Papers based on an international conference held Apr. 28-30, 2005, convened by the Africa Program, University of Texas at Arlington.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

West Africa and the United States in historical perspective / Adebayo Oyebade and Toyin Falola -- The U.S. consulate and the promotion of trade in Sierra Leone, 1850-80 / Ibrahim Kargbo -- Stranded families : free colored responses to Liberian colonization and the formation of Black families in nineteenth-century Richmond, Virginia / John Wess Grant -- The Garvey aftermath: the fall, rise, and fall / Ibrahim Sundiata -- Economic relations between Nigeria and the United States in the era of British colonial rule, ca. 1900-1950 / Ayodeji Olukoju -- The United States' economic and political activities in colonial West Africa / Hakeem Ibikunle Tijani -- Developing a "sense of community" : U.S. cultural diplomacy and the place of Africa during the early Cold War period, 1953-64 / Karen B. Bell -- African Americans in Ghana and their contributions to "nation building" since 1985 / Kwame Essien -- Perspectives on Ghanaians and African Americans / Harold R. Harris -- The chasm is wide : unspoken antagonisms between African Americans and West Africans / Fred L. Johnson III -- Double consciousness and the homecoming of African Americans : building cultural bridges in West Africa / Bayo Lawal -- Sierra Leoneans in America and homeland politics / Alusine Jalloh -- The United States and West Africa : the institutionalization of foreign relations in an age of ideological ferment / Peter A. Dumbuya -- U.S. foreign policy toward West Africa : democracy, economic development, and security / Andrew I.E. Ewoh -- U.S. economic assistance to West Africa / Abdul Karim Bangura -- The West African enterprise network : business globalists, interregional trade, and U.S. interventions / Anita Spring -- Poverty alleviation in Sierra Leone and the role of U.S. foreign aid : an institutional trap analysis / Stephen Kandeh -- Post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy toward Liberia and Sierra Leone / Osman Gbla -- The United States and security management in West Africa : a case for cooperative intervention / Olawale Ismail -- Radical Islam in the Sahel : implications for U.S. policy and regional stability / Stephen A. Harmon -- Undoing oil's curse? : an examination of the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project / Ken Vincent -- U.S. foreign policy agenda, 2005-9 : why West Africa barely features / Christopher Ruane.