African Americans and Africa: A New History

by Nemata Amelia Ibitayo Blyden

Overview

An introduction to the complex relationship between African Americans and the African continent
 
What is an “African American” and how does this identity relate to the African continent? Rising immigration levels, globalization, and the United States’ first African American president have all sparked new dialogue around the question. This book provides an introduction to the relationship between African Americans and Africa from the era of slavery to the present, mapping several overlapping diasporas. The diversity of African American identities through relationships with region, ethnicity, slavery, and immigration are all examined to investigate questions fundamental to the study of African American history and culture.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300258523
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	04/20/2021
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Nemata Amelia Ibitayo Blyden is associate professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: "I'm not African. I'm American." 1

1 "What is Africa to me?" 14

2 "I tried to keep their voices in my head" 33

3 "We, the African Members, form ourselves into a Society" 57

4 "It is the will of god for you to come into the possessions of your ancestors" 80

5 "Africa is their country. They should claim it." 113

6 "My Africa, Motherland of the Negro peoples!" 145

7 "I wanted to see this Africa" 174

Epilogue: "We have this special bond. We share a common loss." 202

Notes 211

Bibliography 245

Index 255

Editorial Reviews

[A] highly readable and informative account.”—Journal of Interdisciplinary History

“A highly readable and informative account. . . . Highly informative.”—Christine Levecq, Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"Throughout this brilliant book, the author presents the many ways in which efforts for equality by blacks in America and in Africa influenced and motivated each other."—Bullus Gago, Anglican and Episcopal History

“An important book which provides a much-needed and accessible primer on African American identity in a global context.”—R. Joseph Parrott, Journal of Southern History

“Blyden has produced a fascinating book on the relationship between African Americans and the African continent from the era of slavery, to the late-nineteenth-century movements to return African Americans to West Africa, to the twentieth-century civil rights movement, to the eventual presidency of Barack Obama in the twenty-first century.”—Nicolas van de Walle, Foreign Affairs

“Blyden has filled a gap in the scholarship on the relationship between African Americans and Africa by offering a synthetic narrative that contextualizes African American history firmly within the history of the African Diaspora.”—Jeannette Eileen Jones, University of Nebraska–Lincoln

“Nemata Blyden has mined the relationship between African Americans and Africa to produce an impressive volume that covers African American connections with Africa from the era of the slave trade to the present.”—Robert R. Edgar, Howard University

“African Americans and Africa examines perceptions of Africa based in the reality of experience and construction through propaganda and stereotypes.”—Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin

From the Publisher