A guide to the history and current state of Africa and African American heritage includes entries on topics ranging from affirmative action to zydeco.

Introduction: An Encyclopedia of the African Diaspora -- Acknowledgments -- Contributors -- Charts, Maps, and Tables -- Articles -- Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience -- Ancient African Civilizations/Kevin MacDonald -- Civil Rights Movement/Patricia Sullivan -- Decolonization in Africa: An Interpretation/Frederick Cooper -- Garrido, Juan: A Black Conquistador in Mexico/Paul Gerhard -- Harlem Renaissance/David Levering Lewis -- Islam and Tradition/Lamin Sanneh -- Latin America, Blacks and Indians in: An Interpretation/Peter Wade -- Pan-Africanism and Afro-Latin America/Darien J. Davis -- Photography, African American/Deborah Willis -- Transatlantic Slave Trade/ Stephen Behrendt -- W E.B. Du Bois: An Interpretation/Cornel West -- Women and the Black Baptist Church/Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham -- Select Bibliography.