Northwestern must elevate — not retreat from — African studies program

In 1948, when most American universities barely regarded Africa as worthy of sustained scholarly attention, Northwestern University took a visionary step by creating the country's first program of African studies. The program’s founder, anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits, devoted his career to challenging the assumption that Africa existed only as a footnote in Western history. He argued that the people and cultures of African descent must be understood on their own terms — not through the…