What's Hot?
iREP: Celebrating Nigeria’s Coolest Film Festival
US Cultural Affairs Office Commends Nigerian Film Corporation,...
Ooni of Ife Recognises Afro-Brazillian Settlement As Yoruba...
WTD 2023: Lagos Advocates Theatre And Culture of...
Davido Goes Timeless As Fourth Studio Album Drops
Idris Elba Partners Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife On Afro-centric...
Adekunle Gold Signs With Def Jam Records, To...
Hollywood star Edi Gathegi in Kenya, seeks partnerships...
Burna Boy To Co-headline UEFA Champions League Final
Nigeria Decides: Reflections On Lagos, Nollywood And Clean...
The Culture Newspaper
  • Home
  • Arts & Exhibitions
  • Culture & Festivals
    • Culture Africana
    • Culture People
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Music, Movies & More
  • News
    • Travel News
  • Opinion
    • Reviews (The Critics)
  • TCN Literati
  • Tourism & Hospitality
Reviews (The Critics)

A Migrant’s View of New York’s Harlem

by Tunde Onikoyi July 25, 2022
by Tunde Onikoyi July 25, 2022

A new way of viewing New York’s capacious space and metropolitan character, and especially through the community of Harlem, Boukary Sawadogo’s, new book: Africans in Harlem: An Untold New York Story offers a uniquely important aspect of Harlem, and her development as part of a very significant larger site and location in New York. The scholar chronicles its social history from the point of view of a migrant African, and from the eyes of an African about the African community’s creative, and social contribution to the development of Harlem, and indeed New York as a Diasporic metropolitan city.

Boukary Sawadogo also sketched Harlem’s historical popularity and as a larger hub which encapsulated and forged the intellectual platforms of great African creative writers, politicians, philosophers, thinkers, and activists including; Philip Payton,Madam C.J. Walker, Madam St. Clair, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Langston, Claude McKay, Alain Locke, Malcom X, James Baldwin and Ossie Davis (the film Director of Wole Soyinka’s Kongi’s Harvest, 1970), and the first Nigerian president Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe.

Building on the explications and analysis of theatre enactments, film productions, literatures, archival sources as well as interactive expanded arts forms, and historical materials – Sawadogo takes a long peep into the emergence, history, episteme, challenges, lifestyles and struggles of the Africans in Harlem. He attempts a diachronic study and offer a huge account on how the marginalized people struggled for emancipation under the very excruciating white systemic oppression in New York.

One of the high-points of the book, which I find generally interesting, is the fact that the author does not necessarily pitch himself within the initial history of Harlem, but writes as someone who learned about the various historical developments of Harlem, in relation to the influx of Africans who migrated to New York, and as someone who is now part, of this bubbling community, and invariably, of that history “today”.

Sawadogo says: “I have made a decision not to write myself out of the text, given that I am a member of the African community in Harlem, writing from this place. I would not have written this book if I did not happen to reside in Harlem at this specific time in history”. (See prefatory note of Africans in Harlem)

This is indeed a humble opinion and one which I believe, (as a mindset) contributed to the success of this beautiful book worth reading. The book bridges the gap between historical figures and new/existing dweller and entrants of the African world, in New York. It solidifies the place of Migrants and Migrant Africans in the land /city of New York and how important they are to the entire country, United States of America. The publication of this interesting book also reminds us of the recent struggles and challenges of Black people under the weight and pains of discrimination and outright prejudices in Diasporic communities, all over the world. Black Lives Matters really comes to mind here and the inconsequential murder of George Floyd which is still fresh in memory.

It is so exciting how Sawadogo universally contextualize the struggles. Not only that, the way he has elevated many Africans scholars, thinkers and intellectual(alive or dead) is assuredly deep and excellent. The task in itself demonstrates the tenacity and alacrity with which Black people have continued to advocate for a world without wars, a world without antipathy and a world that thrives on that much desired strength of coexistence, and the need to inhabit the same world without suspicion or segregation.

From my point of view, Boukary Sawadogo is further worlding Africa with this book. It is a surreptitiously crafted attempt at reminding the world of how Africans have entrenched their eclectic worldviews in every Diasporic society, and it is necessary that all (including the Centre) view such worldviews with an open mind.

Sawadogo’s book is a mine of scholarship which everyone interested in the field of history, popular arts, cultural studies, cinema, literature and other allied disciplines should encounter. A book upon the anchor of intellectual activism, Boukary Sawadogo’s Africans in Harlem: An Untold New York Story resonates profoundly with Cajetan Iheka’s closing statement to his brief editorial piece in African Studies Review of June 2021 “Editors’ Introduction: African and the Diversity Turn”, where he concludes “African Studies must not be left out of the ongoing moves to demarginalize Blackness and improve societal knowledge of people of African descent in the United States and other parts of the world”.

My guess is that Boukary Sawadogo has superbly attested to Cajetan’s suggestion, in the most profound of ways.

aharlemhrlemmigrantsmigrntsnewofviewyorks
0
FacebookTwitterPinterestLinkedinWhatsappEmail
Tunde Onikoyi

Onikoyi is a scholar, tutor and literary critic

previous post
Eurovision: UK to host next year’s Song Contest
next post
‘Akin to orchestra capture’ — Mthethwa plan gets a public panning

You may also like

‘Brotherhood’ That Struggles To Connect

February 22, 2023

Shanty Town: Dead On Arrival But For Chidi...

February 10, 2023

Ife Varsity Relives Fagunwa’s ‘Forest Of A Thousand...

December 13, 2022

Elesin Oba: The Rebirth Of An Era

November 7, 2022

Woman King is worth watching: but be aware...

October 9, 2022

Anikulapo: Afolayan’s Ode To Female Power

October 2, 2022

In The Law is an Ass, Adedokun curates’...

September 19, 2022

‘The King’s Horseman’: Toronto Review

September 13, 2022

‘Collision Course’ – a reminder of #EndSARS and...

August 22, 2022

‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Film Twitter Apparently Hates...

July 11, 2022

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Recent Posts

  • iREP: Celebrating Nigeria’s Coolest Film Festival
  • US Cultural Affairs Office Commends Nigerian Film Corporation, Pledges Collaboration
  • Ooni of Ife Recognises Afro-Brazillian Settlement As Yoruba Territory
  • WTD 2023: Lagos Advocates Theatre And Culture of Peace
  • Davido Goes Timeless As Fourth Studio Album Drops

Sponsored

Recent Posts

  • iREP: Celebrating Nigeria’s Coolest Film Festival

    March 24, 2023
  • US Cultural Affairs Office Commends Nigerian Film Corporation, Pledges Collaboration

    March 23, 2023
  • Ooni of Ife Recognises Afro-Brazillian Settlement As Yoruba Territory

    March 23, 2023

Categories

  • Arts & Exhibitions
  • Culture & Festivals
  • Culture Africana
  • Culture People
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Music, Movies & More
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Photo News
  • Reviews (The Critics)
  • TCN Interview
  • TCN Literati
  • Tourism & Hospitality
  • Travel News
  • Travel Trends
  • Travelogue
  • What's Hot?
  • World Culture

Connect with us

Connect with us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • About Us
  • Advertise With Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

@2019 - The Culture Newspaper. All Right Reserved. Designed and Developed by Zero-One

The Culture Newspaper
  • Home
  • Arts & Exhibitions
  • Culture & Festivals
    • Culture Africana
    • Culture People
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Music, Movies & More
  • News
    • Travel News
  • Opinion
    • Reviews (The Critics)
  • TCN Literati
  • Tourism & Hospitality