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Abstract   The aim of this essay is to explain why Caryl Phillips presents Joyce as "the adopted daughter of Africa" at the end of Crossing the River (1993). This will be done by performing a close reading. This essay will focus on Joyce’s actions and behaviour. Aspects of feminism and postcolonial theory will act as the theoretic basis for the analysis. The analysis of Joyce’s character will be put in relation to the whole of Phillips’ “Black Atlantic” narrative and to gender and third wave feminist theories. The analysis will show that Joyce, by breaking racial norms, renouncing her faith, defying her mother, divorcing her husband, and falling in love with Travis, is the person who defines hope in the novel. Her character, together with her son Greer, shows a path to reconciliation between races in the aftermath of colonialism.

The aim of this study was to investigate perceptions of Hip-Hop choreography and Hip-Hop choreography’s relation to freestyle. In order to accomplish that purpose, three dance artists were interviewed and a phenomenographical approach was used. From the result, the hope was to gain fresh insights and ideas for incorporating choreography in the teaching of Hip-Hop, and to explore various approaches for doing so. From the interviews with three dance artists, I found four categories which consist of different perceptions of choreography. The four categories were subjectivity, which could be perceived as freestyle, interaction which could be perceived as the relationship between performer and audience, physicality which could be perceived as more or less of a specific form and music which could be perceived as something inspirational. Intention behind what you do or public who is observing, was perceived as the influencer for freestyle to become choreography. The categories can define Hip-Hop choreography, yet those can also define choreography in dance overall. Physicality in specific form was perceived as one of the only categories that is directly connected to Hip-Hop choreography. Yet it does not disregard the importance of the three other concepts for the style Hip-Hop and so choreography.

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The purpose of this research was to investigate ways classical composers of African descent have been included in the mainstream academic canon. I examined the insights of four scholars who have been committed to including classical composers of African descent throughout their music careers. The initial research questions of this study were: 1) How do participants describe their frameworks for making the commitment to include classical composers of African descent throughout their careers? 2) What have been the challenges and benefits associated with their commitment? 3) What might contemporary scholars view as strategies for integrating classical composers of African descent into the mainstream academic canon? Four musicians, who have contributed to the scholarship related to classical works by composers of African descent in very different ways, participated in this qualitative collective case study: Dr. Ysaye Maria Barnwell, a composer and performer; Dr. Dominique-Rene de Lerma, musicologist; Dr. Anthony Thomas Leach, educator, conductor, and organist; and Mr. Hannibal Lokumbe, composer, trumpeter, and visionary. Through two in-depth interviews with each of the four scholars, a related question emerged: How have the participants contributed to the inclusion of classical composers of African descent throughout professional careers and personal lives? I transcribed the interviews, returned them to the participants for member checks, and prepared final, revised transcripts based on their feedback for analysis. I examined the interview data to obtain a collective representation related to the research questions. I analyzed the data for emerging codes, categories, and themes until details considered substantive to the research emerged. Themes that emerged focused on the need to identify the importance of seeing the contributions for classical composers of African descent from an Afrocentric as well as a Eurocentric perspective; the impact of the Civil Rights Movement on how each participant engaged the music throughout their lives; the importance of informal and formal education and the roles family, community, and school played in their relationship with the music they shared; and, the significance of creating access to their works through publications and professional associations. / Music Education

This project reveals the untold story of African Americans AIDS activists' fight against HIV and AIDS in black communities. I describe the ways that, from 1985 to 2003, the both challenged public and private granting agencies to provide funds for HIV prevention efforts aimed specifically at black communities, and challenged homophobic attitudes among African Americans that, they believed, perpetuated the spread of the disease through stigma and silence. At the same time, they connected the epidemic among African Americans to racism and inequality within the United States, as well as to the pandemic raging throughout the African Diaspora and in the developing world. In this way, I argue, they contested and renegotiated the social and spatial boundaries of black community in the context of a devastating epidemic. At the same time, I also argue, they borrowed political strategies from earlier moments of black political organizing, as they brought key questions of diversity, equality, and public welfare to bear on HIV and AIDS. As they fought for resources with which to stop HIV and AIDS from spreading within their communities, they struggled over the place of blackness amid the shifting politics of race, class, and health in post-Civil Rights America. Adding their story to the emerging narrative of the history of the epidemic thus yields a more expansive and radical picture of AIDS activism in the United States. / History

Seizing the Power to Define!" Afrocentric Inquiry and the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem Miciah Z. Yehudah Doctoral Dissertation Doctoral Committee Advisory Chair: Iyelli Ichile; Ph.D. Temple University, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, United States of America This dissertation critically examines the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem, a group of African American Hebrews from Chicago that migrated to Liberia in 1967 and Israel in 1969. The greater part of the scholarship engaging the group since 1967 has consistently labeled them along four lines: as a people seeking constant external acceptance; as a cultic or "new religious movement"; as an oppressed and downtrodden people seeking success in any way in which it could be achieved; or as a people with a strange affinity towards Jewish people so extreme that they intend not only to emulate and eradicate them but to serve as their replacements. In the literature reviewed it was rare that the actual philosophy of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem was interrogated. In the rare cases in which their philosophies were examined they were situated only in regards to their relationship with an already assumed universal White normativity. In studying the group, methodological concerns arise, as do questions with regards to who the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem truly are. To investigate the methodological parameters of studying the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem the Afrocentric Paradigm is employed. Afrocentric inquiry's focus on agency and the privileging of the voice of the African subjects within its own narrative differs drastically from the methodology underlying those scholars that have studied the group previously. In order to explore who the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem identify with (orientation), how they navigate the issue of epistemology as both a people of African and Israelite heritage (grounding), and how they define freedom and its parameters in conversation with the larger African world they claim to be amongst (location) this dissertation analyzes major publications of the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem since the 1980s. This work challenges the argument that the Afrocentric Paradigm is ill suited to appropriately study the African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem. / African American Studies

Thesis (MA (VA)(Visual Arts))--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / This thesis aims to assess the extent to which the African curated exhibition, Dak’Art: Biennale de l’art africain contemporain , succeeds in subverting hegemonic Western representations of African art as necessarily ‘exotic’ and ‘Other.’ My investigation of the Dak’Art biennale in this thesis is informed and preceded by a study of evolutionist assumptions towards African art and the continuing struggle for command over the African voice. I outline the trajectory of African art from primitive artifact to artwork, highlighting the prejudices that have kept Africans from being valued as equals and unique artists in their own right. I then look at exhibiting techniques employed to move beyond perceptions of the tribal, to subvert the exoticising tendency of the West and remedy the marginalised position of the larger African artistic community.

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The focus of this dissertation is the examination of the relationship between space and identity in recent narratives of migration, in contemporary African literature. Migrant narratives suggest that there is a correlation between identity formation and the types of boundaries and borders migrants engage with in their various attempts to find new homes away from their old ones. Be it voluntary or involuntary, the process of migrating from a familial place transforms the individual who has to negotiate new social formations; and tensions often accrue from the confrontation between one’s culture and the culture of the receiving society. Return migration to the supposed country of origin is an equally important trajectory dealt with in African migrant literature. The reverse narrative stipulates similar tensions between one’s diasporic culture – the culture of the diasporic space – and the culture of the homeland. Thus, intra- and inter-continental migrations and diaspora is a bifurcated inquiry that examines both outward and return migrations. These movements reveal the ways in which Africans make sense of their Africanity and their place in the world. The concepts of “border”, “boundary” and “borderland” are useful to examine notions of difference and separation both within the nation-state and in relation to transnational, intra-African as well as inter-continental exchanges. I focus more fully on these notions in the texts that examine migrations within Africa, both outward and return movements. This study is not only interested in the physical features of borders, boundaries or borderlands, but also on their consequences for the processes of identity formation and translation, and how they can help to reveal the social and historical characteristics of diasporic formations. What undergirds much of the analysis is the assumption that the negotiation of belonging and space cannot be separated from the crossing or breaching of borders and boundaries; and that these negotiations entail attempts to enter the borderland, which is a zone of exchange, crisscrossing networks, dissolution of notions of singularity and exclusive identities. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die fokus van hierdie proefskrif is ‘n ondersoek na die verhouding tussen ruimte en identiteit in onlangse migrasie-narratiewe in kontemporêre Afrika-literatuur. Migrasienarratiewe dui op ’n korrelasie tussen identiteitsvorming en die soorte skeidings en grense waarmee migrante gemoeid raak in hulle onderskeie pogings om nuwe tuistes weg van die oues te vind. Hetsy willekeurig of gedwonge, die migrasieproses weg van ’n familiale plek verander die individu wat nuwe sosiale formasies moet oorkom, en spanning neem dikwels toe weens die konfrontasie tussen die eie kultuur en dié van die ontvangersamelewing. Migrasie terug na die sogenaamde land van herkoms is net so ’n belangrike onderwerp in Afrika-migrasieliteratuur. Die terugkeernarratief stipuleer dat daar ooreenkomstige spanning heers tussen ’n persoon se diasporiese kultuur – die kultuur van die diaspora-ruimte – en die kultuur van die land van oorsprong. Die ondersoek na intra- en interkontinentale migrasies en diasporas is dus ’n tweeledige proses wat uitwaartse sowel as terugkerende migrasies beskou. Hierdie bewegings openbaar die ware maniere waarop Afrikane sin maak uit hulle Afrikaniteit en hulle plek in die wêreld. Die konsepte van “grens”, “grenslyn” en “grensgebied” is nuttig wanneer die begrippe van verskil en verwydering ondersoek word binne die nasiestaat asook in verhouding tot transnasionale, intra-Afrika en interkontinentale wisseling. Ek fokus meer volledig op hierdie begrippe in die tekste wat ondersoek instel na migrasie binne Afrika, beide uitwaartse en terugkerende bewegings. Hierdie studie gaan nie net oor die fisiese kenmerke van grense, grenslyne en grensgebiede nie, maar bestudeer ook die gevolge daarvan op die prosesse van identiteitsvorming en vertaling, en die manier waarop hulle kan help om die sosiale en historiese eienskappe van diasporiese formasies te openbaar. ’n Groot deel van die analise word ondersteun deur die aanname dat die onderhandeling tussen tuishoort en ruimte nie geskei kan word van die oorsteek of deurbreek van grense en grenslyne nie, en dat hierdie onderhandelinge lei tot pogings om die grensgebied te betree, waar die grensgebied gekenmerk word deur wisseling, kruising van netwerke en die verwording van begrippe soos sonderlingheid en eksklusiewe identiteite.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / Esta produÃÃo acadÃmica analisa a migraÃÃo, presenÃa e permanÃncia de estudantes oriundos de distintos paÃses africanos para o Brasil, especificamente, na cidade de Fortaleza-CE, nos processos que designo de âDiÃspora Africana no Cearà no sÃculo XXIâ. Esta DiÃspora à fruto da migraÃÃo estudantil internacional de alunos de Ãfrica que, se deslocam ao Brasil para desenvolver formaÃÃo universitÃria em instituiÃÃes de ensino superior (IES) pÃblicas e privadas. Interessa-me compreender os processos de ressignificaÃÃes identitÃrias nas trajetÃrias e percursos desses estudantes nesta DiÃspora, focando o seu cotidiano, a partir da trÃplice dimensÃo: ser negro, africano e imigrante âtemporÃrioâ. Este estudo traz, como aspecto inovador o fato de investigar, nÃo apenas a realidade dos alunos africanos inseridos em universidades pÃblicas, auferindo bolsas de estudos, no Ãmbito de convÃnios, como o Programa Estudantes ConvÃnio â GraduaÃÃo (PEC-G), Programa Estudante ConvÃnio â PÃs-GraduaÃÃo (PEC-PG) e outros acordos, mas adentrar, tambÃm, na realidade vivenciada pelo amplo contingente de africanos matriculados em faculdades particulares, a dependerem da ajuda econÃmica de parentes e familiares residentes em Ãfrica e ao redor do mundo. Este grupo de estudantes, hoje majoritÃrio, apresenta inserÃÃes precÃrias no contexto de Fortaleza, enfrentando dificuldades econÃmico-financeiras, para garantir o pagamento de mensalidades nas instituiÃÃes universitÃrias privadas e manter a prÃpria sobrevivÃncia nesta metrÃpole. Assim, este segmento de estudantes africanos tem que se envolver em trabalhos informais e precarizados, considerados âirregularesâ pelas autoridades brasileiras, sujeitos a violaÃÃo de direitos trabalhistas, com longas jornadas e baixos salÃrios. Neste estudo sociolÃgico exploro distintas esferas da vida desses sujeitos nos percursos diaspÃricos, quais sejam: cotidiano; inserÃÃo no contexto universitÃrio; trabalho; interaÃÃes com organismos e instituiÃÃes pÃblicas e privados no acesso a mercadorias e serviÃos; associativismo em agremiaÃÃes estudantis; utilizaÃÃo das tecnologias de informaÃÃo e comunicaÃÃo (TICâs) e das redes sociais virtuais na internet; processos de saÃde e de adoecimento; conjuntura de violÃncia urbana e, mesmo, violÃncia que culminam com a morte de estudantes africanos; formas de lazer; processos de sociabilidade entre africanos e brasileiros; festas africanas e interaÃÃes afetivossexuais. O estudo revela como os estudantes oriundos de Ãfrica sÃo alvo de preconceito e discriminaÃÃo racial, por conta da cor da pele e da prÃpria origem africana. Neste processo analÃtico, trabalho como fio condutor, a ideia de que, nas trajetÃrias e percursos diaspÃricos, os estudantes africanos constituem mÃltiplos pertencimentos identitÃrios, forjados em Ãfrica e no cotidiano no Brasil que, ora tendem à afirmaÃÃo, ora tendem à negaÃÃo de africanidade e negritude. As identidades sÃo ressignificadas, particularmente, no contato com a alteridade racial e cultural no contexto cearense, em meio a mÃltiplas formas de inclusÃo e de discriminaÃÃo racial. As identidades ressignificadas expressam-se em comportamentos, atitudes, modos de vida, formas de ser e estar. Estes processos sÃo mediados por dimensÃes objetivas como, roupas, vestimentas e trajes, calÃados, cabelos tranÃados, bem como por dimensÃes simbÃlicas, como lÃnguas faladas no cotidiano, com destaque para o crioulo, culinÃria e modos de alimentaÃÃo, expressÃes religiosas, sexualidades e discursos. Nesta anÃlise compreensiva, utilizo como aportes teÃricos, os estudos PÃs-Coloniais, a partir das ideias de William Du Bois, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall, dentre outros. No plano metodolÃgico, utilizo, como recursos investigativos, a observaÃÃo sistemÃtica, entrevistas abertas, em profundidade, mescladas com conversas informais, tanto a nÃvel presencial, como no espaÃo virtual, sempre registradas no âcaderno de campoâ. / This academic production aims at evaluating the migration, presence and permanence of students in Brazil from different African countries, specifically in Fortaleza-CE, according to developments that I designate as the "African Diaspora in Cearà in the 21st Century." This Diaspora is the result of the international migration of African students who travel to Brazil to obtain a university education in public and private institutions (IES). I am engaged in understanding the processes of identity-related re-signification in the trajectories and paths of these students in this Diaspora, focusing on their daily life, from a triple dimension configuration: being black, being African and being a "temporary" immigrant. This study has as an innovative aspect the fact of investigating, not only the daily life of African students enrolled in public universities, receiving scholarships, within the scope of the agreements, such as the Programa Estudantes ConvÃnio â Under-graduation (PEC-G), and the Programa Estudante ConvÃnio âGraduation (PEC-PG) and other agreements, but also the experience of a large contingent of Africans enrolled in private colleges, depending on the financial assistance of relatives and relatives residing in Africa and other parts of the world. This group of students, the largest now, presents precarious insertions in the context of Fortaleza, facing economic and financial difficulties to guarantee the payment of tuition fees in private university institutions and to maintain their own survival in the metropolis. Thus, this segment of African students has to engage in informal and precarious jobs, considered "irregular" by Brazilian authorities, subject to violations of labor rights, with long hours and low wages. In this sociological study I explore different spheres of life of these subjects who are distinguished for their diaspora-related journeys, namely, daily life, insertion in the university context, job, Interactions with public and private bodies and institutions to access goods and services, integration with student associations, use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and virtual social networks on the Internet, health and illness processes, the conjuncture of urban violence and even gender violence that culminate in the death of African students, leisure forms, sociability between Africans and Brazilians, African celebrations, besides sexual and affective interactions. The study reveals how students from Africa are subjected to prejudice and racial discrimination because of their color and African origin. In this analytic process, I use as a guiding thread, the idea that, in diaspora-related trajectories and journeys, African students stand for multiple identity shapes, forged in Africa and in everyday life in Brazil that on the one hand, tend to affirm, but on the other hand, tend to deny Africanism and blackness. Identities are re-signified, particularly, in the contact with racial and cultural alterity in the context of CearÃ, in the midst of multiple forms of racial inclusion and discrimination. Re-signified identities are expressed in behaviors, attitudes, ways of life, and ways of being. These processes are mediated by objective dimensions such as clothing, costumes, shoes, braided hair, as well as by symbolic dimensions such as the languages spoken in everyday life, especially Creole, cooking and eating modes, religious expressions, sexuality and speech. In this evaluating analysis, I use as theoretical contributions, post colonial studies, from the ideas of William Du Bois, Paul Gilroy, Stuart Hall, among others. At the methodological level, I use investigative resources as systematic observation, open in-depth interviews mixed with informal conversations, both face-to-face and in virtual space, always recorded in the "field notebook".