The African academic diaspora in the United States and Africa: The challenges of productive engagement

Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East

Volumn 24, Issue 1, 2004, Pages 261-275

  Zeleza, Paul Tiyambe ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DIASPORA;

EID: 15044352176     PISSN: 1089201X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/1089201X-24-1-261     Document Type: Article

References (103)

1. This essay was originally written and presented at the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa's (CODESRIA's) 30th Anniversary Conference, "Intellectuals, Nationalism and the Pan-African Ideal," Dakar, December 10-12, 2003. Thanks to Cassandra R. Veney for her incisive comments and also to the conference participants for their questions that helped clarify my thoughts.
2. I have argued this point in Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Rethinking Africa's Globalization. Vol. 1: The Intellectual Challenges (Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2003), 170.
3. For a more detailed analysis of the concept and history of the African diaspora, see Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Africa and Its Diasporas: Dispersals and Linkages (Dakar: Codesria Book Series, forthcoming).
4. Jacqueline N. Brown, "Black Liverpool, Black America, and the Gendering of Diasporic Space," Cultural Anthropology 13: 3 (1998): 291-325.
5. Earl Lewis, "To turn as on a pivot: Writing African Americans into a history of overlapping diasporas," American Historical Review 100:3 (1995): 765-787.
6. Colin Palmer, "The African Diaspora," Black Scholar 30:3-4 (2000): 56-59.
7. Tiffany Patterson and Robin D. G. Kelly, "Unfinished Migration: Reflections on the African Diaspora and the Making of the Modern World," African Studies Review 43:1 (2000): 11-45
8. Brent H. Edwards, "Unfinished Migrations': Commentary and Response," African Studies Review 43:1 (2000): 47.
9. See the following works: Allison Blakely, Russia and the Negro: Blacks In Russian History and Thought (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1986);
10. Edward Alpers, "Recollecting Africa: Diasporic Memory in the Indian Ocean World," African Studies Review 43:1 (2000): 83-89;
11. John Hunwick and Trott Powell, The African Diaspora in the Mediterranean Lands of Islam (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2002);
12. and Shihan de S Jaysuriya and Richard Pankhurst, eds. The African Diaspora in the Indian Ocean (Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press), 2003).
13. Michael West, "'Unfinished Migrations': Commentary and Response," African Studies Review 43:1 (2000): 62-63.
14. For insightful critiques of Paul Gilroy, The Black Atlantic. Modernity and Double Consciousness (Cambridge, Mass: Cambrige University Press, 1993),
15. see Ntongela Masilela, "'The Black Atlantic" and African Modernity in South Africa'," Research in African Literatures, 27:4 (1996): 88-96;
16. Michael J. C. Echeruo, " An African Diaspora: The Ontological Projects," in African Diaspora. African Origins and New World Identities, ed. Isidore Okpewho, Carole Boyce Davies and Ali A. Mazrui (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press,, 1999, 3-18;
17. and Laura Chrisman, "Rethinking Black Atlanticism,' Black Scholar 30:3-4 (2000): 12-17.
18. And for Kwame Anthony Appiah, In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992),
19. see Nkiru Nzegwu, "Questions of Identity and Inheritance: A Critical Review of Kwame Anthony Appiah's In My Father's House," Hypatia 11: 175-201;
20. Femi Taiwo, "Appropriating Africa: An Essay on New Africanist Schools," Issue: A Journal of Opinion 23:39-44;
21. K. A. Owolabi, "Cultural Nationalism and Western Hegemony: A Review Essay of Appiah's Universalism," Africa Development 20: 113-123;
22. Tsenay Serequeberham, "Reflection on In My Father's House," Research in African Literature 27: 111-118.
23. Alfred Zack-Williams, "Development and Diaspora: Separate Concerns?" Review of African Political Economy 65 (1995): 349-358.
24. See Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, "African Labor and Intellectual Migrations to the North: Building New Transatlantic Bridges" (paper presented at the African Studies Interdisciplinary Seminar. Center for African Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, February 2000);
25. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, "Contemporary African Migrations in a Global Context: Towards building the Black Atlantic" (paper Presented at the tenth CODESRIA General Assembly, Kampala, December 2002).
26. Kim D. Butler, "From Black History to Diasporan History: Brazilian Abolition in Afro-Atlantic Context," African Studies Review 43:1 (2000): 127.
27. Darlene Clark Hine, "Frontiers in Black Diaspora Studies and Comparative Black History: Enhanced Knowledge of Our Complex Past." The Negro Education Review 52: 3 (2001): 101-108.
28. For a surveys of the changes in the academy in Africa and globally see, Paul Tiyambe Zeleza and Adebayo Olukoshi, African Universities in the Twenty-First Century, Volume 1: Liberalization and Internationalization; Volume 2: Knowledge and Society (Dakar: Codesria Book Series, 2004),
29. and Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, "Knowledge, Globalization and Hegemony: Production of Knowledge in the 21st Century," in Knowledge Society and Knowledge Economy: Knowledge, Power and Politics, ed. Katri Pohjolainen Yap (New York: Palgrave, forthcoming).
30. This is the classification used by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, which is the leading typology of American colleges and universities. See http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/ classification/. Needless to say, different classifications of higher educational systems operate in different countries.
31. For studies of Blacks in the American academy see Joy James and Ruth Farmer, eds. Spirit, Space & Survival: African American Women in (White) Academe (New York: Routledge, 1993);
32. Lee Jones, ed. Brothers of the Academy: Up and Coming Black Scholars Earning Our Way in Higher Education (Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishers, 2000);
33. and Valora Washington and William Harvey, Affirmative Rhetoric, Negative Action: African-American and Hispanic Faculty at Predominantly White Institutions (Washington, D.C.: George Washington University, 1989).
34. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Almanac (29 August 2003), 22-23. These classifications are problematic in so far as they conflate racial (Black), geographical (Asian), and linguistic (Hispanic) categories. For example, there are many Hispanics who are "Black." For the purposes of this paper there are additional problems, in that while many African immigrants would fit into the category "Black," immigrants from North Africa and African immigrants of European and Asian descent would be excluded; similarly African diaspora immigrants from Asia and Europe might be excluded.
35. Of 29,222 Black faculty, 14,660 are men and 14,562 are women; and women made up 35.7 per cent of the professors, 44.3 per cent of the associate professors, 54.0 per cent of the assistant professors, 56.2 per cent of the instructors, and 57.7 per cent of the lecturers and other.
36. Barbara Johnson and William Harvey, "The Socialization of Black College Faculty: Implications for Policy and Practice," The Review of Higher-Education 25:3 (2002): 298.
37. For histories of the HBCUs, see Charles V. Willie and Ronald R. Edmonds, eds. Black Colleges in America: Challenge, Development, Survival (New York: Teachers College Press, 1978);
38. Antoine Garibaldi, ed., Black Colleges and Universities: Challenges for the Future (New York: Praeger, 1984);
39. James D. Anderson, The Education of Blacks in the South, 1860-1935 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988);
40. Julian B. Roebuck and Komanduri S. Murty, Historically Black Colleges and Universities: Their Place in American Higher Education (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1993);
41. and Serbrenia J. Sims, Diversifying historically Black colleges and universities : a new higher education paradigm (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994).
42. Robin Wilson, "Stacking the Deck for Minority Candidates? Virginia Tech has diversified its faculty, but many professors there doubt the efforts are fair - or even legal." The Chronicle of Higher Education July 12 (2002): A10.
43. For some interesting studies on the struggles of African American, Afro-American, Africana, or Black studies - the nomenclature is itself indicate of the field's contestations and continued search for a viable identity - see some of the following: Abdul Alkalimat, Paradigms in Black Studies. Intellectual History, Political Meaning and Political Ideology (Chicago: Twenty-first Century Books and Publications, 1990);
44. Mario Azevedo, ed., African Studies: A Survey of Africa and the African Diaspora. 3rd ed. (Durham, N.C.: Carolina Academic Press, 2003);
45. Manning Marable, Dispatches from the Ebony Tower: Intellectuals Confront the African American Experience (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000);
46. Elliot P. Skinner, "Transcending traditions: African, African-American and African diaspora studies in the 21st century - the past must be the prologue" Black Scholar 3:4 (2000): 4-11;
47. Margaret Barreett and Philip Carey. Diaspora: Introduction to Africana Studies (Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt);
48. Kendra Hamilton, "Challenging the Future of Black Studies," Black Issues in Higher Education 20:2 (2003): 38-9;
49. and Makasa Kasonde, "African American Studies: An African Scholars View" Contemporary Review 278, 1624 (2001): 272-5.
50. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Rethinking Africa's Globalization. Vol. 1: The Intellectual Challenges (Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 2003), Chapter 5.
51. Recent examples of conflict between African migrants and African Americans include the widely publicized altercations at Virginia State University, an HBCU, in which the institution's Black president was accused of demoting African American heads of department in favor of foreign-born faculty, including Africans, during a reorganization. See Robin Wilson, "A Battle Over Race, Nationality, and Control at a Black University. At Virginia State U., black Americans and black Africans each see bias from the other side," The Chronicle of Higher Education (27 July 2001): A8.
52. In a different twist, an African-Lebanese man from West Africa sued Loyola College in Maryland in federal court after he was turned down for a position allegedly on the grounds that Black faculty members were pressuring for the hiring of an "African-American that was visibly black." See Roger Clegg, "When Faculty Hiring Is Blatantly Illegal," The Chronicle of Higher Education (1 November 2002): B20.
53. For an examination of the contestations over the meaning of "Africa," see Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, "Africa: The Changing Meanings of 'African' Culture and Identity," in African Modernities and Diasporas, ed. Håkan Thörn (Göteborg, Sweden: National Museum of World Cultures and Gothenburg University, forthcoming).
54. V. Y. Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988)
55. and The Idea of Africa (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994).
56. See, for example, Basil Davidson, The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State (New York: Times Books, 1992);
57. Kwaku Larbi Korang, Writing Ghana, Imagining Africa: Nation and African Modernity (Rochester, N.Y: Rochester University Press, 2004);
58. and V. Y. Mudimbe, The Invention of Africa: Gnosis, Philosophy, and the Order of Knowledge (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988).
59. See for Edward Wilmot Blyden, A Vindication of the African Race: Being a Brief Examination of the Arguments in Favor of African Inferiority (Monrovia: G. Killian, 1857);
60. Christianity, Islam and the Negro Race (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1967),
61. and Black Spokesman: Selected Published Writings of Edward Wilmot Blyden, ed. Hollis R. Lynch (London: Cass, 1971).
62. See for W. E. B. Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America (New York: Atheneum, 1970),
63. The world and Africa (Millwood, N.Y.: Kraus-Thomson Organization, 1976),
64. and The Souls of Black Folk (New York: Dover, 1994).
65. Finally, see for William Leo Hansberry, Pillars in Ethiopian history ed. Joseph E. Harris (Washington: Howard University Press, 1974),
66. and Africa and Africans as Seen by Classical Writers (Washington: Howard University Press, 1977).
67. Michael O. West and William G. Martin, "A Future with a Past: Resurrecting the Study of Africa in the Post-Africanist Era," Africa Today 44: 3 (1997): 311.
68. Kwaku Larbi Korang, "Intellectuals: Colonial," in Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century African History, ed. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza and Dickson Eyoh (London/New York: Routledge, 2002), 268-274
69. Joseph Harris, ed., Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora (2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1993).
70. Cassandra R. Veney, "The Ties That Bind: The Historic African Diaspora and Africa." African Issues 1 (2003): 3-8,
71. and "Building on the Past: African and American linkages," in African Universities in the Twenty-First Century. Vol. 1: Liberalization and Internationalization, ed. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza and Adebayo Olukoshi (Dakar and Pretoria: Codesria Book Series and University of South Africa Press), 263-279.
72. Toyin Falola, Nationalism and African Intellectuals (Rochester: University of Rochester Press, 2001).
73. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, "Pan-Africanism," in Enyclopedia of Twentieth Century African History, ed. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza and Dickson Eyoh (London/New York: Routledge, 2002), 415-418.
74. Amanda D. Kemp and Robert T. Vinson, "Professor James Thaele, American Negroes, and Modernity in 1920s Segregationist South Africa" African Studies Review 43:1 (2000): 141.
75. On the influence of African American cultural practices in South Africa, see Zine Magubane, "The Influence of African American Cultural Practices on South Africa, 1890-1990," in Leisure in Urban Africa ed. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza and Cassandra Rachel Veney (Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2003), 297-319;
76. and on cosmopolitanism in Zimbabwe as expressed through music, see Tom Turino, Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular Music in Zimbabwe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000),
77. and "The Middle Class, Cosmopolitanism, and Popular Music in Harare, Zimbabwe," in Leisure in Urban Africa, 321-341.
78. For African American contributions to the anti-apartheid struggle, see Francis Njubi Nesbitt, Race For Sanctions: African Americans Against Sanctions, 1946-1944 (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2004).
79. See the following recent studies on African immigrants in the United States, John A. Arthur, Invisible Sojourners: African Immigrant Diaspora in the United States (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2000);
80. Brent K. Ashabranner and Jennifer Ashabranner, The New African Americans (North Haven, Conn.: Linnet Books, 1999);
81. Jacqueline Copeland-Carson, Creating Africa in America. Translocal Identity in an Emerging World City (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004);
82. JoAnn D'Alisera, An Imagined Geography. Sierra Leonean Muslims in America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004),
83. and April Gordon, "The new diaspora - African immigration to the United States," Journal of Third World Studies 15:1 (1998): 79-103.
84. For a discussion of the implications of this, see Ali A. Mazrui, "Brain Drain Between Counterterrorism and Globalization," African Issues 1 (2002): 86-89;
85. Cassandra R. Veney, "Building on the Past: African and American linkages";
86. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, "Academic Freedom in the Neo-Liberal Order: Governments, Globalization, Governance, and Gender," Journal of Higher Education in Africa 1:1 (2003): 149-194;
87. and The Chronicle of Higher Education, "Special Report, Closing the Gates," (11 April 2003): A12-A25.
88. The median length of residence years for U. S. residents born in the following regions are as follows: Europe twenty-five years, Asia 14.3 years, Latin America 13.5 years, Caribbean 17.6 years, Central America 12.9 years, Mexico 12.8 years, South America 13 years, Northern America (mostly refers to Canada) 24.8 years, and other 13.2 years. Comparable figures of naturalized citizens among the foreign-born resident population from the other regions are as follows: Europe 52 per cent, Asia 47.1 per cent, Latin America 28.3 per cent, Caribbean 46.5 per cent, Central America 21.1 per cent, Mexico 20.3 per cent, South America 38.6 per cent, Northern America 43.1 per cent, and other 24.3 per cent. See: U. S Census Bureau, Profile of the Foreign Born Population in the United States (Washington, D.C: U. S. Census Bureau, 2001), 19-21.
89. Comparable figures for the other regions in terms of proportion of those with high school or more education are: Europe 81.3 per cent, Asia 83.8 per cent, Latin America 49.6 per cent, Caribbean 68.1 per cent, Central America 37.1 per cent, Mexico 33.8 per cent, South America 79.7 per cent, Northern America 85.5 per cent, and other 50.8 per cent. As for the proportions of those with a bachelor's degree or more, the figures are: Europe 32.9 per cent, Asia 44.9 per cent, Latin America 11.2 per cent, Caribbean 19.3 per cent, Central America 5.5 per cent, Mexico 4.2 per cent, South America 25.9 per cent, Northern America 36.2 per cent, and other 10.5 per cent. See U. S Census Bureau, Profile of the Foreign Born Population in the United States (Washington, D.C: U. S. Census Bureau, 2001), 36-7.
90. In 2000 they earned an average $36,371, as compared to $41,733 for residents from Europe, $51,363 for Asian-born residents, $36,048 for the foreign born altogether, and $41,383 for native-born Americans. In terms of poverty rates, it was 13.2 per cent for African-born residents, 9.3 per cent for European-born, 12.8 for Asian-born, 21.9 per cent for Latin American-born, 20.6 per cent for Caribbean-born, 24.2 per cent for Central America-born, 25.8 per cent for Mexico-born, 11.5 per cent for South America-born, 7.4 per cent for Northern America-born, and 17.8 per cent for other. U. S. Census Bureau (2001): 36-7.
91. Mark Granovetter and Richard Sweedberg, The Sociology of Economic Life (San Francisco: Westview Press, 1992);
92. and J. Murdoch, "Towards a Geography of Heterogeneous Associations," Progress in Human Geography 21: 3 (1997): 321-337.
93. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Rethinking Africa's Globalization, 161-170.
94. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Rethinking Africa's Globalization, Chapter 3.
95. For a detailed examination of linkages between African and American institutions of higher learning see Joel Samoff and Bidemi Carrol, The Promise of Partnership and the Continuities of Dependence: External Support to Higher Education in Africa (report presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, December 2002).
96. Falola T, Nationalism and African Intellectuals, 282.
97. Falola T, Nationalism and African Intellectuals, 281-293.
98. F. Njubi Nesbitt, "African Intellectuals in the Belly of the Beast: Migration, Identity, and the Politics of Exile," African Issues 1 (2003): 70-75.
99. George B.N. Ayittey, Africa Betrayed (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1992),
100. and Africa in Chaos (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998).
101. Nesbitt, "African Intellectuals in the Belly of the Beast," 74.
102. Philip G. Altbach, "African Higher Education and the World," in African Higher Education: An International Reference Handbook, ed. Damtew Teferra and Philip G. Altbach (Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2003), 146.
103. St. Clare Drake, "Diaspora Studies and Pan-Africanism," in Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora, 2nd ed., ed. Joseph Harris (Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1993), 451-514. He offers a fascinating rationale and program for collaborative research that will enhance both diaspora studies and Pan-Africanism.