HST 496: Research Seminar/HST 791: Graduate Research Seminar
"Seminar on the History of the New African Diaspora"
"Seminar on the History of the New African Diaspora"
Professor Solomon Getahun
Mondays, 6:30-9:20
Spring 2008
So far, African Diaspora studies have been focused on the forced migration of people from the African continent into the New World, primarily the US to some degree the Caribbean. As a result, African Diaspora studies have always been associated with the saga of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade.
While both the Disapora and Transatlantic studies are essential in understanding the history of Africans in America and beyond, they do not explain the post-1960s migration of Africans to the US and other parts of the world; and the formation of New African Diaspora identities such as Nigerian-Americans, Ethiopian-Americans, and Senegalese-Italians, etc.
In this seminar, however, we will explore the historical circumstances and recent socio-economic and political developments that triggered the post-1960s African migration to the US and other parts of the world.
By examining US Congressional hearings, US Census Bureau data, INS (the now Homeland Security) figures and reports, and by interviewing contemporary African immigrants, we will map the whereabouts of the New African Disapora in the United States. Using the available literature on immigrants in America, we will also analyze African immigrants' relationships with the mainstream society in general and African Americans in particular.
