Pub Date : 2021-05-04DOI: 10.1080/17528631.2021.1924512
Anthony A. Lee
ABSTRACT Ziba Khanum (d. 1932) was, an African woman, a slave in the city of Yazd in the second half of the nineteenth century. She bore her master a son who, in accordance with Islamic law, should have inherited part of his father’s wealth but did not. Although she is subaltern, information about her life and the life of her son, Ghulam ‘Ali Siyah, can be recovered from family oral histories. The son, an Afro-Iranian merchant, converted to the Baha’i religion, traveled to Palestine and to India, and became a wealthy and notable person in Yazd. Ziba Khanum lived in her son’s household, with his children and grandchildren until the end of her life. Some of her descendants now live in the United States. This paper will discuss issues of race, gender, slavery, assimilation, sexuality. and religion as experienced by an Afro-Iranian family in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
{"title":"Ziba Khanum of Yazd: an enslaved African woman in nineteenth-century Iran","authors":"Anthony A. Lee","doi":"10.1080/17528631.2021.1924512","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2021.1924512","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Ziba Khanum (d. 1932) was, an African woman, a slave in the city of Yazd in the second half of the nineteenth century. She bore her master a son who, in accordance with Islamic law, should have inherited part of his father’s wealth but did not. Although she is subaltern, information about her life and the life of her son, Ghulam ‘Ali Siyah, can be recovered from family oral histories. The son, an Afro-Iranian merchant, converted to the Baha’i religion, traveled to Palestine and to India, and became a wealthy and notable person in Yazd. Ziba Khanum lived in her son’s household, with his children and grandchildren until the end of her life. Some of her descendants now live in the United States. This paper will discuss issues of race, gender, slavery, assimilation, sexuality. and religion as experienced by an Afro-Iranian family in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.","PeriodicalId":39013,"journal":{"name":"African and Black Diaspora","volume":"14 1","pages":"67 - 84"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45529923","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-04DOI: 10.1080/17528631.2022.2086740
Gabriel E Andrade
ABSTRACT As with most Latin American nations, Venezuela has traditionally embraced the exceptionalist myth that it is a racial democracy. That does not mean racism is absent in that country. A combination of paternalist attitudes and pernicious stereotypes towards Afro-Venezuelans permeates throughout pop culture products. This article explores the attitudes towards AfroVenezuelans in gaita zuliana, a popular music genre in Zulia state. To do so, I rely on analysis of lyrics of some popular gaita songs, composed during the golden age of gaita, 1965–1985. I conclude that, although gaita zuliana draws upon many tropes from the history of racism, it nevertheless has potential for activism in favor of liberation from racial oppression.
{"title":"Attitudes towards Afro-Venezuelans in lyrics of gaita zuliana: 1965–1985","authors":"Gabriel E Andrade","doi":"10.1080/17528631.2022.2086740","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2022.2086740","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT As with most Latin American nations, Venezuela has traditionally embraced the exceptionalist myth that it is a racial democracy. That does not mean racism is absent in that country. A combination of paternalist attitudes and pernicious stereotypes towards Afro-Venezuelans permeates throughout pop culture products. This article explores the attitudes towards AfroVenezuelans in gaita zuliana, a popular music genre in Zulia state. To do so, I rely on analysis of lyrics of some popular gaita songs, composed during the golden age of gaita, 1965–1985. I conclude that, although gaita zuliana draws upon many tropes from the history of racism, it nevertheless has potential for activism in favor of liberation from racial oppression.","PeriodicalId":39013,"journal":{"name":"African and Black Diaspora","volume":"14 1","pages":"85 - 98"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44681069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-04DOI: 10.1080/17528631.2022.2091378
Marla R. Goins
ABSTRACT This study explores afro hair as a central component of transnational anti-Black and Black-empowering literacy construction. It argues that Black women in São Paulo City, Brazil, constructed Afro Love Counter-Literacies that were Black-empowering by embracing afro hair. Scholarship on Black feminism, racial literacies, and critical literacies guided the narrative analysis. The findings highlight two interworking mechanisms of Afro-Love Counter-Literacies: (1) alfabetização afro, which refers to languaging, caring for, and styling afro hair; and (2) letramento afro, which describes the development of affirmative beliefs about afro hair. Participants drew upon these literacies to (re)read and (re)write the world through an afro-affirming Black feminist lens.
{"title":"Afro Love: counter-literacies in Brazilian natural hair communities","authors":"Marla R. Goins","doi":"10.1080/17528631.2022.2091378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2022.2091378","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study explores afro hair as a central component of transnational anti-Black and Black-empowering literacy construction. It argues that Black women in São Paulo City, Brazil, constructed Afro Love Counter-Literacies that were Black-empowering by embracing afro hair. Scholarship on Black feminism, racial literacies, and critical literacies guided the narrative analysis. The findings highlight two interworking mechanisms of Afro-Love Counter-Literacies: (1) alfabetização afro, which refers to languaging, caring for, and styling afro hair; and (2) letramento afro, which describes the development of affirmative beliefs about afro hair. Participants drew upon these literacies to (re)read and (re)write the world through an afro-affirming Black feminist lens.","PeriodicalId":39013,"journal":{"name":"African and Black Diaspora","volume":"14 1","pages":"99 - 115"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41999906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17528631.2022.2041914
Courtney Pierre Joseph
ABSTRACT The 1965 Hart Cellar Act opened the US borders to African, Latin American, and Caribbean peoples in an unprecedented way. Yet, this migration is an extension of the connections Black people built with each other in the decades before. Black internationalism grew over the course of the twentieth century which laid the foundation for diasporic communities to form across the US in the latter half of the century. In particular, the travel of Black women between Haiti and Chicago helps to explain how a thriving Haitian community formed in the city during the late twentieth century. Black women like Gerthie David, Ms. Haiti 1975, and Marjorie Vincent, Ms. America 1991, exemplify the diasporic ties that were created and strengthened via pageants. This paper argues that Black women used pageants to build diasporic connections (for self and communal interests) and challenge derogatory stereotypes of Blackness and women across the diaspora.
{"title":"Diasporic ambassadors: Black women, pageants, and building connections across the African diaspora in the late twentieth century","authors":"Courtney Pierre Joseph","doi":"10.1080/17528631.2022.2041914","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2022.2041914","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The 1965 Hart Cellar Act opened the US borders to African, Latin American, and Caribbean peoples in an unprecedented way. Yet, this migration is an extension of the connections Black people built with each other in the decades before. Black internationalism grew over the course of the twentieth century which laid the foundation for diasporic communities to form across the US in the latter half of the century. In particular, the travel of Black women between Haiti and Chicago helps to explain how a thriving Haitian community formed in the city during the late twentieth century. Black women like Gerthie David, Ms. Haiti 1975, and Marjorie Vincent, Ms. America 1991, exemplify the diasporic ties that were created and strengthened via pageants. This paper argues that Black women used pageants to build diasporic connections (for self and communal interests) and challenge derogatory stereotypes of Blackness and women across the diaspora.","PeriodicalId":39013,"journal":{"name":"African and Black Diaspora","volume":"14 1","pages":"41 - 51"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46730289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17528631.2021.1920132
Benedetta Morsiani
ABSTRACT This article explores the transformation of la sape, a well-established fashion and lifestyle subculture in Congolese diasporic culture, among the London Congolese group. The focal point of investigation is the distinctive role that the city of London has played in shaping the practice. Following an overview on the body performance of la sape, the paper traces the quite recent establishment and evolution of the trend in the city. Some ambivalent points of view among older generation of London sapeurs are also introduced. Significantly, the article documents several voices of younger London Congolese who are not members of the group and stand firmly against it. Their experiences highlight controversial ways of looking at the lifestyle choices and values promoted by the movement. The paper, therefore, demonstrates how the city of London has forged deep discrepancies within the group and has influenced a generational polarity regarding the subculture among British Congolese.
{"title":"Questioning the practice of la sape: will the London movement survive?","authors":"Benedetta Morsiani","doi":"10.1080/17528631.2021.1920132","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2021.1920132","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article explores the transformation of la sape, a well-established fashion and lifestyle subculture in Congolese diasporic culture, among the London Congolese group. The focal point of investigation is the distinctive role that the city of London has played in shaping the practice. Following an overview on the body performance of la sape, the paper traces the quite recent establishment and evolution of the trend in the city. Some ambivalent points of view among older generation of London sapeurs are also introduced. Significantly, the article documents several voices of younger London Congolese who are not members of the group and stand firmly against it. Their experiences highlight controversial ways of looking at the lifestyle choices and values promoted by the movement. The paper, therefore, demonstrates how the city of London has forged deep discrepancies within the group and has influenced a generational polarity regarding the subculture among British Congolese.","PeriodicalId":39013,"journal":{"name":"African and Black Diaspora","volume":"14 1","pages":"9 - 22"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17528631.2021.1920132","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46011375","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17528631.2022.2047272
Victor Jatula, Taesha Goode
ABSTRACT Ethno-nationalism, state-imposed integration and economic slowdown fuelled by Covid-19 restrictions have hardened antiforeigner sentiments and impeded inclusion in Korea despite deliberate government policies geared towards multiculturalism. This study investigated the experience of Blacks in Korea; interrogating how people of color- Black Africans and Blacks from North America and Europe perceive Koreans and Korea. It examined the differences and similarities, if any, between the experience of Black Africans and other Blacks. Grounded in the theory of Universalist multiculturalism and using eclectic surveys; findings indicate that Black Africans experience significant immigration complexities that often narrow their economic opportunities and restricts social integration. Black Americans, though treated better than Black Africans, are less liked compared to White Americans and more likely to experience discrimination, racism and cultural appropriation. In Korea, nationality-based preferences and skin color defines access, acceptance and integration. This study recommends public education as a means to challenge anti-Black propaganda.
{"title":"Same color, different realities: analysis of Black experience in South Korea","authors":"Victor Jatula, Taesha Goode","doi":"10.1080/17528631.2022.2047272","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2022.2047272","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Ethno-nationalism, state-imposed integration and economic slowdown fuelled by Covid-19 restrictions have hardened antiforeigner sentiments and impeded inclusion in Korea despite deliberate government policies geared towards multiculturalism. This study investigated the experience of Blacks in Korea; interrogating how people of color- Black Africans and Blacks from North America and Europe perceive Koreans and Korea. It examined the differences and similarities, if any, between the experience of Black Africans and other Blacks. Grounded in the theory of Universalist multiculturalism and using eclectic surveys; findings indicate that Black Africans experience significant immigration complexities that often narrow their economic opportunities and restricts social integration. Black Americans, though treated better than Black Africans, are less liked compared to White Americans and more likely to experience discrimination, racism and cultural appropriation. In Korea, nationality-based preferences and skin color defines access, acceptance and integration. This study recommends public education as a means to challenge anti-Black propaganda.","PeriodicalId":39013,"journal":{"name":"African and Black Diaspora","volume":"14 1","pages":"52 - 66"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46542922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17528631.2021.1868158
Aymane Edouihri
ABSTRACT The question of identity (re)constructions across different locations is central to diasporic literature. Voluntary or forced exile, diasporic characters participate in different cultural identity processes, attempting, for example, to break through solid walls of excolonial stereotypes, superiority and subjugation constructs. In this context, Laila Lalami casts light on the overshadowed and silenced stories of the displaced migrant in seminal works as Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Secret Son, the Moor’s Account and The Other Americans. The Other Americans recounts the story of a Moroccan migrant family whose hope of an American dream comes to break on the shores of a reality of being ‘Othered’; relegated to a lower status by the white-dominated society. In this vein, this paper seeks to study how these issues are represented in relation to the articulation and negotiation of ‘new identities’ and how disillusioned they become in a host society which is not less barren and mirage-like than the Mojave Desert itself.
{"title":"Othering and disillusionment in Laila Lalami’s The Other Americans","authors":"Aymane Edouihri","doi":"10.1080/17528631.2021.1868158","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2021.1868158","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The question of identity (re)constructions across different locations is central to diasporic literature. Voluntary or forced exile, diasporic characters participate in different cultural identity processes, attempting, for example, to break through solid walls of excolonial stereotypes, superiority and subjugation constructs. In this context, Laila Lalami casts light on the overshadowed and silenced stories of the displaced migrant in seminal works as Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, Secret Son, the Moor’s Account and The Other Americans. The Other Americans recounts the story of a Moroccan migrant family whose hope of an American dream comes to break on the shores of a reality of being ‘Othered’; relegated to a lower status by the white-dominated society. In this vein, this paper seeks to study how these issues are represented in relation to the articulation and negotiation of ‘new identities’ and how disillusioned they become in a host society which is not less barren and mirage-like than the Mojave Desert itself.","PeriodicalId":39013,"journal":{"name":"African and Black Diaspora","volume":"14 1","pages":"1 - 8"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17528631.2021.1868158","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43912985","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-01-02DOI: 10.1080/17528631.2021.2004368
Mesfin Dessiye
ABSTRACT This article examines the post-return life experiences of Ethiopian migrant women returnees from domestic work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The returnees live in Wourgessa town located in Habru district, North Wollo zone of Amhara National Regional State. Labor migration abroad from the town has been ingrained in the socio-economic life of the local people in which regular and irregular migration has become the norm with the culture of migration developed over the years. The paper draws on the social constructivist research paradigm, which explains reality as a social construct. Employing a qualitative research method with in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions used as methods of the primary data collection, the article explores the post-return lived experiences of the returnee women. It analyzes the returnees’ socio-economic reintegration, experience with polygamous marriages, household relations and decision-making, and the local community perspectives on the reintegration of migrant returnees.
{"title":"Life in the post-return period: evidence from migrant women returnees in Wourgessa town, Ethiopia","authors":"Mesfin Dessiye","doi":"10.1080/17528631.2021.2004368","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2021.2004368","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the post-return life experiences of Ethiopian migrant women returnees from domestic work in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The returnees live in Wourgessa town located in Habru district, North Wollo zone of Amhara National Regional State. Labor migration abroad from the town has been ingrained in the socio-economic life of the local people in which regular and irregular migration has become the norm with the culture of migration developed over the years. The paper draws on the social constructivist research paradigm, which explains reality as a social construct. Employing a qualitative research method with in-depth interviews, key informant interviews and focus group discussions used as methods of the primary data collection, the article explores the post-return lived experiences of the returnee women. It analyzes the returnees’ socio-economic reintegration, experience with polygamous marriages, household relations and decision-making, and the local community perspectives on the reintegration of migrant returnees.","PeriodicalId":39013,"journal":{"name":"African and Black Diaspora","volume":"14 1","pages":"23 - 40"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46552460","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-09-01DOI: 10.1080/17528631.2019.1649894
{"title":"Correction","authors":"","doi":"10.1080/17528631.2019.1649894","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2019.1649894","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":39013,"journal":{"name":"African and Black Diaspora","volume":"13 1","pages":"358 - 358"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17528631.2019.1649894","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48268033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2020-06-24DOI: 10.1080/17528631.2020.1781359
Nadège T. Clitandre
ABSTRACT This article is grounded on the premise that any critical discussion of the formation and intellectualization of the African Diaspora as discourse and field of study must confront the place and displacement of Haiti as a constitutive element of global black diasporic identity and consciousness. Since one of the tenets of African Diaspora Studies is the examination of the impact of displaced peoples of African descent, hence the significant tropes of displacement in African Diasporic literature, I argue that further research on Haiti in the field that attempts to tackle the paradox of Haiti would do well to consider the notion of Haiti as both displaced subject and object of intellectual inquiry. Such perspective not only contributes to critical investigation into global discourses of racialization and the erasure of global black histories, but also, more broadly, articulations of displacement in Diaspora Studies.
{"title":"The paradox of Haiti in African Diaspora Studies","authors":"Nadège T. Clitandre","doi":"10.1080/17528631.2020.1781359","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/17528631.2020.1781359","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article is grounded on the premise that any critical discussion of the formation and intellectualization of the African Diaspora as discourse and field of study must confront the place and displacement of Haiti as a constitutive element of global black diasporic identity and consciousness. Since one of the tenets of African Diaspora Studies is the examination of the impact of displaced peoples of African descent, hence the significant tropes of displacement in African Diasporic literature, I argue that further research on Haiti in the field that attempts to tackle the paradox of Haiti would do well to consider the notion of Haiti as both displaced subject and object of intellectual inquiry. Such perspective not only contributes to critical investigation into global discourses of racialization and the erasure of global black histories, but also, more broadly, articulations of displacement in Diaspora Studies.","PeriodicalId":39013,"journal":{"name":"African and Black Diaspora","volume":"13 1","pages":"343 - 357"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2020-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1080/17528631.2020.1781359","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46262963","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}