Defining and Utilizing Diaspora

A Path to African Post-Development

Abstract

This paper explores a definition and use of diaspora in a way that may engage African post-developmental aspirations. Firstly, the piece presents a clarification and further development of the early conceptualizations of diaspora engaging African and African descended scholars. Then, the article elaborates on not only what the African diaspora is but what it does. Finally, the paper presents a utilization of the African diaspora to assist in mobilizing trans-continental linkages with members in the Global North and increasingly with the Global South in support of their post-development agendas. It provides an understanding of the role of African descendants in an increasingly globalizing world and the arguments of the re-structuring of global geo-political order in the wake of narratives of the rise of Africa and the BRICS nations. The paper presents what can be gained and reconfigured in particular articulations of the African diaspora that seeks to engage post-development.