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African Americans in the United States and African Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2016

Lisa Asili Aubrey
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Extract

That there is a strong historical intellectual tradition of African Americans studying Africa is news to some. That there remains a demand among African Americans in the United States to study Africa is also a surprise. That these ideas are challenging to some is ludicrous to others. For many African Americans in African studies, affirming our engagement with Africa over and over is not only a nuisance but also a waste of precious time and intellectual energy. After countless efforts, many African Americans have simply disengaged, refusing to have these futile conversations. Others bear witness in perpetuity to the defense of Black nationality and global Pan-Africanism for themselves, the race, and the enlightenment of disbelievers. Both groups act with calculated rationality, yet denials of African Americans’ interest in, engagement with, and effect on African studies abound. The denial within the community of scholars comes mostly from White Americans but also from continental Africans and other African Americans.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , 2002 , pp. 19 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2002 

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References

Notes

1. Skinner, Elliot, African Americans and U.S. Policy Toward Africa, 1850-1924: In Defense of Black Nationality (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1992)Google Scholar.

2. Jacobs, Sylvia, The African Nexus: Black American Perspectives on the European Partitioning of Africa, 1880-1920 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1981)Google Scholar.

3. Gomez, Michael, Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998)Google Scholar.

4. A graduate student from Mali, Beidy Sow, in my U.S. and Africa class, shared this proverb and its translation with the class in 2001.

5. A graduate student from Sudan, Asma Abdel Halim, made this statement as we shared a panel at a workshop in the 1990s.

6. Key among this group is historian and novelist Paul Ti-yambe Zeleza.

7. See Mkandawire, Thandika, “The Social Sciences in Africa: Breaking Local Barriers and Negotiating International Presence,” African Studies Review 40, no. 2 (September 1997): 15-36CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8. See Robinson, Pearl and Skinner, Elliot, eds., Transformation and Resiliency in Africa As Seen by Afro-American Scholars (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1983)Google Scholar.

9. See Armah, Ayi Kwei, Osiris Rising: A Novel of Africa Past, Present, and Future (Popenguine, Senegal: Per Ankh, 1995)Google Scholar.

10. Ake, Claude, Democracy and Development in Africa (Washington, D.C.: Brookings, 1997)Google Scholar.

11. Pearl Robinson, “Area Studies in Search of Africa,” forthcoming.

12. Aubrey, Lisa, “Moving beyond Collective Learning from the Global North and Bringing Humanity Back to Itself: Pan-Africanism, Women, and Co-Development,” Vimut ShiL•ha Special Issue: Unfolding Learning Societies, Experiencing the Possibilities (Udaipur, India: Shikshantar, People’s Institute for Rethinking Education and Development, 2002) and http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/ls3_aubrey.htm Google Scholar; Zack-Williams, Alfred, “Development and Diaspora: Separate Concerns,” Review of African Political Economy 65 (1995): 349–358 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13. All of this I discuss in greater detail in a forthcoming publication titled “African Americans from the United States Living in Ghana: Who Are We? Why Are We Here? Are We in Search of Identity?” in Ebere Owudiwe, ed., The Consciousness of Africa in the Diaspora, forthcoming.

14. See http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~ga320592/auhrey/advising.htm for more information.

15. The following is a list of the students who were Ford Foundation fellows and interns and their placements: Kenyatta Alben, Kenya, Limuru Girls School and the Daily Nation Newspaper, Merinda Aubrey, Ghana, Abibiman Academy and Seventh Day Adventist Teachers’ Training College; Terri Cross, Kenya, African Council for Communication Education and African Centre for Technology Studies; Shane Dickinson, Senegal, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA); Derek Oby, Senegal, CODESRIA; Lena Robinson, Tanzania, Regional Enterprise Development Institute, and Kenya, African Council for Communication Education; Rashiki Kuykendall, Ghana, Abibiman Academy and Seventh Day Adventist Teachers’ Training College; and Chris Ntukogu, Ghana, Asantehene Palace and Sankofa Development Organization.

16. For the influence on language, see Mazrui, Alamin, “Pan-Africanism in the Age of Globalization: The Linguistic Agenda,” Literary Griot: International Journal of Black Expressive Culture Studies 11, no. 1 (Spring 1999): 69-87Google Scholar.

17. Much appreciation to Coumba Toure and Raj Sethia for late-night, in-depth discussions in Udaipur, India, in December 2002 on this topic.