The Concept of the African Diaspora

The story that surrounds the transatlantic slave trade is notoriously known, by both young and old, across the nation. This story has not only survived, but thrived as “truth” through generations for several centuries; Although, it is much closer to a mystical tale than reality. In Reversing Sail, Michael Gomez lays the myths affiliated with African Diaspora to rest. Gomez shows the path of the amalgamation of the African people along with their resources into Europe. A path that leads to the New World, that would potentially become the Americas, would ultimately result in more than just the exploitation of Africans as slaves. Compacted into an eight-chapter undergrad textbook, Gomez uses Reversing Sail to unground the history, complexity, and instrumentality of the African Diaspora. He does such in a

The “Americanization” process of slaves brought to America is one that has been debated. Some say the slaves brought to America quickly abandoned most of their African ways and adopted the dominant culture against those who stress the continuing African cultural legacy among black Americans. The Africans that were brought to America involuntarily essentially remained Africans at heart. The descendants of Africans that were brought to America were not like the original Africans or white Americans. They were heavily influenced by the behavior of their masters but maintained some of their African culture. They formed a new culture known as African-American.

It is essential to note that the term African Diaspora does not describe any single event, group of people or set of customs. It represents a current state of being for many citizens of the world and provides context for understanding the social structures and intercultural relationships of the world we live in today. Collin Palmer provides great insight into the context of diaspora. He writes that there have been several movements, massive migrations of people, throughout history. There is no single “diasporic movement or monolithic diasporic community” to be studied, but rather a confluence of people, events and ideologies that span thousands of years, across every continent. Each period of movement, each diasporic stream, happened for different reasons. Palmer’s approach to the African Diaspora begins with a look nearly 100,000 years into the past. He identifies five major streams, with the first African diaspora that occurred as a

At an early age in life, the elders of the family always taught us about the African history and what it means to be of the African Diaspora. I had a firsthand experience of visiting slave holding cells and seeing the door of no return In Goree Island, Senegal. Through this trip I was able to understand the effects of

In The Southern Diaspora, James N. Gregory tells the story of migration between the whites and blacks of the south. He focuses on how the whites and blacks moved from the south to the north. Gregory illustrates how two completely different races come together to uplift the American society. Not only does he illustrate the unity of blacks and whites, he also focuses on how the two races had to adapt to a new way of living. Gregory concentrates on how this particular migration recreated the social and political perspective of America.

In simple terms, the Diaspora as a concept, describes groups of people who currently live or reside outside the original homelands. We will approach the Diaspora from the lenses of migration; that the migration of people through out of the African

In addition to this, when we look at the African diaspora it fits in many different categories. The African diaspora is one of the most complexes for they have different genealogies and several occurrences in history. Thus, this imposes who are the people that make up this culture. The author Paul Tiyambe Zeleza who is the author of New African Diaspora suggests, “There are at least four main constructions of Africa: Africa as a biology, as a space, as memory, and as representation- that is, African identities and cultures are mapped in racial, geographical, historical, or discursive term”(Zeleza, 34). Furthermore, this idea sheds light on the complexity includes multiple identities and has many pieces to

The term “African diaspora” describes the time period between 1511 and 1888 when a great migration of Africans inhabited America. Joseph Harris described the concept of the African diaspora as, “Global disposition (voluntary or in voluntary) of Africans throughout history; the emergence of a cultural identity abroad based on origin and social Africa. This viewed, the African diaspora assumes the character of a dynamic continuous and complex phenomenon starching cross time geography, class and gender” .

The African diaspora identity has much to do with the immigrant’s adopted homeland as it does with their origin. The identity bridges the originating past (tribe) and the contemporary / future (diasporan)

When the African Diaspora began many of those who were being moved away from their homelands didn’t really understand what was going on. As they began to realize they were not going to be able to return to their homeland they tried to find ways to connect to their origins. This can be seen in “Domingos Alvares, African Healing and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World” by James H. Sweet. In the novel we follow an African slave who goes by the name of Domingos Alvares who uses health and healing to connect to his ancestors. Besides using his abilities

Phillips’s travelogue presents a deep scepticism about the terms like ‘home’, ‘family’, ‘identity’ etc. According to Wendy W. Walters, “for Phillips the concept of Diaspora refuses to rest on a false binary between home and exile, and his work repeatedly mines the complicated archives of both black and white histories of slavery, exposing their endlessly interrelated natures” (112). Caryl Phillips as a black Briton traces many complex meanings of the terms Diaspora. The term African Diaspora is applied to dislocation of African people to other parts of the world. It is also applied for the descendants of enslaved people during Atlantic slave trade, as Erica Still describes:

In her article, Brown mentions Black Europe which she uses to describe the different experiences of black people in Europe. She uses Black Europe as an example of a part of the African diaspora that has not been articulated well in the concept of diaspora. Articulation refers to a form of connection that can be used to unify two different elements or ideas under certain conditions (Patterson and Kelley 19). With reference to her definition of diaspora as a network of places, Black Europe consists of multiple places and is expressed through the different routes that these places connect with each other (Brown 205). She used the interaction between a Nigerian immigrant, a half Nigerian half British woman and herself to demonstrate the different places within Black Europe and the networks between them. Frank, the Nigerian immigrant, felt disconnected from his homeland after the death of his parents and, as a result, identified less with his family in Nigeria and more with his fellow Nigerian

In Captives and Voyagers, Alexander X. Byrd argues that the three movements of black migrants, whether free or enslaved, to Sierra Leone and Jamaica comprised of a cultural and social transformation unique to black migrant society, catalyzed not only by the prime transatlantic journeys of each group, but also by their preceding multi-leveled passages leading up to their voyage and settlement. Byrd further exemplifies the notion that the African diaspora in black migration to Sierra Leone and Jamaica inescapably intertwined with the British empire.

This paper explores and analyses the ways in which African writers portray the African diaspora living outside of Africa in the colonial nations; of which England and France would be primary examples. The primary sources for the analyses focus on the text Our Sister Killjoy by Aidoo. House of Hunger by Marechera has been used as a secondary reference. The paper presents the various reactions highlighted in the works, and then seeks to analyse and argue for possible reasons for the presented reactions, touches upon the theme of African nativism, and most importantly analyses colonial power structures that still dominate the discourse in and about Africa.

Throughout history, Africa has seen an extensive amount of change and many others passing through. But what has always maintained is that of the African identity in the diversity of the people and the variation they have. This paper explores upon that particular identity using John Parker’s and Richard Rathbone’s African History A Very Short Introduction in which the history of Africa is summarized. The paper itself argues on what Africans themselves find to be the most important forms of identity being cultural, religious, and political. Examples of how Africans hold these forms of identity at such value could be seen throughout their history from the pre- colonial, colonial, and post-colonial times of Africa.