| This dissertation investigates the shifting ethnic, national, panethnic, and racial identities of Africans living in the United States. This research is based on thirty-six semi-structured, in-depth interviews with students living in two distinctly different settings: the small, racially homogeneous city of Eugene, Oregon; and the large, racially diverse, cosmopolitan city of Washington, D.C. The study participants represented a culturally and socioeconomically diverse group from nineteen countries stretching across the African continent.; Research findings indicate that where people are situated in the socio-spatial contexts of their home countries influences the degree of emphasis placed on the construction of ethnic and national identities. The relative strength of these identities can be shaped by government policies and differences in rural and urban experiences. While some individuals express a limited pan-African identity based on regional affiliations, none identify with a continent-wide panethnicity when they are in their home countries.; As newcomers make the transition to the U.S., research findings illustrate the influential role of host community contexts in the construction and maintenance of ethnic, national, and panethnic identities. Study participants in Washington are more likely to have local access to co-ethnics/co-nationals and material and nonmaterial culture from their home countries. National identities are maintained and strengthened in this atmosphere, whereas ethnic identities tend to recede. However, in the absence of co-ethnics/co-nationals and sparse access to their home cultures, it is not surprising that most students in Eugene look beyond their ethnic and national identities to seek the friendship and support of people from other African countries. This study uncovers three categories of contributing factors that explain why students in Eugene, Oregon are much more likely than their Washington, D.C. counterparts to construct an African identity in the U.S.; Although the term 'race' has different meanings across Africa, most study participants are from black-majority, black-led countries. When they arrive in the U.S., they are thrust into the black-white dichotomy that still dominates U.S. race relations. This research shows how they react to racialization in the U.S. with varying degrees of acceptance or resistance. |
