African Roots/American Cultures: Africa in the Creation of the Americas - Hardcover

Walker, Sheila S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0742501647 ISBN 13: 9780742501645

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001

Synopsis

Africans and their descendants constituted the majority of the population of the Americas for most of the first three hundred years. Yet their fundamental roles in the creation and definition of the new societies of the Onew world,O and their significance in the development of the Atlantic world, have not been acknowledged. This multidisciplinary volume highlights the African presence throughout the Americas, and African and African Diasporan contributions to the material and cultural life of all of the Americas, and of all Americans. It includes articles from leading scholars, and from cultural leaders from both well-known and little-known African Diasporan communities. Privileging African Diasporan voices, it offers new perspectives, data, and interpretations that challenge prevailing understandings of the Americas. Its fundamental premise is that the story of the Americas can only be accurately told by including the story of the foundational roles played by Africans and their descendants in the Americas.

About this title

About the Author:

Sheila S. Walker is a professor in the Department of Anthropology, and the Annabel Irion Worsham Centenennial Professor in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas Austin.

Review:

As cultural leaders and artists from African Diasporan societies are finally allowed to speak for themselves, adding their perspectives to those of internationally known scholars, Walker gives her readers a rich array of fresh voices in an anthology certain to redefine contemporary understandings of the African Diaspora. The new data and new theoretical perspectives offer readers a forward-looking vantage point from which to assess and understand the Americas. (Gloria Harper Dickinson)

This is an exciting and imaginative volume, as Sheila Walker has succeeded in stimulating an insightful and provocative conversation among scholars and cultural leaders from all over the African Diaspora, uniquely informed by both recent research as well as lived experience. Topics both historical and contemporary, from Burial Ground to Carnival, are often explored through the lens of multidisciplinarity, bringing the African Diaspora into much sharper focus. A splendid and much-needed contribution. (Michael A. Gomez)

These essays make us 'hip to the jive' while revealing dimensions of the African Americas--exhilarating in their importance. (Choice)

This is a highly recommended text for its ability to provoke a productive dialogue of enormous interest to scholars and non-academics alike. (Ethnic And Racial Studies)

This book not only breaks 'new ground,' but lays the foundations for a new and more open consideration of the full impact of the African experience within the Americas. (J. Michael Turner)

About this edition

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0742501647
• ISBN 13: 9780742501645
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 464