Jemima Pierre
What is the meaning of blackness in Africa? While much has been written on Africaâ€™s complex ethnic and tribal relationships, Jemima Pierreâ€™s groundbreaking ,The Predicament of Blackness, is the first book to tackle the question of race in West Africa through its postcolonial manifestations. Challenging the view of the African continent as a nonracialized spaceâ€”as a fixed historic source for the African diasporaâ€”she envisions Africa, and in particular the nation of Ghana, as a place whose local relationships are deeply informed by global structures of race, economics, and politics.,Â ,Against the backdrop of Ghanaâ€™s history as a major port in the transatlantic slave trade and the subsequent and disruptive forces of colonialism and postcolonialism, Pierre examines key facets of contemporary Ghanaian society, from the pervasive significance of â€œwhitenessâ€ to the practice of chemical skin-bleaching to the governmentâ€™s active promotion of Pan-African â€œheritage tourism.â€ Drawing these and other examples together, she shows that race and racism have not only persisted in Ghana after colonialism, but also that the beliefs and practices of this modern society all occur within a global racial hierarchy. In doing so, she provides a powerful articulation of race on the continent and a new way of understanding contemporary Africaâ€”and the modern African diaspora.
Cultural,Africa,History,Anthropology,Western Africa,Ghana,Nonfiction,Sociology,Race,Politics
The Predicament of Blackness: Postcolonial Ghana and the Politics of Race