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African American and Black Caribbean relations dominate research on interactions across black ethnic divides. Using National Survey of American Life data, we explore a different aspect of black interethnic attitudes: how close these groups feel towards Africans. African Americans and Black Caribbeans were largely similar in their feelings of closeness to Africans. For Black Caribbeans, younger and male respondents, those reporting higher levels of financial strain, living in the northeast and persons who immigrated to the US at least 11 years ago, report feeling especially close to Africans. Being male was the only significant correlate among African Americans. The findings are discussed in relation to how race, ethnicity and national origin shape personal identities within the US and their significance for intergroup perceptions. These broader issues warrant further consideration in light of assertions that race as a defining feature of American life and intergroup relations is obsolete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius, Réunion, and Seychelles, named the "Mascareignes" after a Portuguese explorer, are products of an eastward African diaspora, almost invisible in the West except to a few historians. Empty of human population until European exploitation settled them with a few colonists and thousands of slaves from East Africa and Madagascar, their multicultural history demonstrates the astonishing durability of African and Malagasy cultures. Folktales provide the finest window into that history and its values. Through that window, creolization is revealed in its actual occurrence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]