AFRICAN DIASPORAS African Renaissance Volume 8, No 2, 2011
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ISSN : 1744-2532 (Print) 2516-5305 (Online)
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Diaspora Studies as an academic field was developed some fifty years ago and has seen a rapid growth, with books such as The African Diaspora: African Origins and New World Identities by Okpewho, Boyce Davies& Mazrui(eds, 2001), Gomez’s Diasporic Africa: A Reader (2005) and The Oxford Companion to Black British History by Dabydeen, Gilmore& Jones (eds, 2007). Journals such as African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, and African Diasporahave been publishing on a regular basis, and a number of international conferences have taken place to further explore this vast field. While the United States boast the highest number of university programmes on the subject, in the UK, SOAS launched its Centre for Migration and Diaspora Studies in 2007, and Edinburgh University Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies opened in 2008.
This issue of African Renaissance offers a reflection on aspects of African Diasporas, giving a voice to researchers based in the UK, Switzerland and France, with six articles covering various aspects of this vast subject. Chege Githiora (SOAS) uncovers the history of the first modern African Diaspora and its contribution to the shaping of Mexican identity. He evokes the successive waves of immigrants, from the first Africans brought to the Mexican shores by slave ships in the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth century, to the current transnational experience of those shuttling between the United States and Mexico. He searches for clues to these immigrants’ identities in toponyms, traces those back to various linguistic groups and recalls the violence of slavery and religious persecutions which forced Africans to abandon their traditional religions. Daniel Lis (University of Basel) reflects on the religious identity of recent Igbo immigrants to Switzerland and gives an insight into ancient Jewish traditions among the Igbo as first
documented by British missionaries in the first years of the twentieth century and later enhanced by the experience of the Nigerian Civil War. He further compares the Igbo to the Jews, with whom they share the same carefully handed down traditions, and reveals their relative isolation among the Swiss Jewry. Rebecca Jones (University of Birmingham) examines the presentation of ‘home’ by two young Nigerian writers, Atta and Oyeyemi with a marked interest in the concepts of diaspora, transnational space and identity. This literary study explores the emergence of the unfamiliar in the familiar and proposes a redefining of home, as well as Yoruba, Nigerian and diasporic identities. Francoise Ugochukwu (Open University & CNRS-LLACAN) highlights the centrality of Nollywood-viewing among Nigerians in the UK and its role in the re-connecting of British Nigerians with their ancestral land through pictures and sounds. Her recent survey among Nigerian Londoners confirms the films as a focal point bringing individuals together, encouraging the use of Nigerian languages and other cultural exchanges, and helping abroad Nigerians to reclaim their culture and reflect on their identity. Obiageli Ofomata (Cultural Education Centre, London) shares her experience as a teacher and Project Coordinator, “Journey of the Igbo in Greater London”, and her mission to encourage the use of Igbo language among families of Igbo extraction, and highlights the value of mother tongue practice in the family setting for the child’s well-being and upbringing. Marie-Rose Abomo-Maurin (CNRS-LLACAN & University of Yaoundé I) gives an overview of the Association of Cameroonians in France and highlights the ways in which the two countries benefit from the immigrants’ dual citizenship. She illustrates the group’s commitment to both their host country and their ‘country of heart’ and introduces readers to a dynamic Diaspora of bridge-builders in constant touch with their two communities.
These researched articles are followed by four book reviews which add their own reflection on some of the aspects of Diaspora treated in the articles: the role of slavery in the building of Diasporas (Botte & Deveau), the north-south dialogue, migration, border-crossing and displacement (Wawrzinek & Makokha), opening the reflection further into the exploration of cultures in the school environment in Belgium (Collès).
This issue, in its diversity, with a focus on Nigerians but going beyond, crossing into their French-speaking neighbourhood and migrating with Africans into various European countries and Mexico, confirms the common history of migrations and the similarities between today’s African Diasporas, shown here as dynamic, creative laboratories birthing new and complex identities.