The African Diaspora and the Disciplines

by Tejumola Olaniyan (Editor), James H. Sweet (Editor), Kim D. Butler (Contribution by), Richard Price (Contribution by), Fatimah L. C. Jackson (Contribution by)

Overview

Focusing on the problems and conflicts of doing African diaspora research from various disciplinary perspectives, these essays situate, describe, and reflect on the current practice of diaspora scholarship. Tejumola Olaniyan, James H. Sweet, and the international group of contributors assembled here seek to enlarge understanding of how the diaspora is conceived and explore possibilities for the future of its study. With the aim of initiating interdisciplinary dialogue on the practice of African diaspora studies, they emphasize learning from new perspectives that take advantage of intersections between disciplines. Ultimately, they advocate a fuller sense of what it means to study the African diaspora in a truly global way.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253221919
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	06/04/2010
Pages:	376
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Tejumola Olaniyan is the Louise Durham Mead Professor of English and African Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is author of Arrest the Music! (IUP, 2004).

James H. Sweet is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is author of Recreating Africa: Culture, Kinship, and Religion in the African-Portuguese World, 1441–1770.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction Tejumola Olaniyan James H. Sweet 1

Part 1 Histories

1 Clio and the Griot: The African Diaspora in the Discipline of History Kim D. Butler 21

2 African Diaspora and Anthropology Richard Price 53

3 How Genetics Can Provide Detail to the Transatlantic African Diaspora Fatimah L. C. Jackson Latifa F. J. Borgelin 75

4 Landscapes and Places of Memory: African Diaspora Research and Geography Judith A. Carney 101

5 African Diaspora in Archaeology Theresa A. Singleton 119

Part 2 Social Sciences

6 Caribbean Sociology, Africa, and the African Diaspora Paget Henry 145

7 African Diaspora and Political Science Robert Fatton Jr. 161

8 The African Diaspora and Philosophy Olúfémi Táíwò 173

Part 3 Arts and Culture

9 "Function at the Junction"? African Diaspora Studies and Theater Studies Sandra L. Richards 193

10 Ethnomusicology and the African Diaspora Melvin L. Butler 213

11 Semioptics of Africana Art History Moyo Okediji 234

12 Out of Context: Thinking Cultural Studies Diasporically Grant Farred 256

Part 4 Diaspora Contexts

13 African Diaspora Studies in the Creole-Anglophone Caribbean: A Perspective from the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica Carolyn Cooper 279

14 South Africa's Elusive Quest for an African Identity: The Ironies of a South Africa-Led African Renaissance Xolela Mangcu 298

15 "Black Folk Here and There": Repositioning Other(ed) African Diaspora(s) in/and "Europe" Jayne O. Ifekwunigwe 313

Contributors 339

Index 343

What People are Saying About This

Stanford University - Paulla Ebron

Opens the way for a still emergent field, emergent in its attention to how global histories and processes figure in geographic regions and subjects beyond the Cold War configuration of regional political alliances.

Universityof California, Berkeley - Percy Hintzen

Truly remarkable, innovative, important, and critical scholarship that is unparalleled in its interventions at the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological levels.

University of California, Berkeley - Percy Hintzen

Truly remarkable, innovative, important, and critical scholarship that is unparalleled in its interventions at the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological levels.

Editorial Reviews

"Overall, this collection is a very timely and useful contribution to the slowly emerging body of studies of the African diasporas."—Centre for African Studies

"The African Diaspora and the Disciplines is a cutting-edge publication that is long overdue. Apart from general readers, it can be recommended for upper-level African diaspora courses and graduate theory and methods courses. Its discussion of genetic diasporas in particular will serve as a scientific and biological bridge linking New World black diasporic ideation about notions of a "homeland" and the environs where these homes sprouted prior to the Middle Passage."—Africa Today

"The African Diaspora and the Disciplines . . . ranks as an excellent contribution to the growing field [of African diaspora studies]. . . . [I]t is a cogent, suggestive work that will energize scholars across the disciplines to further mine this rich vein."—postcolonialnetworks.com

"The volume as a whole reflects a courageous effort: it goes beyond empirical specifics of the African diaspora to provide an interim report on intellectual work crossing the boundaries of national units and disciplinary boxes. Vol. 52.2, 2011"—Journal of African History

"Opens the way for a still emergent field, emergent in its attention to how global histories and processes figure in geographic regions and subjects beyond the Cold War configuration of regional political alliances."—Paulla Ebron, Stanford University

"Truly remarkable, innovative, important, and critical scholarship that is unparalleled in its interventions at the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological levels."—Percy Hintzen, University of California, Berkeley

From the Publisher

The African Diaspora and the Disciplines is a cutting-edge publication that is long overdue. Apart from general readers, it can be recommended for upper-level African diaspora courses and graduate theory and methods courses. Its discussion of genetic diasporas in particular will serve as a scientific and biological bridge linking New World black diasporic ideation about notions of a "homeland" and the environs where these homes sprouted prior to the Middle Passage.

Africa Today

The African Diaspora and the Disciplines . . . ranks as an excellent contribution to the growing field [of African diaspora studies]. . . . [I]t is a cogent, suggestive work that will energize scholars across the disciplines to further mine this rich vein.

postcolonialnetworks.com

The volume as a whole reflects a courageous effort: it goes beyond empirical specifics of the African diaspora to provide an interim report on intellectual work crossing the boundaries of national units and disciplinary boxes. Vol. 52.2, 2011

Journal of African History

Overall, this collection is a very timely and useful contribution to the slowly emerging body of studies of the African diasporas.

Centre for African Studies

"Opens the way for a still emergent field, emergent in its attention to how global histories and processes figure in geographic regions and subjects beyond the Cold War configuration of regional political alliances." —Paulla Ebron, Stanford University

Paulla Ebron

"Truly remarkable, innovative, important, and critical scholarship that is unparalleled in its interventions at the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological levels." —Percy Hintzen, University of California, Berkeley

Percy Hintzen

"The African Diaspora and the Disciplines... ranks as an excellent contribution to the growing field [of African diaspora studies].... [I]t is a cogent, suggestive work that will energize scholars across the disciplines to further mine this rich vein." —postcolonialnetworks.com

www.postcolonialnetworks.com