Beyond Country of Birth

This article reports the results of an exploratory study on how third-generation American-born Africans (ABAs) (i.e., descendants of African immigrants born and raised in the United States) construct their identities in and through learning African languages as heritage languages. Drawing from qualitative data in the form of in-depth interviews, the article argues that while ABAs contest and negotiate their identities through learning African languages and through other, multimodal semiotic practices such as clothing, there is a prevalent valorization of African identity indexed by proficiency in an African language irrespective of whether this is a heritage language. The impetus for this valorization of heritage identity is a feeling of dislocation and delocalization resulting from erasure of ABAs’ English native-speakerhood and constant misidentification as non-Americans by the dominant culture. Learning heritage languages fosters a sense of belonging and connection with an “imagined” home located “there” as distinct from “here.” Thus, through heritage language learning, ABAs construct an “identity of resistance.” The article concludes by pointing out how positive heritage identity metamorphoses into an awareness of not only the cultural and symbolic value of heritage languages but also the potential of translating proficiency in one’s heritage language(s) into economic capital in the global market.