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BEING AKAN IN AFRICA AND AMERICA

argue that scholars of the African diaspora should anchor themselves in their respective disciplinary canons and then branch out from this foundation. Yet a problem arises when the disciplinary canons are not appropriate, as when sociology adopted neoliberalism and rational-choice models as their standard, abandoning the concerns of African diaspora scholars. Then the editors stress that the African continent must be the intellectual starting point of African diaspora studies. Yet half of the chapter authors portray a diaspora that is not closely tied to Africa – so I wish the editors had discussed this discrepancy. Further, the editors argue that scholars must be open to ‘nondiscursive expressions’ (not just texts) as sources on the African diaspora. While this point seems central, these ‘nondiscursive expressions’ would be mediated through disciplines that are not the strongest areas in African diaspora studies, as seen in this book. In addition, the editors argue that the African diaspora must be studied with emphasis on ‘African diaspora intellectual genealogy’ and with an ‘overlapping, comparative perspective’. By this, I assume they mean that more work must go into locating and drawing upon texts and non-discursive expressions by founding thinkers in all parts of the African diaspora. The tensions within the ‘intersections’ of this volume come closest to resolution in the accomplished chapter by British-born Jayne Ifekwunigwe, who uses an anthropologist’s touch to show how Europe today intertwines the consequences of colonial, postcolonial, and globalized diasporas; she shows how the parallels and links of diaspora within Africa assist in the understanding of Europe. This critical and revealing gem of an essay, marginalized in a section on regional diasporas, works precisely from the margins to convey the most comprehensive picture of the diaspora as a social object of study and an intellectual frame of analysis. It comes closer than any other to answering the question of how diaspora studies advance beyond area studies. The volume as a whole reflects a courageous effort: it goes beyond empirical specifics of the African diaspora to provide an interim report on intellectual work crossing the boundaries of national units and disciplinary boxes. At this level, the book is deserving of the closest scrutiny by those seeking to influence the directions of humanistic scholarship. Regardless of whether the disciplinary centers adopt this expanded framework, what keeps diaspora scholarship moving ahead is partly the inherent interest of work at that scale and especially the global social consciousness of black people, most notably the communities and scholars of the ‘new African diaspora’, now found all over the world.