Ellison’s reflections on his stay in Rome betray the awareness of living in a “barely controlled chaos” (CE 29), even in “exile” (Bellow Papers). Notably, Ellison was reluctant to associate himself with the community of black expatriates in Europe and with any conversation on black world cultures, a category connected to the anticolonial movements and the cultural politics of the Communist Internationale. This chapter looks at the tension between the private dimension of living abroad and the writer’s comments on current international events, to foreground an understanding of cultural identity much closer to what soon afterward will be termed African Diasporic cultures.