Alusine Jalloh

As Africans and descendants of slaves have sought to expand an understanding of their history, focus on the African diaspora - the global dispersal of a people and their culture - has increased. African studies have assumed a prominent place in historical scholarship, and a growing number of non-African scholars has helped revise a discipline established over several decades. The six contributions in this volume were compiled as a result of the thirtieth Walter Prescott Webb Memorial Lectures held at the University of Texas at Arlington. The contributors, nationally recognized in the field, represent a collaborative analysis of the African diaspora from African and non-African perspectives.

Over the last several decades, historians have conducted extensive research into contact between the United States and West Africa during the era of the transatlantic trade. Yet we still understand relatively little about more recent relations between the two areas. This multidisciplinary volume presents the most comprehensive analysis of the U.S.-West African relationship to date, filling a significant gap in the literature by examining the social, cultural, political, and economic bonds that have, in recent years, drawn these two world regions into increasingly closer contact. Beginning with examinations of factors that linked the nations during European colonial rule of Africa, and spanning to discussions of U.S. foreign policy with regard to West Africa from the Cold War through the end of the twentieth century and beyond, these essays constitute the first volume devoted to interrogating the complex relationship -- both historic and contemporary -- between the United States and West Africa. -- Publisher description.

The edited collection of 22 papers emerged from an international conference on black business in Africa nd the US at Arlington, Texas, in November 1999, sponsored by The Africa Program, which promotes business, educational, and technological relations between Africa and the State of Texas. Rather than pushing any particular theory or economic model, they present the multidimensional facets of business practices among black people in Africa and the US, including resilient old practices, innovation, and adapting to new methods and circumstances. They focus on case or regional studies. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.