Black/African Diaspora

The Civil Rights Movement and American Television in the 1960s

by Nadeem Fayaz

Charlatans Chicanery

by Mohamed Eno

Thr poem is an excerpt from my forthcoming volume Guilt of Otherness

The volume is under review with a subject area expert and a literary critic. The volume is under review with a subject area expert and a literary critic.

Slavery and Colonialism: The Worst Terrorism on Africa

by Mohamed Eno

Co-authored with Omar A. Eno, Mohamed H. Ingiriis, and Jamal M. Haji; Published in African Renaissance, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2012.

Humans need not justify terrorism of any kind, regardless of whether one is Muslim, Christian or Jew, because it is... more Humans need not justify terrorism of any kind, regardless of whether one is Muslim, Christian or Jew, because it is the axis of evil and devastation of mankind. However, the deliberate use of the term terrorism in recent decades was carefully selected, mainly, against a certain religion (Islam). The idea was then globally politicized by the Western world. Leaving that scholarly view in its own right, we disagree with the opinion raising terrorism as the devil’s just-born child of evil, when in reality Africans had been terrorized for centuries as slaves and human chattel. Hence the basis for the concept of this thesis: conceptualizing the episode of ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorist’ from the broader perspective of its practice from the Middle Passage or the Atlantic Slave Trade. To portray that argument and broaden the scope of the debate over this critically sensitive subject, we divided the discussion into three sections: an examination of what constitutes terrorism and terrorist; history of terrorism and terrorists from an Africa perspective; and the ideological constraints within the subject of terrorism as practiced by the US and its Western allies.

“Traditions, Trajectories and Transformative Migrations: The Multifarious Diasporic Contextualities of Nair, Nazareth and Vassanji’s Fictions.” Journal of the African Literature Association 6.2 (Winter 2011/Spring 2012): 61-82.

by Aaron L. Rosenberg

The fictions of Moyez G.Vassanji, Mira Nair and Peter Nazareth
represent a crucial commodity. These two writers... more The fictions of Moyez G.Vassanji, Mira Nair and Peter Nazareth
represent a crucial commodity. These two writers and one filmmaker’s works are manifestly utilitarian in our attempt as literary scholars and citizens of the world to understand what is meant by the ‘African Diaspora.’ Their narratives interrogate the racialized and divisive accounts of East Africans that consciously
and chauvinistically self – define as African or Asian. While all of the texts make clear that there is a certain risk involved in attempting to construct systems of identity formation along syncretic lines, they also make explicit the dangers of the formation and defense of exclusive communities based on skin color. These artists are attempting, and succeeding in exploding the myth of a monolithic racial imperative for African cultural citizenship. This myth of racial uniformity as a prerequisite for African authenticity has been constructed and exploited by
members of numerous ethnic communities throughout East Africa at one time or another in order to further their political or economical goals (Gregory: 161).What the artists dealt with in this paper are seeking to do is to counteract such immutable inscriptions of identity and concomitant allegiance and, in their own cases to reinscribe their self – identificatory auras with an identity which can best be described as “Afro-Asian.’ The immediate importance of this endeavor is illustrated by the historical atrocities and terrorism visited upon Afro –Asians
by their fellow countrymen. The seemingly unquestioning or ambivalent attitude of the academic community toward these questions represents, albeit through an absence of discursive activity rather than an excess of aggression, a serious
impediment to an understanding of the realities of cultural diversity in East African contexts. These Afro-Asian diasporic narratives can illuminate such situations and broaden our understanding of what it means to be ‘African’ in East Africa.

Expanding the History of the Black Studies Movement: Some Prefatory Notes

by Jonathan Fenderson

Co-authored with James Stewart (of Penn State University) and Kabria Baumgartner (of Wooster)

Dirty Hands and Unclean Practices: How Medical Neglect and the Preponderance of Stress Illustrates How Medicine Harms Rather Than Helps

by Dr. Darron Smith

published in 'Journal of Black Masculinity,' 2012

As medicine emerged as a humanist and scientific
discipline positioned to cure and eradicate disease, there... more As medicine emerged as a humanist and scientific
discipline positioned to cure and eradicate disease, there were
great hopes that it could additionally transform race relations
because of the principles of universalism—particularly the notion
of value-free clinicians with good hearts and helping hands. Yet,
American medicine, like other White controlled institutions,
maintained a deliberate path of racial marginalization and gross
inequalities mainly ensconced in racial ideology over the Black
body. Centuries-old racist practices have consequences and
repercussions for its targets. As this paper demonstrates, looking at the experiences of African Americans, the effects of living with unrelenting racism(s) has produced significant physiological damage in the form of the stress response.

Caliban’s New Masters: Creolizing Archetypes in Kamau Brathwaite’s Arrivants Trilogy

by John Thieme

Pre-publication copy of essay publsihed in Places of Memory: Essays in Honour of Michel Fabre, Commonwealth Essays and Studies, SP5 (2003): 27-39.

An essay which examines the Afro-Caribbean creolization of archetypes in three poems in Islands, the third part of... more An essay which examines the Afro-Caribbean creolization of archetypes in three poems in Islands, the third part of Kamau Brathwaite's Arrivants trilogy: "Ananse", "Legba" and "Caliban".

Lux, Christina. “The House Facing the Sea." Translation from the French of “La Maison face à la mer” by Marie-Célie Agnant. Metamorphoses: The Five College Faculty Seminar on Literary Translation, 11.1 (Spring 2003): 193-199.

by Christina Lux

also listed under translator's former name, "Vander Vorst"

Translation of a short story by Haitian author Marie-Célie Agnant; originally appeared in the collection Le Silence... more Translation of a short story by Haitian author Marie-Célie Agnant; originally appeared in the collection Le Silence comme le sang (1997).

Keywords: Haiti, short story, Agnant, Canada, women, gender, violence, conflict, Caribbean

Good Luck Dolls in Thailand

by Dion Peoples

Inspired by something I determined to be racist, I tried to investigate the matter, and found out that my suspicions are likely to be true.

'Africa and the Atlantic World, 1450-1850' programme

by Edmond Smith

22nd-23rd June 2012, Centre for African Studies, University of Cambridge

Bringing speakers from four continents to Cambridge, including keynote speakers Prof Alison Games (Georgetown) and... more Bringing speakers from four continents to Cambridge, including keynote speakers Prof Alison Games (Georgetown) and Prof Vincent Brown (Harvard), this conference will explore the role of Africa in the Atlantic World during the early modern period.

To register please follow the link attached, and for further information email africaatlanticconference@gmail.com

Windrush and The Mingling of Britain

by John Thieme

Available on Times Higher Education site -- as above. Some errors have crept into the e-version!

A review of four books published in 1998, at the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of the Empire... more A review of four books published in 1998, at the time of the fiftieth anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush in Britain.

Reconstructing the Life of a Colored Woman

by Kaye Wise Whitehead

Syllabus: Black Studies in the Age of New Media

by Kevin Michael Foster

“Nothing to be done”: Thoughts on Talawa Theatre Company’s Waiting for Godot

by Patrick Duggan

I was asked to write a short essay on Waiting for Godot by Talawa Theatre Company for their website and education pack, in advance of their 2012 production of the play.

Slavery, Identity, and Ethnicity: An Examination of the Social Contour of the Yoruba in Africa and in the Diaspora

by Mohamed Eno

with Omar A. Eno, published in African Renaissance (lead theme: The Slavery Debate Continues) (2010) Vol. 7 Nos 3-4; pp. 11-28. (Quote as: Eno, Omar A & Eno, Mohamed A. "Slavery, Identity, and Ethnicity: An Examination of the Social Contour of the Yoruba in Africa and in the Diaspora" African Renaissance, vol 8, Nos 3 & 4, 2010.

In their contribution, Omar A. Eno & Mohamed A. Eno discuss how ethnic diversity played a significant role in... more In their contribution, Omar A. Eno & Mohamed A. Eno discuss how ethnic diversity played a significant role in determining the nature of slaves exported overseas in some African countries, arguing that these slaves carried with them their cultural identities. They note that the “Yoruba exported as slaves to the Americas, to such destinations as Cuba, Brazil, the Caribbean and other parts of the world, carried with them and maintained in the Diaspora at least a considerable portion, if not most, of their African culture and tradition”. This seems to imply that different slaves carried with them different cultural identities, raising in turn the question of the role of these different identities, if any, on the worldview of the slaves.

Introduction to JBS 51.1 (January 2012)

by Brian Cowan

co-authored with Elizabeth Elbourne

1. Public Worship and Political Participation in Elizabethan England (pp. 4-25)
Natalie Mears
DOI:... more 1. Public Worship and Political Participation in Elizabethan England (pp. 4-25)
Natalie Mears
DOI: 10.1086/662297
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/662297

2. Opposition to Anti-Popery in Restoration England(pp. 26-49)
Scott Sowerby
DOI: 10.1086/662296
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/662296

3. “All Together and All Distinct”: Public Sociability and Social Exclusivity in London’s Pleasure Gardens, ca. 1740–1800(pp. 50-75)
Hannah Greig
DOI: 10.1086/662434
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/662434

4. Greece and Rome in the British Empire: Contrasting Role Models(pp. 76-101)
Krishan Kumar
DOI: 10.1086/662545
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/662545

5. Class Trips and the Meaning of British Citizenship: Travel, Educational Reform, and the Regent Street Polytechnic at Home and Abroad, 1871–1903(pp. 102-131)
Michele M. Strong
DOI: 10.1086/662605
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/662605

6. Pennies from Heaven and Earth in Mass Observation’s Blackpool(pp. 132-154)
Jennie Taylor
DOI: 10.1086/663018
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/663018

7. “Little Rock” in Britain: Jim Crow’s Transatlantic Topographies(pp. 155-177)
Kennetta Hammond Perry
DOI: 10.1086/663017
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/663017

Review of Evan Maina Mwangi's "Africa Writes Back to Self"

by Adeline Koh

Published on H-Africa, September 2010.

Stand In Awe: A Parable About Love, Youth, & Change

by Horace Columbus Neal II

Draft N: December 9, 2011 - It is finished.

This is a simple three-page short story that calls for a reflection on the core need of today's troubled youth. In 36... more This is a simple three-page short story that calls for a reflection on the core need of today's troubled youth. In 36 CE, a group of rowdy, Cushite-Hebrew youths go to see the Roman crucifixions, hoping to have some fun taunting the victims. Their encounter at one man's cross causes them to stand in awe. Notes and images follow the narrative to aid the readers' conceptualization of some of the story's themes. The story is thematically multilayered to facilitate productive discussions on a number of topics.

‘“Not Equatorial black, not Mediterranean white”: Denis Williams’ Other Leopards’

by John Thieme

Essay in African Athena: New Agendas, ed. Daniel Orrells, Gurminder Bhambra and Tessa Roynon, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 311-25. Just published in UK; US publication by OUP 2012.

A contribution to a volume exploring the impact of the modern African diaspora on Western notions of history and... more A contribution to a volume exploring the impact of the modern African diaspora on Western notions of history and culture, acknowledging the role played by Martin Bernal's Black Athena in the contestation of dominant white Euro-American constructions of the classical past.                                                                                                                                                                                My own essay considers ways in which the identity quest of the Guyanese protagonist of Other Leopards, an archaeological draughtsman working in the Sudanic region of Africa, relates to the excavation of broader issues concerning the relationship between African and classical European cultures                                         

Roots and Routes: Congolese Diaspora in the UK

by David GARBIN