Ethnicities, Nationalities, and Cross-Cultural Representations in Africa and the Diaspora

This book explores the global conditions and networks of hegemonic and hierarchical power relations that shaped the history of class, ethnicity, gender, and race, and also determined the nature of African diasporic linkages within imperial and national boundaries. The book emphasizes the roots and routes of cross-cultural itineraries of Diasporan Africans, including their ethnic, national, cultural, and literary representations as well as their contributions to the world, particularly Africa. It explores the cross-cultural and multicultural societies and communities, nationalism and nationalities, frontiers and boundaries, cultural transmission and identity formation, power relations, communication and translation, colonialism and neocolonialism, pan-Africanism, ethnicity, race and gender, and modernity and progress as they continue to shape the experiences of Africans and Diasporan Africans. The essays in this volume offer new perspectives on and interpretations of the foci, concepts, and debates of existing works on African Diaspora studies. While making culture and cross-cultural representations the dynamic and complex elements in the analyses, the essays critically evaluate questions on ethnicities, nationalities, creolization, cultural traditions, and crosscultural representations of the peoples of African descent.

This book is part of the African World Series, edited by Toyin Falola, Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities, University of Texas at Austin.