ABSTRACT
Chapter 7, “Returning What We Learn to the People,” gathers together the volume’s major themes in a narrative that merges the personal, professional, and political. Joyce King explains how African heritage knowledge and historical consciousness have shaped scholarship in the Black intellectual tradition as an ethically and culturally grounded vision of human freedom. The chapter presents examples of scholar activists throughout the Diaspora who are engaged with local histories and traditions of scholarly integrity as they teach and conduct research aimed at replacing distorted narratives and societal myths about African Diasporan Peoples that have impoverished school and academic knowledge. “Returning what we learn to the people” means that as researchers work with diverse research partners, they seek to close the divide between themselves and those who participate in their research. By viewing family and community as sites of memory and research as pedagogy, Chapter 7 shows how students, teachers, parents/families, and researchers can return practical, healing knowledge to their communities on behalf of ending the oppression of African Diasporan people and creating a condition of human freedom and sustainability for the world.
