Americans From Africa

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.

Since 1619, when Africans first came ashore in the swampy Chesapeake region of Virginia, there have been many individuals whose achievements or strength of character in the face of monumental hardships have called attention to the genius of the African American people. This book attempts to distill from many wonderful possibilities the 100 most outstanding examples of greatness. Pioneering scholar of African American Studies Molefi Kete Asante has used four criteria in his selection: the individual''s significance in the general progress of African Americans toward full equality in the American social and political system; self-sacrifice and the demonstration of risk for the collective good; unusual will and determination in the face of the greatest danger or against the most stubborn odds; and personal achievement that reveals the best qualities of the African American people. In adopting these criteria Professor Asante has sought to steer away from the usual standards of popular culture, which often elevates the most popular, the wealthiest, or the most photogenic to the cult of celebrity. The individuals in this book - examples of lasting greatness as opposed to the ephemeral glare of celebrity fame - come from four centuries of African American history. Each entry includes brief biographical information, relevant dates, an assessment of the individual''s place in African American history with particular reference to a historical timeline, and a discussion of his or her unique impact on American society. Numerous pictures and illustrations will accompany the articles. This superb reference work will complement any library and be of special interest to students and scholars of American and African American history.

The mid-twentieth century witnessed nations across Africa fighting for their independence from colonial forces. By examining black Americans' attitudes toward and responses to these liberation struggles, James Meriwether probes the shifting meaning of Africa in the intellectual, political, and social lives of African Americans. Paying particular attention to such important figures and organizations as W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., and the NAACP, Meriwether incisively utilizes the black press, personal correspondence, and oral histories to render a remarkably nuanced and diverse portrait of African American opinion. Meriwether builds the book around seminal episodes in modern African history, including nonviolent protests against apartheid in South Africa, the Mau Mau war in Kenya, Ghana's drive for independence under Kwame Nkrumah, and Patrice Lumumba's murder in the Congo. Viewing these events within the context of their own changing lives, especially in regard to the U.S. civil rights struggle, African Americans have continually reconsidered their relationship to contemporary Africa and vigorously debated how best to translate their concerns into action in the international arena. Grounded in black Americans' encounters with Africa, this transnational history sits astride the leading issues of the twentieth century: race, civil rights, anticolonialism, and the intersections of domestic race relations and U.S. foreign relations.

In 1957 Ghana became one of the first sub-Saharan African nations to gain independence from colonial rule. Over the next decade, hundreds of African Americans--including Martin Luther King Jr., George Padmore, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Richard Wright, Pauli Murray, and Muhammad Ali--visited or settled in Ghana. Kevin K. Gaines explains what attracted these Americans to Ghana and how their new community was shaped by the convergence of the Cold War, the rise of the U.S. civil rights movement, and the decolonization of Africa. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's president, posed a direct challenge to U.S. hegemony by promoting a vision of African liberation, continental unity, and West Indian federation. Although the number of African American expatriates in Ghana was small, in espousing a transnational American citizenship defined by solidarities with African peoples, these activists along with their allies in the United States waged a fundamental, if largely forgotten, struggle over the meaning and content of the cornerstone of American citizenship--the right to vote--conferred on African Americans by civil rights reform legislation.

This book is the second of a two-volume set exploring the controversies about the experiences of Americans from Africa. It contains essays on the roots of protest, including the original “Confessions of Nat Turner;” the background and character of the Civil Rights Movement; the origins and impact of Black Power; and, finally, in “Negroes Nevermore,” varied views on the meaning of Black Pride. Included here are selections written by black and white social scientists, psychiatrists, historians, and political figures offered in careful juxtaposition. Among the contributors are Raymond and Alice Bauer, Robert Blauner, Stokely Carmichael, Erik Erikson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Joyce Ladner, C. Eric Lincoln, August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, Tom Mboya, Gerald Mullin, Alvin Poussaint, and Mike Thelwell. Volume I, Slavery and Its Aftermath, addresses four other issues: the retention of “Africanisms;” the impact of slavery on personality and culture; differences in the experiences of living in the South and North; and matters of community, class and family. Originally published in 1970, these volumes have stood the test of time. Each of the issues considered still resonate in American society and all are critical to understanding many matters that still confront many Americans from Africa.

Americans from Africa seeks to convey varying perspectives on the "Black Experience" in the United States and its controversial history. This volume, Slavery and Its Aftermath, deals with four major issues: the extent of African influences on the lives of those enslaved and brought to America, beginning with an essay on "Africanisms in Everyday Life" by Melville J. Herskovits; the impact of slavery on personality and social structure, sometimes called "The Elkins Debate;" similarities and differences in life for African Americans in the South and in the North; and matters of community, class, and family, including the full text of the "Moynihan Report" and several pointed critiques.In addition to the commentaries by and on the works of Herskovits, Elkins, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan, other contributors to Volume I include Kenneth B. Clark, Mina Caulfield Davis, E. Franklin Edwards, Eugene Genovese, Ulf Hannerz, Charles S. Johnson, Leroi Jones, and Charles Keil.The second volume, Old Memories, New Moods, contains essays on the roots of black protest; the background and character of the Civil Rights Movement; interpretations of the impact and significance of Black Power, and varied views on changing self-images of being African American.

In a book that is at once a vividly detailed memoir and a richly researched work of scholarship, the son of an African-American mother and a Congolese father uses his fascinating personal background as a lens through which to view three centuries of shared history between Africans and African-Americans.

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. Visit our website for sample chapters!