Can we speak of a unique African diaspora?

Résumé du document

"It is a particular sensation, this double consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others?. W.E.B. Du Bois writes here about the "double consciousness? of African Americans. He argued that Blacks are gifted with a "third eye? that allows them to gauge the white and the black while seeking to transcend this duality by creating a "better and truer self?. This duality, that is the sense of "twoness?, is even more acute for African exiles today because they have fewer social and cultural ties to the West than African Americans. Inevitably, the term "exiles? makes us think about Diaspora. It is almost impossible to define an African Diaspora. The three core elements to define a diaspora are the (traumatic) dispersion, the homeland orientation and the boundary maintenance in the host state. In terms of the formation of the African Diaspora, distinct processes have operated in different phases. The crystallization of a diasporic identity among Africans began very early.

Extraits

[...] It is almost impossible to define an African diaspora. The three core elements to define a diaspora is the (traumatic) dispersion, the homeland orientation and the boundary maintenance in the host state. In terms of the formation of the African diaspora, distinct processes have operated in different phases. The crystallization of a diasporic identity among Africans began very early. From 1619 to the abolition of slave trade in 1807, thousands of Africans were brought to the New World to develop and sustain plantation agriculture and to work the mines as slaves. [...]

[...] Butcher, published in Industrial and Labor Relations Review in January 1994. Assimilation Differences among Africans in America by F. Nii-Amoo Dodoo, published in Social Forces in December 1997. The Dialectic between Diasporas and Homelands by Elliott Skinner, in Joseph E. Harris Global Dimensions of the African Diaspora, Howard University Press, 1993. [...]

[...] Succeeding generations often adopt a black American-identified identity. This brings them in conflict with their parents' generation, most especially with their parents' understandings of American blacks. Unlike their parents, a majority of the American-identified teens say that a good trait of black Americans is that they work hard and they struggle. Children seem to be perceiving a reality that their parents cannot. The first generation tends to believe that, while racism exists in the United States, it can be overcome through hard work. [...]

[...] The whites will also tell them of their moral superiority over the American black and the distinctiveness of their accent. African immigrants feel that setting themselves apart from African Americans brings better treatment from whites, that they are more respected and more readily accepted than African Americans7. At the same time, a powerful racial consciousness - of being a black minority - provides an occasional bond with African Americans in political and social movements and, at the individual level, in interpersonal relations. [...]

[...] The young African migrants do not feel 15. Ethnic and Racial Identities of Second-Generation Black Immigrants in New York City by Mary C. Waters Page Bryce-Laporte (1972), Page Mary Waters (1994), Pages 813 and 814. Bryce-Laporte (1972), Page such pressure to choose between these two identities. They tend to stress their nationality or their birthplace as defining their identity often by reaction against racial discriminations. A number of factors influence the type of identity the youths develop. These include the social class background of the parents, the social networks the parents were involved in, the type of school the child attended, their contact with other black students and the family structure18. [...]