What if you are not what you’ve always assumed yourself to be? Interestingly, that is the case with many! In this project ‘Diaspora’ I have explored the superficiality of identity with regard to one's citizenship. Citizenship is one of several attributes that constitutes our identity in civilized societal life. While cardinal and at the heart of our very essence as individuals, communities and even entire nations, citizenship is somewhat superficial.
This
is an aspect of identity that primarily categorizes people according to their
geographical locality by the use of borders. Especially in the case of Africa,
as author Peter Muller puts it (Muller: 2003, 304)[a], these national
boundaries were merely ‘superimposed’ on Bantu (i) communities by rival
political and economical colonizing powers. The undoing of the Berlin
Conference of 1884 was to “overlook underlying fundamental elements” [b] of
communal living such as language, heritage, values, culture and so on.
As
if innate of mankind, borders have done little to restrict human movement. Be
it in a quest for better opportunities or an escape from some instability –
voluntarily or forced displacement, humans migrate. From the Bantu migration of
the last two millennia to modern man, people continue to traverse back and
forth across the continents. Now given our modern ease of transportation the
phenomenal levels and new patterns of migration have given resurgence to the
term ‘Diaspora’ (ii).
As
was the case during the Bantu Migration (iii) or just any other migration, according
to sociologist Craig Calhoun, whenever migrant communities mix, they “give up
their distinct language, beliefs, values, customs” (Calhoun: 1995, 62) [c] shifts
which ultimately resulting in tainted or loss of identity. It may follow that
while most of us today claim to be rightful inhabitants or citizens of a
particular country, we could have lineages that trace us to far flung regions
and influences, ultimately questioning the authenticity of our very own
identities.