ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Mualana Karenga explores ancient and ongoing African traditions of communicative practice in understanding African American rhetoric. For Karenga, African rhetoric is essentially the communicative practice that is oriented to building community and bringing good into the world, which is in stark contrast to the utilitarian inclination of contemporary Western rhetoric that accentuates persuasiveness without sufficient consideration of the ethical dimension. From a Kawaida vantage point, he argues that African rhetoric is a rhetoric of community, resistance, reaffirmation, and possibility. Karenga then discusses the reaffirmative, communal, and emancipative characteristics of African American rhetoric in the work of Molefi Kete Asante through an appreciation of the creative power of nommo. In what follows, he explicates the concept of mdw nfr or medu nefer (good speech), which means “morally good” and “aesthetically beautiful.” In a nutshell, his theoretical exploration shows that African rhetoric is a rhetoric of ethics that emphasizes and respects the dignity and rights of the human person, the well-being and flourishing of community, the integrity and value of the environment, and the reciprocal solidarity and cooperation of humanity. Miike (Chapter 8), Mowlana (Chapter 15), Chang (Chapter 17), Dissanayaka (Chapter 30), and Tu (Chapter 32) in this volume also demonstrate that Asian traditional cultures and communities also place a high priority on the ethical aspect of communication just like the case of African and African-American rhetoric.
