The Americans Are Coming!: Dreams of African American Liberation in Segregationist South Africa

For more than half a century before World War II, black South Africans and "American Negroes"--a group that included African Americans and black West Indians--established close institutional and personal relationships that laid the necessary groundwork for the successful South African and American antiapartheid movements. Many African Americans, regarded initially by the South African government as "honorary whites" exempt from segregation, also saw their activities in South Africa as a divinely ordained mission to establish "Africa for Africans," liberated from European empires. Though these liberation prophecies went unfulfilled, black South Africans continued to view African Americans as inspirational models and as critical partners in the global antiapartheid struggle. "The Americans Are Coming! "is a rare case study that places African history and American history in a global context and centers Africa in African Diaspora studies.