Contemporary Views on the African Diaspora

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Outline

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

Bandele, Ramla M. Black Star: African American Activism in the International Political Economy. Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 2008.

Brubaker, Rogers. “The ‘diaspora’ diaspora.” Ethnic and Racial Studies Vol 28 No.1 (2005): 1-19.

Chapman, Herrick and Laura Levine Frader. Race in France: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Politics of Difference. Berghahn Books, 2004.

Harris, Joseph E. “Return Movements to West and East Africa: A Comparative Approach.” Harris, Joseph E. Global Dimensions of African Diaspora. Washington DC: Howard University Press, 1993. 51-64.

Lemelle, Sidney J and Robin D. G Kelley. Imagining Home: Class, Culture, and Nationalism in the African diaspora. London: Verso, 1994.

“Diaspora.” 2009. Merriam-Webster online. Web.

Safran, William. “Comparing Diasporas: A Review Essay.” Diaspora (1999): 255-291.

Sikod, Fondo and Tchouassi. “Diapsora Remittances and the Financing of Basic Social Services and Infrastructure in Francophone Africa South of the Sahara.” Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, Vol 3 issue 3 (2006): 239-255.

Skinner, Elliot P. “The Dialectic between Diasporas and Homelands.” Harris, Joseph E (ed.). Global Dimensions of African Diaspora. Washington DC: Howard UP, 1993. 431-459.

Walters, Ronald W. Pan Africanism in the African Diaspora. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997.

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