Proudly We Can Be Africans: Black Americans and Africa, 1935-1961 [Paperback]

James H. Meriwether (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 4, 2001 | ISBN-10: 0807849979 | ISBN-13: 978-0807849972

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This beautifully written book provides a deeply textured narrative of the relationship between African Americans and Africa. (Mary L. Dudziak, University of Southern California Law School)

Brilliantly explores the complex relationship between African Americans and Africa, how their ideas about Africa changed from redemption to the influence of Africa on their own consciousness and liberation, indeed on their very identity as African Americans. (Robert L. Harris Jr., Cornell University)

The first comprehensive study of the diverse ways in which African Americans responded to the winning of African independence. Deeply researched and finely written. (Thomas Borstelmann, author of The Cold War and the Color Line: American Race Relations in the Global Arena)

About the Author

James H. Meriwether, a former Fulbright senior lecturer and researcher at the University of Zimbabwe, is assistant professor of history at California State University, Bakersfield.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (December 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807849979
• ISBN-13: 978-0807849972
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #859,148 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Black America's Dynamic View of Africa, September 24, 2010

By 

Lionel S. Taylor "history buff" (Covington, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Proudly We Can Be Africans: Black Americans and Africa, 1935-1961 (Paperback)

Perhaps more than any other region of the world American's image of Africa has changed with time. This book traces the changes in perception and engagement with Africa of the African American community between the years 1931 and 1963. While the book covers a rather short portion of the time that the U.S. has been involved in Africa it chooses the years in which the perception of Africa changes the most in the black community. Using the black press, and speeches by prominent Blacks leaders, James Meriweather contrasts the invasion of Ethiopia in 1931 and the Independence of Kenya, Ghana and the Congo in the early 60's to contrast the changing attitudes toward Africa and how it informed African American's perception of themselves.

The author does a good job of pulling together events in both the Americas and the various parts of Africa and explaining how they influenced and related each other. He also avoids any simplistic explanation of black attitudes and delves into the complexities of this ongoing relationship. Especially poignant is author Richard Wright's journey to reconnect with his perceived homeland and the ultimately otherness he starts to feel on this journey of discovery. The desire to belong is in conflict with the feeling of the exotic and unfamiliar that Wright gets on his trip through west Africa. In many ways this is the experience of the larger Black community faces and must deal with. An excellent book that sheds light on a very interesting topic.