Introduction
The introduction explains the three central issues in light of which African American roots tourism in Brazil is examined: 1) The construction of diasporic identities through tourism, and how national and racial identities may contradict one another; 2) Roots tourism as a means for transnational black solidarity; 3) The geopolitics of the black diaspora since African Americans interact with Afro-Brazilians simultaneously as co-participants in the African diaspora and as citizens of the United States. The introduction also discusses the theoretical frameworks adopted in the book and the applicability of cultural studies and post-structuralism to study tourism discourses and practices, as well as the challenges of carrying out ethnographic research on tourists, subjects that are defined as being “on the move.”