Rethinking ‘Babylon’: Iconoclastic conceptions of the diasporic experience

Abstract

The word ‘diaspora’ is closely associated with enslavement, exile and loneliness. A people is seen to be scattered as a result of a traumatic historical event. Contrary to this assumption, a closer examination of the provenance of the classical diasporas, Jewish and Greek, reveal a degree of voluntarism in their patterns of out‐migration, or a mix of impelled and colonising migration. Although the idea of a ‘victim diaspora’ can be sustained in the case of the Armenians and Africans, other experiences are more ambiguous or benign. Indeed, diasporas can be seen as galvanising a new creative energy outside the natal homeland. In the modern period the force of excluding nationalisms often generated counter‐nationalist or return movements among diasporic groups. However, the current period of globalisation has enhanced the practical, economic and affective role of diasporas, raising the possibility that they may become alternative or parallel foci of loyalty to the nation‐state.