The term Diaspora originated from the Greek and Jewish history. It means dispersal in Greek, though; it was widely used to express the process of scattering of the Jews in the west. African-Americans perceive diaspora in a different context: to them, it describes the quest for liberation form injustice, colonialism and racism.
African diaspora, therefore, is deeply rooted in scholarly debates serving as both a political and analytical term in examining black communities across territorial borders. Politically, the term serves to emphasize unification of Africans disconnected due to the slave trade. As an analytical term, African diaspora allows exploration into transformation and involvement of the dispersed Africans in establishing new cultures, ideas, and institutions out of Africa.
Broadly, the term allows analysis of problems that impede establishment of pan-African movements worldwide. The issue arouses attention to construction and mitigation of diasporic identities. The issue of diasporan consciousness also emerges when seeking to understand pan-African movements (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 14).
Dispersal from native home, as a result of violence, forms an important element of diasporan consciousness. Separated people visualize and memorize their homeland and remain committed towards restoration. The consciousness is not restricted to people of a given homeland but traverses to people who share a history of displacement, resistance, or adaptation.
Though diaspora is not a territory with established borders, Africans effortlessly seek for common historical roots and culture. Usually, the dispersed Africans view themselves as an oppressed nation and refer to Africa as their home. Colonization, forced labor, and racism led to the creation of coordinated systems that traversed oceans and national boundaries (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 15).
According to Patterson and Kelley 2000 (20), perception of diaspora in the African context is complex and plays out as both a process and a condition. As a process, it is mitigated through political struggle, migration, travelling as well as movement. In early scholarships, black people worldwide were presumed to share a common culture. The collective identity, however, keeps shifting.
The shared experiences under racism and the process of dispersal do not point out to a common identity. Perceived identity is a product of the struggle to desist domination. Shared cultural codes provide people with a common point of reference. Anti-colonialism and pan-Africanist movements impose imaginary coherence to the dispersed forming a common history of enforced dispersal.
Dispersal depends on legal lines that restrict nationalization in democratic countries. Sometimes, indigenous cultural values are ascribed negatively while politicians exploit them for commercial gains. Follow-up study on Africans affected by slave trade across the Atlantic reveals a degree of integrity of some African cultures. The Africans transform from ethnic identities to embrace a collective identity, which labels them as one community.
At the same time, African diasporic hierarchies are formulated along societal lines through systems that hinder access based on gender and race disparities. Racial hierarchies are peculiar since they remain intact across borders. Race and ethnic identities play out a complex relationship. Ethnicity emerges as a response to sociopolitical conditions as expressed in the Brazilian case.
Racism emerges as an outcome of regional variation and demographic changes. Determinants for creation of multiple ethnic groups include free ancestry, education, and religiosity, among others. Brazilians blackness depended on social and economic advances. This dependence on economic advances created complexity in formation of identities.
Success in economic activities led to the emergence of a whitening process, which led to demarcations amongst the blacks. While Bahians related with African ethnicity, Paulistas viewed themselves as more superior regarding themselves as black Brazilians (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 23).
As a condition, diaspora is directly stringed along the process through which it occurs and reinvents itself. It is, therefore, widely used in an attempt to cover up for discontinuities and differences. The concept is derived from life experience situations and explains formation of complex relationships that express alienation. Taking the United States as an example, life experiences of Africans in the U.S. is used as a standard to compare against experiences of others not in the U.S.
This is facilitated due to identification of discrepancies in studies when certain groups of African descent are ignored. Such is the case when Black people in Canada were left out leading to a poor perception of people of African descent living in the United States. The same disparity by scholars occurred when Caribbean and Portuguese speaking Blacks failed to be connected to African people living in other parts of the globe. Hanchard presents an adept study that emphasizes plurality of culture and politics.
He not only looks at the movement of black people to the new world, but also focuses on their broader dispersal within the globe. Instead of viewing African-Americans as cultural survivors, he presents a framework that views them as products of translocation.
The scholar reveals the mindset of U.S. race relations encouraging a more focused conceptualized view of the African diaspora. Hanchard brings to focus the power of black identities grounded in national or regional context (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 23).
The issue of diaspora being both a process and condition cannot be discussed in isolation. This is due to the fact that the condition is always tied along the process. The example of Cuba brings the argument into perspective. Just like Brazil, Africans in Cuba had demarcations along free ancestry, educational and cultural background.
Though not all retained their African identity, during the wars for national liberation in 1868 and 1898, the identities were revived encouraging participation in the Afro-Cuban political struggles. Afro-Cubans were struggling to retain the right to be recognized as black nationals and therefore enhance participation in politics as legitimate citizens.
This led to the 1912 race war which stopped the organization of black Cubans in terms of races. Though thousands of people were massacred, the result did not deter emergence of an Afro-Cuban identity (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 24).
Studies seeking further understanding of the African diaspora require an open mind. Relationships between race and identity have to be revamped if a greater understanding of the local history connection to the global development is to be achieved. Black world receives wider coverage when studied in the context of the globe, and the converse.
It is also worth noting that historical processes are not limited by national boundaries. At the same time, large water bodies act not as barriers but facilitators for transoceanic trade and cultural exchange. African diaspora as a condition better explains success in struggle that saw an end to slave regimes.
Similarly, as a process, African diaspora explains how black people were taken away from their homeland to other areas, but remained subconsciously connected to their origin and culture. New day studies need to look beyond displacement and domination, and focus on fundamental contribution of black people in the modern world (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 32).
Bibliography
Patterson, T. Ruby and Robin D.G Kelley. Unfinished Migrations: Reflections on the African Diaspora and the Making of the Modern World. African Studies Review. 43.1 (2000):14-32. Print.
Industrialisation and urbanisation has now evidently become the “new religion” globally and nationally. In the course of the apartheid regime and colonialization, religion has developed itself automatically with the immigration of various races into South Africa. Christianity was brought in by European settlers and spread amongst Africans throughout the tension between the amaXhosa and the colonial powers, taking place in the Eastern Cape. The Islamic religion was transferred by Malay slaves led by Sheik Yusuf. Labourers from India was taken to KwaZulu-Natal and Hinduism then emerged in South Africa (Stewart & Zaaiman , 2018, pp. 140-142). After South Africa birthed democracy in 1994, diverse religions melted their way into South Africa due to the 1996 constitution endorsing freedom of religion (Chipkin & Leatt , 2011). However, it is a contradiction as South Africa is considered to be a rainbow nation with rich diversity and yet the profane is considered to decrease the value of religion. In this essay the domination of secularisation will be argued to the extent of religion declining.
The rise of religion during the apartheid
The decline of religion can be referred to secularisation. According to Chipkin and Leatt (2011), secularisation was introduced in Europe where there was a noticeable decrease in religion value and theorists believed this would spread globally. This was rather a counterstatement where other countries such as the USA became more secular whilst Europe was an exception (Chipkin & Leatt, 2011). South Africa being quite a diverse country has shown that Christianity is emphasised with the presence of additional religions such as Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. Christianity was a critical backbone throughout the apartheid. This faith was modified politically with the use of the Dutch Reformed Church and Christian national education and the enforcement of Bantu education. Christianity was also used as a “shield” to oppose apartheid (Chipkin & Leatt , 2011). Religion was emphasised in the eyes of the negotiators when democracy was being achieved. The negotiators then regarded other religions present in the country. There is no clear evidence about other belief systems being active during this time, however, the role of religion was an important element during the post-apartheid era because it legitimised religion in the rainbow nation.
Sacred vs profane
In accordance to (Evason , 2015), the first religion introduced in South Africa was the Khoisan and according to (Stewart & Zaaiman , 2018), the San and the Khoisan were the first people to develop the belief system and had a “deep awareness of the supernatural realm” (Stewart & Zaaiman,2018, p. 140). This is the beginning of enforcing strong practices of rituals and the philosophy of the supernatural. Due to the colonisation by the European settlers, the powerful African belief system still existed, however, the conflict between the State and the African people grew stronger. With this being said, the crisis and the challenge of the rise of the dead proved to be invalid and this resulted in African people adopting the Christian religion. South Africa now has its unique historical concept of Christianity. The resurgence of different cultures were relocated in the new South Africa, making South Africa religiously diverse. To answer the question of this essay, Apartheid can be classified as an automatic response to Secularisation. The African traditional beliefs were challenged against the Europeans to prove evidence of the supernatural. Colonialism used Christianity to tame or “brainwash” others to prevent themselves from opposing the apartheid. This can be proved with historical reference of the Europeans spreading western Christianity, that too Christianity being emphasized throughout the apartheid regime, enforced secularisation. Therefore, it may be safe to say, this paradigm is used in modern society in reference to the victory of the Europeans against Africans. This sets a norm to conceptualise that it is normal to not believe in the supernatural…creating a sense of secularisation.
Other factors contributing to the decline of religion in South Africa
The history of South Africa revealed the role of religion and how it was used during the apartheid, Post-apartheid however was shortly was making its way towards the 21st century. The immediate thought everyone may get upon hearing “21st century”, this can be referred to modernisation which relates to technology, and according to Stewart & Zaaiman (2018, p.149) “government, the marketplace and education”. These factors are becoming more influencial in society where religion is considered to be personal therapy and guidance. Bryan Wilson believed that rationality and religion opposes each other, yet rationality is considered to be powerful and more useful in modern day society. Another factor that argues the extent of declining religion in South Africa especially, is the presence of poverty. Poverty can add to inequality within society and to some extent , some religions encourage contriubutions such as charity. This rather drives people away that’s facing poverty and unemployment as they cannot contribute anything. Since unemployment and poverty is commonly faced in South Africa, secularisation is identified.
Conclusion
In this essay I introduced secularisation and how the presence of religion has impacted during apartheid, especially Christianity. History of the revival of religion in South Africa, has been referred to and argued that it was apartheid that flattened out the value of religion thus how South Africa has become secular. I then referred to modernity and poverty being external factors in contributing to a secular nation. In conclusion , Karl Marx argued that religion with regards to the conflict perspective is that change is resisted and prominent issues within South Africa such as poverty cannot be resolved with religion (Stewart & Zaaiman , 2018). It is not the problem of secularisation in South Africa; however, it is the use of rationality and taking action in making this country a better nation.
Before the 15th century, when most countries in Africa were still free, African people had their own religion until they were colonized and forced to leave behind their beliefs. This paper will be focusing on the readings by Torres, and Mbaya and Cezula. I will be look at the existence of religion in Africa before colonization and how Africans became Christians and how they continue to follow it even in the postcolonial era.
The existence of religion in pre-colonial Africa shouldn’t even be questioned and Mbiti gives us an insight of the African Traditional Religion. According to Mbiti “the ontology of an African is embodied in the saying ‘Africans are notoriously religious’ ” (Mbaya, 2020), this statement by Mbiti is true since almost everything in an Africans life is carried out or followed by some sort of ritual. An example of this would be a black South African buying a house and to give thanks to the ancestors they have a small ceremony where they let their ancestors know of their new house and invite them into their house for them to safe guard it. When inviting their ancestors into their house, they pick one room which will be ‘Umsamo” which is a room they’ll use to talk to their ancestors, pray and burn incense.
When the colonizers came to Africa they did not recognize the African Traditional Religion as they had a subjective definition to what religion is, and according to them “to refer to the indigenous as subjects without religion removes them from the category of the human” (Maldonaldo-Torres, 2014). The colonizers viewing indigenous people as non-human made them think it would be easy for them to be colonized and be turned into Christians as they “perceived the indigenous people as a tabula rasa, it was possible to write anything on their consciousness because they were empty, or lacked substance, reflected in the idea that they did not even ‘have religion’” (Maldonaldo-Torres, 2014). We now know that their perception of African people as people who lacked Religion was not true; this has been proven in the above paragraph. When Africa was colonized Africans were stripped off their traditions and forced into Christianity.
A lot of African countries still follow the Christian religion even after decolonization; my main focus now will specifically be on South Africa. As diverse as South Africa is, it is mostly a Christian country, with even the country’s national anthem consisting of Christian elements. Mbiti’s work has been impactful and has made “people raise issues or questions regarding the relationship between Christianity and African culture and religions” (Mbaya, 2020). For black South Africans “it is a practical matter which has to be dealt with daily, because they have to live with realities of both religions” (Mbaya, 2020). Most schools in South Africa also follow Christianity, they open up by prayer in assembly as well as end the day by prayer after announcements at the end of the day, and this makes it hard for children from other religions to practice their traditions. When I was doing grade 3 at Learskool Pionier my isiphandla was cut off at school because it was against the code of conduct. This just goes to show that a lot of South Africans “regard African religion as demonic and try to keep it out of the church and Christian life” (Mbaya, 2020).
Mbiti has given us insight on the existence of African Traditional Religion before colonization, and we have seen how Africans had to leave behind their beliefs for Christianity. African countries still follow Christianity even after decolonization; South Africa is an example of this. And a religion that is authentic to Africans is still frowned upon till this day by other religions, more especially Christians.
James Spickard describes six religious narratives to explain what is happening to religion. In this essay I will be describing two namely fundamentalism and religious reorganisation and show the impact they have on contemporary religion in South Africa. Fundamentalism is defined as “the religious militancy which individuals use to prevent their religious identities eroding” (Hall, 2020) and religious reorganisation shows the restructuring of religion which can be defined as “religious communities as proxies for other forms of social identity and community formations.” (Spickard, 2006)
Fundamentalism indicates a strong commitment in a narrow set of beliefs as it constitutes a particular modern belief consisting of political and religious radicalism. Hall (2020) states that fundamentalist religion provides a strict set of rules that people should adhere to as the religion is usually very political and highly conservative. Due to the strict division of religion, fundamentalism is very common among journalists or political scientists but not amongst sociologists or scholars, Spickard (2006) states two reasons for this, firstly because not all the groups are fundamentalists as certain groups such as Muslim and Hindu’s are excluded and secondly, because some people want personal redemption through religion and want to be able to unique and not let the religion define them or their behaviour, this therefore shows a response to secularisation.
Religious reorganizations are also a narrative explained by James Spickard to portray the move of religion as a national structure as it is weakening on a national level but still immensely important or a local level. In religious reorganizations the local level is still highly active due to the fact that it provides personal connections among people who they can rely on for support. This concept “order greatly expands the reach of governments, big industries, and commercial enterprises and restricts individuals’ sense of control over their own fates.” (Spickard, 2006). That is a reason in which localism has increase as people turn to friends or family in times of need. Religious reorganizations support some findings of the secularization narrative and it “can easily accommodate the issues of institutional differentiation and privatization” (Spickard, 2006).
Fundamentalism helps with the understanding of contemporary South Africa as South Africa is a very diverse nation with many different religions, fundamentalism is portrayed to have an inauthentic mark on the authenticity of these religions and it also shows what is accepted or not accepted in the different religions. For example, in the Buddhist religion, fundamentalism has targeted other religious and ethnic groups. In the Christian religion, fundamentalism shows the theological beliefs and the strict adherence to theological creeds. Fundamentalism can also be shown in South Africa as the belief system of fundamentalism “regulates religious thoughts, but also all conceptions regarding the self, others, and the world” (Kossowska et al., 2018). Religious reorganization is shown in contemporary South Africa through religious localism which is portrayed as religious congregations is alongside family to offer support to individuals who may need it. It also shows the growth of local levels of reorganizations in South Africa as it allows more personal connections in which people can turn to family and friends and return to localism in times of need.
To conclude, Fundamentalism is very political and shows a set belief in religions and religious reorganisations show how local is becoming more important. Both these narratives play a role in contemporary South Africa as fundamentalism so the authenticity of religion and what is seen as right or wrong, while religious reorganisation shows how localism is increasing in South Africa as people make better personal relationships and tend to turn to these people in times of need.
In this essay I will be comparing as well as contrasting the theories of religion by Emilie Durkheim and Karl Marx for the purpose of trying to understand the role of religion in society. I will do this by first, giving background on their views and the concepts that make up their definitions. Secondly I will be discussing their variations on the way religion is expressed, and how it affects society, with the purpose of using this information to make sense of or understand religion in contemporary South Africa.
The view that Karl Marx has on religion seems to be more economic or political, while the view of Durkheim is more focused on social cohesion and the collective consciousness. Even though both the writers have a functional view on the concept of religion, their definitions and what the purpose of religion is in society are as different as chalk and cheese. This difference stands out the most in the way these authors define religion. On one hand Durkheim’s definition centres around unity and practices, he says religion is “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden-beliefs and practices which unite into one single moral community called a Church, all those who adhere to them” (Pals, 2009) while Marx’s definition centres around freedom and self-consciousness and religion being “an opiate for the masses” which I will discuss later on. Durkheim’s definition of religion has two fundamental elements, namely the Sacred and the Profane as well as Rites and beliefs. The Sacred in my understanding are ideals shared by a collective, they are ideals in terms of how it is something people look up to and it creates a sense of aspiration for example, a ceremony like a wedding or more so the white wedding and Baptism. The profane would then be everything else, they are mundane and private views only significant to the individual, like our bills or things in our daily lives. These elements are linked to the Rites and beliefs. Beliefs are “perspectives and opinions that are represented as part of the sacred” for example, seeing the deity as superior, only a belief because it is connected to the sacred and Rites, which are the modes of acting, so for example rituals and practices that are in connection to beliefs.
Marx doesn’t see religion as something that aids in social cohesion but as something that does the opposite, it promotes social stratification. This social stratification can be seen by how people who are wealthy and are successful are seen as being in God’s graces, as well as the inequality between religious authorities and the people that attend the church. Religion in Marx’s eyes is something that people use to make sense of their economic conditions, for example, people with less power in economies are more likely to use religion to attribute it to the “divine plan”. Throughout my entire life, even though I am not a religious person I was taught to trust God’s plan, even in times of great suffering I was taught not only to trust in my own ability but the ability of God to help me get through any trials in life. And because of this, it makes sense how Marx would then say religion is the opiate of the masses, that we as people have given our power away to God and if we were able to see religion as what it is we would be able to do most things ourselves, it is an opiate in the way that it doesn’t heal the pain or suffering but it dulls the pain. The difference between the writers continues here, the writers view the “expression” of religion quite differently. While Durkheim sees the expression of religion interlinked with one’s recognition of the Sacred and being able to tell it apart through beliefs and practices, Marx highlights the expression of religion as religious suffering. I agree with Marx on this point as through most faiths, especially the Christian faith, one is almost expected to go through a point of suffering and then move past it using prayer.
Marx points out that ‘when one views society and life through the lens of religion, they are blinded to the realities of their life.” (Johnson, 2013) And that religion was “a way for the poor to accept their poverty and for the wealthy to control the poor.” (Johnson, 2013). Durkheim’s view on the role of religion on society is quite different as he sees religion through structural functionalism, identifying 3 functions of religion. The first being how it helps establish social cohesion (through shared symbols, norms and values), it can be a form of social control: religions have certain rules and norm which sometimes correlate with certain laws, for example the Christian faith and many others are against murder and adultery which are things that are also frowned upon in society. In context to religion in South Africa, I can see how society is held together by our religious beliefs and how we apply them in our daily lives, the moral compass of most people is guided by their religious beliefs and practices to do well in God’s eyes. And lastly religion provides people with a sense of purpose, for example as life is unpredictable, people have a sense of hope that God has something bigger planned for them when things don’t go according to their plans.
In sum, to me Marx and Durkheim have helped me understand the role of religion in a simpler way, in terms of how religion affects how most people act in the hopes of being in God’s good graces and how religion unifies us all, as said by Durkheim. And even though Marx’s views on religion seem somewhat negative, some points he makes show how people will accept unfair conditions with the hope that their deity will punish the bad people and eventually save the one’s that believe in some ways giving them false hope. The idea of religion won’t be perfect because it is a human creation so I don’t believe that we should reject religion as Marx says, but we can rather make sure that religion doesn’t rule our lives by using it as more of a guide rather than rules that blind us from the harsh realities in life.
The term Diaspora originated from the Greek and Jewish history. It means dispersal in Greek, though; it was widely used to express the process of scattering of the Jews in the west. African-Americans perceive diaspora in a different context: to them, it describes the quest for liberation form injustice, colonialism and racism.
African diaspora, therefore, is deeply rooted in scholarly debates serving as both a political and analytical term in examining black communities across territorial borders. Politically, the term serves to emphasize unification of Africans disconnected due to the slave trade. As an analytical term, African diaspora allows exploration into transformation and involvement of the dispersed Africans in establishing new cultures, ideas, and institutions out of Africa.
Broadly, the term allows analysis of problems that impede establishment of pan-African movements worldwide. The issue arouses attention to construction and mitigation of diasporic identities. The issue of diasporan consciousness also emerges when seeking to understand pan-African movements (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 14).
Dispersal from native home, as a result of violence, forms an important element of diasporan consciousness. Separated people visualize and memorize their homeland and remain committed towards restoration. The consciousness is not restricted to people of a given homeland but traverses to people who share a history of displacement, resistance, or adaptation.
Though diaspora is not a territory with established borders, Africans effortlessly seek for common historical roots and culture. Usually, the dispersed Africans view themselves as an oppressed nation and refer to Africa as their home. Colonization, forced labor, and racism led to the creation of coordinated systems that traversed oceans and national boundaries (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 15).
According to Patterson and Kelley 2000 (20), perception of diaspora in the African context is complex and plays out as both a process and a condition. As a process, it is mitigated through political struggle, migration, travelling as well as movement. In early scholarships, black people worldwide were presumed to share a common culture. The collective identity, however, keeps shifting.
The shared experiences under racism and the process of dispersal do not point out to a common identity. Perceived identity is a product of the struggle to desist domination. Shared cultural codes provide people with a common point of reference. Anti-colonialism and pan-Africanist movements impose imaginary coherence to the dispersed forming a common history of enforced dispersal.
Dispersal depends on legal lines that restrict nationalization in democratic countries. Sometimes, indigenous cultural values are ascribed negatively while politicians exploit them for commercial gains. Follow-up study on Africans affected by slave trade across the Atlantic reveals a degree of integrity of some African cultures. The Africans transform from ethnic identities to embrace a collective identity, which labels them as one community.
At the same time, African diasporic hierarchies are formulated along societal lines through systems that hinder access based on gender and race disparities. Racial hierarchies are peculiar since they remain intact across borders. Race and ethnic identities play out a complex relationship. Ethnicity emerges as a response to sociopolitical conditions as expressed in the Brazilian case.
Racism emerges as an outcome of regional variation and demographic changes. Determinants for creation of multiple ethnic groups include free ancestry, education, and religiosity, among others. Brazilians blackness depended on social and economic advances. This dependence on economic advances created complexity in formation of identities.
Success in economic activities led to the emergence of a whitening process, which led to demarcations amongst the blacks. While Bahians related with African ethnicity, Paulistas viewed themselves as more superior regarding themselves as black Brazilians (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 23).
As a condition, diaspora is directly stringed along the process through which it occurs and reinvents itself. It is, therefore, widely used in an attempt to cover up for discontinuities and differences. The concept is derived from life experience situations and explains formation of complex relationships that express alienation. Taking the United States as an example, life experiences of Africans in the U.S. is used as a standard to compare against experiences of others not in the U.S.
This is facilitated due to identification of discrepancies in studies when certain groups of African descent are ignored. Such is the case when Black people in Canada were left out leading to a poor perception of people of African descent living in the United States. The same disparity by scholars occurred when Caribbean and Portuguese speaking Blacks failed to be connected to African people living in other parts of the globe. Hanchard presents an adept study that emphasizes plurality of culture and politics.
He not only looks at the movement of black people to the new world, but also focuses on their broader dispersal within the globe. Instead of viewing African-Americans as cultural survivors, he presents a framework that views them as products of translocation.
The scholar reveals the mindset of U.S. race relations encouraging a more focused conceptualized view of the African diaspora. Hanchard brings to focus the power of black identities grounded in national or regional context (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 23).
The issue of diaspora being both a process and condition cannot be discussed in isolation. This is due to the fact that the condition is always tied along the process. The example of Cuba brings the argument into perspective. Just like Brazil, Africans in Cuba had demarcations along free ancestry, educational and cultural background.
Though not all retained their African identity, during the wars for national liberation in 1868 and 1898, the identities were revived encouraging participation in the Afro-Cuban political struggles. Afro-Cubans were struggling to retain the right to be recognized as black nationals and therefore enhance participation in politics as legitimate citizens.
This led to the 1912 race war which stopped the organization of black Cubans in terms of races. Though thousands of people were massacred, the result did not deter emergence of an Afro-Cuban identity (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 24).
Studies seeking further understanding of the African diaspora require an open mind. Relationships between race and identity have to be revamped if a greater understanding of the local history connection to the global development is to be achieved. Black world receives wider coverage when studied in the context of the globe, and the converse.
It is also worth noting that historical processes are not limited by national boundaries. At the same time, large water bodies act not as barriers but facilitators for transoceanic trade and cultural exchange. African diaspora as a condition better explains success in struggle that saw an end to slave regimes.
Similarly, as a process, African diaspora explains how black people were taken away from their homeland to other areas, but remained subconsciously connected to their origin and culture. New day studies need to look beyond displacement and domination, and focus on fundamental contribution of black people in the modern world (Patterson and Kelly, 2000, p. 32).
Bibliography
Patterson, T. Ruby and Robin D.G Kelley. “Unfinished Migrations: Reflections on the African Diaspora and the Making of the Modern World.” African Studies Review. 43.1 (2000):14-32. Print.
This essay examines the influence of African Diaspora in the global political, social and economic spheres and the concept of Pan-Africanism and its future prognosis. The essay develops the argument by first carrying out a historical overview to explain the origins of the African Diaspora as a direct manifestation of the Colonial slave trade as also explain the theoretical aspects of what constitutes a Diaspora.
Next, the difficulties of integration of the African Diasporas in their host nations are explained and how that is linked with difficulties in integrating with their African brethren in their ancestral homelands.
The essay then explains the linkages of cultural factors that have an emotional appeal for the Diasporas as also the Socio-economic factors that prevailed over for most Diasporas to remain in their host countries and not return to Africa. The decision to remain in their host nations manifests in a proactive ability to send remittances to their impoverished brethren, here the essay explains how the remittances from the African Diaspora have served to improve the basic amenities in Africa.
The issue of political activism is then explained stating emphatically that it was the unstinted efforts of the African Diasporas that helped African countries in shaking off the shackles of colonialism. Pan-Africanism is examined in detail to state that the movement was very active in the initial years up to the 1990s but declined thereon.
The essay concludes by stating that the African Diaspora had played a significant role in uplifting the lives of their people the world over. However, with the passage of time, the feeling of kinship was diminishing as younger generations is becoming more and more assimilated into their host nation’s culture and way of life.
The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines Diaspora as a “movement, migration of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland (Merriam-Webster)”. Amongst all the communities that have faced movement and migration, perhaps none have suffered the privations in the scope and numbers as the African community that throughout the colonial period saw their brethren being shipped off to foreign lands to work as slaves and forced labor.
With the passage of time, abolishment of slavery and affirmation of human rights, these dislocated populations gained their economic and political freedoms in some measures and became important rallying voices that had their effect on the politics and policies of their nations.
Within this narrative, the roots of the community remained dormant and the African Diaspora began influencing events and policies beyond their adopted homelands into the continent of their origin. This essay examines the influence of the Diaspora in the global political, social and economic spheres and the concept of Pan-Africanism and its future prognosis.
Historical Overview
During the Colonial period, millions of Africans were shipped off to America and Europe to work on their lands as slaves. These Africans initially refused to adapt to their new lands and “had to be broken before they would accept the transculturating process known as seasoning” (Skinner 431).
The fractured community literally fought their masters and gradually won their rights. However, in that process, the anger, the loathing and the dejection of having being forcibly dislocated remained ingrained in the Diasporas. This sentiment reinforced feelings of inferiority and at times was channelized as rage and disappointment against their ancestral homes.
Diasporas struggling to come to terms with their ‘second class’ existence often wished to return and explore their ‘roots’ to find a deeper meaning for their lives. This dialectic gave rise to strengthening of the uneasy relationship between the Diasporas and their ancestral homelands as was vividly captured by Alex Hailey in his ‘Roots’.
As early as 1787, hundreds of Africans from Nova Scotia were sent back to Sierra Leone by Great Britain and about two thousand freed Africans were sent from America to populate Liberia in the 1820s (Skinner 436). The American Civil War, fought over the emancipation of the African slaves did not stop the reverse migration back to Africa.
However, an overwhelming majority chose to stay back in their new homelands. According to Brubaker, the African American Diaspora numbers were 25 million (11) people, which is a significant segment of the American population. Walters estimates that “there are 350 million Africans in Africa and about 100 million African origin people outside it (13)” that formed a large potential for the African Diaspora to crystallize a credible voice in global affairs.
Theoretical Perspective
The term ‘Diaspora’ constitutes three elements namely, dispersion in space, orientation to a homeland and boundary maintenance (Brubaker 5).Dispersion points to traumatic scattering of the people outside their ‘homeland’, the homeland itself being a collective memory or a myth of an ancestral land real or imagined and boundary maintenance refers to the preservation of the community’s values and culture from the host societies.
The reasons why these Africans chose to stay back in their adopted homeland are many. For most Africans, it was the practical considerations of trying to find a livelihood in ancestral homes which were economically backward. This relative backwardness of the African continent dissuaded any emotional longing that the Diaspora might have had. The African Diaspora saw their future cultural, political and economic prosperity as being more possible in the adopted homelands than in the ancestral homelands.
They also felt that their growing stature and influence in the new homelands would help serve the African cause better. The formation of African lobbies in the former colonial powers and international organizations both formal and informal offered better prospects for influencing conditions in Africa. Thus the concepts of utilitarianism and practicality dictated that Diasporas stayed put physically even though, emotionally the tug of Africa beckoned.
Integration Difficulties
The difficulties of integration of the Diasporas in their new homes plagued their relations with the African continent too. In America, despite ‘Affirmative action’ racialism existed in almost every sphere of human activity. The 1991 beating of Rodney King by the Los Angeles Police Department showed that despite the many initiatives, racialism continued to exist in modern times.
Thus important Africans, who came visiting America, would at times find themselves racially targeted which made them realize that the African Diasporas were still very much second class citizens in the ‘Land of the Free’. The ghettoisation of America further reinforced their doubts as to the actual worth of their overseas brethren.
A similar situation existed in Europe especially in France where the French Maghrebi population was still quite segregated and virtually had no voice in French politics despite the cosmetic appointments of a few colored people in the Government. The alienation of their Diasporas in turn fed the frustrations of the homeland Africans. Also, the newer generations of Diaspora were less inclined to identify with their African relatives.
All ‘back to Africa’ tours by the younger generation of Diaspora only served to bewilder them as they had nothing in common with their African cousins save a family name or perceived heritage. Thus problems of integration in the new homelands also reflected as problems of integration on the cultural level with their ancestral homelands. However, this cultural disconnect in modern times was very different in the early years where the African Diaspora found solace in their cultural moorings with Africa.
Cultural Factors
The daily drudgery, the oppression and exploitation by the Whites developed a longing for their homeland that was expressed as the first Black renaissance in the US from 1820 to 1860 when “blacks expressed themselves and their heritage in literature, art, music and dance” (Harris 52). In the Caribbean, African cultural identity was preserved by the Rastafarian movement.
In America, African culture became a unifying rallying point for asserting Black Human Rights. In Europe to unify African culture, a conference of Negro-African writers and artists was held in Paris in 1956 (Walters 358). This conference served to initiate momentum for revival of African culture throughout North America, Europe and Africa. Thus it was the African Diaspora that persevered to maintain its cultural links with Africa and use it for political purposes.
Socio-Economic Factors
By far the most important factor that made Africans stay put in their adopted homelands was the lack of economic opportunity and stability in the ancestral homes as Skinner recounts a freed African communiqué – ”Without arts, without science, without a proper knowledge of Governments, to cast into the savage wilds of Africa the free people of color seems to use the circuitous route through which they must return to perpetual bondage” (449).
This decision to stay back served the African community well because they could earn and send back money to their homelands far more efficiently and in greater quantity than they could have otherwise.
In fact, remittances from the developed world by the African Diasporas have helped sustain Africa considerably. Remittances not only encompass monetary remuneration but also an influx of white goods and technology enablers like cell phones, computers and the internet. These have made communications between the African continent and the Diasporas easier.
In 2004, $14 Billion were remitted to North Africa and $ 4 Billion to Sub-Saharan Africa by the African Diasporas (Sikod and Tchouassi 241). Most of the remittances flow from America and Europe to Africa which has had a positive effect on the micro as well as macro level economic development on the African continent.
The amount of inflow is significant, for example “in 1990, remittances by Senegalese in the Diaspora were US $ 132 million, while French aid to Senegal was US $250 million” (Sikod and Tchouassi 244). In some African countries, many areas subsist completely on remittances from abroad and some have even survived droughts thanks to the money sent to them by the Diasporas.
These remittances have helped improve basic social services such as housing, better markets, better living conditions and better infrastructure, something the native governments would have never been able to deliver independently without the support of remittances. Doctors of African Diaspora save thousands of lives in their ancestral homelands by either volunteering to work through NGOs and other non-profit organizations or by practicing in their ancestral homelands.
Political Activism
As ‘affirmative action’ began to gather roots, Africans began organizing themselves into political groups. These political groups became influential voices that served to influence public opinion and government policies. Thus in 1900 the Pan African Congress was formed that organized protests against the plight of their brethren across the world.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed in America to raise the voice of their people across the world. Thus when Italy invaded Ethiopia, America erupted in protest and there were riots in East Harlem where Africans fought pitched battles with their Italian neighbors (Skinner 446). From 1900 to 1960s, the African Diasporas in America and Europe with limited funds managed to lobby and raise the popular conscience and succeeded in aiding many a liberation movements in Africa.
As more and more African countries became independent, the Africans and the Diasporas realized that there were many congruencies in their goals within their respective countries which could be better served if the Diasporas and the ancestral homelands cooperated and coordinated more effectively in the World forums.
However, both sides were pragmatic enough to realize that Africans in Africa needed to focus more on the cause of their nations first rather than the larger cause of Pan-Africanism. However, African politicians realized the worth of the worldwide African Diaspora and have regularly held events, seminars and conferences to woo the Diaspora to invest time, money and human capital in their ancestral homes. Pan African organizations such as the African Union hold regular events to felicitate prominent members of the African Diaspora and encourage them to further help develop Africa.
In America, “African Diaspora has been much more effective in non-governmental efforts than in trying to influence American Foreign Policy” (Bandele 19). This trend is mirrored by almost all the African Diasporas the world over who continue to operate mostly outside governmental organizations to bring about emancipation of their people.
A notable success of the African American Diaspora was its tenacity in raising vocal opposition to the American tacit support to the Apartheid regime in South Africa. The Diaspora persevered throughout the 1960s and finally forced the Carter administration “to implement economic and arms embargo against South Africa” (Lemelle and Kelley 257).
The Reagan administration sought to support South Africa through constructive engagement that was openly hostile to African sensibilities which the African Diaspora effectively characterized as immoral. Their perseverance bore fruit when the US Congress overruled Reagan’s veto on sanctions against South Africa. It was the collective pressure of European and American sanctions brought on by the relentless pressure created by the African Diaspora that was responsible to some extent in the collapse of apartheid in South Africa.
Pan-Africanism
The early return migration to Sierra Leone in 1787, set the stage for Pan African movement as it was a unique experiment in which British freed slaves and American freed slaves became bonafide citizens of a new country where they carried their individual and group experiences to create a bonding.
Some came back after attaining college education and helped expand the education in their impoverished homelands. Many of the Africans who migrated back to Africa were graduates of the Fourah Bay College in Sierra Leone, which had been set up as the first Black college and these budding black intellectuals played a crucial part in developing a Pan-African Identity (Harris 53).
Liberia had been created entirely out of repatriating African slaves and thus had adopted an American style education and values which were modified to suit the African condition and was heralded as the province of hope for Africans freed from bondage. Africans from Brazil, too joined in Liberia and thus Liberia became the rallying point for the Pan African movement which later morphed its ideology within America where the ‘Nation of Islam’ and the ‘Black Panther’ groups arose.
Africans also reached India as slaves of their British masters and an African asylum was set up in Nasik (Harris 57). All these then later shifted to Freretown, Kenya where the Asian experience joined the European experience in the larger tapestry of Pan-Africanism. Numerous repatriates of this blend became leaders in Kenyan political parties who gave impetus to the Pan-African identity.
In America, the 1960s saw widespread protests by the Blacks against the discrimination that was being inflicted upon them in almost every sphere of human activity. This gave rise to Black pride and later Pan African pride. In 1964, the Black African leader, Malcolm X lend his voice to Pan Africanism by stating that “we Afro-Americans badly needed to ‘return’ to Africa – and develop a working unity in the framework of Pan Africanism” (Walters 57). Malcolm X sought to strengthen Afro-American unity in America, Europe and Africa.
Africans in Brazil were in larger numbers than the United States, almost accounting for 50 to 60 percent of the country’s population (Walters 272). However, successive repressive governments did not allow Brazilian Africans to form political movements of consequence. However, with changing social perceptions, Brazilian Africans now are finding voice in the national arena that may intensify into a pan-African movement in the years to come.
In Jamaica, the African Diaspora is more African in its culture and practice but because of the low levels of education has not found a voice to support any pan-African identity. In France, African Diaspora in modern times has adopted a posture of cultural ambiguity. In Metropolitan France there is hardly any connotation of race as is prevalent in America (Chapman and Frader 111). The French socialist traditions and insistence on cultural unity have made the French African Diaspora play down the ‘race’ dimension of the discourse in France by referring to their Antillean antecedents.
Future Prognosis
While it is doubtless that remittances from the African Diaspora have helped improve basic social amenities and infrastructure significantly in Africa, the effect is patchy and limited to some focus regions. One of the reasons for this unevenness has been that host countries put a limit on the amount of remittances that can be sent across.
Also, remittances from the Diaspora follow the developed world’s economic cycle. For example, in the current financial meltdown, remittances from African Diaspora to Africa have dwindled. Uneven development also exacerbates social tensions as in one region it is possible to have a remittance enriched well off family living in close vicinity to those who have no such access. However, the overall effect including the ‘trickle down’ effect has been beneficial.
Sending money home post 9/11 has become more difficult as governments have tightened the money transfer policies for the fear of cash flowing to terrorist organizations. The influence and emotional hold of the homeland is weakening as the younger generations of African Diaspora identify more and more with their new homelands. In case of African Americans, there is “little emotional or intellectual orientation towards the continent. (Safran 259)”.
As time progresses, some members of the African Diaspora may chose to opt out of being identified as part of the African identity as they might consider such an identity a roadblock to their further progress in the society in which they live. Most African Americans therefore wish to integrate with the American society and have no such illusions of greater solidarity with their African brethren. That however, is not the case with Jamaican Africans who still hold their cultural heritage dear and make every effort to maintain and preserve them.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be reiterated that African Diasporas have played a significant role in emancipation of their brethren across the world. Their political activism and Pan-African mobilization may not have been addressed directly through formal chains of governance but through the informal chains of NGOs and pressure groups that nonetheless were successful in achieving most of their stated objectives.
The remittances from African Diasporas have helped many impoverished African nations. With the passage of time, Pan-Africanism is on the wane as the younger generations become more and more assimilated within their host nation’s culture and find it expedient to carry on the previous strong ties with their ancestral homelands.
Works Cited
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