Exchanging Our Country Marks: The Transformation of African Identities in the Colonial and Antebellum South

Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: A superb book that is a "must read" for every African African American man, woman and child. This book is the stuff of seminars, workshops and discussion groups at all levels. One of the fascinating positions exposed by Gomez was why it took the diverse ethnic Africans to achieve an African American consciousness. The depth of documentation was monumental. I always wondered why the color "red" had such significance in the African American "red clawt" tales. Gomez' book inspired me to research this aspect of African American tales. Thank you Mr. Gomez!

Rating:
Summary: A must read
Review: A superb book that is a "must read" for every African African American man, woman and child. This book is the stuff of seminars, workshops and discussion groups at all levels. One of the fascinating positions exposed by Gomez was why it took the diverse ethnic Africans to achieve an African American consciousness. The depth of documentation was monumental. I always wondered why the color "red" had such significance in the African American "red clawt" tales. Gomez' book inspired me to research this aspect of African American tales. Thank you Mr. Gomez!

Rating:
Summary: This work is a must read!
Review: Gomez has done a tremendous service to the study of Africana by giving tangible evidence to what have heretofore been the answers rather than the questions on the who, what, where, when and WHY's of the African slave in America. Readers will be surprised at the degree to which something other than fact has helped form the base of their "knowledge". Suddenly the image of tobacco or rice will gain greater resonance than cotton. Virginia and Senegambia, for example, will have new and sharper meanings as we better ferret out who we were as Ghanaians, Senegambians, Angolans, etc. and how we became who we are as African-Americans.

Rating:
Summary: An innovative and essential book in African Diaspora studies
Review: Prof. Gomez has used a wealth of sources, many of which have been underutilized or neglected, to write a rich and nuanced meditation on the evolution of identity among Africans and their progeny in North America. His use of folklore points the way for new research in a field that oddly fails much too often to consider the voices of people of African descent. Every student at every level with interests in African-American studies or African Diaspora Studies must know this work.