Historicizing and authenticating African dress: diaspora double consciousness and narratives of heritage and community

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ABSTRACT This research examines consumer authentication in the context of African Americans’ consumption practices and discourses of African dress. Through multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork, our work reveals historical and ideological aspects of authentication. We identify three authentication practices, namely, representing resistance, educating one’s own, and journeying to the motherland. Our data reveal the importance of double consciousness and historicizing in the authentication of consumption objects among diaspora consumers. Collectively, our findings extend previous research by demonstrating that investigating and historicizing heritage are critical motives undergirding consumers’ quest for authenticity.