Between Homeland and Motherland , livre ebook

215

pages

English

Ebooks

2011

Écrit par
Jr. Alvin B. Tillery

Publié par
Cornell University Press

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Découvre YouScribe et accède à tout notre catalogue !

Je m'inscris

Découvre YouScribe et accède à tout notre catalogue !

Je m'inscris

215

pages

English

Ebooks

2011

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Cornell University Press

Date de parution

15 mars 2011

EAN13

9780801461019

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

In Between Homeland and Motherland, Alvin B. Tillery Jr. considers the history of political engagement with Africa on the part of African Americans, beginning with the birth of Paul Cuffe's back-to-Africa movement in the Federal Period to the Congressional Black Caucus's struggle to reach consensus on the African Growth and Opportunity Act of 2000. In contrast to the prevailing view that pan-Africanism has been the dominant ideology guiding black leaders in formulating foreign policy positions toward Africa, Tillery highlights the importance of domestic politics and factors within the African American community.Employing an innovative multimethod approach that combines archival research, statistical modeling, and interviews, Tillery argues that among African American elites-activists, intellectuals, and politicians-factors internal to the community played a large role in shaping their approach to African issues, and that shaping U.S. policy toward Africa was often secondary to winning political battles in the domestic arena. At the same time, Africa and its interests were important to America's black elite, and Tillery's analysis reveals that many black leaders have strong attachments to the "motherland."Spanning two centuries of African American engagement with Africa, this book shows how black leaders continuously balanced national, transnational, and community impulses, whether distancing themselves from Marcus Garvey's back-to-Africa movement, supporting the anticolonialism movements of the 1950s, or opposing South African apartheid in the 1980s.

Voir

Publié par

Cornell University Press

Date de parution

15 mars 2011

EAN13

9780801461019

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

1 Mo

BETWEEN HOMELAND AND MOTHERLAND

BETWEEN HOMELAND AND MOTHERLAND Africa, U.S. Foreign Policy, and Black Leadership in America

Alvin B. Tillery Jr.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS ITHACA AND LONDON

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2011 by Cornell University Press First printing, Cornell Paperbacks, 2011 Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data Tillery, Alvin B. (Alvin Bernard), 1971– Between homeland and motherland : Africa, U.S. foreign policy, and Black leadership in America / Alvin B. Tillery, Jr. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9780801448973 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 9780801477348 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. United States—Foreign relations—Africa. 2. Africa—Foreign relations— United States. 3. African Americans—Relations with Africans—History. 4. African American leadership—History. 5. African diaspora—History. I. Title. DT38.T55 2011 327.7306—dc22 2010040740

Cornell University Press strives to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the fullest extent possible in the publishing of its books. Such materials include vegetablebased, lowVOC inks and acidfree papers that are recycled, totally chlorinefree, or partly composed of nonwood fibers. For further information, visit our website at www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

Cloth printing Paperback printing

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

For Maferima and Norah, who live between America and Africa, and keep my heart with them in both places

Contents

Preface

Introduction

1. “Not One Was Willing To Go!”: The Paradoxes of “Liberia’s Offerings” 2. “His Failure Will Be Theirs”: Why the Black Elite Resisted Garveyism and Embraced Ethiopia 3.“Fertile Fields”: The NAACP and Protecting Africa during the Cold War 4. “The Time for Freedom Has Come”: Black Leadership in the Age of Decolonization 5.Are a Power Bloc”: The Congressional “We Black Caucus and Africa

Conclusion

Notes Index

vii

125

149

157 195

Preface

This book is about the complex ideational dynamics that shape the behavior of black politicians, social movement activists, and intellectuals as they engage with issues in U.S. foreign policy toward Africa. My journey to complete this project was rooted in some of the same ideas that pushed the subjects of this study to either embrace or reject an association with the continent of Africa in the U.S. foreign policymaking arena. Fortunately, I always had the benefit of several dense networks of support as I confronted the dialectic process of understanding the ties that bind black Americans to their historical motherland. There is no doubt that my initial interest in Africa was stoked by the many reassuring and rich conversations that I had about race relations with my im mediate family in the shadow of the Civil Rights Movement. Indeed, I first discovered that I was both black and a descendant of Africa when my parents, Alvin B. Tillery Sr. and Jacquelyn Peterson Tillery, sat me down in the living room of my maternal grandparents, Millar (“Jack”) Peterson and Thelma Peterson, to watch the premiere of theRootsminiseries on ABC. Even more vividly than the gruesome depiction of the “seasoning process,” in which the overseer forces LeVar Burton’s character, Kunta Kinte, to adopt the name Toby, I remember that the miniseries evoked longburied oral traditions of African ancestry among my family members. I carried these stories of my African nobility back to my school in the in tegrated Penrose Park neighborhood of West Philadelphia the following week, where they eventually blended in with the narratives my cohorts brought to school in the run up to St. Patrick’s Day and Columbus Day. Ironically, it was not until my parents, seeking better housing options, moved our family to a suburb in New Jersey that my African ancestry reentered the forefront of my conscious ness. This time, however, my real connection to the continent emerged through the perpetual chants of “spear chucker” that I heard throughout the day from those who resented my presence in their formerly allwhite space. I owe a debt of gratitude to my parents for countering this psychological assault by exposing my brother, Julian Ethan Tillery, and me to very tangible information about the realities of Africa through books, museums, and art in our home. My formal education about both black politics and Africa began at More house College in 1989. At Morehouse, I was fortunate to encounter highly com petent and caring professors in both these fields. Professor Tobe Johnson taught

Voir