Ho Technical University

(Department of Multidisciplinary Studies)

AFS 100: African Studies

Africa in the Diaspora

Dr. Bright Lumor, Mensah

Lecturer, HTU
Ho
0209197306
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 Lectures 3 & 4: Mapping the African Diaspora,
Roots and Routes of the African Diaspora

Learning objectives
The course aims to help students to:
 Conceptualize, define African Diaspora
 Identify the concentration of African Diaspora in the Americas, Europe, and Asia
 Discuss the processes leading to the creation of the African Diaspora
 Discuss the role of the slave trades in the creation of African Diaspora
 Discuss the role of contemporary migrations to the creation of the diaspora
 Discuss the effect of the slave trades on the African continent
 Identify the reasons for the end of the slave trades

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Introduction
• Africans are on record as having dealings with other parts of the world since antiquity
• Thus the African Diaspora is a product of historical events
• Since the end of the 20th century, the concentration of Africans in the diaspora has
grown exponentially

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 1.0 What is African Diaspora
• Diaspora comes from a Greek word meaning “dispersion” or “scattering”
• It refers to all the communities and societies of Africans that are found outside
the continent of Africa (World Book Dictionary, 1960:580)
• African descendants in countries outside of the continent
• According to the African Union, the diaspora consists of “people of native
African origin and living outside the continent, irrespective of their citizenship
and nationality and who are willing to contribute to the development of the
continent and the building of the African Union”
• The African Union considers the African Diaspora as the Sixth Region
• Diaspora connotes the existence of a “homeland” where the people originated
from and a new community outside their homeland where the dispersed people
settle.
• African Americans, Afro-Brazilians, Afro-Carribeans and Afro-Europeans, Afro
Asians etc. together constitutes the Diaspora of Africa.
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African Diaspora
• People in the diaspora often have romanticized view and a sense of longing for
the continent. Rastafarians often refer to Africa as their “Zion” flowing with milk
and honey.
• These glorification of Africa also provides the necessary psychological boost for
survival in the harsh social and economic conditions in which the Diasporic
Africans have lived.
• In the US, the “one drop” rule made anyone with Africa blood irredeemably black,
in Brazil, the issue of gradation was more complex and crossed color lines.

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Mapping of the African Diaspora

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 Sri Lankans Indians

3/2/2023 Black Iraqis 7

2.0 Concentrations of the Diaspora

Location and Population of the Diaspora

• African diaspora populations include but are not limited to:
• African Americans, Afro-Caribbeans, Afro-Latin Americans, Black Canadians (
descendants of enslaved West Africans brought to the United States, the
Caribbean, and South America during the Atlantic slave trade.)
• Zanj – descendants of Zanj slaves whose ancestors were brought to the Near East
and other parts of Asia during the Indian ocean slave trade.
• Siddis – descendants of Zanj slaves whose ancestors were brought to the Indian
subcontinent (Pakistan and India). Also referred to as the Makrani in Pakistan.

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Countries with largest Diaspora concentrations

Concentration of the African Diaspora

Brazil 108,200,000 (Blacks and mixed) 50.7%

United States 46,300,000 (including multiracial) 12%

Haiti 9,925,365

Colombia 4,944,400 including multiracial

France Approximately 3.3–5.5 million

Yemen 3,500,000

Saudi Arabia 3,370,000

Jamaica 2,510,000

United Kingdom 1,904,684

Mexico 1,386,556

Canada 1,198,540
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3.0 Common Features of the African Diaspora

• Diasporic Africa has mostly been at the periphery of societies they live in.
They continued to face racism, social, economic and political exclusion
• There are cultural continuities or retentions with the African Continent.
Linguistic, religious, socio-economic and political aspects
• Some diaspora populations believe in manipulated media stories, which makes
it very scary to even think of connecting with the continent.

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Emergence of the African Diaspora: Roots and Routes

The African diaspora was created mainly by the following;

• The Indian Ocean Slave Trade

• The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade

• The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade

• Contemporary/ Post independence/Voluntary migrations

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Indian Ocean Slave trade
• This slave trade was believed to have started from the 1st century AD and ended
only in the 20th Century. Some Scholars trace its beginning to 200BCE
• The Indian Ocean slave trade peaked around 1500-1900.
• Also known as the East African slave trade, the Indian Ocean slave trade was multi-
directional slave trade which has changed over time.
• Africans were sent as slaves to the Middle East, to Indian Ocean islands (including
Madagascar), to the Indian subcontinent, and later to the Americas.

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The Indian Ocean Slave trade

• Most of the slave were taken

from the horn of Africa, or
present day Somalia, and the east
coast of Africa.

• The East African coast was close

to the Arab world and supplied
items such as kola nuts, ivory,
spices, leather and slaves

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 Nature of the Indian Ocean Slave trade
• Arab traders fleeing wars in the Arab world contributed to this trade by establishing
trading posts in Mogadishu, Barawa, and Kilwa around 10th century.
• The islands of Comoros, Madagascar, were also founded in the 10th century as a result of
this trade
• Several millions of Bantu Speaking people were taken to Mesopotamia to work on large
sugarcane farms and to construct dams in southern Iraq.
• As items from the far east, especially pottery from China and Persia, the demand for
slaves increased and these were obtained from Mogadishu in Somalia and Pemba in
Tanzania . Iron and Ivory were also obtained from the east coast through this trade.
• Swahili culture, civilization and language was also developed as a result of the
intermingling of the Arabs with the African indigenes.

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 Indian Ocean Slave trade

• The slaves bought by the Arabs found their way to the Near East principally
through Yemen and the Persian Gulf
• The settlement of the Arabs along the East African coast and the conversion of the
Africans to the Islamic religion only temporarily obstructed the slave trade. This is
because Islam as a religion frowned upon the taking of Muslims as slaves. Slave
dealers therefore had to go further into the interior, to non-muslim societies in
order to have access to slaves.
• About 2 million Black Iraqis the (Zanj) live in Iraq today, with populations
centered in Basra and some neighborhoods in Baghdad as a result of this trade.

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Scale and reach of the trade
• Slave were taken as far as China. E.g. During the 12th Century, Inhabitants of
Canton used African labor.
• There were exportation of Africans to India as well, this was on a bigger scale. In
the 11th and 12th centuries, Muslims conquered and ruled Ganges region of India
and introduced African Slaves to the area. This was later extended to Ceylon (Now
Sri Lanka). In this areas, slaves from Ethiopia were highly sought after.
• African slaves also served as soldiers and sailors and some even rose to high
positions
• In the later part of the 16th century, the Dutch worked their way to Indonesia and
began creating settlements along the way. In the process, Madagascar became an
important slave dealing center. Mauritius and Cape town in south Africa also.

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 4.2 Trans Saharan Slave Trade
• Slaves from West Africa were transported across
the Sahara desert to North Africa to be sold to
Mediterranean and Middle eastern civilizations.
• Early stage: During the early Roman Empire (5th
Century AD)
• Middle ages: Following its 8th-century conquest of
North Africa, Arabs, Berbers and other ethnic
groups.
• Late Trans Saharan Slave trade: In the Central
Africa, during the 16th and 17th centuries slave
traders began to raid the region as part of the
expansion of the Saharan and Nile River slave
routes.
• Slave trade after the killing of Muamar Gaddafi in
2011
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 Nature of the Trans Saharan Trade

• Involved trade mainly between West Africans and North African Berbers through
the Saharan Desert
• The items traded from West Africa included gold, ivory, cola nut, slaves. Items
traded from North Africa and the Middle East were salt, olive oil,
• Enslaved West Africans were initially used to cart goods. Later, horses were used.
Camel use followed after the horses
• Slave traders treated their camels better than the enslaved West Africans. The
camels would carry the slave masters while the West African slaves would carry
the gold, ivory, kola nuts, etc. on their heads across the Sahara Desert.

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 Nature of the Trans Saharan Trade
• Slaves obtained from modern-day Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Liberia invariably had
to travel over 3000km east to the shipping points.
• Many of them died of heat and thirst in the Sahara desert. Slaves were made to
drink water not more than once a day because of the scarcity of water in the desert
• From the North African Coasts, the slaves were shipped off and sold to South
Europe, Arabia, and the Persian Gulf.
• The journey across the sea to Arabia was equally risky and many Africans drowned
along the way. Those who arrived were immediately circumcised and given weird
names.
• Many of the slaves from the savannah and the forest zones would have been sold
five or six times by the time they arrived at the point of export.
• Major cities including Timbuktu, Tezzan, Ghatt, Kano, Tunis, and Darfur emerged
as a result of the trading activities

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 Nature of the trans Saharan Trade
• Closely related to the advent of Islam in Africa. Islam recognized two classes of people,
the believers who should not be enslaved and the nonbelievers or infidels who should be
conquered and enslaved (Holy war)
• Islamic incursion into Western Sudan in particular occurred around the 9th century AD.
Soon thereafter, the great empires of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai developed in that order,
using the resources of Islam.
• The first wave of large numbers of slaves occurred in 1591 when Muslims advanced on
Songhai when over 1200 prisoners of war were taken in addition to several camel loads
of gold dust. The success of this activity led to more slave raids. West African were
subsequently captured and sold as slaves.
• As the trade developed, three main routes were established as East-West Route which
ended at the Nile where the slaves were taken towards the red sea and then to the East.
The route runs from Tripoli through Central Sudan. From the Nile Valley to the Northern
borders of Egypt.
• These routes moved from North Africa to southern Europe and the Middle East (the
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coastal route)
Number of Enslaved African in the Trans Saharan trade

• In about 7th century AD, about 100,000 slaves were taken

• By 8th century, the number increased to 200,000
• By 10th-13th century, the number increased to 500,000
• By 14th century-1,000,000
• By 15th to 19th century-2,000,000

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 4.3 Transatlantic slave trade:

• It involved about 15million enslaved

Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the
Americas from the 15th to the 19th
century. 1440-1880. It peaked around 18th
and 19th centuries.
• The transatlantic Slave trade was the largest
forcible transportation of human beings from
one part of the world to another.

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 Triangular Trade
• Transatlantic slave trade was also called the
triangular trade because it involved three
continents, Europe, Africa and the North and
South Americas (the new world)
• It was the second of three stages of the
triangular trade, in which arms, textiles, and
wine were shipped from Europe to Africa,
slaves from Africa to the Americas, and sugar
and coffee from the Americas to Europe.
• An estimated 10 to 15 percent of the captives
died on their way to the coast. The European
slavers usually left behind persons who were
elderly, disabled, or otherwise dependent—
groups who were least able to contribute to the
economic health of their societies.
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Mode of acquiring the slaves
• Criminals sold by the chiefs as
punishment
• Free Africans obtained from raid by
African rulers and European gangs or
from kidnapping. This supplied the
largest number of slaves
• Domestic slaves resold
• Prisoners of war or captives

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Transatlantic Slave trade

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Nature of Transatlantic slave trade
• Slave were bartered for European goods such as
guns, gunpowder, textiles, rum, beads, tobacco,
and iron and copper bars, mirror, knife,
handkerchief, alcohol, kettle, clothes, umbrella,
sugar, smoking pipes, gold and bowler hat
• The cost of the slaves increased from 3 or 4
pounds in 1660 to 27pounds in 1800. By the
second half of the eighteenth century, it had
moved to 40pounds
• The largest slave market in the Gold Coast was
located at Assin Manso in the Central region.
• Movement: From Europe to Africa, to the New
World, and back to Europe

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Reasons for the rise of the slave trade
• High demand for cheap labor in the
new world to work on plantations and
mines.
• The prevalence of firearms on the
continent making it easier for slave
raids

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Effect on West Africa
• Inhuman treatment of the enslaved Africans (whips, chains, rapes, etc.)
• Depopulation of the West African continent. Over 15 million strong men, women,
and children were exported out of the continent
• Widespread feeling of insecurity among Ghanaians as a result of the raids,
kidnapping etc.
• Loss of human lives (About a 40million Africans lost their lives because of the
trade. Some because of slave raids, kidnapping, and wars,)
• Suppression of the development of local industries (cloth making, bead making,
brass casting, gold-smithing, etc.)

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Modern forms of Contemporary migrations

Africans had been present in Asia and Europe long before Columbus's travels.
Through early explorations, economic migrations etc., Beginning in the late 20th
century, Africans began to emigrate to Europe and the Americas in increasing
numbers, constituting new African diaspora communities not directly connected
with the slave trade.
• Economic Migrants: For jobs or economic prosperity for themselves. Creating
brain drain for Africa
• Educational Opportunities: Scholarship students, African Students pursuing
further studies
• Political Refugees: Those fleeing the scourge of war, political persecution etc. in
their home countries in Africa

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Contributions of the enslaved Africans to the new world

• Increasing the population of the new world

• They were used to build the infrastructure of the new world (their cities, railways
public buildings)
• Descendant of enslaved Africans became renowned scholars (WEB Du Bois,
Marcus Garvey)
• Development of Science and Technology
• Development of Sports

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Contribution of the African Diaspora to African
Development
• Supporting the fight for African independence politically (Marcus Garvey, Black star
line etc., also through freedom songs (Zimbabwe, Apartheid in South Africa) Bob
Marley,.
• Pan Africanism
• Economic Support/ Remittances. According to the WB, in 2010, Diaspora support to
Africa estimates reached a record US$ 40 billion, or 2.6% of the continent’s GDP, not
counting informal money transfers.
• Tourism
• Transfer of assets (technology, skills)

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How to promote interconnection with the diaspora
1. Targeted government policy (e.g. Year of Return and Beyond the
Return) Back to Africa movement was led by Marcus Garvey in the
1920s although ironically he never set foot on the continent.
2. Proper (re)education of African diasporic history and the linkages
with the rest of the continent. Learning more about the experiences of
the diasporic community and learning to understand our peculiar
situations.
3. Social collaborations, e.g. bridging the gap through playing hosts,
intermarriages.

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Some Questions

• Discuss the negative impact of the transatlantic slave trade on Africa

• State and explain the roots and routes of the African Diaspora

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 References

• Manuh, T., & Sutherland-Addy E. (eds.) (2014) Africa in contemporary

perspective: A textbook for Undergraduate students. Sub Saharan Publishers

• Lovejoy, P. E. (1989). The impact of the Atlantic slave trade on Africa: a review of
the literature. Journal of African History, 365-394.

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