The Human Cost of African Migrations

edited by Toyin Falola and Niyi Afolabi

In an era of globalization, population growth, and displacements, migration is now a fact of life in a constantly shifting economic and political world order. This book contributes to the discourse on the beneficiaries, benefactors, and the casualties of African displacement. While the few existing studies have emphasized economic motivation as the primary factor triggering African migration, this volume treats a range of issues: economic, socio-political, pedagogical, developmental, and cultural. Organized with a multidisciplinary thrust in mind, this book argues that any discussion of African migration, whether internal or external, must be conceived as only one aspect of a more complex, organic, and global patterning of flux and reflux necessitated by constantly shifting dynamics of world socio-economic, cultural, and political order.

The Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora

edited by Toyin Falola and Akinwumi Ogundiran

This is the first book devoted to the archaeology of African life on both sides of the Atlantic; it highlights the importance of archaeology in completing the historical records of the Atlantic world’s Africans. Archaeology of Atlantic Africa and the African Diaspora presents a diverse, richly textured picture of Africans’ experiences during the era of the Atlantic slave trade and offers the most comprehensive explanation of how African lives became entangled with the creation of the modern world. Through interdisciplinary approaches to material culture, the dynamics of a comparative transatlantic archaeology are developed.

HIV/AIDS, Illness, and African Well-Being

edited by Toyin Falola and Matthew M. Heaton

HIV/AIDS, Illness and African Well-Being highlights the specific health problems facing Africa today, most particularly the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach, the book presents not only various health crises, but also the larger historical and contemporary contexts within which they must be understood and managed. Chapters offering analysis of specific illness case studies, and the effects of globalization and underdevelopment on health, provide an overarching context in which HIV/AIDS and other health-related concerns can be understood. The contributions on the HIV/AIDS pandemic grapple with the complications of national and international policies, the sociological effects of the pandemic, and policy options for the future. This volume thus provides a comprehensive view of health issues currently plaguing the continent and the many different ways that scholars are interpreting the health outlook in Africa.

Encyclopedia of the Middle Passage

edited by Toyin Falola and Amanda Warnock

For the first time, the Middle Passage—the experience of slaves on the trans-Atlantic ships—receives a full reference treatment in an encyclopedia. This A-to-Z reference consists of 226 signed entries arranged alphabetically, exhaustively covering the Middle Passage from a variety of perspectives for student research and browsing. Each essay entry concludes with suggestions for further reading. The encyclopedia includes an introductory overview of the trans-Atlantic slave trade as well as illustrations, bibliography, and chronology.

African Minorities in the New World

edited by Toyin Falola and Salah M. Hassan

This book uncovers the reality that new African immigrants now represent a significant force in the configuration of the American polity and identity, especially in the last forty years. Despite their minority status, African immigrants are making their marks in various areas of human endeavor and accomplishments, including academic, business, and scientific arenas. The demographic shift is both welcome news as well as a matter for concern given the consequences of displacement and the paradoxes of exile in the new location. By its very connection to the ‘Old African Diaspora,’ the notion of a ‘New African Diaspora’ marks a clear indication of a historical progression reconnecting continental Africa with the New World without the stigma of slavery. Yet, the notion of trans-Atlantic slavery is never erased when the African diaspora is mentioned whether in the old or new world. Within this paradoxical dispensation, the new African diaspora must be conceived as the aftermath of a global migration crisis.