Afrocentrism (also Afrocentricity) is a cultural ideology mostly limited to the United States and is dedicated to the history of Black people. It is a response to perceived global (Eurocentric/Orientalist) racist attitudes about African people and their historical contributions and revisits their history with an African cultural and ideological focus. Afrocentricity deals primarily with self-determination and African agency and is a Pan-African ideology in culture, philosophy, and history.

Afrocentrism can be seen as African Americans' desperation to affirm themselves in a Eurocentric-dominated society, commonly by conceptualizing their heritage and customs in terms of distinctly African, non-European origins. It often denies or minimizes European cultural influences while accenting historical African civilizations that independently accomplished a significant level of cultural and technological development. Furthermore, Afrocentrism regularly denies, outright ignores, or reinterprets certain negative aspects of black Africans, most notably the selling of African slaves by other Africans to the Europeans, the Rwandan Genocide, and the ongoing struggles against rape and violence in many African nations today, generally placing blame for these atrocities directly or indirectly on the Europeans and denying any serious culpability on part of black Africa. In general, Afrocentrism is usually manifested in a focus on African American culture and the history of black Africa (sub-Saharan Africa), and involves a refashioning of that history and culture to portray the achievements and development of a race of people (blacks) victimized by another race of people (usually whites). Black supremacist groups like the New Black Panther Party or the Nation of Islam are examples of extreme Afrocentrism.

Joe Henderson (April 24, 1937 – June 30, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than forty years Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent labels, including Blue Note.

From a very large family with five sisters and nine brothers, Henderson was born in Lima, Ohio, and was encouraged by his parents and older brother James T. to study music. He dedicated his first album to them "for being so understanding and tolerant" during his formative years. Early musical interests included drums, piano, saxophone and composition. According to Kenny Dorham, two local piano teachers who went to school with Henderson's brothers and sisters, Richard Patterson and Don Hurless, gave him a knowledge of the piano. He was particularly enamored of his brother's record collection. It seems that a hometown drummer, John Jarette, advised Henderson to listen to musicians like Lester Young, Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon and Charlie Parker. He also liked Flip Phillips, Lee Konitz and the Jazz at the Philharmonic recordings. However, Parker became his greatest inspiration. His first approach to the saxophone was under the tutelage of Herbert Murphy in high school. In this period of time, he wrote several scores for the school band and rock groups.