American Black Women in the Arts and Social Sciences: A Bibliographic Survey Book

A Dream Deferred Made Real

Scholars Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., paid homage to the great W.E.B. Du Bois' dream to produce an encyclopedia cataloguing the achievements and history of the African Diaspora with the publication in 1999 of the massive 2,095-page AFRICANA: THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE AFRICAN AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE. Appiah and Gates duly acknowledge Du Bois' many contributions to history, literature, and the struggle for human rights around the world with: their dedication of the book to him, a regular encyclopedia entry on his achievements, and an "interpretation" by Cornel West of his historical significance.

While AFRICANA is exactly what the title implies, it is also quite a bit more. The book itself represents a major achievement of publishing technology. What Du Bois was not able to accomplish by sheer brain power and intellectual camaraderie, Appiah and Gates achieved through developments in modern communication technology, the computer, and a global team of dedicated intellectuals. The scope of AFRICANA encompasses literature, religion, music, dance, sociology, politics, and, above all, history. In reading the book for pleasure or referencing it for specific topics, one realizes just how much of the African-American and African experience has shaped and defined the greater modern human experience.

Poet-I-Am Aberjhani
Author of THE WISDOM OF W.E.B. DU BOIS
And ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE