The re-issue of archival volumes ALT 1 to ALT 14 makes the complete
series available and provides the historical perspective of these early
contributions to the literature and its criticism.
This volume, first published in 1978, looks at the fascinating literary
links of the African diaspora in Harlem, Cuba and Haiti. Eldred Jones
outlines in his Editorial the impact of the pride in connections with an
African past as"one of the great transformations of modern times". The
impact on writing moved in all directions and comparisons in this volume
are made between Wole Soyinka and Leroi Jones, and between African and
Irish Nationalist writing. Among the contributions are articles on the
American background to Ayi Kwei Armah's Why Are We So Blest?, the
African elements of Cuban literature, and an analysis of the early works
and later crime fiction of Chester Himes.The Reviews include Kadiatu
Sesay on Ekwensi and Okpwewho, Maryse Condé on Sembene Ousmane's Xala
and Eustace Palmer on Meja Mwangi's Going Down River Road and Nuruddin
Farah's Naked Needle.