Abstract
Throughout the history of the field of Africology, there have been numerous contributions made by Afrikan women. Specifically, Molefi Kete Asante observed the lack of recognition of works produced by prominent Afrikan woman scholars such as Marimba Ani and the late Frances Cress Welsing. As a result, Asante wrote a book in dedication to one of the essential scholar-activists to emerge in “the Pan African Panoply of Afrocentric writers” (Asante, 2020, p. 1). Asante opens up by pointing out that no other Afrikan woman writing in French and English has arrived at the Pan Afrikan and Afrocentric position like Mazama. The book introduces the general audience to Mazama’s international stature in the Afrikan world.
Asante does this by recognizing Mazama’s numerous published works, her mentorship as an active graduate mentor, her spiritual work as a Mambo (high priestess), and practitioner of the Afrikan religion of Vodou/Vodun, and most importantly, her position as an organizational builder and leader. All of this has catapulted Mazama into being one of the most important figures to emerge since Marcus Garvey’s era. Asante is correct to assert that she has an iconic class with heavyweights such as Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon, Cheikh Anta Diop, Frances Cress Welsing, Michelle Alexander, and Linda James Myers (p. 1).
Asante tells Mazama’s story so that the reader can appreciate the Afrikan spiritual center that informs her consciousness and much of the work she has done to improve the political, economic, educational, and spiritual condition of Afrikan people in the world. Asante can articulate and situate Mazama as one of our greatest Afrikan thinkers because he truly understands her. Furthermore, to properly tell her story frames his first chapter around Mazama’s beginnings on the island of Guadeloupe. Chapter one demonstrates Mazama’s journey as a warrior intellectual searching for answers in the battle against white racist hegemonic ideas in all areas of human activity. This chapter’s power lies in Asante’s ability to tell the history of Guadeloupe and the conditions of the Afrikan on the island. For instance, Asante points out that Mazama, at an early age in Guadeloupe, resisted the constant “unwanted advances of foreign agents who sought to detach her from her Afrikan cultural roots and reality” (p. 4).
One of the book’s most influential accounts was Mazama’s experience with race when she was only in kindergarten. As a young girl, Mazama had a light-skinned, blue-eyed, straight-haired teacher named Ms. Bertil, who had intentionally seated children according to their skin complexion. She had seated the lighter skin children in the front while placing the children with darker skin in the back. Mazama had told Asante that this early experience would spark the beginning of her long battle against white racial domination and imposition (p. 4–5). Her early engagement with religion is also meaningful because for her, “religion in the proper Catholic sense of most Guadeloupeans was never the practice of her parents or her siblings” (p. 5). Mazama was quick to move away from European conceptions of God and instead made it her mission to discover her deep Afrikan ancestry and spirituality.
This articulation frames Asante’s discussion of Mazama’s spiritual journey to connect with her ancestors in chapter 2. Specifically, the mention of Mazama’s spiritual journey and initiation into Ayisyen Vodou under the direction of Houngan Jean Jacques Louis in the summer of 2001 reinforces her dedication (p. 13). The strenuous and rigorous training and rituals that Mazama had to undergo before becoming a Mambo may remind readers of Malidoma Patrice Some (1994) own account in his pivotal text, Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic, and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman. He also details his spiritual journey and reconnection with his ancestors when he returned to his village of Dagara after being abducted by Christian Jesuits. Mazama understands the importance of staying connected to the ancestors. For instance, she understands that ancestral veneration is a consistent and reciprocated feature of Afrikan spiritual systems/religions. As a result, Asante writes that Mazama is certain that Afrikan behavioral traits may be directly related to what happened to our ancestors (p. 13). The western science and biological perspective are beginning to prove this right with the study of epigenetics.
Chapters 3 and 4 discuss Mazama’s intellectual growth and her journey to overcome the Eurocentric impositions in areas such as race, class, and gender. But Mazama’s real focus was resolving the educational issues cause by European attempts to erase Afrikan historical, political, and social realities. Asante reinforces that the lies created by the European academic order have “left the world in cultural and educational disarray” because of the irrationality of their claims (p. 29). Although many know of Mazama’s pivotal 2003 text, The Afrocentric Paradigm, many are not familiar with her first book: Une Introduction au Créole Guadeloupéen (1991). Asante does good to explain that her first book was important for demonstrating how Europeans and Europeanized/dislocated Afrikans “had used the concepts of linguistics to externalize” Afrikans from their centers and narrative (p. 22).
This work would lead Mazama to write her next pivotal text in 1997 titled Langue et Identité en Guadeloupe: Une Perspective Afrocentrique. Mazama’s book on language and identity in Guadeloupe was an important text that set forth her argument that the Guadeloupean language spoken by the people was Afrikan. As a result, she continues by arguing that there is the need to critique the notion of “Creole languages.” Mazama received her doctorate in Linguistics at La Sorbonne, which was the highest academic institution in France. Her training at La Sorbonne would allow her to recognize later that Europeans created concepts that decided what Afrikans had or did not have to diminish the power “inherent in the productive and creative authority” of Afrikan people (p. 22).
As a result, Mazama consistently encourages that Afrikans truly embrace their history and culture. In other words, Afrikan people must accept no manipulation or attacks on their identity. Without explicitly stating it, Asante shows that Mazama’s journey as a scholar demonstrated that she had essentially committed disciplinary suicide by committing to the Afrocentricity. He details this by first discussing Mazama’s experience teaching at the University of Texas. Her move to Texas was a considerable shift coming from Guadeloupe and France. The description of Mazama’s shock when she became aware that an American university would openly advertise generals who fought to maintain slavery is quite vivid for the reader. Asante’s incredible storytelling skills within his writing allow the reader to visualize Mazama’s journey in the United States. Her time in American society allowed her to become more aware of Afrikan people’s struggles and conditions in the nation.
Chapters 5 and 6 detail Mazama’s development as a force to be reckoned with in the academy and the world. Mazama would join and become a pivotal core faculty member in the Department of Africology during the late 1990s. Mazama would later become the graduate director of the program and help produce several pivotal works. These works include texts such as The Encyclopedia of Black Studies (2005), Kwanzaa ou la Célébration du Génie Africain (2007), Africa in the Twenty-First Century: Toward a New Future (2007), Encyclopedia of African Religion (2008), and many more. Asante also details important theoretical concepts developed by Mazama, such as Cognitive Hiatus (p. 54). Those familiar with her articulation of Cognitive Hiatus and the “white validation syndrome” will be reminded of the in-depth analysis provided by Fanon and Welsing.
Chapter 7 provides further details of Mazama’s emphasis on the need for Afrikan spirituality, her deep connection with Vodou, and her work as a spiritual leader within the religion. Asante connects this chapter to his book’s title by detailing how Mazama became a child and devotee to the powerful Afrikan lwa and Yoruba deity Ogou (Ogun). Those familiar with Mazama know that she exhibits the characteristics of Ogou through her personality and actions. Asante reinforces this in a powerful concluding chapter that details Mazama activist leadership by creating the Pan Afrikan organization of Afrocentricity International (AI) alongside Molefi Kete Asante. Mazama would become the organization leader as the Per aa, and Asante would be the International Organizer.
The reintroduction of the title of 
pr-aA/Per aa (trans: “Great House,” e.k.a pharaoh) from ancient 
Kmt/Kemet (trans: “Land of Black People,” e.k.a. Ancient Egypt) demonstrates the organization’s dedication to supporting the economic, political, spiritual, cultural, and educational elevation of Afrikan people to create cultural consciousness. Ama Mazama: The Ogunic Presence in Africology is truly a testament to Ama Mazama’s numerous contributions toward Afrikan people’s elevation. As a result, her name shall live forever and stand the test of time. Asante, through his text, had lit the charge for scholars to produce future studies that will continue to acknowledge the journey and contributions of our most pivotal Afrikan intellectual warriors.
