From a particular vantage point, as an African-born scholar with a politics to affirm my Black subjectivity and Indigeneity in a diasporic context, my article engages a (re)theorization of Blackness for decolonial politics. Building on existing works of how Black scholars, themselves, have theorized Blackness, and recognizing the fluid,…

The works of over 75 communication scholars have consistently traced the markers of communication in African American life. There exists a complex and varied corpus that is necessarily interdisciplinary and multifarious in perspectives and context. The space(s) is theirs to define and, perhaps, to claim. Such studies may reward scholars most when…

This paper describes an ethnic studies course taught at Alverno College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The course is offered as a two semester, hour elective in the Weekend College which provides women an opportunity to complete a college degree by attending classes on weekends only. The course meets for three hours every other weekend for a total of…

In order to revitalize the often floundering black studies courses in institutions of higher education, it might be wise to incorporate them in an all encompassing ethnic studies program. This would enable members of various ethnic groups, as well as members of the majority group, to gain greater insight into the problems of their follow citizens…

When historians of the U.S. antebellum free black community examine attitudes toward emigration, they invariably focus on hostility to the American Colonization Society (ACS). However, while many free people were deeply disturbed by the efforts of the ACS to send them to Liberia, they were ready to consider settling on Haiti. In 1818, Prince…

Contrary to the conventional notion that the principles of Western higher education were significant factors in predisposing Western educated Africans toward political liberation movements, this paper attempts to demonstrate that factors more complex than the ideals of Western higher education were involved. Specifically, the paper argues that it…

The existential implications in Bontemps'"Black Thunder," Richard Wright's "Native Son," and Ellison's "Invisible Man" are explored in this paper. Each of these novels exhibits a concern about man structuring his existence through the choices he makes in an absurd world. Gabriel, the protagonist of "Black…

While African literature appears to be firmly established in American colleges and universities, its expansion, and in some cases its continuance, is threatened by two factors: racialism and departmental conservatism. As demands for courses in black literature can be met by an increased supply of scholars in Afro-American literature, fewer schools…

Beginning from general concepts of identity formation, this review of models of African American identity development proceeds to Marcia's expansion of Erikson's identity model and to Chickering's vector theory. DuBois's concept of "double identity" and Erikson's writings concerning "adaptive coping" in minorities are…

To exclude Afro-American playwrights from curriculum offerings leads to the erroneous conclusion that blacks have contributed little to the development of the American theater. In order for Afro-American drama to be fully appreciated, it must be performed and read as literature. It must be used as a viable teaching strategy, as a motivator for the…

Considering the rhetorical strategies four 19th-century black women employed to address various audiences can be helpful in the continuing struggle to find effective means of teaching writing to college students. These four women used a variety of strategies to reach audiences which were, to one degree or another, hostile to them because of their…

Black feminist novelists continue to take issue with males who try to theorize about their artistic creations. Male attitudes toward black women's novels have been characterized as either apathetic, chauvinistic, or paternalistic. Black feminist writers should heed the call for collective racial progress and collective theoretical progress. The…

In order to explore the nature of the black experience in the United States, this paper discusses the racial myths found in the Bible, science, and sociology, as well as the consequences of these myths. Pro-slavery forces have used ambiguous passages from the Bible to try to demonstrate that slavery is sanctioned by religion. A scientific theory…

Within the Afro-American studies program, the study of African literature is invaluable in demonstrating the relationship between black Americans and Africa; it contributes to the sketchy glimpse of what black culture is and reflects the affective experience of colonialism and neocolonialism. This paper explores the values of an African-literature…

Although the success of black jazz has been limited by its lack of recognition in the white-controlled music industry, its rhetorical development as an expression of black consciousness can be traced from the bebop of the 1940s and early 1950s, through the hard bop and free jazz of the 1960s, to the jazz orientation of the disco circuit in the…