Some African-Americans might assume that how they differ from Africans doesn't really make a difference. A good history lesson on contemporary Africa helps to complicate these assumptions of commonality without denying the need to belong. It should not be hard to encourage people to gain a deeper understanding of sociopolitical situations within Africa. In this sense, going on an adventure beats going home. However, the current of race does not direct this Wanderlust.
Economic angst does.
In this sense, the linguistic subversion of literary texts written by Africans in colonizer languages, or the critical acceptance of Africa's hybridity, has very little to say to customs officials and the dirth of job opportunities in parts of postcolonial Africa. America looks particularly appealing to those coming of age across the Atlantic. With this in mind, we in America may well wonder how our conceptions of Pan-Africanism sound to Africans. Slacking in Senegal Spending even a little time in Africa helps to complicate any hasty assertions of postcolonial subversion, as a month in Dakar recently convinced me. This seemed true enough, although for the moment the desire for work remained inseparable from the emotional investment in America as ultra-cool.