(i) remittance
- In the last three decades of the 20th Century, political instability and economic decline in Africa induced substantial migrations within Africa, and between Africa and the Western countries, as people fled repressive civilian and military regimes as well as conditions of unemployment.
- The immigrants included elites and ordinary people. By the mid-1990, for instance, Ghanaian immigrants in various parts of the world, excluding illegal residents, were substantial; 15,000 people in Netherlands, 14,000 in Italy, 20,000 in Toronto, and 30,000 in Chicago (Akyeampong, 2000, 211)
- In their engagements with their place of origin, African migrants all over the world have committed financial resources in the form of remittances to their families back home, somewhat compensating for the negative effect of their absence on national development.
- For instance, in 1983 the GNP per capita income of Cape Verde rose from $200 to $300 million, on account of remittances from Cape Verdeans in the diaspora. (Pires-Hester 490) [* The population of Cape Verde in 1999 is estimated at 300,000 – Pires-Hester 487]
(ii) bilateral diaspora ethnicity
- Beyond remittances to the homeland, the international African community has developed “bilateral diaspora ethnicity” to varying degrees.
- “Bilateral diaspora ethnicity” refers to interrelations within the diaspora, specifically involving strong connections between the new settlements and the original homeland. Such is the case with Cape Verde and Cape Verdean-Americans.
- By the mid-20th Century, a linkage had been established between Cape Verde and its diaspora communities in the United States.
- For instance, between 1820 and 1976 about 35,000 to 45,000 Cape Verdeans had immigrated to New England in the United States, including returnees. (Pires-Hester 489)
- In 1981 a new association, the National Coordinating Council for the Development of Cape Verde (NCCDCV) would emerge in the US, to develop the traditional private remittances and engagements into a group effort for economic assistance to Cape Verde. (Pires-Hester 494)
- The NCCDCV would pool local community networks and amass influence to lobby the US government and secure needy emergency funds and development assistance to Cape Verde, time and again.
(iii) other development enterprise
- Apart from recent immigrants in the diaspora, established communities of earlier migrants have traditionally engaged with Africa.
- In the political realm, African Americans have influenced decolonization in Africa through their support and encouragement for African nationalists in various forms, including the Pan-African congresses of the period, 1900-1945.
- On decolonization of Africa, black American companies would realize opportunities for establishing manufacturing plants and developing joint ventures with African entrepreneurs.
- In recent times, however, some major challenges such as the issue of ethnic identity have emerged at the basis for solidarity and effective cooperation between Africa and its earlier diaspora communities including African Americans.
- Nevertheless, such groups have increasingly engaged with African development in some measure.
- Black organizations such as the National Black Chamber of Commerce and Black Congressional Caucus have been active in promoting entrepreneurship in the African diaspora, through trade missions abroad and related search for business patnerships. (Ngwainmbi 25)
- South Africa’s independence in 1994, for instance, attracted several hundred African Americans to resettle in the country and undertake business ventures such as manufacturing and trading enterprises.
- These ventures included Carson Products which had been operating manufacturing plants elsewhere in the continent.
- In another notable contribution Barden International, an African American enterprise developed partnership with General Motors to establish car assembly and dealership ventures in Namibia.
- Also, some African Americans are known to own landed property in the continent.
(iv) cultural identity
- At the level of cultural identity, interrelations within the African diaspora would lead to a reconceptualization of African identity such as obtained in Brazil.
- In Bahia, the development of terreiros from sacred spaces of African religious worship to distinct cultural enclaves with associated values, dress, and language, alternate to mainstream Brazilian culture, signify a process of working relations and transformation from a “remembered” culture (nacoes – nations) of Africans to “reconstituted” culture (terreiros) of Brazilians. (Butler 143)
- In this context (transformation), African identity evolved from direct kinship to adoption of image and personal expression.
- Elsewhere, cultural links have developed between Africa and the diaspora through the establishment of annual festivals and promotion of tourism in some African countries.
(v) Some Challenges in Engagements
- Africa and Africa-American engagements
- African American entrepreneurs who would operate parallel ventures with African firms negate the spirit of Pan-Africanism, as their ventures benefitting from relatively advanced resources, such as ready access to capital and developed advertising media, would stifle the growth and development of their African competitors.
- This is apparent in the cases of trademark infringement on the American companies of Luster Products and MacDonald’s corporation by the South African enterprises of Magic Style and JoBurgers Drive-Inn (McDonalds).
- Also, there is the issue of Africa-Americans developing ventures in Africa, only to lose them to White companies.
- In addition, there is some problem of finding incorruptible and competent businesspersons in Africa for partnership with African-American entrepreneurs.
- And this relates to the larger problem of political and economic mismanagement by African leaders. (Ngwainmbi 6, 15)
- Cultural differences involve African-American businesspersons facing language problems in dealing with the African marketplace, as well as inadequate knowledge of African consumer behaviour.
- Similarly, the lack of English proficiency would limit some African entrepreneurs in reaching African-American consumers. (Ngwainmbi 9, 26)
- Cultural differences would also include historic tension over enslavement and sale of African-American ancestors by African kings and elites of the past.
- Black leadership
- (i) objectives – Some of the desired objectives of Black leadership:
- Address the collective notion of white superiority and inherent Black inferiority
- Eliminate the socio-economic status gap between Blacks and others in society
- Empower personal and individual development among Blacks
- (ii) personnel
- Sometimes Black leadership personnel, such as Jesse Jackson (Rainbow Coalition), rightly calls for inclusion, working with non-Black groups for development, but such concept has been faulted as not seriously targeting the peculiar problem of racism against Blacks. (Ojo Ade 201-202)
- Surely, some Black leaders have been very assertive against racism. [A Nigerian official asserting that Egypt and South Africa are not Black enough to represent Africa at permanent seats in the UN Security Council – (Mills and Soko)]
- Other leaders like Louis Farrakhan have developed the habit of merely condemning the oppressive conditions of Blacks in the United states without offering serious solutions to the conditions.
- In addition, Farrakhan would seem less disturbed about the plight of Blacks elsewhere, such as Africa, as Farrakhan would consort with African dictators such as Sani Abacha of Nigeria. (Ojo Ade 202)
- In the US, Black and White conservative officials would fault Black leadership as overly concerned with realizing Black collective identity and rights rather than individual values.
- In the case of African-Germans, it has been argued that Black leadership should engage the Black community in discourse, articulating conditions of marginalization and oppression, desired solutions, and strategies for attaining results. (Blackshire-Belay 281-282)
- Ineffective African leadership in Africa from the late 1960s through early 1990s
- Development of democracy in the 1990s was essentially associated with the linkage between foreign aid and democratic governance.
(c) Black-on-Black Relations
- (i) integration with earlier diaspora communities
- cooperation
- Cooperation between African American churches and churches of new African immigrants, in organizing religious programs including crusades, conventions, and training (sermon texts, audiovisual products and books)
- [Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) in East London, led by a Nigerian-born Matthew Ashimolowo; Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), also a Nigerian Pentecostal Church in US, with branches in several states, and 2 million membership worldwide]
- differences
- Essentially, differences between the African American churches and African churches, as reflected largely in their distinct congregations, owing to
- Cultural differences
- Different mentalities
- Mutual suspicion
- Mistrust
- Cold reception from the African American community
- African Americans referring to new African immigrants as “primitive people.”
- African Americans profiling new African immigrants as descendants of slave merchants and slaving elites.
- “Superiority” feelings of new African immigrants and their characterization of African-Americans as “sugarcane people.”
- Recently, cooperation between African and Caribbean women in community development at Philadelphia and Boston. (Mary Johnson Osirim)
- Siddis of Hyderabad
- Intensive interaction among Muslim Siddis and their immediate neighbourhood residents, particularly through intermarriage and development of extended family and strong kinship relations.
- For example, “ a certain Ahmed is Hussein’s maternal uncle, a husband of his paternal aunt, and his father-in-law at the same time.” (Yimene 338)
- Also, high interaction and community development at prayer gatherings in mosques
- Good interaction and relations between Muslim and Christian Siddis, including intermarriages with the maintenance of a spouse’s respective religion.
- In recent times, elements of dissociation have developed among young Muslim and Christian Siddis, owing to ideological differences involving Christians entertaining more “Western values”, and Muslims tending to be localized in their custom and values.
- Also, Siddis have been interacting somewhat with their Hindu neighbours.
- Intercultural communication
- Differences in communicative behaviour of Africans and African American college students – Why the differences?
- Historic tension between the mullato and Black Americans
- “Perhaps as Africans remain in the United States, their attitudes become similar to African Americans.” (quoted in Langmia and Durham 807) – Comments/Opinions
- What are the 3 major themes in the writers’ findings about the two discussion groups? Explain