Africa and the Americas : culture, politics, and history : a multidisciplinary encyclopedia / edited by Richard M. Juang and Noelle Morrissette ; Melissa Fullmer, editorial assistant.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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This encyclopedia explores the many long-standing influences of Africa and people of African descent on the culture of the Americas, while tracing the many ways in which the Americas remain closely interconnected with Africa. For centuries the fates of Africa and the Americas have been inextricably intertwined, a relationship all the more remarkable for the wide-ranging influences flowing across the Atlantic. Today, one in five people in the Western Hemisphere are of African descent and powerful social, economic and ecological forces crisscross the Atlantic.

Ranging from the 15th century to the present, Africa and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History explores the many ways Africa and African peoples have shaped the cultural life of the Americas-and how, in turn, life in the Americas reverberates in Africa. This groundbreaking three-volume encyclopedia offers hundreds of alphabetically organized entries on African history, nations, and peoples plus African-influenced aspects of life in the Americas. It also features authoritative introductory essays on history, culture and religion, demography, international relations, economics and trade, and arts and literature. In doing so, it traces the complex and continuous movement of peoples of African descent to the West, the mechanics and lingering effects of colonialism and the slave trade, and the crucial issues of cultural retention and adaptation that are essential to our understanding of the effects of globalization.