ABSTRACT
This chapter uses Afrocentric theoretical concepts and culturally informed principles to examine African Diasporan democratic practices and to compare a “re-membered” account of Benjamin Banneker with one that is master-scripted. We explain how understanding of that “re-membered” history is enhanced by knowing about the worldviews and cultural concepts that informed those “re-membered” narratives. This is demonstrated by gathering and applying knowledge from typically unconsidered sources to replace eurocratic master scripts—which still teach dominant and distorted accounts to school children—with knowledge that is more inclusive and closer to what actually occurred in the past. We also conduct a classroom observation of two teachers as they teach “re-membered” content about Banneker to their fifth-grade students. This classroom demonstration exemplifies how the paradigm of Afrocentricity, which is built on an African epistemic foundation, can guide the retrieval and restoration of African Diasporan history and culture that have long been silenced. It also shows how to use emancipatory pedagogies to make connections between “re-membered” content and students’ lives today.
