Africans and the New Diaspora

This paper examines the life of Africans, using literature to discuss movements from Africa to other parts of the world as Diasporas. Such movements begin with slavery, to political asylum being sought and now self-initiated movements for trade, education, and labour for the facilitation of both information and industrial development. Relevant literatures are reviewed and analysed for their symbolic implications beyond the texts in order to establish the dialectic of facts and fiction. The relevant literatures include: Olaudah Equaino’s (1789) Equaino’s Travels, Joseph Conrad’s (1995) Heart of Darkness and Other Stories, and Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s (2008) Trafficked. This paper posits that prior to the 15th century, Africans were free in their natural milieu with either no threat to their lives or being alienated from their ancestral homes until the period of slavery. Sequel to the attainment of independence by most African countries with the hope for self-governance and development, corruption, civil wars, foreign debts, economic depression, famine, and poverty truncate the people’s hope for better living. African citizens therefore seek refuge abroad in countries with viable economy. With globalization, not only education and culture play significant roles, but also modern technology especially information and communication technology (ICT) play key roles in population drift in trade. There lies an absurdity that Africans now flee their once free homeland or countries to foreign lands which are perceived as “heaven on earth” because of their functional systems through effective governance. Thus, this paper concludes that new movements and new Africans in the Diaspora are self-initiated, imposed, and motivated irrespective of their being alienated from home and the risks involved since the end will justify the means.