Cecil Blake

  • Professor Emeritus

Public Service (National/International)

  • Cabinet Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Chief Government Spokesman, Government of Sierra Leone (May 2001-2002)
  • Senior Program Officer, Information Sciences and Systems Division, International Development Research Center, Nairobi, Kenya
  • Senior Program Officer, Global Learning Division, United Nations University, Tokyo, Japan

Professional Associations/Activities

  • Member, Editorial Board, Africa Media Review
  • Member, Editorial Board, Journal of African Communication
  • Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of African Social Sciences and Humanities
  • Former Member, Editorial Board, Journal of Black Studies
  • Member, African Council on Communication Education
  • Chair, Division of Rhetoric and Culture, African Council on Communication Education.
  • Member, National Communication Association (former member of SCA Legislative Council, and executive council member of the SCA Black Caucus).
  • Member, African Studies Association
  • Member, National Council on Black Studies
  • Member of the Board of Directors, PANOS Institute West Africa

Qualifications

  • BS, Public Relations, Southern Illinois University
  • MA, International Relations at the University of Chicago
  • PhD, Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin

Representative Publications

  • Blake, Cecil., Intercultural Communication: Roots and Routes: With (Eds) Calloway-Thomas, C. & Stewart, P. New York: Allyn and Bacon. 1999
  • Blake, Cecil, Public Speaking: A Twenty First Century Perspective: Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt, 1995
  • Blake, Cecil, Through the Prism of African Nationalism: Reflective and Prospective Essays, Freetown, Sierra Leone:  W.D. Okrafo-Smart and Co. 1990
  • Blake, Cecil, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Communication (Eds) With E. Akpati. Lexington, Mass: Ginn Custom publishing, 1983
  • Blake, Cecil, Handbook of Intercultural Communication. (Eds) With Molefi Asante and Eileen Newmark.  Beverly Hills:  Sage Publication, 1979

Key Book Chapters

Africana Studies/African National Development

  • "Cultural warrants and Development Communication in Africa," in Development and Communication in Africa. (Eds), Charles Okigbo and Festus Eribo. Rowman and Littlefield Publishers 2004
  • "Communication and Governance in Africa: Challenges for the 21st Century," in Africa: Beyond the Post Colonial (Eds) Ola Oduka and Tunde Zack-Williams, Ashgate Publishers 2004
  • "Communication and Development: Imperatives for an Afrocentric Methodology," with Peter Nwosu and Donald S. Taylor. Book Chapter, in Janice Hamlet, (ed) Afrocentric Visions: Studies in Communication and Culture. Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publications, (1998). Cecil Blake contributed 100% of the Afrocentric qualitative methodology (Rhetorical Methodology), and edited the final manuscript.

Journal Production

Guest Editor–Africana Studies

  • Blake, Cecil, Guest Editor, EQUID NOVI, (an international journal located in the Republic of South Africa) for a special edition on communication and media in conflict and post-conflict states in Africa. Vol. 26(1), Fall 2005
  • Blake, Cecil, Guest Editor, GAZETTE: The International Journal for Communication Studies. Vol. 59/Nos.4-5/1997

Selected Refereed Journal Articles

  • “National Information Strategy for a Post-Conflict State: The Sierra Leone Challenge,” EQUID NOVI, Vol 26(1), Fall 2005). Pp 108-127
  • “An African Nationalist Ideology Framed in Diaspora and the Development Quagmire: Any Hope for a Renaissance?” Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 35, May 2005. pp. 573-596.
  • "The Role of Peace Communication in Conflict Resolution in Africa," Journal of Black Studies Vol. 28, No. 3, January, 1998, pp. 309-318
  • "Democratization: The Dominant Imperative for National Communication Policies in Africa in the 21st Century," GAZETTE: The International Journal for Communication Studies. Vol. 59/No.4-5/ October, 1997. Pp. 253-269
  • "Afrocentric Tokens: Afrocentric Methodology in Rhetorical Analysis," The Howard Journal of Communication, issue Vol. 8(1) (Jan-Mar 1997)
  • "Traditional African Values and the Right to Communicate," Africa Media Review, Vol. 7, #3, Dec., 1993. pp. 1-17
  • "Development Communication Revisited: An End to Eurocentric Visions" Development: Journal of the Society for International Development, September, 1993. pp. 8-11
  • "Application of the New Information and Communication Technologies in Public Relations" Africa Media Review, 1991 Vol. 5 Number 3. pp.19-31
  • "Communication and Development and the Cultural Synchronization of Africa and its People," Africa Media Review, December 1988. pp.17-27
  • "Understanding African National Development: Some Challenges to Communication Specialists," Journal of Black Studies, Vol.12, #2, December 1981. pp.201-217
  • "The Rastafarians and Their Message: A Rhetoric of African Redefinition," Western Journal of Black Studies, December, 1981. Vol.4, #4. pp. 286-29
  • "Communication Research and African National Development," Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 10, #2, December, 1979. pp.218-230

Research Interests

Blake's areas of expertise include public relations and international and development affairs with particular emphasis on Africa, rhetorical theory and analysis, and intercultural communication.