The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Identities

The African Diaspora contributes to the debate between those who believe that the African origin of blacks in Western society is central to their identity and outlook and those who deny that proposition. Contributors include Niyi Afolabi, Adetayo Alabi, Celia M. Azevedo, Antonio Benítez-Rojo, Eliana Guerreiro Ramos Bennett, LeGrace Benson, Ira Kincade Blake, Jack S. Blocker, Jr., Sharon Aneta Bryant, Michael J. C. Echeruo, Peter P. Ekeh, Patience Elabor-Idemudia, David Evans, Robert Elliot Fox, Andrea Frohne, Joseph E. Inikori, Joyce Ann Joyce, Joseph McLaren, Charles Martin, Ali A. Mazrui, Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure, Nkiru Nzegwu, Isidore Okpewho, Oyekan Owomoyela, Laura J. Pires-Hester, Richard Price, Sally Price, Jean Rahier, Sandra L. Richards, Elliott P. Skinner, Alvin B. Tillery, Jr., Keith Q. Warner, Maureen Warner-Lewis, and Kimberly Welch.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction, Isidore Okpewho Part 1. The Diaspora: Orientations and Determinations 1. Michael J. C. Echeruo, An African Diaspora: The Ontological Project 2. Maureen Warner-Lewis, Cultural Reconfigurations in the African Caribbean 3. Elliott P. Skinner, The Restoration of African Identity for a New Millenium Part 2. Addressing the Constraints 4. Joseph E. Inikori, Slaves or Serfs?: A Comparative Study of Slavery and Serfdom in Europe and Africa 5. Richard Price, Modernity, Memory, Martinique 6. Peter P. Ekeh, Kinship and State in African and African American Histories 7. Jack S. Blocker, Jr., Wages of Migration: Jobs and Homeownership Among Black and White Workers in Muncie, Indiana, 1920 8. Ira Kincaid Blake, The Significance of Cognitive-Linguistic Orientation for Academic Well- Being in African American Children 9. Sharon Aneta Bryant, The Relationship of Place of Birth and Health Status Part 3. Race, Gender, and Image 10. Celia M. Azevedo, Images of Africa and the Haiti Revolution in American and Brazilian Abolitionism 11. Kimberly Welch, Our Hunger is Our Song: The Politics of Race in Cuba, 1900-1920 12. Antonio Benítez-Rojo, The Role of Music in the Emergence of Afro-Cuban Culture 13. Sally Price, The Centrality of Margins: Art, Gender, and African American Creativity 14. Eliana Guerreiro Ramos Bennett, Gabriela Cravo e Canela: Jorge Amado and the Myth of the Sexual Mulatta in Brazilian Culture 15. Patience Elabor-Idemudia, Gender and the New African Diaspora: African Immigrant Women in the Canadian Labor Force 16. Sandra L. Richards, Horned Ancestral Masks, Shakespearean Actor Boys, and Scotch-Inspired Set Girls: Social Relations in Nineteenth-Century Jamaican Jonkonnu Part 4. Creativity, Spirituality, and Identity 17. Oyekan Owomoyela, From Folklore to Literature: The Route from Roots in the African World 18. Jean Rahier, Blackness as a Process of Creolization: The Afro-Esmeraldian Décimas (Ecuador) 19. Niyi Afolabi, The (T)error of Invisibility: Ellison and Cruz e Souza 20. Adetayo Alabi, Recover, Not Discover: Africa in Walcott's Dream on Monkey Mountain and Philip's Looking for Livingstone 21. Ali A. Mazrui, Islam and the African Diaspora: The Impact of Islamigration 22. Pierre-Damien Mvuyekure, From Legba to Papa Labas: New World Metaphysical Self/Refashioning in Ishmael Reed's Mumbo Jumbo 23. Robert Elliott Fox, Diasporacentricism and Black Aural Texts 24. David Evans, The Reinterpretation of African Musical Instruments in the United States 25. Nkiru Nzegwu, The Concept of Modernity in Contemporary African Art 26. LeGrace Benson, Habits of Attention: Persistence of Lan Ginée in Haiti 27. Andrea Frohne, Representing Jean-Michel Basquiat 28. Charles Martin, Optic Black: Implied Texts and the Colors of Photography 29. Keith Q. Warner, Caribbean Cinema, or Cinema in the Caribbean? Part 5. Reconnecting with Africa 30. Laura J. Pires-Hester, The Emergence of Bilateral Diaspora Ethnicity among Cape Verdean-Americans 31. Alvin B. Tillery, Jr., Black Americans and the Creation of America's Africa Policies: The De-Racialization of Pan-African Politics 32. Joseph McLaren, Alice Walker and the Legacy of African American Discourse on Africa 33. Joyce Ann Joyce, African-Centered Womanism: Connecting Africa to the Diaspora Contributors Index