Welcome to Onyx Thought: Where Travel Meets Folklore and Literature

Hello, everyone. My name is Onyx Thought. I am an Africanist, folklorist, and literary critic. I am able to combine all three of these together due to two bachelor’s degrees in Africana studies and English; I’m currently working on my master’s in Multicultural and Transnational literatures and Folklore from East Carolina University. I am passionate about African culture on the continent and in the diaspora, with a particular focus on regions such as the United States, the South, and Yorubaland, specifically in Nigeria/Benin. I am not limited whatsoever to the history of our peoples globally. This blog documents not only my journeys and thoughts as I travel the globe but also those that I meet along the way or in literature.

              “Literature is good anthropology.” My professor spoke these words in literary studies. He was a brilliant man. The more I read and travel, the more I find that his words ring true as time goes on. Much of my reading and studies have prepared me for certain interactions overseas or when meeting people from new cultures. Literature serves as a bridge between different cultures, sparking new ideas that can enhance our identities. These ideas foster appreciation and promote multicultural tolerance. I believe such things are necessary, especially for those of us who are involved in Pan-Africanism. No matter what branch we might follow, we need to develop a multicultural tolerance and understanding because African peoples are not monolithic but rather as diverse culturally as they are genetically. Such diversity requires that we learn to respect each other’s cultures to be proper diplomats among each other when it comes to the building of our nations and peoples globally, and recovering from the effects of colonialism and standing against the antiblackness that has been imported from colonialism across the planet. The better we can understand one another, the more we can help one another as a people.

              I am African American, tracing my roots back to Alabama on both sides and also going further back to Virginia paternally. I am Southern through and through, but my identity is branching into what I call Afro-Globalist. What does this mean? Well, this is a term I borrowed from an article concerning the passing of Bajan writer, thinker, and Pan-Africanist George Lamming from the New York Times, stating the famous writer, “he placed himself in what one might term a sort of Afro-global diaspora tradition” (Clay).  This means to me means that I am one who is not limited to national boundaries alone, but wherever my people are, I am home. America is my home by birth, but there is also an Afro-Global culture that many members of the diaspora have shaped, and we all participate in it whether we are aware of it or not. This Afro-Globalism is shaped by Afrobeats, African-American media, and the children of Jamaican immigrants in the UK and US, bringing forth Caribbean flavors to the diaspora. It is not only limited to those groups who shaped, but these groups are major components of what unites us in this digital and global age. Many children of African descent have been displaced by war, famine, and poverty in search of greener pastures as refugees or voluntary immigrants; many of these children have been raised amongst other African diasporic communities, and this is all they know, or their lives are split between the diaspora and their homelands. They are Afro-Globalist. There are many in the diaspora separated by way of the Maafa (Trans-Atlantic slave trade) who are relocating back home in search of peace, and having children, they are going back and forth. They are Afro-Globalist. These individuals are often stationed in other countries for work or have had trips or prolonged stays that have profoundly shaped their identity, leading to a change in their worldview. They are Afro-Globalist.

Works Cited

Nytimes.com, http://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/17/books/george-lamming-dead.html. Accessed 21 Sept. 2025.