Intellectual Conversation: The Diaspora --- by Miss Burden

Written by Miss Burden

Dear Black People,

You have been dispersed from your homeland... now what? Diaspora is about more than migration... Diaspora represents possibility for Black people all over the world. Although different, our experiences are integrally connected due to, among other catastrophes, the Middle Passage, scientific racism, forced migration, and colonialism. Some of you claim you "ain't no African," that you "ain't been nowhere near Africa," and therefor you have nothing in common with "them Africans." The intricacies of this failed belief aside, consider the possibilities that can abound from drawing inspiration from "them Africans" the world over. Let Toussant L'Overture or Kwane Nkrumah be our inspiration for freedom. Let US probe the entanglement of recent events in Haiti and Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. Let US connect the local AND the global; the national AND the international; our roots AND our routes. We can only fully engage the facets, contours, and spaces of our "African-American-ness" in relationship to the totality of the Black people throughout the Diaspora.