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Senegal Abroad
Linguistic Borders, Racial Formations, and Diasporic Imaginaries
Maya Angela Smith
Africa and the Diaspora: History, Politics, Culture
Edited by Neil Kodesh, Tejumola Olaniyan, and James H. Sweet
“A groundbreaking interdisciplinary book that breathes fresh air into the study of migration, which has been dominated by economic perspectives. It brings together migration studies, the practice of strategic multilingualism, and racialized identity formation.”
—Cilas Kemedjio, University of Rochester
This volume explores the fascinating role of language in national, transnational, postcolonial, racial, and migrant identities. Drawing on extensive interviews with people of Senegalese heritage, Maya Angela Smith contends that they are notable in their capacity for movement and in their multifaceted approach to speech, shaping their identity as they purposefully switch between languages and structure. Offering a mix of poignant, funny, reflexive, introspective, and witty stories, Senegal Abroad blurs the lines between the utility and pleasure of language, allowing a more nuanced understanding of why and how Senegalese move.
Maya Angela Smith is an associate professor of French and Italian studies at the University of Washington.
Praise
“[An] outstanding work of original scholarship.”
—Midwest Book Review
“The wonderful story told here about the Senegalese diaspora in three cities of different languages is one that will be of interest to all Africanists and postcolonial critics regardless of discipline.”
—Jarrod Hayes, author of Queer Roots for the Diaspora: Ghosts in the Family Tree
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Larger images
New in Paperback!
May 2020
LC: 2018014266 DT
264 pp. 6 x 9
38 b/w photos, 6 b/w illus., 22 maps, 2 tables
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