AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 4

Reference
The Emergence
of Diaspora
The world of Pan-Africanism in the 1960s was very different from the one into which
the Trinidadian lawyer Henry Sylvester Williams first introduced the term in 1900. Not
only had 60 years passed, but with them two World Wars that had depleted the empires
of Europe, loosening the stranglehold they once held on much of the rest of the world.
But the impact of time wasn’t felt by Europe alone. Pan-Africanism had made its share
of strides in that time as well.
From Pan-Africanism To Diaspora
Five Pan-African Congresses had passed
since Williams’ original conference, with
more to come. The New Negro Movement, The
Harlem Renaissance, and Negritude all came
and went in their time along with countless
other movements, organizations, journals and
groups. In the wake of their relentless pursuit
of liberation, cracks had begun to form in the
facade of colonial power.
Progress was also coming to internally
colonized nations like the United States. The
American Civil Rights Movement was reaching
its peak in a decade that would see the passing
of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights
Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Yet
in the victories of Pan-Africanism lay the seeds
of its dissolution. Soon it too would fade away.
With many of its goals achieved, but so much
left to be done, the passing of Pan-Africanism
would prove a necessary step, paving the way
for something new — diaspora.
As a concept, the African Diaspora was
officially born in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. in
1965. Two papers presented at the First International
Congress on African History -
convened under Tanzania’s first president
Julius Nyerere — introduced the term to the
world. The first, The African Abroad or the
African Diaspora, by British historian George
Shepperson is often credited as the first use of
the term “diaspora” with regard to the historical
dispersal of Africans. Shepperson himself
preferred to share the distinction of this
milestone with the African American scholar
and author Joseph Harris, whose address,
Introduction to the African Diaspora, appeared
at the same conference. Though not himself a
member of the diaspora he helped to define,
Shepperson was an assiduous researcher and
theorist of Pan-Africanism and the African
Diaspora and remained so until his passing
early in 2020.
In a later essay, Shepperson would trace
the history of the diaspora concept to such
figures as Edward Wilmot Blyden, W.E.B.
Du Bois, and Lorenzo Dow Turner, marveling,
as so many have since, that so much time
should have passed before “diaspora” was
added to the arsenal of terms with which
people of African descent fought for their historical
position. In particular, he singled out
Blyden, whose work employed so many biblical
references, and revolved around a concept so
Dr. Edward Wilmot Blyden.
Sir Harry Johnston,
Liberia, (London: Hutchinson
& Co., 1906). General
Research and Reference
Division, Schomburg
Center for Research in
Black Culture, The New
York Public Library.
The Second Pan-African Congress. Special Collections & University Archives,
W.E.B. Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
W.E.B. Du Bois.
Photographs and Prints
Division, Schomburg Centers
for Research in Black Culture,
The New York Public Library.
Words by Bryan Mason
102 aphrochic issue four 103