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Godfrey Mwakikagile, Relations Between Africans and African Americans: Misconceptions, Myths and Realities
(Continental Press, 2006), 588 pages, ISBN 0620347457.
This work looks at relations between Africans and African Americans from the perspective of an African, and
of shared perceptions on both sides of the Atlantic. Incorporated into the analysis are stories of individuals who have interacted,
worked and lived with members of both groups in Africa and in the United States, including the author himself. Stereotypes
and misunderstandings of each other constitute an integral part of this study, explained from both perspectives, African and
African-American.
The author, a former journalist in Tanzania and now an academic author whose books are found in public and
university libraries around the world, lived in the United States, mostly in the black community, for more than 30 years.
He articulates his position from the vantage point of someone who has lived on both sides of the Atlantic, focusing on a subject
that has generated a lot of interest among Africans and African Americans through the years. And it continues to be one of
great misunderstanding between the two sides, in spite of increased contacts and communication between Africa and Black America,
and between individual Africans and African Americans in the United States and in Africa.
What is the state of relations between Africans and African Americans? How do Africans see black Americans,
and how do black Americans see them? What is their experience with American blacks and what is the experience of black Americans
with them, individually and collectively, and in general? How are Africans accepted by black people in the United States?
And how are black Americans accepted in Africa? Do Africans see American blacks as fellow Africans, cousins or distant cousins,
or just as Americans?
These are some of the questions answered in this book, written by an African, and based on his experience
of more than 30 years interacting with African Americans, and on the experiences of many Africans and African Americans quoted
in this study:
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter One:
Enduring Ties Between Africa and the Diaspora
Chapter Two:
My Life with African Americans
Chapter Three:
The Image of Africa in America
Chapter Four:
The Attitude of Africans Towards African Americans
Chapter Five:
The Attitude of African Americans Towards Africans
Chapter Six:
Misconceptions About Each Other
Chapter Seven:
African Americans in Tanzania: Black Panther Leader
Pete O'Neal and Others
Chapter Eight:
Back to the Motherland: Fihankra
An African-American Settlement and
other African Americans in Ghana
Appendix I:
What Africans and African Americans
Think About Their Relations: Voices From Within
Appendix II:
Other Perspectives:
African and African American
Appendix III:
Reparations for African Americans
Suggested Works
About the Author
