Sankofa as Black diasporic awareness: Perspectives from librarians of Afro-Caribbean heritage

In keeping with the NCAAL XI Pan-African theme of Sankofa, and considering the larger US sociopolitical climate surrounding immigration, this panel will center the multifaceted experiences of librarians who identify as Afro-Caribbean immigrants. Participants will discuss their migration and librarianship journeys, recognizing interconnected histories created from Europe’s colonial past in the Caribbean and Americas. This critical conversation will also describe how library services to immigrants often ignore the needs of Black immigrants including Afro-Caribbean communities. Finally, the panelists will provide a call to action to continue the conversation and build solidarity among Afro-Caribbean, African, Afro-Latinx, and African Americans in the LIS professions.

This panel discussion is a follow-up to a chapter written by Simone Clunie, Kelsa Bartley Quan Hem and Pearl Adzei-Stonnes in the forthcoming book, Borders & Belonging: Critical examinations of library approaches toward immigrants, edited by Ana Ndumu. In it, the authors describe the history of Black diasporic immigration, the role of libraries serving Black immigrants, and their personal journeys to both the U.S. and to librarianship. While the chapter discussed both Afro-Caribbean and African immigrants, this proposed panel will grant exclusive attention to the contributions of Caribbean-born librarians.