No Longer Sojourners: The Complexities of Racial Ethnic Identity, Gender, and Generational Outcomes for Sub-Saharan Africans in the USA

Through individual and group testimonies from newly arrived, 1.5 and second generation sub-Saharan Africans (For this study sub-Saharan African refers to the countries located under Northern African countries, for example, Egypt and Morocco and, includes South Africa. There are over 50 countries represented by this region; however, the most populous groups from this region in Africa in the USA are Nigerian, Ethiopian, Kenyan, Liberian, Ghanaian, Cape Verdean, South African, and Somalian.), the diversity and complexity linked to their migration and integration experiences in the USA reveal that there is a gendered and generational element to their self identity. These elements are compounded by perceptions of being African American in a racialized society and deciding whether or not to stay connected to Africa, a continent that needs their financial, political, and social resources accumulated in the USA These “new” African Americans expand the definition of blackness in the USA. Many have created a transnational relationship to Africa and the USA, which provides important implications for Africa’s potential “brain gain” as well as socioeconomic, infrastructural, and political development.