An erudite collection of critical essays by one of the most respected scholars in African Studies today. An active blogger on The Zeleza Post, from which these essays are drawn, he provides a genuinely critical engagement with Africa's multiple worlds. The collection explores the meaning of the election of a member of the first African in the Diaspora to the presidency of the United States along with a range of essays that analyse the role of Africa and Africans and the interaction of the world with Africa.

The history of presidential politics reached a new and significant milestone with the election of Barack Obama in 2008. It sparked great hope in America for greater racial equity and social justice. A Paradise to Regain: Post-Obama Insights from Women Educators of the Black Diaspora seeks to avert the likelihood of erasure of President Obama’s legacy of hope and possibility that every child, regardless of race, faith, and gender affiliation, can dream big and live to see his/her dream turn into reality. As women educators of color, we all agree that the socio-political climate prevailing in the United States of America, since the aftermath of the 2016 election, requires unprecedented agency. The book provides space for Black women educators–African Americans, Naturalized Black Americans, and Foreign-born Blacks from Africa, the Caribbean Islands and South America (e.g., Guyana)–to have a candid conversation with their young children—sons and daughters, nephews and nieces—about the roadblocks they are likely to face as minority youth of color in their pursuit of greatness and the reminder that they have a role model in President Obama to look up to in moments of extreme frustration and exasperation. Voices of engaged educators of color are indispensable to make sure that children understand that that despite a 360-degree turn from eight consecutive years of a reassuring message that “change had come,” that paradise had been gained, into the threatening message of “making America white again,” we count on them to regain the paradise. Perfect for courses such as: Racism and Education Inequality in the Lives of African-American Youth, Introduction to the African Diaspora, Equity and Diversity in Schools, Place, Language, Power and Knowledge, Global and Multicultural Education in the Secondary School, Issues in Urban Education, Culture Power and Education, Social Class Education and Pedagogy, Language, Culture, and Education, The Politics of Literacy and Race in Schools, Race and Racism in Education and Society, Race, Ethnicity and Linguistic Diversity in Classrooms and Communities, and Education and Society.

In this comprehensive reference and background book, Dr. Roland Holou highlights the lives, visions, achievements, policies, and strategies of exceptional contemporary African Diaspora leaders across the globe. This inspirational collection of biographies motivates, challenges, and encourages current and future generations of people of African descent to take initiative and offers guidance to those interested in Africas development. It enlightens and empowers readers with stories that showcase the diversity, complexity, and richness of the ongoing global African Diaspora engagement efforts. It also presents powerful accounts of experiences, growth, struggle, failure, and success that will provoke interest in the field of Diaspora engagement and inspire readers to stand up and face lifes many challenges. The featured leaders are known for their long-lasting achievements. Their impressive actions both contributed to important historical movements that significantly shaped and transformed the lives and history of people of African descent and removed major roadblocks preventing the prosperity of Africa and its Diaspora. They have brought about enormous and rare progress that would have been impossible without their leadership; their contributions have greatly improved the freedom and economic and political development of Africa and its Diaspora. If you are interested in learning the secrets of these modern leaders who have accomplished outstanding tasks and demonstrated professional excellence and character while performing duties related to Africa and its Diaspora, then this is the book for you. Since influence can have negative effects as well, this book also addresses destructive actions of certain leaders that are pulling down both Africa and its people. To learn more about this book, please visit www.AfricanDiasporaLeaders.com.

An argument for intense and organized activism from the African American community to generate discussion on race in the United States. In a speech from which Nation of Cowards derives its title, Attorney General Eric Holder argued forcefully that Americans today need to talk more—not less—about racism. This appeal for candid talk about race exposes the paradox of Barack Obama’s historic rise to the US presidency and the ever-increasing social and economic instability of African American communities. David H. Ikard and Martell Lee Teasley maintain that such a conversation can take place only with passionate and organized pressure from Black Americans, and that neither Obama nor any political figure is likely to be in the forefront of addressing issues of racial inequality and injustice. The authors caution Blacks not to slip into an accommodating and self-defeating “post-racial” political posture, settling for the symbolic capital of a Black president instead of demanding structural change. They urge the Black community to challenge the social terms on which it copes with oppression, including acts of self-imposed victimization. “A clarion call to our nation’s conscience. Free from overly academic jargon, but full of powerful wordplay and brilliant juxtapositions, this book is a fascinating tour de force from start to finish. Those seeking a clear and concise explanation of the state of African America and the ongoing need for a “black agenda” during—and even after—the administration of the first African American president need look no further.” —Reiland Rabaka, author of The Hip Hop Movement and Du Bois: A Critical Introduction “Nation of Cowards offers an analysis of the Obama administration is as thorough as it is compact. Here are the hard questions that must be asked of the first black presidency and an insightful draft of how history may regard it. Ikard and Teasley are well ahead of that curve.” —Jelani Cobb, author of The Substance of Hope:Barack Obama & the Paradox of Progress

Blankbook with white front cover and black back cover back, black spiral binding, and blank white pages. Center of front cover has "African Diaspora for Obama" in red and blue lettering at center with single blue star on either side of lettering. Square logo above lettering has outline of map of Africa in red superimposed on yellow and white sunburst motif; logo has blue frame.

The African diaspora is arguably the most important event in modern African history. From the fifteenth century to the present, millions of Africans have been dispersed -- many of them forcibly, others driven by economic need or political persecution--to other continents, creating large communities with African origins living outside their native lands. The majority of these communities are in North America. This historic displacement has meant that Africans are irrevocably connected to economic and political developments in the West and globally. Among the known legacies of the diaspora are slavery, colonialism, racism, poverty, and underdevelopment, yet the ways in which these same factors worked to spur the scattering of Africans are not fully understood -- by those who were part of this migration or by scholars, historians, and policymakers. In this definitive study of the diaspora in North America, Toyin Falola offers a causal history of the western dispersion of Africans and its effects on the modern world. Reengaging old and familiar debates and framing new ones that enrich the discourse surrounding Africa, Falola isolates the thread, running nearly six centuries, that connects the history of slavery, the transatlantic slave trade, and current migrations. A boon to scholars and policymakers and accessible to the general reader, the book explores diverse narratives of migration and shows that the cultures that migrated from Africa to the Americas have the capacity to unite and create a new pan-Africanist movement within the globalized world. Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the 2011 recipient of the Distinguished Africanist Award from the African Studies Association and serves as the vice president of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Slave Route Project. His previous books published by the University of Rochester Press include The Power of African Cultures and Nationalism and African Intellectuals.

Examines the progress of and obstacles faced by African Americans in twenty-first-century America. In Repositioning Race, leading African American sociologists assess the current state of race theory, racial discrimination, and research on race in order to chart a path toward a more engaged public scholarship. They contemplate not only the paradoxes of Black freedom but also the paradoxes of equality and progress for the progeny of the civil rights generation in the wake of the election of the first African American US president. Despite the proliferation of ideas about a postracial society, the volume highlights the ways that racial discrimination persists in both the United States and the African Diaspora in the Global South, allowing for unprecedented African American progress in the midst of continuing African American marginalization.

Converging Identities is a volume of sixteen essays analyzing the issues of blackness and identity of the African Diaspora in global perspective, but focusing on the United States, the Caribbean, and Latin America. Given the historical factors that prompted Africans to populate different parts of the world, the subject of blackness as a form of identity becomes relevant. In modern times, blackness and identity are popular subject matters in view of the historic election of Barack Obama as the President of the United States of America in 2008. Converging Identities provides a stimulating and enlightening perspective to blackness and identity of the African Diaspora. 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. "This book investigates the role of Africans in the development of host communities in which they settled, with their attendant antithetical consequences including loss of their African identity or Blackness. Sophisticated both in scope and content of analyses, this book will be invaluable to academic and non-academic audiences on African Diaspora correlated to the notion of identity formation and crisis ethno-cultural representation." -- Apollos Okwuchi Nwauwa, Ph.D., Professor and Director of Africana Studies, Bowling Green State University "Converging Identities is an invaluable contribution to the scholarly output on the Black/Africana Experience. It is culturally relevant for the citizens of modern Africa and historically pertinent to the ongoing reassessment of black ontology beyond the African continent." -- BioDun J. Ogundayo, Ph.D., Associate Professor of French & Comparative Literature, University of Pittsburgh, Bradford Campus "Converging Identities is a curiously sensitive and stimulating collection of essays that vividly capture the challenges and opportunities of the contemporary African Diaspora in the Americas in the realm of race, cultures, identity formations and transformations." -- Emmanuel M. Mbah, Ph.D., Associate Professor of History, The City University of New York, College of Staten Island "One of the key features of this book is its accessibility: the language is clear and chapters are neatly organized by broad themes according to geographical regions. Additionally, topics covered in sections are vast (from mental health to race films in France), and thus readers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and interests will find something to enjoy." -- Portia Owusu, African Studies Quarterly

Obama's American Dream--Non-Discrimination, Economic Salvation & Humanity A Blueprint for the Restoration of America's Global Image and Leadership Columbia, MO-Africana Womanism & Race & Gender in the Presidential Candidacy of Barack Obama, advocating unity as a panacea for all societal ills, expounds on an authentic paradigm for all African Diaspora women. Clenora Hudson-Weems, PhD, uses Africana Womanism as a template for interpreting political activity, particularly the current controversial debates surrounding the Nation's 1st Black nominee for the Democratic Party for President of the United States of America, Barack Obama. The story of authenticity, human survival, economic security & racial healing for all, this book logically moves from the proper naming & defining of the Africana woman in Part One, to commentaries in Part Two on the biggest obstacle for our society--racism. The book exposes how this phenomenon insidiously impacts upon personal & public relationships, culminating in the current historical moment, as it unfolds in the ascendance of a Black man, Senator Barack Obama, to candidacy for presidency of the USA with his wife, Michelle, the potential 1st Lady. With the mission of restoring America's image and leadership once again in the global world, he has the potential of becoming one of the best U. S. Presidents ever. President & CEO of Hip Hop Caucus, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Jr.'s Foreword refers to Clenora as "profound in her discourse;" Atty. Alvin O. Chambliss, Jr.'s Afterword quotes her as saying "There is a great difference between discrimination by privilege & protection, and discrimination by deprivation & exclusion;" Lillian Smith, Emmy Award Winner as former 20-year producer of T.V. Talk show, DONAHUE, acknowledges Clenora's "spiritual sense of genuine sisterhood;" & Barry Morrow, Oscar Award-Winning Co-Writer of Rain Man, calls her "a seasoned social, cultural, and political thinker [whose message represents] things worth fighting for."

A comprehensive history of the relationship between Africa and the United States Toyin Falola and Raphael Njoku reexamine the history of the relationship between Africa and the United States from the dawn of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the present. Their broad, interdisciplinary book follows the relationship's evolution, tracking African American emancipation, the rise of African diasporas in the Americas, the Back-to-Africa movement, the founding of Sierra Leone and Liberia, the presence of American missionaries in Africa, the development of blues and jazz music, the presidency of Barack Obama, and more.