First presented at the Toyin Falola Annual Conference (TOFAC) in Lagos, Nigeria, in July 2012, the 14 essays in this volume examine the ethnicities, nationalities, creolization, cultural traditions, and cross-cultural representations of Africa and the African diaspora. The first section explores the contributions of Africans and diaspora Africans to the development of Africa and its diasporic communities, with discussion of how a group of returnees transformed Victoria in British Southern Cameroons, the role of Nwafor Orizu in promoting American education in Nigeria through the American Council on African Education scholarships, the impact of globalization on hip hop culture in the US, and the contributions of African history and African studies to African and global development. The second section addresses gendered rituals and performances, including initiation rituals in African Traditional Religion, Christianity, and Islam in Nigeria, and gender, dance, masks, and musical performances in Afro-Brazilian communities and the Cross River State of Nigeria, as well as the Ayanbinrin drumming tradition. Subsequent sections consider media and literary representations, including how Japanese newspapers reported on Africa and African soldiers during World War II, racial relations in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa as portrayed in Zakes Mda's The Bells of Amersfoort, and African migrant masculinities in novels by migrant African authors (Alain Mabanckou's Black Bazar, Jérôme Carlos' Fleur du désert, Fatou Dimoe's Le Ventre de l'Atlantique, and Thierno Monénembo's Un réve utile), and politics, ethnicity, and nationality in Africa, discussing the use of Federal Character in Nigeria, the Nigerian constitution, and China's growing presence in Africa. Contributors are Africana studies, religion, history, and other specialists from Africa and elsewhere. Annotation ©2015 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)