The concept of diaspora is phenomena. However, it is discussed conservatively by scholars in the fields of economics, spatial geography, politics, development studies, sociology and social anthropology. This article discusses the African diaspora as a tool for fostering the African renaissance. Most, if not all, African countries were once colonies of Western states, which imply that both people and economies were deprived of freedom of movement and freedom of association both within Africa and beyond. They were therefore recipients of the so-called renaissance of the colonial masters, who were themselves diasporas of their mother nations. In fact, the Western states themselves obtained some form of renaissance from Africa, although they allegedly propose themselves to be the torchbearers of the African renaissance. The term ‘renaissance’ refers to an endless process of systematic transformation, systematic change and systematic reformation and is thought to be contagious. Accordingly, the African diaspora is contributing to an African renaissance in all domains of life, that is, economically, socially, politically and technologically. Those who have left Africa are facing what this article would refer to as ‘payback time’ – repatriating resources to the African continent in order to pay back. The diaspora is thus playing a distributive role, transferring resources from regions of higher concentration to regions of lower concentration through ‘impermeable membranes’ (country borders) that are never porous. This article seeks to conceptualise the role of the African diaspora, examining and/or defining who forms part of the diaspora, by outlining the challenges of such a role in the continent. The respective governments of the country in which the member of the diaspora is now residing and the government of the homeland in Africa should be involved in the way forward towards facilitating the contribution of the diaspora in terms of the revival of Africans’ humanity and Afrikology. Moreover, they should be pushing for the creation of a United States of Africa.
‘We must redouble our efforts to involve the diaspora and the migrants in the development process in order to widen our constituency, gain more support and increase our knowledge about development.’ (Agnes van Ardenne, Minister for Development, the Netherlands, speaking in January 2003 to the National Community Development Organization[NCDO]).
The concept diaspora is dynamic in nature and it is studied from a wide range of perspectives. Geographically, diaspora is studied from within the African continent looking at Africans moving from their home countries to other African countries or is studied from external boundaries. Historically, the issues pertaining to the history of migration are included in this discussion. A diaspora can be defined as people who have migrated and their descendants who maintain a connection with their homeland. The issue of migration has taken centre stage in African economics, politics and sociology. Some proponents argue that migration destructs the existing systems of a host country; on the other hand, supporters of migration purport that it is a fundamental element of the world system. Globalisation facilitates movement across various regions (through regional integration) (Ellerman
Makina (
From a closer scrutiny of the issue pertaining to the African diaspora and the renaissance of the African continent, one may perceive that the role of the diaspora in African renaissance is a highly contested terrain. If the diaspora is not treated with the respect it deserves, it may result in an uproar amongst politicians and economists, social commentators and neoliberalists.
The following news headlines from various broadcast media highlight both a pessimistic and an optimistic historical view of Africa:
Hundreds of illegal immigrants on hunger strike in Zambian jails. (Melvis Dzisah, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 26 September 1998)
Immigration law draws criticism from neighbors. (Panafrican News Agency, 22 September 1998)
South Africa: Immigrants are creating work – not taking our jobs. (Chiara Carder and Ferial Haffajee, Africa News, 11 September 1998)
Southern Africa: SADC protocol stirs hornet’s nest. (Tabby Moyo, Africa News, 11 September 1998)
African leadership is ambivalent on the issue of migration and its contribution to the betterment of humanity. Zimbabwean leaders, for example, late president cde R.G. Mugabe, pessimistically believed that migration cannot give birth to an African renaissance; hence, they allowed issues like xenophobia to go unchallenged especially during the Zimbabwean land grabbing of the 2000s. However, some leaders like those in South Africa, for example, former President T. Mbeki, are optimistic when it comes to a renaissance.
The research methodology applied in this study is critical discourse analysis (CDA). it is agreed upon that any explicit method in discourse studies, the humanities and social sciences may be used in CDA research, as long as it is able to adequately and relevantly produce insights into the way discourse reproduces (or resists) social and political inequality, power abuse or domination. This method was used because it does not limit its analysis to specific structures of text or talk, but systematically relates these to structures of the sociopolitical context. Critical discourse analysis has been used to examine political speech acts, to highlight the rhetoric behind these, and any forms of speech that may be used to manipulate the impression given to the audience.
There have been many black or African or Africoid renaissances since the earliest period of human history and culture. Homosapiens in the form of medium to tall, dark-skinned, smooth-skinned (no body hair), cloth-wearing (other materials) people existed as early as 40 000 BC (Choi
This humanity’s evolutionary continuum history includes many African or black renaissances in Africa, the Americas, Europe, East Asia and India. These renaissances, which have taken place since 20 000 BC, include the first renaissance that took place in prehistoric Sahara, the Zingh Empire, which was the world’s earliest culture and civilisation. Unfortunately, the term ‘Zingh’ is known by very few people today and is often used as a pejorative term by some Middle Eastern people to refer to black or African people. Similarly, the term ‘Kushim’, which originates from the great Kushite civilisation, is used by people of Middle Eastern origins to refer to black people. Cultural inventions such as mummification, red or black pottery, governance, education, fishing nets, the boomerang, the bow and arrow, clothing, boats and many cultural artefacts found as far afield as New Guinea, China and the Americas emerged from the prehistoric Zingh Empire and were spread by the diaspora mobility (Jefferson
From the above discussion, it can be noted that migration played a pivotal role in the dispersion and mixing of people in previously unoccupied regions of the world. Some schools of thought, for example, Mbeki (
The global diaspora relates to the study of migration, although the term ‘diaspora’ technically serves as an umbrella term that covers all types of migration. Interest in the link between diaspora and transnational migration has grown significantly in recent years, and more studies on globalisation, global economics, international relations, global politics, international conflict resolution and foreign diplomacy have been produced (Campagnon
The assumption that people will live their lives in one place, according to one set of national and cultural norms, in countries with impermeable national borders, no longer holds. Rather, in the 21st century, more and more people will belong to two or more societies at the same time. (p. 4)
This diaspora and renaissance function is possible because of advanced technologies in modern transportation and communications. Castles (
Not all migrants become diasporas and not all diasporas can be considered as migrants (although their ancestors may have been so). Likewise, not all those who engage in transnational practices are necessarily diasporic; they may simply be operating as networks of people with limited relationships to any place (real or imaginary).
Echoing Blakewell’s point, Levitt (
… [
Broadly speaking, diaspora refers to the global phenomenon of the dispersion or scattering of people in various parts of the world, occurring either by a voluntary act or coerced conditions in both domestic and global contexts. Migration facilitates geographical or demographic mobility that eventually results in diasporic conditions. Migration basically involves geographic and demographic flows of people or individuals, taking both internal and international directions. It is important to view the inherent connection between diaspora and migration because of their symbiotic relationship. Iroegbu (
… [
However, whilst both are complementary, they are not identical or interchangeable.
Iroegbu (
Diasporism makes sense because it may forge stronger ties between the homeland and outside individuals. Diaspora communities show that diaspora issues are an important category to initiate and seek out ideas and accommodation of ways and forms in which intercultural and international relations between homeland and settled ethnic nationalities can strengthen one another. As a fact, it can help in sustaining new democratic nation states with the flow of ideas and social obligations in agreement with the home-inward and the home-outward. The meaning of diaspora therefore resonates with, but is not limited to, the connection and feeling of asking those in diaspora how and when they would go back home and be relevant.
Five major theological considerations can be stated in this theological and cultural context resulting in African renaissance. Firstly, the global diaspora phenomenon situates Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and their eventual departure from their ‘original homeland’. Disobedience caused this permanent departure and catapulted Adam and Eve to the apex of irreversible exilic migration. In this sense, the diaspora may be perceived as a form of divine retribution. Wan and Tira (
Thirdly, the global diaspora phenomenon accentuates the reality of divine justice. In this strict sense, the dispersal of the Jews in particular and the scattering of people in general may be interpreted as a form of divine judgement. People were scattered in many places, going in many directions after the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel. Nevertheless, the exilic presence of the Jews in an environment of dispersion paved the way for cross-cultural engagement, multiculturalism in the host country and, eventually, cultural transformation.
Fourthly, the global diaspora phenomenon signifies the grand redemptive plan of God for all nations. Here, diaspora functions as a form of divine strategy to fulfil the universal missionary mandate. Again, God’s sovereignty encompasses the scattering of people from various quarters of the world for an expressed missionary intention. Doors of opportunities for evangelism open up as people move. Given the emerging realities of transnational migration, people in dispersion can have direct access to the gospel without losing their ethnic identity (Lewis
Finally, according to Zaretsky (
With this movement of theological and cultural message as the word was being spreaded by missionaries, the concepts of African renaissance were also being imparted in the communities. Missionary diaspora came with the establishment of many schools, hospitals and churches. Theological and cultural movements also improved people’s morality and identity.
In Africa, diaspora movements have existed since the great trek of the likes of Nyatsimba Mutota, who moved from Great Zimbabwe to the north in search of salt reserves, and Lobengula and the great exodus from South Africa to Matabeleland in Zimbabwe (Beach
Ratha and Mohapatra (
The contemporary African diaspora from the continent now living in the European Union (EU) countries alone is estimated to be around 3.3 million people of whom 1 million is from sub-Saharan Africa (United Nations Population Division
The activities of the African diaspora promote trade and enterprise links and other social and political ties between their adopted countries and their countries of origin. This is why diaspora-initiated projects are now referred to as the ‘fourth development aid’ (Mohamoud
Egypt considers its diaspora as its treasures kept abroad. It is vital to affirm that these unclaimed treasures can potentially serve as another window to the industrialised world, as another bridge in knowledge transmission and exchange, and as another catalyst in fostering knowledge creation and utilisation. It is apt to remark, therefore, that the diaspora is a vital and influential community of ‘undercover’ ambassadors – of their home countries and regions – without a formally designated portfolio.
Actors in diaspora networks can be crucial bridges between global state of the art in policy, technological and managerial expertise and local conditions in their home countries. Public sector reform, innovations in education and social services and promotion of a knowledge-based private sector are just a few areas where diaspora members could team up with developing countries’ governments and external funding agencies to promote a shared agenda of poverty reduction.
The success of the Chinese diaspora grew out of – although it is no longer limited to – the traditional investment behaviour of emigrant families that made their fortunes overseas. On the other hand, the success of the Indian diaspora is much more closely linked to recent changes in supply chain organisation and the emergence of transnational innovation networks than to the investments of fixed capital of Indian diaspora members in India. Although a decade ago the success of the Armenian diaspora seemed nearly certain, it has failed to contribute substantially to domestic development (at least relative to its potential). The political divisions between the diaspora and the post-Soviet political class in Armenia, combined with the philanthropic generosity of overseas Armenians, thwarted development and buffered domestic actors from the costs of their actions (World Bank
At the beginning of the 21st century, it was possible to claim that ‘Africa and the African diaspora stand fused in ways that have immense political, economic, and social possibilities for the new millennium’ (Akyeampong
There has been a limited response from the South African government in addressing the migration of skilled South Africans. Government support has been offered to the Homecoming Revolution, a non-profit organisation aimed at encouraging South Africans living abroad to return. The campaign consists largely of advertising and media-based efforts, with no formal structure in place, apart from a website, to promote and publicise South Africa. Efforts are being made to provide knowledge support (passport and visa queries, job opportunities and so forth) through the website (Lundy & Visser
The respondents of a South African quantitative research survey conducted by the researcher indicated that they maintain contact with their home country through a variety of means. Thirty-one per cent stayed abreast of events in South Africa through the media, 22% had ongoing business contact with the country, 20% maintained contact through academic exchanges and relationships and 7% used conferences and other professional activities to stay in touch. These data support the hypothesis that skilled South Africans living in the diaspora wish to remain in contact with their homeland. All overseas diaspora members who are South Africans, either by birth or through naturalisation, joined the diaspora network through their linkage with the South African Business Club (Magocha
South Africans have power and influence in their host countries. One-third of respondents stated that they had considerable or major influence over the investment decisions of their organisations. About 40% reported that their organisations were engaged in some international and developing market activities, with 35% of organisations having business activities in South Africa. Fifty-four per cent of respondents reported that they had worked in organisations of 1000 people or less, while 13% said to have worked in organisations with more than 1000 employees and had considerable influence over their company’s investment decisions.
Mbeki’s African renaissance initiatives and its call to all the peoples of Africa include those of the diaspora, ‘to make their contribution to the regeneration of their mother continent’ (Mbeki
The African diaspora is already playing an important role in African development, remitting an estimated $45 billion each year. The funds coming from the African diaspora overseas are financing African development projects of the countries of origin. This mobilises the diaspora to explore how these funds could be better structured to promote sustainable development on the continent. The transfer of intellectual resources and creative business practices by the African diaspora is also considered to be stimulating.
There are four broad areas for diasporas’ engagement in development and change which are emergent in development practice. First and foremost are initiatives to improve and strengthen the flow of remittances. This includes working with the financial services industry to reduce the transaction costs for remittances and encourage migrants to send more funds through the formal banking system. Some have advocated for the provision of tax relief in industrialised states for remittances to developing countries and some developing countries have considered how to tax remittance income to raise funds for development (Ratha
As the potential contribution of diasporas to development is being recognised, there has been a general shift in attitude towards emigrants amongst the governments of many developing countries (Castles & Delgado Wise
Diaspora-based networks are a potential asset for individual business owners who exploit them in two primary ways: accessing resources unavailable or more expensive to acquire from other sources and providing a market for goods and services. Transnational diaspora-based linkages might enable access to different types of resources and/or markets. Utilisation of transnational diaspora-based networks may be seen as a transitional phase in the development of migrant businesses on the road to full assimilation into the host society, and therefore, a feature of newly arrived migrants’ enterprises. Conversely, the maintenance and development of transnational networks might be a major, and permanent, contributor to minority business development and more likely therefore to be used by those who have established a secure foothold in the host country (Portes, Haller & Guarnizo
Theories are crucial in shading light on what other scholars have highlighted in their researches concrning the issue under discussion. In this note, the socio-economic geographic unifying transnationalism theory formulated by Magocha (
Socio-economic geographic unifying transnationalism theoryis a combined theory that the research proposes for the promotion and support of migration dynamics and the making of diasporic business communities (Magocha
Socio-economic theories analyse the extent to which local government is responsible for ensuring the basic human rights or socio-economic rights spelt out in the South African Constitution of 1996, sections 26–29; local government also has a duty to foreigners who are legally in the country. More broadly, metros must be ‘developmental’, and developmental objectives are difficult to achieve amidst fragmented communities. According to the South African Local Government White Paper of 1998, municipalities must ‘work with groups in the community to find sustainable ways to meet their social, economic, and material needs and improve the quality of their lives’. This means thinking beyond the narrow confines a set of delinked service sectors. One reason for this is that much of the research on Southern Africa’s human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and/or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic has neglected important socio-economic, legal and cultural dynamics of migration that may be contributing to the spread of the virus. As Decosas and Adrien (
The other issue relating to migration lies in the fact that with an illegal alien population estimated to be between 2.5 million and 5 million in South Africa, it is obvious that the socio-economic resources of the country, which are under severe strain as it is, are further being burdened by the presence of illegal aliens. The cost implication of maintaining an illegal allien becomes even clearer when one makes a calculation, suggesting that if every illegal costs the South African infrastructure, say, R1000 per annum, then multiplied with whatever number you wish, it becomes obvious that the cost becomes billions of rands per year. This has ripple effects on the South African economy in terms of fiscal policies and the administration of social amenities.
On the other hand, if the immigrants become productive, they will have a positive effect on the gross national product and the gross domestic product, which will raise the status of the economy on global economic measures. Migration policies should be incorporated in a structured manner into policies on health, education and human capital, and into social and economic development strategies. Migration and development policies should also focus much more on economic reform and job creation and on improving the working conditions and the socio-economic situation in low-income and middle-income countries, and in regions characterised by high emigration pressures. This would include promoting access to quality education for all, the development and improvement of vocational training and the reinforcement of management skills, and further developing the role of the formal labour markets.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) (
Levitt (
At the meso and micro level, migration was supposed to lead to the economic improvement of migrants and greater freedom from local socio-economic barriers and constraints. Remittances would ‘improve income distribution and quality of life beyond what other available development approaches could deliver’ (Keely & Tran
In many socio-economic settings, the household was recognised as the most relevant socio-economic group and hence the most appropriate unit of analysis, acknowledging that the forms of households vary across time, space and socio-economic groups (McDowell & De Haan
South Africa and the SADC have committed to an ongoing process of greater regional integration. Although the regularisation of movement between South Africa and Zimbabwe is partly a response to the current socio-economic crisis, it is also an opportunity to forge longer term relations between the countries towards regional integration. These endeavours have inspired friendly and positive socio-economic relationships between sister cities, and by proxy, within local and immigrant communities. Sister city relationships provide another example of the increasing importance of transnational networks in establishing multifaceted ties between two countries. As Karen Fog Olwig (
The AU has also committed to formally recognising the African diaspora as a sixth regional bloc alongside the economic communities of Southern, Central, West, East and Saharan regions of the continent. Within the AU’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC), 20 of the 150 seats are reserved for diaspora organisations that represent the ‘first institutional interface between the Union and its constituents in the diaspora’ (Oladeinde
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is a socio-economic development programme, and one of its main objectives is economic integration and interstate trade. The projects cited in the document drawn up by the African Development Bank,
Through the exposure to migrants’ (perceived) relative success, wealth and status symbols (international), migration has almost become an obsession, as it is perceived as the main or only avenue for upward socio-economic mobility (Epstein
In countries like Zimbabwe and South Africa, migration dynamics and the making of diasporic business communities are exacerbated by the countries’ geographic position, relative lack of capacity regarding border control and immigration services generally, current complex nation-building redefinition and, paradoxically, a historical legacy of absolute control of populations’ movements. The distribution of immigrants amongst the different economic activities is conditioned by several factors: the sectoral composition of the economies, the immigrants’ skills, the reservation wages of the foreign population compared to those of the native population and the behaviour of entrepreneurs. Orłowski (
Many geographic models, despite being based on stochastic processes (notably, Markov chains), and thus having large potential for simulation-based uncertainty assessment, do not, to date, seem to have been widely explored in this context. Moreover, the judgemental scenarios that often form the input to the models of population dynamics often assume the constancy of migratory flows starting from a given period of time. Although such an approach is understandable, given the lack of specific knowledge of the researcher about the more distant future, the constancy assumption seems to be the neutral option; it is also likely to generate very high
The story of the post-Second World War Chinese diaspora is one of geographic mobility and economic diversification: the construction of a ‘bamboo network’ linking Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan (China) and Thailand to one another and to China through meshed webs of family firms operating first in traditional trading and manufacturing, and then in high-tech and finance. For many refugees, the years following the Communist victory in 1949 were a time of testing, relieved – some would say redeemed – by rags-to-riches stories. In the conventional telling, frugal, canny traders, often with nothing but the clothes on their back, worked their way up from factory floor to great wealth (Kuznetsov
The uneven and fractured class, racial, gender, generational, geographic, ethnic and even linguistic awareness which characterises these diasporas has fluctuated considerably over time, making it complicated to map not only their changing boundaries but also their changing connections with their countries of origin, as well as with the African continent itself. Indeed, any investigation of diaspora politics and activities must be sensitive to the fact that diasporas comprise an integral and distinctive part of the globalised political economy (Davies
It has to be noted that the presented survey of migration theories is by no means complete, and that a much more comprehensive discussion is offered by Massey et al. (
The process of immigrant transnationalism.
Although transnationalism and globalisation overlap, global processes are typically ‘decentred’ from national territories and occur in a global space, whilst transnational processes are ‘anchored in and transcend one or more nation-states’ (Kearney
Similarly, it is contended that the relatively recent body of work concerned with the concepts of transnationalism and diaspora has not properly challenged traditional analytical categories. Set against the structural backdrop of the global political economy, it is evident that diasporic communities can be varied and complex both in their structure and character. Indeed, the available evidence suggests that a variety of fragmented and diverse links with homeland are maintained by the many disparate elements of Africa’s expatriate populations and global diaspora (Akyeampong
From a conceptual perspective alone, the preceding discussion suggests that there is a real need to reposition the debate towards a conceptualisation of diaspora that is cognisant of the complexity of the phenomena in what has been termed the ‘age of migration’ (Castles & Miller
Zimbabwe is one of Africa’s great ancient civilisations, establishing itself as a major culture and region of trade as early as 3000 BC. The Zimbabweans were mainly of Bantu stock and practised cattle keeping and agriculture. In fact, Zimbabweans were probably known by the ancient Egyptians and the Chinese. Buildings in Zimbabwe, especially the stone cities covering an area of the size of France, seem to have been built hundreds of years before Christ to as recently as the 10th century AD. By about 500 BC, the Zimbabweans were engaged in trade with parts of Asia and Yemen. As early as 1000 BC, black people called Lemvo who were of the Jewish faith migrated to Zimbabwe from the Ethiopian Empire. Zimbabwe was also one of the world’s greatest producers of rice, cloth, iron utensils and gold adornments. Zimbabwe’s renaissance may have taken place from as early as 300 BC and continued to about 1200 AD. Whist much of Zimbabwe’s great art, its gold work and its great buildings have been plundered or almost destroyed, the ancient buildings built in Zimbabwe are so widespread and so huge that most still exist.
The Great West African renaissances, which took place between 400 BC and 1600 AD, involved three of the world’s greatest and wealthiest kingdoms and empires: Ghana (400 BC–1200 AD), Mali (1200–1500 AD) and Songhai (1500–1700 AD). From the above discussion, one may justifiably say that migration and renaissance are the double-edged catalysts of humanity’s evolutionary continuum. The diaspora and the renaissance function is crucial in the development of the global world. Diaspora in Afrikological contexts and the resultant renaissance are the key to African prosperity. Therefore, African diaspora and the government systems should support the movement of people and resources. Diaspora gave rise to South African renaissance in the 21st century. It is the plight of this article that African governments should mobilise diaspora towards African change. The major theory explaining the concept of diaspora in Africa is known as socio-economic geographic unifying transnationalism theory. Socio-economic geographic unifying transnatioalism theory came with elements of social development, economic development and geographic development that were all meant to unify the world and coming up with transnational concepts of renaissance of the African economies leading to the formation of United States of Africa.
The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.
I declare that I am the sole author of this research article.
This article followed all ethical standards for a research without direct contact with human or animal subjects.
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, M.M., upon reasonable request.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the author.