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Series:   Elements in Historical Theory and Practice

Writing the History of the African Diaspora

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2024

Toyin Falola
Toyin Falola
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin

Summary

This Element is an analysis of the African Diaspora. It will define the African Diaspora and how the concepts behind the term came to be socially and historically engineered. The African diaspora is then placed into a broader historical context where the diverse, global, and overlapping histories of Africa's ancient-ongoing diasporas will be explored. In particular, themes of injustice, agency, resistance, and diversity (regarding people, diasporas, and experiences) will feature heavily. Through this exploration, this Element will interrogate dominating narratives regarding African diaspora-related discourse, seeking to address prevailing ideas that inadequately capture the true complexity and nuance of the subject. It does so to construct a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter while lining out a more holistic approach to thinking about the very nature of 'diaspora.' Finally, this Element will analyze the present circumstances of the African diaspora, bringing into conversation a progressively global and connected world.
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Keywords

History and theoryresearch methods and approacheshistory of ideasglobal history
Type
Element
Information
Series: Elements in Historical Theory and Practice
Online ISBN: 9781009442084
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 06 June 2024

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References

Further Reading

Adi, Hakim. “The African Diaspora, ‘Development’ and Modern African Political Theory,” Review of African Political Economy. 29, no. 92 (2002): 237–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bauböck, Rainer, and Faist, Thomas. Diaspora and Transnationalism: Concepts, Theories and Methods. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Benesch, Klaus, and Fabre, Geneviève, eds. African Diasporas in the New and Old Worlds: Consciousness and Imagination. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004.Google Scholar
Bernal, Victoria. “African Digital Diasporas: Technologies, Tactics, and Trends: Introduction,” African Diaspora. 12, no. 1–2 (2020): 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campt, Tina. “The Crowded Space of Diaspora: Intercultural Address and the Tensions of Diasporic Relation,” Radical History Review. 83, no. 1 (2002): 94–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chivallon, Christine. “Beyond Gilroy’s Black Atlantic: The Experience of the African Diaspora,” Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies. 11, no. 3 (2002): 359–382.Google Scholar
Echeruo, Michael J. C. “An African Diaspora: The Ontological Project.” In Okpewho, Isidore, Davies, Carole Boyce, and Mazrui, Ali AlʼAmin, eds., The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Identities. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001, 3–18.Google Scholar
Edwards, Brent Hayes. “The Uses of ‘Diaspora’.” In Benesch, Klaus, and Fabre, Geneviève, eds., African Diasporas in the New and Old Worlds. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004, 3–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, Edmund T., and Anderson, Mark. “The African Diaspora: Toward an Ethnography of Diasporic Identification,” Journal of American Folklore. 112, no. 445 (1999): 282–296.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandra, Gunning, Hunter, Tera W., and Mitchell, Michele. “Gender, Sexuality, and African Diasporas,” Gender & History. 15, no. 3 (2003): 397–408.Google Scholar
Hanchard, Michael. “Afro-Modernity: Temporality, Politics, and the African Diaspora,” Public Culture. 11, no. 1 (1999): 245–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koser, Khalid, ed. New African Diasporas, New York: Routledge, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, Pier M. “African Diasporas and the Atlantic.” In Canizares-Esguerra, Jorge and Seeman, Erik R., eds., The Atlantic in Global History. New York: Routledge, 2017, 130–151.Google Scholar
Mercer, Claire, Page, Ben, and Evans, Martin, eds. Development and the African Diaspora: Place and the Politics of Home. London: Bloomsbury, 2009.Google Scholar
Giles, Mohan, and Zack‐Williams, Alfred B.. “Globalisation from Below: Conceptualising the Role of the African Diasporas in Africa’s Development,” Review of African Political Economy. 29, no. 92 (2002): 211–236.Google Scholar
Morehouse, Maggi. “African Diaspora theory: Here, There, and Everywhere,” Diasporas, Cultures of Mobilities. Race 2 (2015): 19–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okpewho, Isidore, and Nzegwu, Nkiru, eds. The New African Diaspora. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Olaniyan, Tejumola, and Hoke Sweet, James, eds. The African Diaspora and the Disciplines. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Orser, Jr., Charles, E. “The Archaeology of the African Diaspora,” Annual Review of Anthropology. 27, no. 1 (1998): 63–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, David. “That Event, This Memory: Notes on the Anthropology of African Diasporas in the New World,” Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies. 1, no. 3 (1991): 261–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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Writing the History of the African Diaspora
  • Toyin Falola, University of Texas, Austin
  • Online ISBN: 9781009442084
Available formats
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Writing the History of the African Diaspora
  • Toyin Falola, University of Texas, Austin
  • Online ISBN: 9781009442084
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Writing the History of the African Diaspora
  • Toyin Falola, University of Texas, Austin
  • Online ISBN: 9781009442084
Available formats
×