Varsity Don SeeKs Ties With African-Americans For Continental Growth

A professor of English at the University of Uyo (UNIUYO), Ima Usen Emmanuel, has advocated for stronger cultural dialogue, reciprocity and reconciliation between Africans and the diasporan Africans.

He said such renewed ties would tame the rising menace of Afro-phobia threatening the peace and development of the African continent.

The lecturer said centuries of separation had widened the gulf of African bonds and brotherhood, making the essential values of unity and African nationalism antithetical to continental development.

The research expert made the advocacy when he delivered the 141st in the series of Inaugural Lectures of the institution titled, “Circles and Circles of Relationship: Africans and African-Americans,” at the 1,000-capacity TETfund Auditorium, Nwaniba, Uyo, the state capital.

Using the metaphor of oscillating circles, the don argued that the relationship between Africans and African Americans should neither be viewed as one of permanent unity nor complete estrangement, but as a continuing movement between intimacy and distance, recognition and misunderstanding, solidarity and friction.

She said the transatlantic slave trade constituted a major rupture, forcibly separating millions of Africans from their families, languages, names and cultural environments.

Despite the disruption, Emmanuel said enslaved Africans preserved and transformed aspects of their heritage through music, dance, oral traditions, religious practices, food and funeral rites.

She described these practices as “living archives” of cultural memory, arguing that they survived not as frozen remnants of African culture but as dynamic traditions adapted to new circumstances in the Americas.

The professor identified literature as another major bridge between Africa and African Americans, citing the works of writers including W.E.B. Du Bois, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Chinua Achebe, Bessie Head and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

According to her, the writings of African and African American authors demonstrate continuing conversations around ancestry, identity, memory, race, culture and belonging.

She, however, noted that attempts at reconnection, including visits to Africa by African Americans, could sometimes produce misunderstanding and disappointment.

Emmanuel said some African Americans could arrive in Africa expecting automatic acceptance as descendants returning home, while Africans might perceive them as foreigners whose experiences and identities had been shaped by centuries of life outside the continent.

She consequently advocated “reciprocity rather than projection”, urging both sides to recognise their shared heritage while acknowledging the historical and cultural differences that have emerged over centuries.

The don also called for a stronger cultural dimension to Pan-Africanism through literature, music, film, heritage tourism and intellectual exchanges.

Among her recommendations was the establishment of a Memorial Day of Apology and Reconciliation, which she said could contribute to healing historical wounds and fostering greater understanding.

Emmanuel stressed that the objective should not be to force Africans and African Americans into complete cultural alignment.

She said, “The circles do not need to align perfectly; they need only to keep moving, keep touching, keep generating the friction that produce new forms of connection.”

She, therefore , urged scholars, writers and future generations on both sides of the Atlantic to sustain the conversation and create new avenues for cultural engagement.

The inaugural lecture also highlighted Emmanuel’s remarkable academic journey. Born in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in 1956, she began her career in secretarial studies before returning to university education.