LibGuides: Highlighting Diverse Collections Archive: National African Immigrant Heritage Month

Resources

Asylum by Edafe Okporo
Call Number: HV640.4.U5 O57 2022
ISBN: 9781982183745
Publication Date: 2022
Edafe’s powerful memoir documents his experiences growing up gay in Nigeria, fleeing to America, navigating the immigration system, and making a life for himself as a Black, gay immigrant.
Mississippi Masala by directed by Mira Nair
ISBN: 1404932402
Publication Date: 1991
This romantic drama film follows an Indian-Ugandan family from their home in Uganda after their forced departure to the US, where they resettle in Mississippi. There, the young adult daughter falls in love with an African American, which will challenge both communities in their perceived attitudes and stereotypes of each other. Directed by Mira Park and starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury.
The New African Diaspora by edited by Isidore Okpewho and Nkiru Nzegwu
ISBN: 1282293389
Publication Date: 2009
This collection of twenty-six scholarly essays covers topics such as reasons for African emigration, current debates about the brain drain, discussions about race and racism in diasporic spaces, and the influence of the new media on identity formations.
Memories of Africa by Toyin Falola
Call Number: DT16.5 .F353 2023
ISBN: 9781496843494
Publication Date: 2023
UT Austin Professor Toyin Falola provides a new lens for viewing African Diaspora studies: the experiences of African memoirists who live in the United States. The book shows how African Diaspora memoirs beautifully and grippingly depict the experiences of African migrants over time through political, social, and cultural spheres.
يوميات أبلة في أرياف أمريكا \ Yawmīyāt ablah fī aryāf Amrīkā by زينب أبو المجد \ Zaynab Abū al-Majd
Call Number: E 184 E38 A48 2009
Publication Date: 2009
Zaynab Abū al-Majd’s first book started as a Facebook post shared with friends in Egypt. She had moved to Oberlin, Ohio, to take a job as a professor, and felt that she finally found the real America. Her book–the title of which can be translated as Diary of an Idiot in Rural America--records her experiences, and perhaps more importantly her observations, as an Egyptian immigrant working at an elite institution in the American countryside.
When the dust settles by Moh Alileche
Publication Date: 2013
Moh Alileche is an Algerian American musician who sings in his native Tamazight language. Moving to California in 1990, he has been a prolific artist and founded his own label, Flag of Freedom. His songs speak to the experiences of Imazighen (the Berbers) of North Africa, and their struggles to have their voices heard.
How Long Have You Been with Us? by Khaled Mattawa
ISBN: 0472122428
Publication Date: 2016
Khaled Mattawa, an American poet of Libyan origin, explores various dynamic developments shaping American poetry as it is being practiced today. Mattawa, who also translates Arabic poetry into American English and American poetry into Arabic, explores the poetics and politics of cross-cultural exchange and literary translation that have fostered the transformation of American poetry. The essays in this collection also shed light on Mattawa's development as a poet and provide numerous portraits of the poets who helped shaped his poetry.
The Other Americans by Laila Lalami
Call Number: PS 3612 A543 O84 2019
ISBN: 9781524747145
Publication Date: 2019
From the Pulitzer Prize finalist Laila Lalami, author of The Moor's Account, this novel centers on the suspicious death of a Moroccan immigrant to weave a tale that is at once a family saga, a murder mystery, and a love story–and all of it informed by the treacherous fault lines of American culture. Nora Guerraoui, a jazz composer, returns home to a small town in the Mojave after hearing that her father, owner of a popular restaurant there, has been killed in a suspicious hit-and-run car accident. Told from multiple perspectives, The Other Americans explores secrets and hypocrisies in a society riven by race, class, and religion.

From Instagram

Americans of African immigrant heritage reside in every state and are a diverse group of more than 45 distinct ethnicities. They speak more than 500 language dialects and come from all regions of Africa. African immigrants contribute to American life through military service, healthcare, arts, education, community service, and public policy.

September is established as National African Immigrant Heritage month, an opportunity to recognize the important work being done by local community advocates and organizations, and celebrate the great contributions of Americans of African immigrant heritage in the United States who have enriched the history of the Nation.

Check out these resources from the Libraries Collections to learn more about the lives and contributions of African immigrants.

You can find this post on the UT Libraries' Instagram here.

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