Cyberspace

Black Studies Reborn on the Internet

Prof Abdul Alkalimat/ Chronicleworld

Prof Abdul Alkalimat has two particular gifts: his academic prowess and his expertise in cyberorganising. He also has other more prosaic gifts, such as dreaming up ideas and tackling each project with enthusiasm and thoroughness.

Take one of his recent projects that has put the proceedings of "The State of Black Studies 2003 conference" on the web. Now any one can access www.eblackstudies.org and browse through the learned papers and debates of 1200 participants in the conference at the New York Public Library's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

University collaboration
This intellectual goldmine could have been lost forever. But thanks to a groundbreaking collaboration between eight universities, the historic conference lives on in cyberspace.

"The project, called eBlack Studies, has never been done before," says Prof Alkalimat, director of Africana Studies at The University of Toledo. "The passion and cooperation that each of the participating institutions has displayed for keeping this conference and this discussion alive has been overwhelming."

Twenty-seven sessions in all, this is the largest undertaking of its kind, according to Alkalimat, who led the project. Previously, the professor led a similar project with the audio from a conference on civil rights leader Malcolm X in 1990.

"This is much bigger," remarked Alkalimat. "Those visiting this site can virtually re-live the event. The subject matter here is as relevant today as it was in 2003. Through this collaborative effort, we are able to disseminate this knowledge that had previously only been available to conference participants."

Qualities of Black Studies online
So what's special about the eBlack Studies project? First, Alkalimat and his colleagues have brought the hopes of early 20th century Black intellectuals closer to fruition. Black scholars and archivists, Carter Godwin Woodson and Arthur Alfonso Schomburg, had urged the preservation and diffusion of Black History. "Until we acknowledge and take pride in our own history, which others have tried so diligently to erase, we will never fulfil ourselves," was their common theme.

Second, Alkalimat has made plain his enthusiasm for the project's interactive qualities. Short bursts of audio-visuals grab the attention of web surfers. Users can read full-texts and then track down researchers and chat by means of email, discussion lists and regular news bulletins. They can even challenge the academic providers of information and express their opinions ÷ at the click of a computer button.

Third, the university collaborators have broken with their traditionally cloistered and privileged existence to reach out to a wider Internet-linked audience. This adds a special quality to the project.

However, critics say that it can't be assumed that everyone who wants to benefit from the project will have the capability to use it. More should be done within Black communities to raise the levels of literacy, competence and motivation needed to effectively use the web site, say Internet experts.

Nevertheless, the eBlack Studies project comes at a crucial moment in time, says Howard Dodson, director of the Schomburg Center, co-organisers of the conference. It helps fill a gap on the Internet for materials on African American, African Diaspora or African history and culture, he says.

Towards cyberaction
Not surprisingly, with the advent of the Internet, the desire to record one's history is gaining converts in many parts of the African Diaspora. Cyberorganisers for social justice In Afro-Britain are hailing new efforts to document the Black presence ÷ from Roman times to today. Africamaat.org in France is opening new pathways to Black history and appreciation of the work of Cheikh Anta Diop in African scientific history. Nelson Mandela has called on African leaders to revive the languages and cultures of African peoples and their contributions to civilisation.

Fortunately, Alkalimat's years of work with the Bishop Murchison centre in African American neighbourhoods in Toledo, Ohio, have served him well. Under his tutelage cyberorganisers, or community-based activists, are helping people to create web sites and networks to share digitalised information. Their crucial task is to support Black churches, enterprises, families and schools and empower local communities.

In this way, Alkalimat says: "We are bringing African American communities online through their own self-built web sites. As a result they are becoming generators of knowledge, ideas and information themselves, about themselves, not merely passive consumers of knowledge created by others".

Personable and well-informed, Alkalimat is optimistic about "going digital" with the Black Studies project. He's spread his digitising gospel in travels to Black History Month celebrations in London, Black media conferences in Berlin and to long-distance learning centres in Accra.

When asked "Why do you do it? Why are you always out there networking?", Alkalimat responds in a style that reveals the spirit of the man -- "Maybe it's because I'm a born again revolutionary and the Internet is my fountain of inspiration".