The “idea of Africa” and the business of blackness

South Africa's transatlantic connections

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20156451
AutoresPaitra D Russell (University of the Western Cape, autor correspondente)
Ano1999
Volume15
Fascículo1-2
Páginas264-277
Data de publicação1999-06-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoJournal of Literary Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0256-4718 • E-ISSN: 1753-5387
EditoraUnisa Press (PUBLISHER • ZA)
DOI10.1080/02564719908530228
OpenAlexW2021808394
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas9

This article explores some of the ideological assumptions at work behind African‐Americans’ imaged and imagined presence in postapartheid South Africa. The enduring ideological and material connections between black South Africans and African‐Americans are part of a long history of interaction. That history is clearly represented in ongoing African‐American reclamations of cultural connectedness with Africa, in which various sites on the continent act as a potential source for African‐American cultural salvation. In the wake of South Africa's nominal triumph over apartheid, African‐American involvement has shifted away from activist political involvement toward corporate presence, and South Africa is viewed as a site for African‐American economic salvation through the provision of new markets for the consumption of American goods. This shift suggests an increasing disjuncture between the interests of African‐American corporate elites and the ongoing political struggles of the majority of blacks within and beyond South Africa

African american · Ethnology · Ideology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Critical Race Theory in Education · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Race, History, and American Society