Ask a Researcher: Taharka Adé

TAHARKA ADÉ’S RESEARCH HAS LONG EXPLORED HOW AFRICAN CULTURAL knowledge moves, endures and takes new forms across the African diaspora—the global community of people descended from Africa. 

Through his scholarly work on W. E. B. Du Bois’ conception of the African World, Afrocentricity and the development of his own African World Antecedent Methodology—a framework tool that brings together the African cultural-historical matrix—Adé came to recognize that this body of work needed more than a series of individual, though interconnected, projects. It needed a permanent institutional home where research could lead to restoration, public engagement and cultural justice. 

The Africana Research & Cultural Renaissance Center, which opened on Sept. 28 in the College of Arts and Letters, grew from that conviction.

Q: What is the new center’s mission?
A: The center researches, preserves and restores African diasporic cultural knowledge while advancing cultural justice and cultural property rights. We organize the work around three pillars: cultural restoration, cultural rectification and cultural property. At the center, we envision a rotating display of African and African diasporic materials, including books, maps, artwork, textiles, reproductions and objects connected to the traditions. The goal is not decoration; each item should invite a story, question or deeper research.

Q: Why is the center’s debut so important now?
A: For the first time at SDSU, the center provides a vital institutional home where African peoples’ knowledge, experiences and cultural inheritance are centered rather than treated as peripheral and are recognized as deserving sustained research, protection and public investment. Our shared commitment, captured in our motto, “Center the People, Build the Path,” extends beyond fulfilling current legislation.

We want this work to serve Black people directly, with their histories, families and experiences guiding every stage of the process.

Q: How will the mapping project use visualization to reveal patterns in the movement of people from West Africa to the Americas?
A: The ArcGIS Cultural Patterns project will use interactive maps, timelines and layered visualizations to trace how African cultural knowledge moved across the Atlantic took root in different regions of the Americas and developed into new forms. 

Researchers will bring together archival sources, oral histories, genealogical records and cultural evidence related to foodways, language, music, spirituality, naming, kinship and community life. Users will be able to follow migration routes, compare practices across locations and periods, and identify geographic clusters, continuities and transformations that may be difficult to recognize through written records alone. 

The public-facing digital atlas will show relationships among peoples, places and practices, making visible the enduring influence of West and Central African peoples throughout the Americas.

Q: Tell us about the University Library partnership with the Africana Studies Collection that opened in 2023 under your leadership.
A: The Africana Studies Collection created a dedicated home for materials central to the field. The center will help activate that collection. My co-lead on the Africana Studies Collection, Gloria Rhodes, who is the resource librarian for all things Africana Studies, is also a founding board member of the center.

Q: How will the center work with communities in San Diego and beyond?
A: Community members are central to the center’s three pillars. They help identify priorities, contribute knowledge and ensure that histories are represented with accuracy, dignity and care. This work is grounded in partnership rather than extraction, extending from San Diego to communities across California, the United States and throughout the African World.

Q: What are your hopes for this new research home?
A: I hope the center becomes a trusted place where scholars, students and communities build lasting projects together, shaping how we approach scholarship on African and African diasporic cultural phenomena across the world. The three pillars are not symbolic language or simple platitudes; they are a framework for producing research that contributes to real political, social and economic change in the communities whose histories and cultural knowledge we study.

Q: How will students engage with research projects? 
A: They will work alongside faculty and community partners on projects including archival research, cultural mapping, oral histories, genealogy and digital humanities. The center gives students opportunities to develop their own research interests, gain practical experience, publish and present their work, and see how Africana Studies can be applied beyond the classroom to communities and careers.

Learn more about the Africana Research & Cultural Renaissance Center.