Young Adult Literature for Black Lives: Critical and Storytelling Traditions from the African Diaspora

Ebony Elizabeth Thomas

doi:10.24877/ijyal.27

Abstract

Academic criticism of Black African and African diaspora literature, media, and culture for youth and young adults has heretofore been largely out of the hands of scholars of African descent. This mirrors the fact that until recently, and in many cases still, people of African descent have not been in control of our stories, our images, or our presence outside of our own spaces. This reclamatory essay traces traditions of research and criticism of African diaspora young adult literature in four regions (US, UK, Caribbean, Africa), with an emphasis on key scholars and critics as well as notable authors from each area. While most work in the field has centred on United States scholarship and texts, there are promising developments occurring in other regions, from recently shuttered journals such as the Caribbean magazine Anansesem and Sankofa: A Journal of African Children’s and Young Adult Literature, to the REIYL (Researchers Exploring Inclusive Youth Literature) conference in the United Kingdom in 2019. The article concludes with a clarion call to the field, delineating the urgency of supporting further research and criticism by Black and African scholars in the future.

Highlights

As I write these words, our species and the planet that sustains us are embroiled in crisis
Despite the United Nations declaring 2015-2024 as the International Decade for People of African Descent, slave markets are operating in Libya, the Mediterranean is filled with the bodies of refugees, the United Kingdom has threatened the elders of the Windrush generation with deportation, China and South Korea are unapologetic about blackface in their media, and the United States continues apace with its extrajudicial police murders of its Black citizenry
It must be noted that academic criticism of Black African and African diaspora literature, media, and culture for youth and young adults has heretofore been largely out of the hands of scholars of African descent

Summary

Introduction

As I write these words, our species and the planet that sustains us are embroiled in crisis. It must be noted that academic criticism of Black African and African diaspora literature, media, and culture for youth and young adults has heretofore been largely out of the hands of scholars of African descent.

Results

Conclusion