TESTIFY-The Dangers of the Diaspora for Africans
Posted by Saddat Adutwum | Posted in Religious,
Being African. Living in the Diaspora. Two realities juxtaposed that present a challenge; how can one find harmony between these two worlds?
Africans in the Diaspora celebrate the lives and achievements of ancestors yet must be conscious of the unborn children and youth who await the contribution we make for them. Parents are giving birth to babies who will speak with a different accent than their own when they say their first words. Mothers, fathers and Grandparents may have never lived in the countries that we now find ourselves calling home. So we strive to remember the soil of our homeland while settling in a Western land.
Yet, there are two great dangers of the Diaspora. The first danger is that Africans may forget the God of Africa. Contrary to popular opinion being African is not synonymous with being pagan. In fact to be African means to recognize that God is and that in the beginning He said "let us make human beings, male and female, in our image". Africans embrace the truth that civilization did not begin in the West but progressed for centuries on the continent of Africa by the grace of God our Creator. God was, is and will continue to be with and in Africa in the same way that he moves among the other continents of the world. God the Creator created Africans and yet the danger is that those of us in the 'Promised land' of the West will forget Him amidst the busy lives we lead.
History is a great teacher and if we look at past experiences we can see how this danger materializes. The Bible tells the story of the Hebrews in the Promised Land: 'when all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which he had done for Israel' (Judges 2:10). The new generations 'did not know the Lord', this does not mean that they did not have an intellectual knowledge of God but it means they lacked an intimate knowledge rooted in a personal experience. In the Promised Land of fertile soil, trade and neighbouring peoples, the Hebrew generation chose to forget God and do what seemed right for them. The question for us to answer is will we forget about the God who led our ancestors and has also given us opportunties in the Diaspora or will we choose to forget Him and live our lives as we please?
The second danger of the Diaspora is that the experiences, languages and cultures of our Fathers, Mothers and ancestors may be forgotten. There are children who have been born in the West who do not understand the native language and culture of their parents and are not able to communicate in it in the most basic way. These young people have not been given the opportunity to be included in the language and culture that has contributed to who they are. Unless Parents, Grandparents, Uncles and Aunties teach their young people what it means to be a child of Africa (regardless of whether one is born in Africa or in the West to African Parents) the youth will not embrace African identity.
It is understood that fluency in any language takes time and consistency but do we as a community in Diaspora deem it a worthy investment for our children? Or are we raising a generation, born in the 'Promised Land' of the West, who will view African languages and culture as foreign? Do we speak the language of the past in our present so that our youth can know the legacy and heritage that is theirs?
Our second Biblical example, illustrating the second danger of the Diaspora, happened centuries later than the first example given in Judges 2:10. In this instance the Israelites had come out of Babylonian captivity and were trying to rebuild their country, faith in God and their lives. 'In those days I also saw Jews who had married women of Ashdod, Ammon and Moab. And half their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and could not speak the language of Judah but spoke according to the language of one or the other people. So I contended with them and cursed them and pulled out their hair, and made them swear by God, saying "you shall not give your daughters as wives to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons or yourselves"' (Nehemiah 13:23-25). The Prophet Nehemiah lamented that generations of people could not speak the native language of the Israelites. Instead they spoke other languages fluently.
Nehemiah's reaction may seem over the top however the identity of a whole nation and faith-system was in jeopardy. If the generations could not speak the native language then it meant they could not understand the sacred Scriptures that were written in Hebrew. It also meant that the proverbs, stories and wisdom of that culture would one day be extinct. So Ezra and Nehemiah began reading and teaching people the sacred Scriptures not only so that they could re-acquint themsleves with God but also so that they could become familiar with the Hebrew language.
Of course cultures and languages change over time however African youth in the Diaspora should never be deprived by their parents and families of having access to their past in a personal and meaningful sense. Perhaps they may never be as fluent or articulate in the native language as their parents are but at least the new African generations should have the privilege of understanding and communicating in the native languages and cultures of Africa.
The two dangers of the Diaspora; forgetting the God of Africa because we are living in the 'promised land' of the West and forgetting the languages and cultures of Africa.
The challenge presents itself to us, corporately and individually.
What are we doing to avoid these two dangers?
