American Africans in Ghana

American Africans in Ghana PDF Author: Kevin K. Gaines
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807867829
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
In 1957 Ghana became one of the first sub-Saharan African nations to gain independence from colonial rule. Over the next decade, hundreds of African Americans--including Martin Luther King Jr., George Padmore, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Richard Wright, Pauli Murray, and Muhammad Ali--visited or settled in Ghana. Kevin K. Gaines explains what attracted these Americans to Ghana and how their new community was shaped by the convergence of the Cold War, the rise of the U.S. civil rights movement, and the decolonization of Africa. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's president, posed a direct challenge to U.S. hegemony by promoting a vision of African liberation, continental unity, and West Indian federation. Although the number of African American expatriates in Ghana was small, in espousing a transnational American citizenship defined by solidarities with African peoples, these activists along with their allies in the United States waged a fundamental, if largely forgotten, struggle over the meaning and content of the cornerstone of American citizenship--the right to vote--conferred on African Americans by civil rights reform legislation.

American Africans in Ghana

American Africans in Ghana PDF Author: Kevin K. Gaines
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 0807867829
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 360

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Book Description
In 1957 Ghana became one of the first sub-Saharan African nations to gain independence from colonial rule. Over the next decade, hundreds of African Americans--including Martin Luther King Jr., George Padmore, Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Richard Wright, Pauli Murray, and Muhammad Ali--visited or settled in Ghana. Kevin K. Gaines explains what attracted these Americans to Ghana and how their new community was shaped by the convergence of the Cold War, the rise of the U.S. civil rights movement, and the decolonization of Africa. Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's president, posed a direct challenge to U.S. hegemony by promoting a vision of African liberation, continental unity, and West Indian federation. Although the number of African American expatriates in Ghana was small, in espousing a transnational American citizenship defined by solidarities with African peoples, these activists along with their allies in the United States waged a fundamental, if largely forgotten, struggle over the meaning and content of the cornerstone of American citizenship--the right to vote--conferred on African Americans by civil rights reform legislation.

American Africans in Ghana

American Africans in Ghana PDF Author: Kevin Kelly Gaines
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 9780807858936
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
American Africans in Ghana: Black Expatriates and the Civil Rights Era

African American Repatriation to Ghana, the Nkrumah Years

African American Repatriation to Ghana, the Nkrumah Years PDF Author: Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 138

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Book Description


Proudly We Can Be Africans

Proudly We Can Be Africans PDF Author: James H. Meriwether
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807860417
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
The mid-twentieth century witnessed nations across Africa fighting for their independence from colonial forces. By examining black Americans' attitudes toward and responses to these liberation struggles, James Meriwether probes the shifting meaning of Africa in the intellectual, political, and social lives of African Americans. Paying particular attention to such important figures and organizations as W. E. B. Du Bois, Martin Luther King Jr., and the NAACP, Meriwether incisively utilizes the black press, personal correspondence, and oral histories to render a remarkably nuanced and diverse portrait of African American opinion. Meriwether builds the book around seminal episodes in modern African history, including nonviolent protests against apartheid in South Africa, the Mau Mau war in Kenya, Ghana's drive for independence under Kwame Nkrumah, and Patrice Lumumba's murder in the Congo. Viewing these events within the context of their own changing lives, especially in regard to the U.S. civil rights struggle, African Americans have continually reconsidered their relationship to contemporary Africa and vigorously debated how best to translate their concerns into action in the international arena. Grounded in black Americans' encounters with Africa, this transnational history sits astride the leading issues of the twentieth century: race, civil rights, anticolonialism, and the intersections of domestic race relations and U.S. foreign relations.

Exiles, Entrepreneurs, and Educators

Exiles, Entrepreneurs, and Educators PDF Author: Steven J. L. Taylor
Publisher: SUNY Press
ISBN: 1438474717
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
Compares the political activities of African Americans who settled in Ghana in the 1950s and 1960s with those who settled in the 1980s to the present. After repeated coups and periods of military rule, Ghana is now one of Africa’s longest enduring democratic republics. Exiles, Entrepreneurs, and Educators compares the political proclivities of two generations of African Americans who moved to Ghana. Steven J. L. Taylor blends archival and ethnographic research, including interviews, to provide a unique perspective on these immigrants who chose to leave an economically developed country and settle in an impoverished developing country. The first generation consisted of voluntary exiles from the US who arrived from 1957 to 1966, during the regime of President Kwame Nkrumah, and embraced both Nkrumah and his left-leaning political party. In contrast to the first generation, many in the second generation left the US to establish commercial enterprises in Ghana. Although they identified with the Democratic Party while living in the US, and were politically active, they avoided political activity in Ghana and many identified with the Ghanaian party that is modeled after the Republican Party in the US. Taylor dispels some of the incorrect assumptions about African politics and provides readers with an insightful look at how developing nations can embark upon a path toward democratization. “This book is an exciting addition to existing scholarship about African American expatriates in Ghana.” — April Copes, Anne Arundel Community College

Winning Our Freedoms Together

Winning Our Freedoms Together PDF Author: Nicholas Grant
Publisher: UNC Press Books
ISBN: 1469635291
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
In this transnational account of black protest, Nicholas Grant examines how African Americans engaged with, supported, and were inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement. Bringing black activism into conversation with the foreign policy of both the U.S. and South African governments, this study questions the dominant perception that U.S.-centered anticommunism decimated black international activism. Instead, by tracing the considerable amount of time, money, and effort the state invested into responding to black international criticism, Grant outlines the extent to which the U.S. and South African governments were forced to reshape and occasionally reconsider their racial policies in the Cold War world. This study shows how African Americans and black South Africans navigated transnationally organized state repression in ways that challenged white supremacy on both sides of the Atlantic. The political and cultural ties that they forged during the 1940s and 1950s are testament to the insistence of black activists in both countries that the struggle against apartheid and Jim Crow were intimately interconnected.

Wrapped in Pride

Wrapped in Pride PDF Author: Doran H. Ross
Publisher: Fowler Museum at UCLA
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Kente is not only the best known of all African textiles, it is also one of the most admired of all fabrics worldwide. Originating among the Asante peoples of Ghana and the Ewe peoples of Ghana and Togo, this brilliantly colored and intricately patterned strip-woven cloth was traditionally associated with royalty. Over time, however, it has come to be worn and used in many different contexts. In Wrapped in Pride, seven distinguished scholars present an exhaustive examination of the history of kente from its earliest use in Ghana to its present-day impact in the African Diaspora. Doran H. Ross is the former director of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History.

The Predicament of Blackness

The Predicament of Blackness PDF Author: Jemima Pierre
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226923029
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 285

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Book Description
What is the meaning of blackness in Africa? This title tackles the question of race in West Africa through its post-colonial manifestations. Pierre examines key facets of contemporary Ghanaian society, from the pervasive significance of 'whiteness' to the practice of chemical skin-bleaching to the government's active promotion of Pan-African 'heritage tourism'.

Middle Passages

Middle Passages PDF Author: James T. Campbell
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440649413
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 577

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Book Description
Penguin announces a prestigious new series under presiding editor Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. Many works of history deal with the journeys of blacks in bondage from Africa to the United States along the "middle passage," but there is also a rich and little examined history of African Americans traveling in the opposite direction. In Middle Passages, award-winning historian James T. Campbell vividly recounts more than two centuries of African American journeys to Africa, including the experiences of such extraordinary figures as Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois, Richard Wright, Malcolm X, and Maya Angelou. A truly groundbreaking work, Middle Passages offers a unique perspective on African Americans' ever-evolving relationship with their ancestral homeland, as well as their complex, often painful relationship with the United States.

Ghana's Foreign Policy, 1957-1966

Ghana's Foreign Policy, 1957-1966 PDF Author: Willard Scott Thompson
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400876303
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 489

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Book Description
A systematic and thorough analysis of a small, determined and comparatively wealthy "new" state's attempts to enlarge its influence and augment its power. Originally published in 1969. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.