Diaspora Connections Research Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue

Seeking critical and sound examination, analysis, and evaluation of complex ideas and theories of established past directions in the interdisciplinary fields of diaspora, postcolonial, and culture studies, this collection aims to chart intellectually meaningful pathways for future planetary survival and thriving, while throwing needed light on intricacies and nuances of established research and existing systems. Pondering the problems but also pursuing the possibilities of “diaspora connections” is a necessary and urgent endeavor today. While academics, activists, and cultural practitioners are creating numerous portals out of the human-conflict epidemic, and some see in the metaphoric and real “disease” the very artifacts and materials for hope of transformative power, the collection is driven by the realization, articulation, and intention of seeking inclusive paradigms and building enduring diaspora connections. In this spirit, I invited research papers that address, illuminate, analyze, and/or critique specific manifestations, dynamisms, or stagnancies of “diaspora connections,” as well as explore its multiple understandings and contexts. Whether focusing on recognized or emerging contours of diaspora communities shaped by and beyond concepts of race, ethnicity, colonization, and developmental logics, researched works on alignments and disjunctions, as well as new formations along postcolonial ecologies and narratives of culture, social formations and experiences were encouraged.

Who belongs to the swiss body politique—A diaspora perspective

In this paper, I try to better understand the intersection between “integration” in legal terms, and how long-term resident “non-citizens” and migrants from the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) situate themselves in narratives of belonging vis a vis the normative power structure that constitutes the Swiss body politique. More specifically, how do labor and forced migrants from former Yugoslavia negotiate the shifting understanding of “integration” in Switzerland in legal and social terms? Former Yugoslavs constitute not only a comparatively large number of “non-citizens” in Switzerland, but individuals from-and-with-connections to this community also embody numerous labels and categories of migrant that statistical databases, the media, and legal practices attach to them since the 1970s. Key findings in this paper illustrate a two-tiered narrative: “non-citizens” seemed to have maintain(ed) their pursuit of not attracting attention to their persona—a strategy that allowed individuals to disappear within the larger society. Ensuing Europeanization processes, coupled with the Wars of Yugoslav Succession during the 1990s, however, brought to the fore “a politics of rupture” that called into question othering processes, and the seemingly tightening sociolegal basis of belonging to the Swiss body politique. Hitherto examined data suggests that interlocutors pursue a “positive essentialist frame” to counter exclusionary narratives “non-citizens” experience to postulate “rights claims”. Interviewees, in other words, activate diaspora connections and networks to support and aid each other when legal and socio-political questions arise, but also to actively influence the political and legal landscape in Switzerland.

Italy’s Sea: Empire and Nation in the Mediterranean, 1895–1945

Italy’s Sea: Empire and Nation in the Mediterranean, 1895–1945

Who Gets to Talk About NGO Images of Global Poverty?

Ademolu and Warrington are social science researchers who have used photographs and films to explore the experiences and perspectives of those absent from the debates on visual representations of global poverty. This article engages in a discussion about their respective research projects, The People in the Pictures (Warrington and Crombie 2017) and Rethinking Audiences (Ademolu 2018). It explores the backgrounds to their projects and their experiences of using images as a research tool, and considers how their research contributes to ongoing debates about NGO communications and representations of global poverty. The impetus, experience and findings of their respective research seek to provoke those involved in NGO image making (practitioners and researchers) to ask themselves if the perspectives of all those involved are being considered, especially those communities who are the subject of representation, either directly in images or more indirectly through diaspora connections to the represented communities. It argues for a shift in both the debates and NGO image making itself, towards more inclusive dialogue and practice.

In Search of Diaspora Connections: North Korea’s Policy towards Korean Americans, 1973-1979

In Search of Diaspora Connections: North Korea’s Policy towards Korean Americans, 1973-1979

Why do ethnopolitical organisations turn to crime?

This paper empirically analyses the involvement of ethnopolitical organisations in criminal behaviour across time in two regions of the world – the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Drawing on the data from the Minorities at Risk Organizational Behavior data set, it contributes important insights to a literature on organisational crime that is dominated by case studies and small-N analysis, as well as reinvigorating the study of ethnopolitical organisations as actors in the analysis of organised crime. Our findings reveal that in both regions groups that engage in violence of some form were significantly more likely to engage in many kinds of criminal activity. Our analysis also finds that ideological orientation has a marginal impact, while economic grievances and diaspora connections were significant predictors of criminal activity for groups in the Middle East (but not Eastern Europe). In sum, this analysis suggests that the decision to engage in criminal activity is primarily dependent on the organisation’s internal attributes and external influences.

Diasporas and Outsourcing: Evidence from oDesk and India

We examine the role of the Indian diaspora in the outsourcing of work to India. Our data are taken from oDesk, the world's largest online platform for outsourced contracts. Despite oDesk minimizing many of the frictions that diaspora connections have traditionally overcome, diaspora connections still matter on oDesk, with ethnic Indians substantially more likely to choose a worker in India. This higher placement is the result of a greater likelihood of choosing India for the initial contract and substantial path dependence in location choices. We further examine wage and performance outcomes of outsourcing as a function of ethnic connections. Our examination of potential rationales for the greater ethnic-based placement of contracts assesses taste-based preferences and information differences. This paper was accepted by Lee Fleming, entrepreneurship and innovation.

Diasporas and Outsourcing: Evidence from Odesk and India

This study examines the role of the Indian diaspora in the outsourcing of work to India. Our data are taken from oDesk, the world's largest online platform for outsourced contracts, where India is the largest country in terms of contract volume. We use an ethnic name procedure to identify ethnic Indian users of oDesk in other countries around the world. We find very clear evidence that diaspora-based links matter on oDesk, with ethnic Indians in other countries 32% (9 percentage points) more likely to choose a worker in India. Yet, the size of the Indian diaspora on oDesk and the timing of its effects make clear that the Indian diaspora was not a very important factor in India becoming the leading country on oDesk for fulfilling work. In fact, multiple pieces of evidence suggest that diaspora use of oDesk increases with familiarity of the platform, rather than a scenario where diaspora connections serve to navigate uncertain environments. We further show that diaspora-based contracts mainly serve to lower costs for the company contacts outsourcing the work, as the workers in India are paid about the market wage for their work. These results and other observations lead to the conclusion that diaspora connections continue to be important even as online platforms provide many of the features that diaspora networks historically provided (e.g., information about potential workers, monitoring and reputation foundations).

Mediated Crossroads: Youthful Digital Diasporas

Mediated Crossroads: Youthful Digital Diasporas

Olaudah Equiano and the Igbo World: History, Society, and Atlantic Diaspora Connections, ed. Chima J. Korieh

Reviewed by: Olaudah Equiano and the Igbo World: History, Society, and Atlantic Diaspora Connections Vincent Carretta Olaudah Equiano and the Igbo World: History, Society, and Atlantic Diaspora Connections Chima J. Korieh, Ed. Trenton, NJ: Africa World P, 2009. xiv + 407 pp. ISBN 1-59221-665-X paper. Olaudah Equiano and the Igbo World comprises seventeen essays of wide-ranging quality by nonacademic and academic authors from various disciplines. The core essays are based on papers given at a 2007 conference on Olaudah Equiano in Nigeria. The collection needs to be approached with great care because it is so poorly edited for style and content. What other than careless editing can account for sentences such as "Equiano is a fresh thesis who deserves study in issues relating to doubts and contempt of African identity and personality" (130)? Names are often misspelled, publications misattributed, and flawed, abridged, and/or modernized editions of Equiano's Interesting Narrative are frequently cited rather than the authoritative 1789 first edition or the 2003 Penguin edition. The most weakly argued contributions are among the seven essays that discuss Equiano directly. I am not an unbiased reviewer of these essays because they attack me and my editorial, critical, and biographical publications in ways I consider unprofessional. In "The Igbo Roots of Olaudah Equiano," Catherine Obianuju Acholonu describes herself as the victim of "a grand conspiracy" (56) headed by "[Chinua] Achebe apologist" Paul Edwards and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who are guilty of "defacing [her] work." According to Acholonu, because I have published baptismal and naval records that say Equiano was born in South Carolina, I am "intent on sensationalizing the whole matter" of her disputed claims that she has found Equiano's birthplace in Africa (59). She later refers to me as an "enfant terrible hungry for fame, with loads of vested interests and ulterior motives" (61). Dorothy Chinwe Ukaegbu also employs Acholonu's ad hominem tactics in two essays in Olaudah Equiano and the Igbo World, accusing me of "impugning ethnographic research results" because I have expressed skepticism about Acholonu's methodology: "Among Carretta's criticisms is the issue of the longevity of the subjects upon which Acholonu relied for evidence. According to Carretta, it is not feasible for a person to live to be one hundred and fifty years old as Acholonu had calculated in the genealogy of her Isseke data" (70). Ukaegbu concludes: "By such conduct, Carretta left himself open to possible questions about his motives and the basic intent of his work" (111). One can disagree with someone without being disagreeable, or descending to name-calling and insinuating malevolent motives. [End Page 183] Fortunately, Olaudah Equiano and the Igbo World contains several essays whose quality counterbalances that of Acholonu and Ukaegbu's pieces. These include Chima J. Korieh's "Introduction" and his "Igbo Ethnicity and Identity in the Atlantic Diaspora." One wishes, though, that Korieh and others paid more attention to what he refers to as "the problematic of Igbo identity." Adiele Afigbo's "Revolution and Reaction in Eastern Nigeria, 1900–1929: The Background to the Women's Riot of 1929" is the fullest treatment of a crucial historical event touched on by other contributors. And Douglas B. Chambers's "Igbo Women in the Early Modern Atlantic World: The Burden of Beauty" is a welcome comparison of eighteenth-century stereotypes of enslaved "Igbo" men and women. Vincent Carretta University of Maryland vac@umd.edu Copyright © 2009 Indiana University Press

Writing Bridges of Sound: Praise Song for the Widow and Louisiana

Whenever Caribbean artists have written they have, in some way or other, written the Black Diaspora. It is an inescapable part of their historical/cultural mindscape. Africa, The Americas, Europe are bound together by bands initiated by Columbus with his three ships and extended and held firm by various historical formulations (the British Empire for example). The Trans Atlantic Slave Trade is the backdrop against which Caribbean and indeed all other writers of the Black Diaspora, create. That the people of whom the Diaspora is composed share African ancestry of one nation or another is part of the historical binding. There has always been a triangle. The ship has been Europe, the cargo Africa, the location ad quern the Americas. What is more interesting than the mere acknowledgement of this history however, is the examination of the different ways in which writers invoke considerations of Diaspora with its undeniable linkages. It is possible to trace a triangle that is different from the one usually acknowledged, perhaps a smaller one in which the ship is less tangible and the sea less palpable. I am proposing a triangle of sound and I begin with Kamau Brathwaite' s much quoted lines in which wind instruments create a bridge between Africa and the two Americas. It begins with the sound of the mmenson, the elephant tusk orchestras of East Africa coming out from Nairobi, Kenya to become trumpet and saxophone as it goes through the Caribbean and into the USA2: Toot Toot takes it up in Havana in Harlem bridges of sound uncurl through the pale rigging of saxophone stops. . . Jah, Islands 1969:3 I want to comment on two novels in terms of the use of sound to make diaspora connections. They are: Paule Marshall's Praise Song for the Widow and Erna Brodber's Louisiana. Praise song for the widow Marshall tells the story of an Afro- American widow on a Caribbean cruise. The stop- over on one of the islands becomes significant enough for the woman to abandon her friends, interrupt the cruise and take her life in an entirely unexpected direction. Her first discovery is that the man- in- the- street does not identify the difference between her and the black women on the island. The Africa in both is stronger than the cultural differences indicated by clothes and luggage. Eventually she meets, and is seduced by the narrative of, an old man closing his lean-to shop where she had hoped to buy a drink. The old man walks with a limp. He might be Legba the Yoruba god frequently represented with this walk. Legba is god of the gateway, god of the crossroads. This man might indeed be Legba in one of his incarnations. He inveigles her to go with him to witness, perhaps take part in, a significant ritual. She yields and crosses the turbulent sea to the celebration of the ancestral presence, the Big Drum celebration in Carriacou, a small Caribbean island where people remember and pander to the ancestors (the Old Parents) asking pardon for whatever wrongs they might have done lest they visit evil upon them. The invitation, there in the shop, includes the old man's passionate and dramatic rendition of the Beg Pardon in the French Creole of the island. The text reads: ...suddenly he began singing in a quavering, high-pitched voice, his eyes transfixed, 'Pa 'done mwe /Si mwe merite/ Pini mwe ' (1989: 165) The woman could not have foreseen what this meeting would mean, what turn she would take at this cross-roads, what gateway would be opened for her. The effect was immediate. She had felt this way before: She felt the dizziness coming on again. The man's garrulousness, the bizarre turn his talk had taken (what was this voodoo about lighted candles, old parents, big drums and the rest?) and now his shrill, unintelligible song... (page 166) These are the words on the page but the reader familiar with Caribbean literature will read that an important change, a new beginning is near, might even hear words quoted by Brathwaite (Wake and Negus In Islands pages 54 and 67)) who explains in a note that the words are an invocation to Legba and mark an important moment in vodoun worship ( page ix) Attibon Legba Attibon Legba Ouvri bayi pou' moi (Open the door for me) Much much later after many physical and psychological travails this woman from the USA is able to join in the singing and dancing, the sounds and movements of Africa as the different ancestral nations are recognized. …

Diaspora connections and discontinuities: the photography of Chester Higgins

Renowned photographer, Chester Higgins, has captured in the sensitivities of people, interesting places, and fleeting moments in his art; and his creative canvas spans the world; it challenges and provokes but also offers solace in time of need. His work, when viewed by different people and different societal groupings, delivers new and often unexpected meanings. Although his photographs are difficult to categorize because absolute distinctions are constantly undermined by the viewer's horizons of expectations and values that are brought to the viewing situation, Higgins has slotted some of his photographic images into sections described as ‘politics’, ‘writers’, ‘religion’, and ‘social life’. In this short essay an attempt is made to view some selected pieces and come up with innovative meanings. Since the unifying theme in the photography is that of Africans in the diaspora, a few pieces are sampled from each section.

Carribean migration and the construction of a black diaspora identity in Paul Marshall's Brown Girl, Brownstones

Analyses the novel 'Brown girl, brownstones' (1959) by Paule Marshall. Author argues that this novel offers a complex and nuanced understanding of how Caribbean migration impacts upon cultural identity, and how this cultural identity is dynamically produced, rather than static. He describes how the novel deals with Barbadian migrants to the US in the 1930s and 1940s, and further elaborates on how through this novel Marshall problematizes common dichotomies, such as between the public and the private, and between racial (black) and ethnic (Caribbean) identity. Furthermore, he indicates that Marshall through her representation of the Barbadian community, foregrounds the central role of women in the production of Caribbean identity in the US. In this, he shows, Bajan women's talk from the private sphere is very important. Further, the author discusses how the Barbadian identity is broadened to encompass Caribbean and African Americans in the novel, thus creating transnational black diaspora connections, such as by invoking James Baldwin and Marcus Garvey.

Symbolic legacies of slavery in Guyana

Focusses on the commemoration and symbolic functions of the slavery past in the Americas, with a particular focus on Guyana. Author explains that while symbolic representations of the legacies of slavery increased in the Americas since the 1960s, the nationalist government under Forbes Burnham since 1970 went further in using the slavery past as its ideological foundation. He discusses how this relates to Guyana's history and ethnic development of 2 main, often opposed groups of African- and Indian-descended groups, calling on their respective slavery or indenture past in emphasizing their national significance. He further describes slavery-related symbolic representations promoted under Burnham, specifically the 1763 slave revolt led by Cuffy, presented as first anticolonial rebellion aimed at liberation, and as a precursor to the PNC government, and other slave rebellions and rebels, such as led by Damon in 1834. He points out how some Indian-Guyanese found that Indian heroes were sidelined in relation to these. Author then describes how the annual commemoration of Emancipation Day continues to refer to the martyrdom of these slave rebels, along with other discursive connections, such as regarding reparations. He also pays attention to the activities of nongovernmental organizations in Guyana up to the present in commemorating the slavery past, often with broader African diaspora connections.

Symbolic legacies of slavery in Guyana

Focusses on the commemoration and symbolic functions of the slavery past in the Americas, with a particular focus on Guyana. Author explains that while symbolic representations of the legacies of slavery increased in the Americas since the 1960s, the nationalist government under Forbes Burnham since 1970 went further in using the slavery past as its ideological foundation. He discusses how this relates to Guyana's history and ethnic development of 2 main, often opposed groups of African- and Indian-descended groups, calling on their respective slavery or indenture past in emphasizing their national significance. He further describes slavery-related symbolic representations promoted under Burnham, specifically the 1763 slave revolt led by Cuffy, presented as first anticolonial rebellion aimed at liberation, and as a precursor to the PNC government, and other slave rebellions and rebels, such as led by Damon in 1834. He points out how some Indian-Guyanese found that Indian heroes were sidelined in relation to these. Author then describes how the annual commemoration of Emancipation Day continues to refer to the martyrdom of these slave rebels, along with other discursive connections, such as regarding reparations. He also pays attention to the activities of nongovernmental organizations in Guyana up to the present in commemorating the slavery past, often with broader African diaspora connections.

Carribean migration and the construction of a black diaspora identity in Paul Marshall's Brown Girl, Brownstones

Analyses the novel 'Brown girl, brownstones' (1959) by Paule Marshall. Author argues that this novel offers a complex and nuanced understanding of how Caribbean migration impacts upon cultural identity, and how this cultural identity is dynamically produced, rather than static. He describes how the novel deals with Barbadian migrants to the US in the 1930s and 1940s, and further elaborates on how through this novel Marshall problematizes common dichotomies, such as between the public and the private, and between racial (black) and ethnic (Caribbean) identity. Furthermore, he indicates that Marshall through her representation of the Barbadian community, foregrounds the central role of women in the production of Caribbean identity in the US. In this, he shows, Bajan women's talk from the private sphere is very important. Further, the author discusses how the Barbadian identity is broadened to encompass Caribbean and African Americans in the novel, thus creating transnational black diaspora connections, such as by invoking James Baldwin and Marcus Garvey.