With contributions from activists, artists, and scholars, Afro
Asia is a groundbreaking collection of writing on the historical
alliances, cultural connections, and shared political strategies
linking African Americans and Asian Americans. Bringing together
autobiography, poetry, scholarly criticism, and other genres, this
volume represents an activist vanguard in the cultural struggle
against oppression.
Afro Asia
opens with analyses of historical connections between people of
African and of Asian descent. An account of nineteenth-century
Chinese laborers who fought against slavery and colonialism in Cuba
appears alongside an exploration of African Americans’ reactions to
and experiences of the Korean “conflict.” Contributors examine
the fertile period of Afro-Asian exchange that began around the time
of the 1955 Bandung Conference, the first meeting of leaders from
Asian and African nations in the postcolonial era. One assesses the
relationship of two important 1960s Asian American activists to
Malcolm X and the Black Panthers. Mao Ze Dong’s 1963 and 1968
statements in support of black liberation are juxtaposed with an
overview of the influence of Maoism on African American leftists.
Turning to the arts,
Ishmael Reed provides a brief account of how he met and helped
several Asian American writers. A Vietnamese American spoken-word
artist describes the impact of black hip-hop culture on working-class
urban Asian American youth. Fred Ho interviews Bill Cole, an African
American jazz musician who plays Asian double-reed instruments. This
pioneering collection closes with an array of creative writing,
including poetry, memoir, and a dialogue about identity and
friendship that two writers, one Japanese American and the other
African American, have performed around the United States.
Contributors: Betsy
Esch, Diane C. Fujino, royal hartigan, Kim Hewitt, Cheryl Higashida,
Fred Ho,
Everett Hoagland,
Robin D. G. Kelley, Bill V. Mullen, David Mura, Ishle Park, Alexs
Pate, Thien-bao Thuc Phi, Ishmael Reed, Kalamu Ya Salaam, Maya
Almachar Santos, JoYin C. Shih, Ron Wheeler, Daniel Widener, Lisa Yun