Movements, Borders, and Identities in Africa Edited by Toyin Falola and Aribidesi Usman Migration, whether forced or voluntary, continues to be an issue vital to Africa, arguably the continent most affected by internal displacement. Over centuries, in groups or as individuals, Africans have been forced to leave their homes to escape unfavorable natural, social, or political circumstances, or simply to seek better lives elsewhere. This essential volume establishes the centrality of human migration and movement to the evolution of African societies. Using oral, archaeological, and written sources, and focusing on various geographical areas, the contributors show that migration is a multifaceted phenomenon, historically varied in nature and character. Movements, Borders, and Identities in Africa incorporates carefully selected case studies drawn from across the continent, and provides a broad but insightful overview of migration and its complex relationships to slavery, commerce, religion, architecture, material culture, poverty, diaspora life and identity formation, and the development of states and societies on the continent. Chapters examine subject as varied as the Atlantic slave trade, rural outmigration and metropolitan resettlement, compulsory labor and forced displacement in the nineteenth century, ethnicity's role in establishing coastal communities, and the long legacy of European colonialism. Taken as a whole, this collection offers a groundbreaking interrogation of the myriad causes and effects of African migration, from the pre-colonial to the modern era. […]