Chrislyn Laurie Laurore

CHRISLYN LAURIE LAURORE, then a graduate student at University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was approved funding in September 2023 to aid research on “‘The Love of Liberty Brought Us Here’: Black Indigeneity, Slave Heritage, and the Politics of Return,” supervised by Dr. Richard Leventhal. This research examines how Black indigeneity, sovereignty, citizenship, and belonging are negotiated through Back-to-Africa heritage preservation projects and tourism. Support allowed the grantee to complete eleven months of fieldwork in Monrovia, Liberia and Barbados in 2024. This included extensive participant observation of cultural and political events and tours as well as interviews with cultural workers, government officials, and “returnees.” Key findings include the layered meanings of “returnee,” which encompasses: 19th century settlers from the U.S. and Caribbean, Liberians who were displaced by civil conflict and have moved back after decades of living abroad, “Decemberees” (diaspora Liberians who temporarily return to celebrate the winter holidays), and a small but growing community of Caribbean and African American expats who have decided to make a home in Liberia for a myriad of spiritual/religious, philosophical, political, and economic reasons. Bifurcations and tensions between settler and Indigenous heritage (and people) persist, despite clear examples of cultural exchange and hybridity.