This is the second of a two-volume edited work on the ideas and experiences of African Communities and Individuals in the Caribbean and North America who went, or were sent, back to Africa, from the time of slavery to the present period. The first volume dealt with history and ideologies of Afro-Brazilian returnees. Separate volumes were originally planned for the Caribbean and North-America cases but the scope, size and nature of the material generated by the workshops did not justify this division. Furthermore, and very importantly, the narratives from the two regions were found to cross-cut and interpenetrate to such an extent that publishing them in two volumes became problematic. Throughout history and in diverse locations, the members of many diasporas, large and small, old and new, who have been forcibly or involuntarily removed from their native lands, have seen themselves as exiles and have cultivated and expressed ideas of return - or successfully returned - to the motherland.