This ground breaking, impressive, and comprehensive book captures, with vividness, the transnational life experiences of the New African immigrants in America who reside in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is a rich blend of narrative history, personal recollections, and heart-wrenching oral testimonials of their experiences prior to and after their arrival on American soil. A must read exposé and fresh look at African immigrants' struggle to find the locus of their lives in their New American home while confronting challenges of racism. This powerful work will resonate with all readers because it is an American story in this grand nation of immigrants.
~Imali J. Abala, author of The Dreamer
How refreshing to find a book that makes the case for transnationalism as the way many immigrants actually feel and live once in the US—adapting to new identities as Americans but remaining connected to their homelands in positive ways. Their voices move us past appreciation of multiculturalism in our society, to an awareness of their even richer contribution: a global perspective. The authors themselves, two Africa-born immigrants and two Americans with deep African experience, exemplify this theme, lending the book authority and authenticity.
~Pat Nyhan, author of New Mainers: Portraits of Our Immigrant Neighbors
This is an outstanding book that presents the complexities of the African immigrant experience in the United States. The first-person accounts and the diverse topics provide a deeper understanding of the migration stories and lived experiences.
~Josphine Chaumba, University of North Carolina at Pembroke
There is no prototypical journey to citizenship for the thousands of African immigrants from almost fifty different countries who now reside in Kentucky. Born out of individual oral histories, Voices of African Immigrants in Kentucky expertly explores the complexities and ever-evolving nuances of leaving—though sometimes fleeing, seeking, reevaluating, rebuilding—and ultimately reestablishing what qualifies as home. Made all the more complicated by political, cultural, religious, racial, and linguistic barriers, the lived experiences of the many disparate lives captured in this most compelling of books allow us to begin to better understand America's immigration landscape. This is a must read for anyone seeking the substance behind the newspaper headlines and statistics.
~Frank X Walker, author of Affrilachia and Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers
A refreshing step away from existing research on major urban centers that host large populations of African immigrants.... Voices of African Immigrants in Kentucky contains the types of perspectives that need to be heard as our nation grapples with issues of race and immigration.
~Journal of Southern History
