Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewProvocative and well written, Gold Coast Diasporas is a must-read for any scholar interested in African identity, the transatlantic slave trade, and resistance. Africanists and African diaspora specialists need to engage with this book and with the methodological contributions that Rucker presents. His comprehensive approach to African identity and his rigorous analysis have produced a highly recommended study.
* American Historical Review *
[O]ne of the book's greatest strengths is the ways in which Rucker painstakingly traces how ethnic labels were appropriated, recast, and ultimately employed as a means to establish community bonds and resist oppression. . . . Chapters that focus on the creation of the Gold Coast diaspora, religion, and women make for a captivating text that will be of interest to graduate students and specialist readers. Recommended.
* Choice *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part One: Social Life and Death
1. Gold Coast Backgrounds
2. Making the Gold Coast Diaspora
3. Slavery, Ethnogenesis, and Social Resurrection
Part Two: Social Resurrection and Empowerment
4. State, Governance, and War
5. Obeah, Oaths, and Ancestral Spirits
6. Women, Regeneration, and Power
Postscript
Notes
Bibliography
Index
