Challenging monolithic approaches to culture and literacy, this book looks at the roots of African American reading and writing from the perspective of vernacular activities and creolization.

Examining the interplay of cultural trajectories and sign systems in the African diaspora, particularly in the U.S., Gundaker shows that African Americans, while readily mastering the conventions and canons of Euro-America, also drew on knowledge of their own to make an oppositional repertoire of signs and meanings.

Replete with nearly a hundred illustrations, Signs of Diaspora: Diaspora of Signs is the first full exploration of the nontraditional modes of expression that have developed among African Americans since the middle passage to the present day. This and its provocative challenge to accepted distinctions between literate and illiterate peoples make Gundaker's book vital reading for students and scholars of African American studies, cultural studies, literacy, and anthropology.