A comprehensive history of the relationship between Africa and the United States Toyin Falola and Raphael Njoku reexamine the history of the relationship between Africa and the United States from the dawn of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the present. Their broad, interdisciplinary book follows the relationship's evolution, tracking African American emancipation, the rise of African diasporas in the Americas, the Back-to-Africa movement, the founding of Sierra Leone and Liberia, the presence of American missionaries in Africa, the development of blues and jazz music, the presidency of Barack Obama, and more.

Tracing the reciprocal relationship between Africa and North America from the seventeenth-century slave trade onwards, two leading authorities in the field provide a major revision to traditional colonial African history as well as to US history. Departing from prior accounts that tended to emphasise only the role of the colonial metropoles in developing Africa, the authors show how American pioneers - missionaries, traders, prospectors, miners, engineers, scientists, and others - have helped to shape Africa. They also point to the equally important impact made by Africa on the United States through trade and immigration, and through the influence of Africans on the arts and agriculture, among other facets of American life. In a study of exceptionally broad scope, the authors devote particular attention to the development of United States policy regarding Africa, the impact of private enterprise, the operation of governmental lobbies, the administration of foreign aid, and the involvement of Africa in the Cold War.

A comprehensive history of the relationship between Africa and the United States Toyin Falola and Raphael Njoku reexamine the history of the relationship between Africa and the United States from the dawn of the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the present. Their broad, interdisciplinary book follows the relationship’s evolution, tracking African American emancipation, the rise of African diasporas in the Americas, the Back-to-Africa movement, the founding of Sierra Leone and Liberia, the presence of American missionaries in Africa, the development of blues and jazz music, the presidency of Barack Obama, and more.

Contributing Authors Are Rupert Emerson, James S. Coleman, Vernon McKay, S. Daniel Neumark, Andrew M. Kamarck, William O. Brown, And Hylan Lewis.

The image of Africa among Americans at the beginning of the 21st century is tragic; America's image among Africans is of a place that is splendid but arrogant and unfeeling. Both have large elements of truth. Poverty, coups, corruption, pandemic disease, and tribal, racial, and religious violence are all too common in Africa. So too is Americans' lack of concern about the people of a continent that suffers from these tragedies, as well as their government's support for African governments that treat their people as prey instead of citizens. The A to Z of United States-Africa Relations encompasses the relationship between the two from the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the George W. Bush administration, with particular emphasis on the Cold War. It focuses on political and economic aspects of the relationship and includes cultural relations. This is done through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on key persons, places, events, institutions, and organizations.