Africana Studies

In United States education, Africana studies, or Africology is the study of the histories, politics and cultures of peoples of African origin both in Africa and in the African diaspora.

It is to be distinguished from African studies, as its focus combines Africa and the African diaspora (Afro-Latin American, African American studies, Black studies) into a concept of an "African experience" with an Afrocentric perspective.

"Africana studies" departments at many major universities grew out of the "Black studies" programs and departments formed in the late 1960s in the context of the US civil rights movement, as black studies programs were reformed and renamed "Africana studies" with an aim to encompass the continent of Africa and all of the African diaspora in a more abstract and traditionally academic way.

Africana studies programs also struggled to better align themselves with other college and university departments finding continuity and compromise between the radicalism of past decades and the multicultural scholarship found in many fields today. Thus, it can be described as a "scholarship of compromise and acquiescence", contrasting with the historical Black studies which were motivated by the struggle for civil rights.