Africa and the Diaspora

"Here is a ground breaking volume predicated on intersectionalities and interconnections of events, people, ideas, and visions reverbarating at the centre of Africa and its Diaspora. It is a refreshing study that is empirically rich and theoretically daring to raise a storm in African and African Diaspora Studies. The very concept of intersectionality is broadened, expanded and deployed anew in an intellectual endeavour to delve deeper into complex and multiple interactions of histories mediated by epic events like colonialism and variables of gender, race, class, epistemology, and Ideology." —Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, Professor and Chair of Epistemologies of the Global South with Emphasis on Africa, University of Bayreuth, Germany. “By combining African studies research in specific places and disciplines with intersectionality, the collection is in the enviable position of being one of the first collections to set intersectionality as a central theme in African studies.”—Jeremy Rich is Professor of History at Marywood University in Scranton, Pennsylvania. This edited volume presents intersectionality in its various configurations and interconnections across the African continent and around the world as a concept. These chapters identify and discuss intersectionalities of identity and their interplay within precolonial, colonial, and neo-colonial constructs that develop unique and often conflicting interconnections. Scholars in this book address issues in cultural, feminist, Pan African, and postcolonial studies from interdisciplinary and traditional disciplines, including the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences. While Intersectionality as a framework for race, gender, and class is often applied in African-American studies, there is a dearth of work in its application to Africa and the Diaspora. This book presents a diverse set of chapters that compare, contrast, and complicate identity constructions within Africa and the Diaspora utilizing the social sciences, the arts in film and fashion, and political economies to analyze and highlight often invisible distinctions of African identity and the resulting lived experiences. These chapters provide a discussion of intersectionality’s role in understanding Africa and the Diaspora and the intricate interconnections across its people, places, history, present, and future. Jamaine M. Abidogun is Professor Emeritus at Missouri State University, USA. Her areas of specialization include interdisciplinary African and African American Studies and Curriculum and Instruction in Secondary Education Social Sciences. She is the co-editor of The Palgrave Handbook of African Education and Indigenous Knowledge (2020). Sterling Recker is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political and Social Sciences at North Central Missouri College, USA. Dr. Recker’s research focuses on rural political economy in Africa’s Great Lakes Region and the impact that conflict has on rural development strategies. He served on the St. Louis based Microfinancing Partners in Africa Board (2011–2016) where he assisted in the development of projects in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya and serves on Mid-America Alliance for African Studies Executive Board. He is a past-president and current secretary-treasurer and webmaster of the Mid-America Alliance of African Studies (MAAAS).