Black Americans Living Abroad Volume 1 Issue 2 | Seite 16

#WeGlobal
African Americans Living Abroad
Research & Education Program
Update — Winter 2019
Did You Know? Black Americans Living Abroad
That there are thousands of African American
men and women athletes playing professionally
abroad?
For instance, the website https://
www.usbasket.com/ maintains a database of
American men and women playing basketball
overseas; the clear majority of whom are African
Americans. This website covers 435 leagues all
over the world. It is difficult to track affiliations
because many athletes play for different leagues
in different countries within the same year. On
the other hand, some players stay with one
league for many years or even decades. David
Goldstein’s book, Alley-Oop to Aliyah: African
American Hoopsters in the Holy Land, highlights
several people who played 13-18 years in Israel.
In fact, more than 800 African-American players
have competed in the Israeli Premier League
since it was formed in 1954. The challenge for
#WeGlobal will be finding these athletes around
the world. For the past year, we have been
very honored to have Katrina
Sunnei Samasa as a member of
our Advisory Committee and as a
#WeGlobal Ambassador. In 2001,
Katrina created the Facebook group
Black Americans Living Abroad
(BALA) because she realized that
no organization specifically focused
on the Black American expat. Being
newly expatriated as a single moth-
er in the UAE, she needed a re-
source, a family, and a group of indi-
viduals who shared her experienc-
es. That FB group now has over
10,000 members. After a 7-year
stint in the UAE, she recently relo-
cated to Jeju Island, South Ko-
rea. With the first BALA magazine complete and the second in de-
velopment, her goal is to offer balanced information specifically ca-
tered to the Black American expat and those interested in living
overseas, to ensure they make informed decisions before they
move abroad. She is also organizing a Black Girls Magic event in
Jeju April 5-7 th for Black American expat women living in Asia.
University of Michigan
#WeGlobal and The University of Michigan are
working collaboratively to launch the African Amer-
icans Living Abroad global study. We are currently
submitting the human subjects review to Michi-
gan’s IRB. We expect that the online survey will
“go live” later in February.
Support Us
#WeGlobal: African Americans Living Abroad Re-
search and Education Program is a sponsored
project of Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit arts service
organization. Contributions for the charitable pur-
poses of #WeGlobal must be made payable to
“Fractured Atlas” and are tax-deductible to the
extent permitted by law.
Donate at https://
www.fracturedatlas.org/site/FiscalSponsorship/
profile?id=18081. Thank you for your support!
#WeGlobal @ The Wright
The Charles H. Wright
Museum of African Ameri-
can History in Detroit,
Michigan will host a
#WeGlobal public pro-
gram on February 23,
2019 at 2:00pm. Dr. Deb-
orah Robinson and Dr.
Rashida Braggs will dis-
cuss African Americans
living abroad historically
and currently, as well as
how to get involved in the #WeGlobal study. This is the first of sev-
eral library and museum programs that will take place during 2019.
Let’s Make History Together!
www.aalivingabroad.org