African Immigrants and the American Experience - by Wanjala S Nasong'o & Imali J Abala & Kefa M Otiso (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

This book explores the lived experiences of African immigrants in the United States in their pursuit of the fabled American dream. It examines and documents their travails, successes, and fate vis-à-vis the problematics of race, ethnicity, and anti-Black violence.

Review Quotes

African Immigrants and the American Experience is a well-researched treatment on an often unexplored topic: the life and varied experiences of African immigrants in the United States. It is a clever study, revealing at every turn the complexity, diversity, and changing nature of American society.

The book under review is a collection of essays broken into three sections on race and racial violence, educational and career attainment, and socioeconomics and health. The essays often concentrate on the more difficult aspects of immigrants' lives and their place in American society. [The] essays provide important background information on this understudied community, including the history of African immigration to the US, basic demographic data, geographical distribution, and socioeconomic statistics. The contributors also analyze many relevant contemporary issues, such as confronting stereotypes, police violence, health outcomes, and the children of African immigrants navigating social structures often without their parents' understanding or assistance. Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty.

The journey of the struggles, survival, and success by African immigrants in the United States has not been accorded enough academic attention it deserves. Finally, an assemblage of accomplished African scholars has put together a volume that examines the intersectionality of the social, economic, cultural, and political accomplishments of African immigrants in America, despite their many challenges. This 'must read' twelve-chapter volume provides data, and analysis that will surprise many Afro-skeptics.

About the Author

Wanjala S. Nasong'o is professor of international studies at Rhodes College.
Imali J. Abala is professor of English at Ohio Dominican University.
Kefa M. Otiso is professor of geography at Bowling Green State University.