“‘The Spear is Black with a pure gold point’: Articulations of ‘Blackness’ in Toronto during the 1970s” in Exploring Dimensions of African Diasporas, 180-215
Diasporas comprise an inescapable part of the human experience and few are more interesting and diverse than African diasporas. By providing a panoramic view across time and geographical space this collection of essays illustrates the inherent variability of African, European and Asian diasporic formation. Even when such communities share a common origin, diasporas behave like living organisms that respond sensitively to specific geographical locations as well as particular social, political and economic circumstances. Migration constitutes an essential prerequisite for diasporic formation. Once established, diasporas assume a life of their own and sometimes form secondary diasporas and their histories make a significant contribution to comparative societal studies.
Michele Johnson is a professor of history and Associate Dean Students in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies at York University.
Other publications from this author include:
- “In Slavery and Freedom: Domestic Service in the Caribbean” in Slavery, Resistance and Abolitions: A Pluralist Perspective, 197-214 (2019)
- “‘Mi have to work’: La domesticité des enfants en Jamaïque, 1920-1970” in Situations Contemporaines de Servitude et d’Esclavage: Anthropologie et sociétés, 41 (1), 147-177 (2017)
- “Ah look afta de chile like is mine’: Discourses of Mothering in Jamaican Domestic Service, 1920-1970” in Colonization and Domestic Service: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, 79-96 (2015)
- “‘. . . to ensure that only suitable persons are sent’: Screening Jamaican Women for the West Indian Domestic Scheme in Canada” in Jamaicans in the Canadian Experience: A Multiculturalizing Presence, 36-53 (2012)
- “They Do as They Please”: The Jamaican Struggle for Cultural Freedom After Morant Bay (2011)
- “‘Problematic Bodies’: Negotiations and Terminations in Domestic Service in Jamaica, 1920-1970” in Left History (Special Issue: Domestic Service), 12 (2), 84-112 (2007)
- “Women’s Labours in the Caribbean” in Atlantis: A Women’s Studies Journal / Revue d’etudes sur les femmes, 32 (1), 2007. (2007)
- Neither Led Nor Driven: Contesting British Cultural Imperialism in Jamaica, 1865-1920 (2004)
- UNSETTLING THE GREAT WHITE NORTH: BLACK CANADIAN HISTORY ()