The African Diaspora : African Origins and New World Identities

The purpose of this book is to contribute to the debate between those who believe that the African origin of blacks in western society is central to their identity and outlook, and those who deny that proposition.

The contributors to the volume were asked to ponder the key questions underlying that controversy.

Is derivation from Africa enough to account for the African presence in the New World?

How did Africans manage to create a viable life for themselves after they got to the Americas?

How were they able to negotiate the social, political, cultural, and other space they encountered?

How successfully has their ancestral heritage co-existed with the heritage of the other peoples that history has forced them to live with?

These subjects are brilliantly explored in the introductory essay by Isidore Okpewho, Carole Boyce-Davies, and Ali Mazrui.