In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Preface This book is the culmination of a journey of three decades. It mirrors the odyssey of its subject and the larger migrations of millions of diasporic peoples, first and foremost those of African descent, or “Africans born in exile,” as Kwame Nkrumah often described them. Because the author shares that designation, this cannot be an impartial undertaking. At its start, Max Yergan’s biography seemed a straightforward story of one person’s engagement with the ideas, fictions, dreams, and realities of his time(s); in its unfolding it has become far more, as it is also what Dr. Du Bois might have argued is in its own way part of the tale of a “race.” The very scope of this drama has dictated that it be related from multiple vantage points, on several distinct “screens,” shifting sets and casts of characters at a dizzying pace. Because it is a story of dispersal, it could not easily be retraced by one researcher alone, and so my debts are many. As I suspected at its outset, and subsequently came to know all too well, it was also a saga that could not be written alone. I have been helped by scores of colleagues in large and small ways, during the long life of this complex and singularly challenging project. Many of those helpers are no longer with us, but they remain a vital part of the telling of this tale, and thus deserve mention. The idea for this project took shape in conversations with Tom Wing Shick, my “big brother” at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. When we met in 1972, he took me under his wing and helped me explore our mutual interest in Pan-Africanism and allied trends showing the enduring connections between Africa and African-Americans. First as my supervisor when I worked as a project assistant helping him with a pathbreaking course on Pan-Africanism, and during and afterward as a mentor , guide, colleague, and friend, he helped prepare me for what lay ahead. It is impossible to imagine how this work could have taken shape vii without the University of Wisconsin–Madison. My adviser, Steven Feierman, deserves special mention in this regard. By asking probing questions and responding to draft upon draft, he played a major role in transforming an inchoate idea into a master’s essay, laying the groundwork for this book. Of equal importance were my M.A. committee members, Jan Vansina and William Allen Brown, each of whom shared more than an academic interest in this project, each having migrated far from home, thus imparting insights from a variety of viewpoints. Their guidance helped me through a particularly challenging period of my life, and their example gave me both the persistence and the technical skill to find and incorporate evidence of almost every kind. Moreover, I deeply appreciate their willingness to support research that flowed from and epitomized the broader subject of the pull that a diaspora can have upon people of African descent. There were also those whose teaching deepened my appreciation of South Africa, such a vital part of this story. These included Daniel Kunene , Harold Scheub, Wandile Kuse, and, beyond the classroom, my erstwhile comrades in MACSA, the Madison Area Committee on Southern Africa. The work itself took me literally around the world—from the State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the Memorial Library of the University of Wisconsin to the former YMCA Bowne Historical Library in New York City, where Cheryl Gaines and John Randle helped me immeasurably, literally loaning me the keys to the kingdom on weekends . There I pored over manuscript collections from YMCA personnel posted at the far corners of the globe, from North America to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. At the Y I was also helped by Ruth Hartson, formerly of the International Division, and Leo G. Marsh of the Black and Nonwhite Ys, or BANWYS. After the YMCA files were relocated to the YMCA of the USA Archives in St. Paul, Minnesota, I received aid from Andrea Hinding, David Carmichael, and Dagmar Getz. Correspondence between Yergan and ecumenical, humanitarian and philanthropic leaders led me to the Sterling, Beinecke, and Divinity School Libraries at Yale. In this connection I would like to thank Africana bibliographer Moore Crossey and the archival staffs of the Beinecke and Sterling libraries and Martha Lund Smalley and staff at the Divinity School Libraries, Yale University; former Yale graduate students Lewis Warren and Joseph “Kip” Kosek; and Yale anthropology professor...

Share