West African Migrations

Drawing on the interdisciplinary research projects of scholars from various social science and humanities disciplines, this book explores how African migration to Western countries after the neo-liberal economic reforms of the 1980s transformed West African states and their new transnational populations in Western countries.

'West African Migrations complicates past 'isms' and present 'scapes' of our global era by humanizing the homeland or the diaspora as a space of constantly shifting conjunctures, monologues, and disjunctures-ultimately conditioned by the trans-migrant's state of mind. In this timely volume, Africa and the West locate a neutral nexus for a long overdue dialogue. A must read for scholars and general readers seeking new meanings for our liminal existence within and without increasingly artificial borders.' - Niyi Afolabi, associate professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, University of Texas at Austin and co-editor of Trans-Atlantic Migration: The Paradoxes of Exile

'West African Migrations is an important and timely contribution to our understanding of the new processes of identity formation and migration in the age of neo-liberal globalization. The contributions in this volume present crucial insights into the complex experiences of African migrants in the Western world as well as the changes they are enacting in their new host countries. It is a must read.' - James Genova, associate professor and program coordinator for History, The Ohio State University-Marion

'In this timely contribution to the growing body of migration studies in Africa, Okome and Vaughan have brought together a range of contributions that is both rigorous and insightful. A highly recommended book!' - Insa Nolte, Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham, UK

Autorentext
MOJÚBÀOLÚ OLÚFÚNKÉ OKOME Professor of Political Science at CUNY-Brooklyn College, USA.
OLUFEMI VAUGHAN Director of the Africana Studies Program at Bowdoin College, USA.

Inhalt
West African Migrations and Globalization: Introduction; M.O.Okome & O.Vaughan 'You can't go home no more,' Africans in America in the Age of Globalization; M.O.Okome Transnational Identity Formation as a Kaleidoscopic Process: Social Location, Geography, and the Spirit of Critical Engagement; S.Zalanga What to Wear? Dress and Transnational African Identity; E.P.Renne Insurgent Transnational Conversations in Nigeria's 'Nollywood' Cinema; P.Soyinka-Airewele Centripetal forces: Reconciling cosmopolitan lives and local loyalty in a Malian transnational social field; B.Whitehouse Towards an African Muslim Globality: The Parading of Transnational Identities in Black America; Z.Abdullah African Migrant Worker Militancy in the Global North: Labor Contracting and Independent Worker Organizing in New York City; I.Ness Transnational Memories and Identity; T.Ufomata Arrested Nationalism, Imposed Transnationalism and the African Literature Classroom: One Nigerian Writer's Learning Curve; P.Adesanmi