Review of Navigating the African Diaspora, by Donald Martin Carter

Abstract

In this strikingly told tale, anthropologist Donald Martin Carter offers his readers a beautifully written story of exile, personal and collective. In it, Carter tells the story of diaspora, not one, but many throughout history and how they are linked through a pervasive experience of invisibility. Carter tells us, "This project is the result of an itinerant scholar traveling the byways of academic life" (p. xiii). His work, through narrative exposition and field based research, is to make the connections he sees visible to others. Throughout the book, Carter seeks to expose his personal experience of "navigating diaspora" and to think about how the collective experience of diaspora is represented. Navigating the African Diaspora goes beyond the analysis of the political economy of migration to look at the meanings these journeys create for those on them and those seeking to understand.