On October 30, 2018 I attended day 1 of the Diaspora Roadshow put on by the organization Act4Accountability. I learned about the opportunity from a friend, and former college pal I met back in undergrad at the University of Maryland–College Park (GO TERPS!). The event was two days in length, but I only attended the first. While there I heard a panel of five speakers engage with the audience on the following topics: what does Diaspora mean to you, the better black syndrome, ancestry in the black community, and the campaign titled Diaspora Rise Up!
Day 1 of the roadshow took place at the Busboys and Poets restaurant in Hyattsville, MD. Why was the panel discussion called “T’challa to Killmonger”? Because the organizers desired to use the film Black Panther as a launchpad to see what it is we in the black community are not doing, and what can we do about it? The first question posed to the five speakers on the stage was: what does diaspora mean to you? The five speakers in attendance were: Ms. Gina Paige of African Ancestry, Mr. Gbenga Ogunjimi of GO Global Inc, cultural curator Ms. Risikat “Kat” Okedeyi of Lil Soso Productions, and Professor of history Mr. Korey Brown; the event moderator was Ms. Omolola “Lola” Adele Oso of ACT4. Unfortunately, I did not attribute the direct quotes to exact people. Nevertheless I will share direct quotes whenever possible. One of the speakers replied that diaspora meant, “black people outside of Africa…everyone black”. Another panelists provided aspects of what it means to be of the diaspora like the transatlantic slave trade, forced migration due to conflict in the country of origin, and people who voluntarily leave.
Naturally, as we discussed the word diaspora the dichotomy between African Americans and people from the Caribbean emerged. When the discussion turned in that direction, a comment about Caribbeans not feeling the same level of disconnection with the motherland as African Americans do came up. The rationale behind that statement made by a panelists was that Caribbean people associate more with their nationality and as a result they see themselves as their nationality first, but can acknowledge their origins as being rooted in Africa. African Americans on the other hand fall into two categories. Some may not feel/have any connection to Africa since they have lived their whole lives in America and have no direct connection to Africa. Others acknowledge that their origin is from the African continent but due to their history and the lack of specific information about where on the continent, it is what it is.
As the evening progressed I heard I phrase I’d never heard before, the better black syndrome. Basically, it’s the idea that one type of black is better than another–and there are many variations. For example, being black American is better than being black from Africa (or vice versa if you’re African). Or blacks who speak using standard English (what we hear most often in mainstream media) are better than blacks who use non standard varieties like (Ebonics/Black English Vernacular). Or in the case of colorism, light skinned blacks are better than dark skinned blacks. Additionally, there is–apparently–an attitude among the diaspora that they are better blacks than the people still on the continent. In the end the message was that no one version of being black is better than the other, and we have to get over the unnecessary divisiveness within the community in order to progress as a group. The most powerful statements that came out of this conversation were: “slavery worked”, and “so did colonization”. Slavery served financial purposes and had many consequences. One of those consequences was disconnection, and in order to keep the system of slavery going for as long as it did negative stereotypes were fed and spread between and among different groups.
Ancestry is a touchy topic for black people in America, especially if they are black people whose family lines can be traced back to slavery. I’m going to digress a bit and share a story about a time my friends and I were at the airport in Dubai on our way to Uganda. A woman started speaking to us and asked where we were from. We all responded with the United States, which was not the answer she was looking for. I said my parents were from Kenya, so to be more specific I was Kenyan-American. However, to be honest white people need to be careful asking black people this question in public–especially if it’s with strangers. This question could be triggering to someone who wouldn’t know exactly where in Africa their roots are grounded, unless of course they took an ancestry test. Which reminds me of a D.L. Hughley line from one of his comedy sets: “I think it’s fucked up to live in America when they stole you from your homeland, then sell your ancestry back to you. Like, for a hundred dollars I’ll show you where we stole you from.” Anyway, the origin question wasn’t the most uncomfortable thing the lady said. There was a family who lived in England, but was from Uganda and she started talking to the little children. She said, “you speak English very well”. English is the official language in Uganda, and the kids lived and went to school in England. With all due respect, how was she expecting their English to sound?
But, I digress. Back to the topic of ancestry. Ms. Gina Paige shared how African Ancestry testing differs from the other ancestry testing companies. Bottom line is they differ in specifics. African Ancestry, as stated on their website and by Paige in person: can identify an African country of origin, provides specific African ethnic groups, has the largest African lineages database, doesn’t sell/research the DNA samples provided, and is 100% black owned with black scientists.
The evening ended with an audience Q & A as well as a plug for Diaspora Rise Up! Diaspora Rise Up! is a campaign which seeks philanthropic support to invest in business opportunities on the continent. The campaign also works as a partner with established NGOs to provide disaster relief.