The African diaspora : African origins and New World identities / edited by Isidore Okpewho, Carole Boyce Davies, Ali A. Mazrui.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Okpewho, Isidore.

Boyce Davies, Carole.

Mazrui, Ali AlʼAmin.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Africans--America--History.

Africans.

Africans--America--Ethnic identity.

Africans--America--Intellectual life.

Intellectual life.

Ethnicity.

History.

America--Race relations.

America.

Race relations.

African diaspora.

America--Civilization--African influences.

Civilization.

Physical Description:

xxviii, 566 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Bloomington, IN : Indiana University Press, [1999]

Summary:

This book examines the character of New World black cultures and their relationships with the plural societies within which they function. So far, two perspectives have emerged in the study of these cultures. The first, which may be judged "Afrocentrist" in the broadest sense of the term, sees Africa as the ancestral home of all black peoples across the world; as such, their experiences and outlooks may best be seen in the light of traditions and life-styles that have defined African peoples over time and migrated with them to various parts of the world. A second school of thought, termed just as broadly "Atlanticist," thinks instead that too much has happened to the African essence, in the several centuries that black peoples have been living in Western societies, for to have remained pure; in their coexistence with a broad spectrum of races from various parts of the world, black peoples have been able to fashion for themselves a culture that owes far less to Africa than to the hybrid climate that has inevitably become their home. This volume seeks a balanced look at the fate of the African presence in Western society as well as insights into the sources of periodic conflict between blacks and others.

Contents:

The Diaspora: Orientations and Determinations

1. An African Diaspora: The Ontological Project / Michael J. C. Echeruo 3

2. Cultural Reconfigurations in the African Caribbean / Maureen Warner-Lewis 19

3. The Restoration of African Identity for a New Millennium / Elliott P. Skinner 28

Addressing the Constraints

4. Slaves or Serfs? A Comparative Study of Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and Africa / Joseph E. Inikori 49

5. Modernity, Memory, Martinique / Richard Price 76

6. Kinship and State in African and African American Histories / Peter P. Ekeh 89

7. Wages of Migration: Jobs and Homeownership among Black and White Workers in Muncie, Indiana, 1920 / Jack S. Blocker, Jr. 115

8. The Significance of Cognitive-Linguistic Orientation for Academic Well-Being in African American Children / Ira Kincade Blake 139

9. The Relationship between Place of Birth and Health Status / Sharon Aneta Bryant 153

Race, Gender, And Image

10. Images of Africa and the Haiti Revolution in American and Brazilian Abolitionism / Celia M. Azevedo 167

11. Our Hunger Is Our Song: The Politics of Race in Cuba, 1900-1920 / Kimberly Welch 178

12. The Role of Music in the Emergence of Afro-Cuban Culture / Antonio Benitez-Rojo, James Maraniss 197

13. The Centrality of Margins: Art, Gender, and African American Creativity / Sally Price 204

14. Gabriela Cravo e Canela: Jorge Amado and the Myth of the Sexual Mulata in Brazilian Culture / Eliana Guerreiro Ramos Bennett 227

15. Gender and the New African Diaspora: African Immigrant Women in the Canadian Labor Force / Patience Elabor-Idemudia 234

16. Horned Ancestral Masks, Shakespearean Actor Boys, and Scotch-Inspired Set Girls: Social Relations in Nineteenth-Century Jamaican Jonkonnu / Sandra L. Richards 254

Creativity, Spirituality, And Identity

17. From Folklore to Literature: The Route from Roots in the African World / Oyekan Owomoyela 275

18. Blackness as a Process of Creolization: The Afro-Esmeraldian Decimas (Ecuador) / Jean Rahier 290

19. The (T)error of Invisibility: Ellison and Cruz e Souza / Niyi Afolabi 315

20. Recover, Not Discover: African in Walcott's Dream on Monkey Mountain and Philip's Looking for Livingstone / Adetayo Alabi 332

21. Islam and the Black Diaspora: The Impact of Islamigration / Ali A. Mazrui 344

22. From Legba to Papa Labas: New World Metaphysical Self/Re-fashioning in Ishamel Reed's Mumbo Jumbo / Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure 350

23. Diasporacentricism and Black Aural Texts / Robert Elliot Fox 367

24. The Reinterpretation of African Musical Instruments in the United States / David Evans 379

25. The Concept of Modernity in Contemporary African Art / Nkiru Nzegwu 391

26. Habits of Attention: Persistence of Lan Ginee in Haiti / LeGrace Benson 428

27. Representing Jean-Michel Basquiat / Andrea Frohne 439

28. Optic Black: Implied Texts and the Colors of Photography / Charles Martin 452

29. Caribbean Cinema, or Cinema in the Caribbean? / Keith Q. Warner 469

Reconnecting With Africa

30. The Emergence of Bilateral Diaspora Ethnicity among Cape Verdean-Americans / Laura J. Pires-Hester 485

31. Black Americans and the Creation of America's Africa Policies: The De-Racialization of Pan-African Politics / Alvin B. Tillery, Jr. 504

32. Alice Walker and the Legacy of African American Discourse on Africa / Joseph McLaren 525

33. African-Centered Womanism: Connecting Africa to the Diaspora / Joyce Ann Joyce 538.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

025333425X

OCLC:

40218848