By Bob Wekesa

Initially planned as a physical conference, the Old and New Diaspora Networks conference being held virtually on 21 May is part of a longer term initiative aimed at stimulating discussions around the research, teaching and engagement on African diaspora. The fact that challenges triggered by the suddenness of COVID-19 did not dampen interest in the conference goes to demonstrate the significance, commitment and attachment to the subject. 

Enthusiasm in the conference is attested by the high volume of abstract submissions from diverse disciplines, representing different regions of the world and potentially broadening the boundaries of African diaspora studies. The partner organizations stayed the course offering strategic advice and helpful intellectual and logistical support that ensured agile alignment with the clichéd “new normal”.

Innovating a multi-faceted project  

Serendipitously the number and quality of abstract submissions went beyond our expectations, posing a “good” problem. It allowed for the reconfiguration of the conference as the launch of the project with a manageable number of keynotes and presentations and the scheduling of a webinar series to run well into the year. It enabled innovative approaches, in view of the logistical challenges that come with virtual conferencing, thus presenting an opportunity to allocate more time to a variety of topics, themes and issues.    

In the coming weeks and months, a thematic webinar series will be convened on a bi-monthly basis commencing on June 11 with a presentation on Pan-Africanism to be co-presented Professor Gilbert Rochon and Dr Thierno Thiam. Subsequent webinars will cover topics in the fields of: the arts, literature and linguistics; digital humanities; history and culture; comparative analyses; and economics and trade. The webinars show great promise in broadening epistemological, theoretical, conceptual and disciplinary perspectives as a means of generating new knowledge that can inform not only scholarship but also the work of supra-national agencies, governments, civil society and the corporate sector.  

The webinars will run for the rest of the year, with recorded versions availed in digital humanities formats. An immediate product is the publication of articles in Africa in Fact, the respected South African public-intellect journal published by Good Governance Africa based on fairly straightforward guidelines (see separate document). The objective is to expose some of the finest current thinking in the field to a wider audience.  

At a later stage, presenters will be invited to develop their abstracts, presentations and articles into journal articles to be published either in a special issue of an African diaspora peer-reviewed journal or as an edited volume. In the coming days, discussion for linking African diaspora studies with a transregional research initiative at the African Studies Center at Michigan State University will be completed offering researchers a new and expanded community of peers for engagement, discussion and debate. Moreover, the organisers plan to convene a panel at the 2020 African Studies Association (ASA) conference in Washington DC.  

The policy dimension

In September, a strategically-focused conversation on the role of universities in advancing diaspora engagements in the implementation and popularization of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs) will be held to coincide with the United Nations Annual General Assembly. This event will take stock of, and explore the means for the collaboration of universities, think tanks, scholars and supra-national organisations as seen in the a strategy document developed by one of our partner organization, the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network (ARDN). A key partner in this initiative is the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) whose secretariat is based at Wits University. 

The intellectual dimension of the project arises out of conceptual, demographic and knowledge gaps. 

The conceptual question

The project was initiated in view of the animated discussions, vibrant debates and strategic policies around diaspora and migrations. These dynamics beg the inquisition: Which established and new theoretical approaches offer refreshing pathways for understanding the old and new African diaspora phenomena? Debates are wide-ranging, historical and marked by contestation. This reflects the heterogeneity in concepts and practices in relation to past migrations as well as resurgences in the global circulation of people. In focusing on old and new African diaspora, a potential starting point is that the heightened movement of people globally has complicated the definition of the term “diaspora”. The conventional definition of diaspora that emphasize the movement, migration, or scattering of a people away from an established or ancestral homeland is not encompassing, nuanced and case-specific enough. 

No clear consensus exists on what constitutes diaspora much less African diaspora, and indeed, it might actually be desirable that disagreements on the term be encouraged. Questioning the precepts of taken-for-granted definitions might illuminate discreet considerations in relation to people of African descent dispersed around the world. The centrepiece of this questioning would be the direct and indirect connections of African diaspora with and to the mother continent. Thus, the contestations on the conceptualisation of “diaspora” are fundamental to the understanding of “African diaspora”. More importantly, the notions of “old” and “new” African diaspora, equally contested, constitute a novel approach to making sense of the African diaspora in the twenty first century.

The question of old and new 

A key distinction is one of ancestry. Received wisdom is that old diaspora are direct descendants of enslaved African people forced into the diaspora, while, the new diaspora are African immigrants born in Africa who migrated voluntarily. From this point of view, old diaspora can be considered those permanently settled in their countries of immigration while the new diaspora are either temporarily or recently settled in “host” countries. Some refer to this category as historical diaspora. Permanency suggests that old diaspora are nearly-irreversibly rooted in the countries of immigration, excepting returnees. New diaspora – sometimes referred to as contemporary diaspora – on the other hand have strong ties in their countries of emigration to which they may ultimately return if they don’t already travel there from time to time. 

Between and within the above trajectories of confluence and divergence, there are many issues that speak to the past, current and future status of “global Africa”. The question is: what are the missing links? Are such distinctions sufficient?           

The demography question 

The exact population of the African diaspora is hard to nail in part because definitions vary. Much more precise figures can only emerge as part of research work. Estimates of what appear to be historical diaspora indicate that the African diaspora stood at 140 million people in 2018 with the countries having the largest numbers being; Brazil, US, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Colombia, France, Venezuela, Jamaica, United Kingdom, and Mexico. Statistics on recent emigrations (roughly the period after the Second World War) are even more difficult to nail. A United Nation’s Conference on Trade and Development report indicates that “there were about 41 million international migrants from, to, or within Africa … [of which] … 19 million resided in Africa, 17 million were resident outside of the continent” in 2017. This UN report appears to capture quite recent migrations. 

The slippery category of new diaspora is however more expansive as it may include voluntary migrations from Africa to the outside world as far back as the nineteenth century, all the way to migrations from the continent in the post-independent era. It includes much more recent mobility from the continent arising from a complexity of factors including wars, climate challenges and economic hardships. More significantly, statistics African diaspora and migration come with weighty political, socio-cultural and economic implications on the dual phenomenon of “Africans in the diaspora” and “the diaspora and Africa”.   

Knowledge gaps

The questions that students of African diaspora pose include the connection to the continent between older and newer diaspora and the practices, experiences and worldviews of these two categories with their lands of migration (travel destinations). But areas of interest go well beyond the worldviews theme.  Indeed, any number of research questions can be posed: What are the trends in intellectual flows or “brain circulation” in the African diaspora and the African continent? How does the African diaspora compare with other diaspora such as Chinese, Israeli/Jews, Indian, etc.? What are the links and inter-linkages between the African American diaspora and Africa? How does African American diaspora connect with diasporic communities in the rest of the Americas, the homeland, Europe and other parts of the world? What does the presence of diasporic communities in social media tell us about their identities, issues of interest, and, community networks? What are the attitudes of old and new African diaspora towards each other and towards Africa and African countries? 

It is these and many more questions that the project will seek to provide some answers. 

Dr Wekesa is Research and Partnership Coordinator, African Centre for the Study of the United States