San Diego State’s Department of Africana Studies gathered to celebrate its 40th anniversary with three-day event starting with a reception and tribute to the arts on Friday, Nov. 9 in the Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center. A conference with speakers from SDSU, San Francisco State and the University of Illinois and an awards dinner were also part of the event on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

The celebration embodied and captured the mission of the department to encourage community and self-awareness. Friday’s event paid homage to the significance of the arts within Africana Studies and the cultural mindfulness it gives students. Saturday brought together some of the great minds within the discipline who spoke about the richness the program provides to its students.

“If you study the history of education, the purpose of school was personal growth, not just to get a job,” the president of the association of Africana Studies majors and minors Terry Sivers said of his experience.

“One thing Africana studies taught me is how to love myself. It helped me to peel back the layers of my history to learn who I was, so I could accept all of it,” Sivers said.

The establishment of what began as the School of Afro-American Studies was a hard-fought battle that began around 1971. The program united several faculty members in the spring and fall of 1972, who worked strenuously on a proposal for an Afro-American Studies degree that would have its own course designations. In spring of 1973, the Academic Senate approved the new degree and allowed for the development of what is known today as the Department of Africana Studies.

“One of the main accomplishments of Africana Studies is that it brought a consciousness to the youth,” Mesa College Black Student Union President Gail Gates said. “The movement that it was birthed from, I watched that and experienced that. What I am most afraid of is it not reaching out far enough. The program opened me up to things I was narrow-minded about and helped me to see the big picture.”

The conference brought together students, who are a part of the Africana studies major and those who took a couple courses. Many in attendance felt the powerful message of the conference.

“There is really a rich history with the Africana Studies department here,” SDSU alum and associate professor of black studies at San Diego Mesa College Thekima Mayasa said. “San Diego played a big role in the discipline coming forth and becoming what it is today.”

The celebration of Africana Studies confirmed a promising future for the program locally and nationally.