Black subjects in Africa and its diasporas : race and gender in research and writing

Through the research and experiences of 16 scholars whose native homes span ten countries, this collection shifts the discussion of belonging and affinity within Africa and its diaspora toward local perceptions and the ways in which these notions are asserted or altered. Front Matter....Pages i-vi Race and Gender in Research and Writing in Africa and Its Diasporas: An Introduction....Pages 1-13 Researching while Black: Interrogating and Navigating Boundaries of Belonging in the Andes....Pages 15-30 Posing as Subject: Exchange and the Art of Access in Trinidad....Pages 31-44 Translating Hybrid Cultures: Quandaries of an Indian-Australian Ethnographer in Cuba....Pages 45-54 Where to Find Black Identity in Buenos Aires....Pages 55-75 “You Don’t Look Groomed”: Rethinking Black Barber Shops as Public Spaces....Pages 77-94 The “Dark Sheep” of the Atlantic World: Following the Transnational Trail of Blacks to Canada....Pages 95-108 The Strange Life of Lusotropicalism in Luanda: On Race, Nationality, Gender, and Sexuality in Angola....Pages 109-127 Quenching the Thirst for Data: Beer, Local Connections, and Fieldwork in Ghana....Pages 129-145 (African-)American Woman Outsider: Nationality, Race, and Gender in Field Research in Mozambique....Pages 147-157 Mamatoma, “The Chief’s Namesake”: Language, Gender, and Age as Categories of Belonging in Sierra Leone....Pages 159-178 Accessing the Archives: Sources, Subjects, and Subjugation in the African World....Pages 179-201 Back Matter....Pages 203-218 "Research travel in Africa and the black diasporas put scholars in conversation with diasporic communities around perceived and lived experiences of blackness and belonging. This multidisciplinary collection repositions "research subjects" as dynamic social and power brokers who equally contribute to the theoretical frameworks and published material on their communities. The contributors utilize first-person narratives to reveal how they and their informants approached each other with preconceived notions race, gender, sexuality, class, and nation. These riveting stories of fieldwork encounters in Africa, the Caribbean, North America and South America illuminate research travel as contested moments of diasporic relations"-- Provided by publisher "Through the research and experiences of scholars whose native homes span ten countries, this collection shifts the discussion of belonging and affinity within Africa and its diaspora toward local perceptions and the ways in which these notions are asserted or altered. The interactions and relationships of the researchers with their subjects, sites, and data in context permits a deeper exploration of the role that race and, more specifically, "blackness" may or may not play. The book accomplishes this through a rare comparative and multidisciplinary exploration of African and Africa diasporic communities and their relationships with the scholars of diverse backgrounds who conduct research among them"-- Provided by publisher