VèVè A. Clark, 62, expert on African oral expression
LOS ANGELES - VèVè Amasasa Clark, a specialist on African oral expression who coined the phrase "diaspora literacy" and helped develop a doctorate program in African diaspora studies at the University of California, Berkeley, has died. She was 62.
Ms. Clark died Dec. 1 at a hospital in Berkeley after being in a coma for three days, said Ula Taylor, chairwoman of the university's Department of African American Studies. The cause of death was not known.
"She was the epitome of a brilliant scholar, passionate thinker, gifted writer, and master teacher," Taylor said in a statement. "As a colleague, she was a woman of integrity who was committed to encouraging younger faculty to embrace their own intellectual voice."
Last spring Ms. Clark taught two courses, but in the fall she went on sabbatical to work on a biography of Katherine Dunham, a famous dancer and choreographer.
Ms. Clark was a popular professor, Taylor said. Ms. Clark taught courses such as "Negritude: French African Literature," "African Theater," "Literature of the Caribbean: Significant Themes," and "Comparative Diasporic Discourses."
Ms. Clark's work was focused on the African diaspora - people of African descent now scattered throughout the world, in part by the trans-Atlantic slave trade. She spoke French, Spanish, Creole, and some Wolof, a language spoken in the African nations of Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania.
In the late 1980s, Ms. Clark coined diaspora literacy, which refers to a reader's ability to comprehend multilayered meanings of stories, words, and folk sayings of people of African descent "from an informed, indigenous perspective," Ms. Clark wrote in "Developing Diaspora Literacy and Marasa Consciousness."
