The New African Diaspora - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0253220955 ISBN 13: 9780253220950

Publisher: Indiana University Press, 2009

Synopsis

The New York Times reports that since 1990 more Africans have voluntarily relocated to the United States and Canada than had been forcibly brought here before the slave trade ended in 1807. The key reason for these migrations has been the collapse of social, political, economic, and educational structures in their home countries, which has driven Africans to seek security and self-realization in the West. This lively and timely collection of essays takes a look at the new immigrant experience. It traces the immigrants' progress from expatriation to arrival and covers the successes as well as problems they have encountered as they establish their lives in a new country. The contributors, most immigrants themselves, use their firsthand experiences to add clarity, honesty, and sensitivity to their discussions of the new African diaspora.

About this title

About the Author:

Isidore Okpewho is Distinguished Professor of the Humanities at Binghamton University. He is editor (with Carole Boyce Davies and Ali A. Mazrui) of The African Diaspora (IUP, 1998) and author of African Oral Literature (IUP, 1992) and Once Upon a Kingdom (IUP, 1998).

Nkiru Nzegwu is Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Binghamton University. She is author of Family Matters: Feminist Concepts in African Philosophy of Culture.

Review:

The New African Diaspora is a follow-up to Okpewho, Carole Davies, and Ali Mazrui's edited collection The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Identities (CH, Feb'00, 37-3466). The latter volume concentrated on the forced migrations of Africans to the Americas; the present volume investigates the more recent―and more voluminous and voluntary―migrations of Africans. Editors Okpewho and Nzegwu are renowned African scholars based in the US (SUNY Binghamton), and the overwhelming majority of the contributions examine the immigration of various groups of Africans to the US. There are a few exceptions. One essay, for example, looks at the experiences of Haitian 'boat people,' and another focuses on the ways in which Ghanaian migrants in the UK cope with bereavement. The 26 essays are organized into five sections. In the first section ('Overviews'), Okpewho and Paul Tiyambe Zeleza theorize 'diaspora' and examine (the sometimes tense) 'diaspora dialogues.' Summing Up: Highly recommended... All levels/libraries. ―Choice

(A. Ejikeme, Trinity University)

"[The] authors provide a window onto the challenges these new immigrants face in leaving their homes and adapting to their new host environments, as well as the contributions they have made, particularly in the arts.23.3 2010"

(Journal of Refugee Studies)

"... engaging, thought-provoking, and wide-ranging... Highly recommended.July 2010"

(Choice)

"The New African Diaspora captures one of the intellectual passions of a scholar with wide knowledge and expertise in African oral literatures who has maintained a consistent appreciation for and understanding of the aesthetic and material production of African peoples in the African Diaspora: this has to be acknowledged, recognized, and applauded."

(African Studies Review)

About this edition

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0253220955
• ISBN 13: 9780253220950
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 544
• Editor: Okpewho Isidore, Nzegwu Nkiru