AphroChic Magazine: Issue No. 5

Reference
The Forming
of Diaspora, Part 1
A New Lens
for a New World
In 1965, after more than six decades of Pan-Africanism,
a new paradigm was emerging, led by a new generation
of intellectuals, politicos, and activists. In that moment,
the framework that had begun with a brief conference in
London, had been formed in the shadow of empires, grew
Words by Bryan Mason
Photos by Pascal Genest
to span nations and, nurtured by many of the best minds of
the century, played a key role in reshaping the world, began
to end.
Yet the introduction of the African
Diaspora concept by Joseph Harris and George
Shepperson in 1965 was more than a rhetorical
passing of the guard. It signified deep changes
in the ways that Black people all over the world
were seeing themselves in relationship to their
homelands, to Africa as both continent and
symbol, and to each other. Bringing all of that
into focus would take more than one word.
Much more. But before the African Diaspora
could become real in the minds of those who
would comprise it, it would first have to be
formed and defined in ways that would meet the
new needs of a changing time. Chief among the
questions to be answered between Pan-Africanism
and Diaspora was, what’s the difference?
Among the many aspects that differentiate
the two frameworks, perhaps the most
significant is the basic way in which each conceptualizes
the relationship between the individual
Black person of any nationality, the
continent of Africa, and the whole community
of Black people worldwide. Any number of
other differences exist, especially as Diaspora
continues to work to define itself more fully.
But this is most important, because it is on the
foundation of these points that both philosophies
build the entirety of their perspectives.
Form and Function
For Pan-Africanism, the basic foundation
of its outlook is expressed in an idea that
could loosely be described as “the underlying
African self.” This idea posits that beneath
the cultural specificities of any nationality
or ethnicity, there exists an underlying,
original or essential part of every Black person
that connects us to the African continent and
therefore to each other.
Though the idea of an essential African-ness
connecting all Black people might
continue to resonate to a greater or lesser
degree today, at the time it was all but common
knowledge. During Pan-Africanism’s tenure
there was no “African-American” as Jesse
Jackson would popularize the term in the
1980s, only the African (or more commonly,
the Negro) in America. Black people in other
parts of the world were thought of similarly,
not as belonging to the place, regardless of
where they were born, but as being the Negro
here or there. The idea is even borne out in
the title of Shepperson’s introductory article
on Diaspora with its use of the phrase, “The
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