INTRODUCTION

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.

CONCEPT

My interactive installation enacts an inland bureau where the audience as clients (if they dare) may avail their personal data in self-help computerized terminals. In turn, the terminals process the data and ascertain the authenticity of one's claim to a particular citizenship. Depending on the consistency or discrepancies in the data, the program goes on to rate clients' claims, much to the shock of many. Extending this experience further, the audience may actively engage with annexures to the terminals to augment this introspection.

METHODOLOGY

The term ‘Diaspora’ was first used to describe the exodus of the Jews from their homeland during the holocaust of 1941 [d] when they fled persecution from the Germans under the infamous leadership of Adolf Hitler. Five decades since that initial diaspora, the term has assumed multiple meanings other than its original. Among others, it describes the now common-place paradox of persons who voluntarily or are forcibly removed from their native countries, be it temporarily or permanently.

According to the Institute of Cultural Diplomacy [e], an advocacy body, the African diaspora, which can be broke into three main periods, “is one of the most important in world in terms of numbers”. They argue that the first African diaspora was that of slaves labour to the Americas, the second being the colonial diaspora where persons mostly sought greener pasture in countries that once colonized them. For example, people from Francophone Congo would be inclined to seek opportunities in France as opposed to Anglophone Britain. The third form of the African diaspora encompasses the current phenomenon where millions of Africans are emigrating from their homelands to other African counties be it for economic, political and security reasons.

The focus of my exploration is in part influenced by the society I come from. My current town of residence once served as a recruitment center and the main transit route for labourers from East and Central Africa en route to the South African mines. Upon completion of their tenures, not all returned to their homelands. A considerable number of them opted to settle in Francistown, making it a melting pot of cultures from Angola, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Among them and poignant to my argument was Emmanuel Mbatista an Angolan who spoke nine African languages. Interestingly, Mbatista could not sustain a conversation in a pure lingual but veered from language to language.

INFLUENCES

My current personal scenario of being away from my homeland – Zambia, is reason for my keen interest and inquiry into this phenomena of the ‘Diaspora’. Conceptually I was inspired by Ricarda Mieth, a German conceptual artist that I collaborated with in 2013. Her employment of magnetism in her artworks led me to explore the prevailing forces that result in human displacement or migration. ‘We Feel Fine’ was another conceptual spring board for this investigation. ‘We Feel Fine’ is an online interactive platform by Sep Kamvar and Jonathan Harris which scours the internet for expressions of human emotions and displays its findings in visually dynamic representations. Thematically, I drew inspiration from John Beadle, a Bahamian artist who from time to time explores the trans-Atlantic forced migration of slaves from Africa to the Americas. One of his very ancestors was among those unfortunate slaves. Then there is Chen Chieh-Jen a Taiwanese artist whose video works critique the challenges and mistreatment experienced by emigrants in visa requirements and border protocols as they traverse through national frontiers.

CONCLUSION

In retrospect, this artistic expression of ‘Diaspora’ is in a way an extension of “Eternally Lost,” (iv) my previous academic artwork where I interrogated the symbols and signs that urban societies devise in an endeavor to aid communication amidst the challenge of multiplicity of languages and cultures. The work asserted that although visual languages can be said to transcend the spoken language, their intended meanings are not necessarily accessible by those outside of that particular cosmopolitan community. The interchanging Green, Umber and Red traffic lights were one case in point in that unless taught about them, a person from “another planet” would not decipher their meaning.

Ultimately, this expression is nothing less than a catharsis. Through this project, I have thoroughly, interrogated this dilemma regarding my personal status as a foreigner from multiple stand points. In the process I have become increasingly aware and particularly found solace in the realization that this scenario is not mine alone. It is a new normal that I share with millions of others if not the seven billion of us on this globe because we are all somewhat foreigners - if not us, then our ancestors were or descendants will eventually be.

ILLUSTRATIONS

 

Simunye (We Are One)

Digital Print

76x60cm

Our Shared Identity

Digital Print

76x60cm

Ubuntu Migration

Mixed Media

102x140cm

Electronic Form

Screen Capture

850x570 pixels