Appendix A
Brief bibliographic essay on the concept and analysis of the African Diaspora
I ne African diaspora is a concept and a method of analysis. There is a plethora of scholarship that validates “developing diasporan theory”.¹⁵ The Museum of the African Diaspora (MOAD) in San Francisco offers a simple definition. MOAD defines the African diaspora as the “scattering of people from Africa and the sowing of their cultures globally”.¹⁶
George Shepperson uses this biblical reference to argue that the concept of an African diaspora has Biblical origins. He cites Hebrew Scriptures Psalms 68:31 and Greek Scriptures, Acts 8:26 – 39. As evidence of temporal conceptualization, he references the title of William Mayor's 1802 essay “The History of the Dispersion of the Jews; of Modern Egypt and of other African Nations”.¹⁷
Joseph E. Harris' articulation of the concept is also straightforward. He asserts that the African diaspora is the voluntary and involuntary dispersion of Africans throughout history. Harris states that the African diaspora is "dynamic, continuous, and a complex phenomenon stretching across time, geography, class and gender."¹⁸ Consequently, the study of diasporic people necessitates identity analysis. Leonard Kodzo Gadezekpo offers an Africana paradigm based upon his analysis of Afro-Brazilian culture. He divides diasporan identity into four aspects:
Biological – African identity even if it is several generations removed.
Cultural – connection with extended family (real or imagined)
Awareness of the history of struggle/resistance – questioning or challenging the state and self. The pain of the struggle has been passed on to subsequent generations
Multiplicity of Identity – not only constructs of race, class and gender but members may be part of several diasporan communities.19
Kim Butler, renowned scholar of diasporan theory, asserts that diasporan analysis must accept the reality of multiple identities. Offering the example of a Jamaican individual living in London, Butler uses William Safran's definition of diaspora to differentiate the diasporan experience from that of migration, emigration and nomadic people. Butler asserts that diasporan populations must have the following characteristics:
15Term borrowed from Kim Butler. See Kim Butler, “Defining Diaspora, Refining a Discourse” Diaspora, Vol.10 No.2, Fall 2001.
16www.moadsf.org
17 See George Shepperson “The African Diaspora: Concept and Context” Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora, 2nd ed. (Washington D.C.; Howard University Press, 1993 p. 41.
4See Joseph E. Harris, ed. “Introduction”, Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora, 2nd ed. (Washington D.C.; Howard University Press, 1993) p.4.
19 Leonard Kodzo Gadezekpo presented “The Africana Paradigm” at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting, November 14, 2008.
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