative stance
by emphasizing the role of Maat in the cognitive and communicative space
of African-driven dialogue. That same motif is visibly present in the next
chapter by Ama Mazama. She proposes the concept of “Cognitive Hiatus”
as a back drop to what she has termed “the fourth stage of consciousness”
for the Afrocentric scholars griped by white racism. So, it is apparent from
her chapter that like Asante, she is painfully concerned about liberating the
perforated mind of the African scholar caught in the vortex of Euro-centric
hegemony. That liberation can be actualized through the theoretical pos-
tulations of Uchenna Onuzulike on the ethnic communicative theory that
focuses on the Nigerian Igbo communicative styles. A systematic study of
such communicative styles as proposed in his study can provide a recipe for
redemption from Eurocentrism. Similarly, the communicative theory of
Ujamaa (familyhood) by Abdul Karim Bangura in Chap. 5 can be used to
analyze Tanzania hip-hop music in Africa as well as the African-American
Kwanza celebrations in the United States.
Chapter 6 on the Afro-Cultural Mulatto Theory of Communication
(AMTC) demonstrates how different groups of interactants can find
psycho-­cognitive comfort while communicating in any given urban center
in Africa. The four quadrants presented in the chapter demonstrate how
6 K. LANGMIA

de-Africanized culture and communication has now become since the

European colonization of Africa. The re-Africanization communicative
project is equally exemplified in Bala Musa’s chapter on Venerative Speech
Theory in which he argues that “geo-cultural perspective of African com-
munalism” can be made possible through the process of communication
through using what he calls the “psycho-social environment” context. It
is that spirit of emphasizing communication effectiveness from a contex-
tual stand point that Faith Nguru and Agnes Lucy Lando underscore in
their chapter titled “Africana Symbolic Contextualism Theory. In fact,
what makes their chapter such a unique contribution to this volume is the
religio-African-communicative stance that it takes.
In Chap. 9, we are introduced to a new theory by Stella Monica N. Mpande
called the “HaramBuntu-Government-Diaspora Communications Theory
(HGDCT)”. The increasing Diasporic communication with those resident at
home in Africa needs a model to be understood by the average person.
It would appear that even though this chapter focuses primarily on the
Ugandan communicators, the implication of the study can be seen in other
African countries. The same is true of the next chapter by Chuka Onwumechili
whose contribution on the N’digbo communication styles in Nigeria is
rooted in a traditional religion known as Odinani. Using an autoethno-
graphic method, the author demonstrates how this communication style can
be gleaned in various contexts like conflict, bride price ceremony, family life,
and sport. Through these theoretical postulations, freedom from the west-
ernized theories are feasible especially when one reads Abdul Karim Bangura’s
chapter on “Consciencist Communication Theory”. This theory as the name
implies is rooted in the philosophical stance of Kwame Nkrumah who
believed that for Africa to extricate herself from the cocoon of Western hege-
mony, conscientious decisions have to be made by citizens in Africa. Bangura
has taken the communicative route of his consciencist philosophy to demon-
strate how successful this theory can be applied on the continent.
Chapter 12 takes us into the heart of African American communication
in the United States, most importantly how the LGBTQIA and Black
female voices are impacted. For an effective communication to yield long-­
lasting dividends, inclusivity is the main argument in this chapter. Still in
the realm of African-American communication, Lawson-Borders in Chap.
13 examines the interplay of various communication theories in what she
terms “Pastiche” to show how blending existing theories can be brought
together to form a new perspective in examining African American com-
munication issues. In Chaps. 14, 15, and 16, we move to Latin America
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