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ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS: TWENTIETH CENTURY BLACK AMERICAN TRAVEL NARRATIVES ABOUT AFRICA Kenyatta Albeny, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Professor Carla Peterson Department of English This dissertation argues that black American travel narratives about Africa reflect the authors’ perception of their identity at particular moments in history. It suggests that these perceptions are informed by historical, political, economic, and social circumstances. Specifically, it demonstrates how associations with Africa—real and imagined—have evolved over time due to black Americans’ shifting social and political status in the United States. Black American travel narratives about Africa written during the second half of the twentieth century are the focus of this study. This period is marked by drastic political and social changes taking place both in Africa and the United States including decolonization, independence, and the aftermath of apartheid and the Cold War in Africa as well as the Civil Rights movement, desegregation, and integration in the United States. Although Africa and the politics therein are the narratives’ purported theme, I argue that their primary focus is black American identity. My dissertation demonstrates how black American travel writers have used their narratives about Africa to define black American identity and to clarify the relationship between black Americans and Africa. At the heart of this dissertation is an interest in these relationships and a concern about the “baggage” that black Americans bring to perceptions of their identity and relationship with Africa, particularly their historical experiences as Americans, their knowledge and understanding of Africa and its history and how that “baggage” colors their perceptions of their relationship to the continent and its people. This “baggage” includes many factors including class, gender, personal history, as well as notions of race and nationalism. Texts in this study include Richard Wright’s Black Power (1954), Era Bell Thompson’s Africa, Land of My Fathers (1954), Maya Angelou’s The Heart of a Woman (1981) and All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), Marita Golden’s Migrations of the Heart (1983), Eddy L. Harris’s Native Stranger (1992), Keith Richburg’s Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa (1997) and Lynne Duke’s Mandela, Mobutu, and Me (2003). HOME IS WHERE THE HEART IS: TWENTIETH CENTURY BLACK AMERICAN TRAVEL NARRATIVES ABOUT AFRICA by Kenyatta Albeny Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2015 Advisory Committee: Professor Carla Peterson, Chair Associate Professor Zita Nunes Professor Merle Collins Associate Professor Randy Ontiveros Professor Barbara Finkelstein @Copyright by Kenyatta Albeny 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I praise God, first and foremost, for the journey, the lessons learned, and for my failings. Through this process I learned the meaning of 2 Corinthians 12:9: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Only through Christ, was I able to successfully bring this project to completion. I would also like to thank my parents, Clarence and Patricia Albeny, who have been my greatest cheerleaders in this process and in life. They inspire me to have faith in God and to follow my dreams, letting no small or large thing keep me from either. I would also like to acknowledge the wide network of support that has made completion of this process possible: my dissertation divas, Dr. Robin Smiles and Dr. Kaylen Tucker, for their support, assistance, prayers, and friendship; my cousin Erika Brooks, for encouragement, sisterhood, and friendship; my mentors, Dr. Francine Childs (who first told me that I could), Dr. Gwendolyn Christine Taylor (who wouldn’t take “no” for an answer), and Dr. Lisa Aubrey (who made my first and second trips to Africa possible); my Joy/Love sisters for the writing retreats and prayer calls which kept me going; as well as the host of family and friends who offered reassurance and assistance during my dry seasons: Dr. Mariama Ross, Nicole Williams, Nebiat Solomon, Clarence Fluker, Marcus Allen, Dr. Janae Reynolds; Kymm Shern, Stephanie Jackson, Tocombamaria Murphy, Andrea Lemon, Erika Robinson, Dr. Robin Vander, Dr. Grace Jennings, Patricia and Ronald Brooks, Johanna Harris, and Shirley Grooms; and finally, Clement Laryea Odumanye, whom I love. Finally, I would like to thank my dissertation director, Dr. Carla Peterson, for her tireless efforts to make me a better scholar. I would also like to thank the other members ii of my committee: Dr. Zita Nunes, Dr. Merle Collins, Dr. Randy Ontiveros and I would like to give special thanks to Barbara Finkelstein who gave me an opportunity to work on the issues about which I was most passionate and who encouraged me to return to the program. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: The Return: Black American Travel Narratives about Africa…………………………….1 Chapter One: A Tale of Two Texts at the Moment of Decolonization………………………..………..28 Chapter Two: “Home” Is Where the Heart Is: Maya Angelou’s The Heart of a Woman and All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes…………………………..……………………………...77 Chapter Three: “What’s Love Got to Do with it?”:Marita Golden’s Migrations of the Heart……….....112 Chapter Four: Romancing America, De-romanticizing Africa: Narratives about Africa by Black American Writers at the End of the Twentieth Century…………….…………………156 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………...…199 Appendix: Selected Narratives…………………………………………………………210 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………211 iv Introduction: The Return: Black American Travel Narratives about Africa Our social lives endow us with the full richness of our resources available for self-creation: for even when we are constructing new and counter normative identities, it is the old and the normative that provide the language and the background. Kwame Anthony Appiah (“Cosmopolitan Patriots” 625) This dissertation argues that black American travel narratives about Africa reflect the authors’ perception of their identity at particular moments in history. It suggests that these perceptions are informed by historical, political, economic, and social circumstances. Specifically, it demonstrates how associations with Africa—real and imagined—have evolved over time due to black Americans’ shifting social and political status in the United States. Finally, it illustrates how black American travel narratives epitomize how Africa is an enduring, but ever changing, signifier in black American culture. Black American travel narratives about Africa written during the second half of the twentieth century are the focus of this study.1 This period is marked by drastic political and social changes taking place both in Africa and in the United States. These include decolonization, independence, the aftermath of apartheid and the Cold War in Africa, as well as the Civil Rights Movement, desegregation, and integration in the United States. Although Africa and the politics therein are the narratives’ purported theme, I argue that their primary focus is black American identity. Using them as case studies, I highlight the effect that domestic and international movements had on black Americans’ perceptions of their identities and their relationship with Africa. 1 Lynn Duke’s Mandela Mobutu and Me was published in 2003 though it was written about her experiences as an Africa Bureau reporter for the Washington Post in the 1990s. 1 In the process, this dissertation examines factors such as audience and critical reception in order to understand how these travel narratives were read, misread, or overlooked. Analysis of critical reception is important because it brings to light the audiences for whom these authors wrote and their disparate assumptions about Africa, gender, and black American identity that the narratives sought to affirm or disrupt. Critical reception of Richard Wright’s Black Power (1954), for instance, was bolstered by his reputation and the fact that his narrative was directed towards Western intellectuals. Conversely, Era Bell Thompson’s Africa, Land of My Fathers (1954) has remained obscure because she primarily wrote for black audiences and her depiction of Africa differed from more conventional notions. Thompson’s text, along with Maya Angelou’s The Heart of a Woman (1981) and All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes (1986), and Marita Golden’s Migrations of the Heart (1983), all consider the gendered experiences of female travelers, wives, and mothers in Africa. As a result, they were often misread by critics who disregarded their important commentaries about African politics, pan- Africanism, and black nationalism. Eddy L. Harris’s Native Stranger (1992), Keith Richburg’s Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa (1997) and Lynne Duke’s Mandela, Mobutu, and Me (2003) were published at the turn of the twenty-first century. An examination of the critical reception of these millennial travel narratives exposes the continuing racially divided expectations between black writers and mainstream audiences. Cultural Baggage The travel narratives in this dissertation exemplify the enduring interest in Africa that exists among Africans in the diaspora, and focus specifically on black Americans 2 from the United States. Authors’ depictions of their experiences in Africa expose the nuances of the ever-evolving and often
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