reversing sail a history of the african diaspora

As Europe expanded into the Atlantic, the focus of West Africa shifted from the north, and the trans-Saharan trades, to new coastal Atlantic trades, which, in turn, laid the foundations for the transatlantic slave trade. The overarching point that Gomez makes in these early chapters is that Africans were not passive peoples without a history, but rather played a dynamic role within each of the contexts he examines.įrom Africa, Gomez moves, in chapter 4, to the western Atlantic basin and the realities of the Europeans' New World. In chapter 3 Gomez considers the other monotheism that influenced Africa and, like Christianity, played a role in the enslavement and movement of Africans: Islam. Gomez then addresses biblical Africa(ns) in chapter 2 to explain the place of Africans in scripture, interpreting figures such as the Queen of Sheba while also setting up the role of Christianity in the African Diaspora.

First, he emphasizes that both Africa (and Africans) possessed a history before Europeans arrived on its shores in the fifteenth century and, consequently, that the transatlantic slave trade that caused the Diaspora 'was but an aberration' (p. Part 1, consisting of three chapters, explores the 'Old World Dimensions' while part two, consisting of five chapters, examines 'New World Realities.' The work begins by exploring the place of Africans in the early Mediterranean world and Gomez uses this framework to stress two important issues. Gomez examines the history of the African Diaspora by dividing his work into two sections.

In his new work, written as an undergraduate textbook, Gomez explores the duration, complexity, and agency of the African Diaspora in a way that lays the foundation for interesting in-class discussions of the issues raised. In Reversing Sail, however, Michael Gomez shows that the integration of Africa and Africans into Europe and the Americas resulted in more than the exploitation of African slaves. For many, the African Diaspora remains synonymous with the infamous transatlantic slave trade.

Reversing sail a history of the african diaspora