New African Diaspora

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.

"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, July 2010". . . 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"[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"Capacious in its thematic and disciplinary breadth of coverage of this issue."—Tejumola Olaniyan, University of Wisconsin, Madison"Provocative, powerful, and prescient, coming right in time to be a guide to an entirely new discourse on the African diaspora."—Molefi Asante, Temple University

• Preface and AcknowledgmentsPart 1. Overviews1. Introduction: Can We "Go Home Again"?Isidore Okpewho2. Diaspora Dialogues: Engagements Between Africa and Its DiasporasPaul Tiyambe ZelezaPart 2. Leaving Home3. Togo on My MindAdzele K. Jones4. "I, Too, Want to Be a Big Man": The Making of a Haitian "Boat People"Georges E. Fouron5. Africa's Migration Brain Drain: Factors Contributing to the Mass Emigration of Africa's Elite to the WestAmadu Jacky KabaPart 3. Relocation and Redefinition6. "The West Is Cold": Experiences of Ghanaian Performers in England and the United StatesJames Burns7. Migration and Bereavement: How Ghanaian Migrants Cope in the United KingdomHelen Anin-Boateng8. Acculturation and the Health of Black Immigrants in the United StatesFlorence M. Margai9. Socio-Legal Barriers to the Full Citizenship of Recent African Immigrants in Canada: Some Preliminary ThoughtsObiora Chinedu Okafor10. The Effects of Immigration and Refugee Policies on Africans in the United States: From the Civil Rights Movement to the War on TerrorismCassandra R. Veney11. Immigrants and the American System of Justice: Perspectives of African and Caribbean BlacksJohn A. Arthur12. Africans Abroad: Comparative Perspectives on America's Post-Colonial AfricansBaffour K. Takyi13. Questions of Identity Among African Immigrants in AmericaMsia Kibona ClarkPart 4. A Measure of Success14. Immigration and African Diaspora Women ArtistsNkiru Nzegwu15. Emerging Communities: The Religious Life of New African Immigrants in the United StatesJacob K. Olupona and Regina Gemignani16. The Orisha Rescue MissionDonald Cosentino17. Redefining "Africa" in the Diaspora with New Media TechnologiesAzuka NzegwuPart 5. Transnational Perspectives18. Resisting "Race": Organizing African Transnational Identities in the United StatesJill M. Humphries19. African Video, Film Cinema, and Cultural Repackaging in the DiasporaFolu F. Ogundimu20. Excess Luggage: Nigerian Films and the World of ImmigrantsAkin Adesokan21. From the New Diaspora and the Continent: African American Return FigurationsJoseph McLaren22. Self, Place, and Identity in Two Generations of West African Immigrant Women Memoirs: Emecheta's Head Above Water and Danquah's Willow Weep for MeF. Odun Balogun23. Language, Memory, and the Transnational: Art of Wosene Worke KosrofAndrea E. Frohne24. Out Beyond Our Borders: Literary Travelers of the TransDiasporaSandra Jackson-Opoku25. The Guyana Diaspora and Homeland Conflict ResolutionPerry Mars26. The Ontological Imperative for the New African DiasporaAdeolu AdemoyoList of ContributorsIndex