Understanding African Diaspora Political Activism

Abstract

The author’s work explores one way the African diaspora found resources and strategies to participate in transnational politics. She completed an empirical study of the Universal Negro Improvement Association’s Black Star Line and how it became the diasporic project that could bring about an economic enclave for diaspora trade among sister communities and West Africa. The effort was championed by many diaspora communities because it was seen as a solution to racial discrimination in transportation that hindered the mobility of Black travelers, migrant labor, and trade. The study provides a glimpse of activism in the fascinating parallax that we call the African diaspora by uncovering additional factors that help explain how this project gained traction and support; then it provides a detailed analysis of its demise.