Here, There, and Back Again: The Southern Diaspora and the Transcultural Music of Muddy Waters

This paper explores the dynamics of the twentieth-century mass migration of African-Americans from the rural portions of the southern United States to the urban North and West, a migratory process referred to here as the “Southern Diaspora.” A multi-layered network of cultural flows associated with the evolution of blues music is used to demonstrate the transnational dimensions of this diaspora and to explore its global significance. Famed blues artist Muddy Waters is offered here as a musical voice of this migratory process. The functions that his music served as a conscious-raising vehicle that narrated and encouraged the geographical, social, and cultural impacts of this migration for African-Americans are emphasized.