Despite the efforts of those who brought them to the Americas and enslaved them, blacks have always risen up with liberation in their hearts and striven for freedom, a highly respected scholar of African-American studies told an audience Tuesday night at Kansas University.

“We didn’t go free because of the Emancipation Proclamation,” said Molefi K. Asante, a Temple University professor. “There has always been visioning and leadership among African-Americans.”

Asante was this year’s speaker at the second annual Marwa Africana Lecture Series, attended by several hundred people in a Budig Hall auditorium. The lecture series was started by Mohamed Buba Marwa, a Nigerian political and business leader and now a Nigerian presidential candidate. Marwa also attended the lecture and spoke briefly.

During his speech, “African-American History: A Journey of Liberation,” Asante emphasized that blacks brought to North and South American countries had been ordinary Africans living their daily lives. Once they were in the New World their African names and history were taken away from them. Yet Asante also noted that it was a black man who was the first person killed by the British during the Revolutionary War.

Asante also said he had recently traveled to Nigeria where there is growing talk about an African continental union of governments and economic markets.

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“This is a key issue. It’s a big thing and it’s going to get bigger,” Asante said.

Asante is best known for his theory of Afrocentricity and his theory of social change. He has written many books and articles. He also has appeared on television news magazine and talk shows.

The lecture series was started by Marwa in an effort to bring distinguished leaders in Africa and the African Diaspora to KU to discuss matters of importance to Africana. The lecture was presented by KU’s Department of African and African-American Studies with help from several co-sponors.