Table of Contents

1. On Diaspora and the Akan in the Americas
2. Quest for the River, Creation of the Path
3. History and Meaning in Akan Societies, 1500 - 1800
4. "The Most Unruly": The Akan in Danish and Dutch America
5. The Antelope (adowa) and the Elephant (esono): The Akan in the British Caribbean
6. "All of the Coromantee Country": The Akan Diaspora in North America
7. Diaspora Discourses: Akan Spiritual Praxis and the Claims of Cultural Identity

About the Author

Kwasi Konadu is assistant professor of history at the Center for Ethnic Studies, City University of New York. He specializes in African, Akan, and African diasporic history.

Reviews

"[A] particularly informative and path-breaking contribution to the study of African diasporas in the Americas...His illuminating study effectively challenges basic presuppositions of standard African diasporic narratives...His masterful and well-written investigation has interdisciplinary breadth, methodological rigor, bold and imaginative concepts, and historical depth...This is an important and intellectually refreshing study and I recommend it with much
enthusiasm.' --New West Indian Guide
"Lately, the study of the African Diaspora has taken a cultural turn, and the social and demographic aspects of it are being replaced by studies of religion, medicine, language and the like. These studies are beginning to move us away from the focus on slavery as a legal and social institution, and on things like plantation management that grew out of the study of social history. This book is squarely in company with this new set of books. Konadu's strength is
his competence on Akan culture and his ability to see, convincingly, Akan roots in cultural manifestations in the Americas without stretching the evidence. He makes a meaningful contribution to the
dialogue about the nature of African culture and its transfer and transformation in the Americas."--John Thornton, professor of history, Boston University
"In its specific emphasis upon the Akan people, rather than more generalized notions of the African diaspora, The Akan Diaspora in the Americas makes a significant contribution to studies of the African diaspora in the New World. Dr. Konadu's premises and argument are sound, and are buttressed by careful, meticulous scholarship. This is an engaging and illuminating study." --James Miller, George Washington University