AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 1

Reference
specific definition that everyone agrees
to? The short answer is: it doesn’t. If
all migrations result in diaspora, then
there can be as many conceptions of
diaspora as there are types of movement
— more even. However, if diasporas are
themselves a unique thing, different in
process and outcome than other types
of migration, it makes sense to study
them as such, especially those groups
for which there’s more at stake than the
designation of being “in diaspora.”
Look at it this way: If one person
believes that a hammer is a building
tool, and another believes it’s a cooking
utensil, they can discuss the importance
of the tool and their love for it all day;
but whether the job is building a house
or baking a cake, they will have a very
difficult time doing it together. They
don’t have to agree on the best ways to
use it, but it would help if they shared a
generally coherent idea of what it is.
The Question of Africa
So what does that mean for us?
Currently there isn’t much that separates
the way that the African Diaspora
is understood from the widely varied
approaches taken in the study of
diasporas as a whole; and for those not
dedicated to studying it specifically, the
African Diaspora is taken to be simply
one more in a field of many. This raises
questions as to whether there are any
unique features of the African Diaspora
that aren’t common to all forms of
migration and that demand specific
attention and study.
This much we know: nearly all
concerned parties agree that those of
African descent who reside in locations
outside of the African continent constitute
a diaspora. However very few
seem to be able to agree on what that
means, or why it is important. Yet these
characteristics do exist, demonstrating
not only the distinctive features of
a diaspora but presenting the African
Diaspora as a unique case for study.
Consider the fact that, unlike other
diasporas, the African Diaspora does not
have a single point of origin. True, we
call it the African Diaspora, but as many
of us are tired of pointing out, Africa is
a continent, not a country. That means
that the story of the African Diaspora
is not a question of dispersal from one
place to several but from many places to
many more. That changes things.
Diasporas are generally about
one culture being scattered to many
places and maintaining relationship to
each other through their shared point
of origin. However each culture of the
African Diaspora is not a scattering
of one culture into many but a fusion
of many cultures into one. In every
instance, dozens of different African
cultures, present in different levels,
came together along with any number of
Native American and European cultures
to become a distinct thing. It became the
African American and the Trinidadian;
it became the Jamaican and the Haitian;
it became Dominican, Cuban, Brazilian,
and more. It became all of us. This significant
difference does not make the
African Diaspora any less a diaspora.
Nor is it more usefully understood as a
series of smaller diasporas from specific
countries in Africa. It is specifically the
joining of many African cultures, in
unique ways, across a variety of places,
that creates the African Diaspora.
Consider also that the African
Diaspora exists not only as a state
of being, but as a concept. In a short
treatment of the subject, historian Colin
A. Palmer lists five distinct diasporic
aphrochic