Like genocide, the diaspora has no clear definition, that’s how serious the concept is. They are types or forms of diaspora and we are going to figure out together which one suits this specific blog post. We shall start with the victim diaspora which is made up of those forced into exile and to some extent defines Africans who are in the middle east since they are economic exiles. They are also, Labor diasporas since they fall under the parameters of mass migration in search of work and economic opportunities since nothing works in places like Uganda where I am writing this from. Trade diasporas are migrations seeking to open trade routes and links to supply chains and these come from industrialized countries. Imperial diasporas migrated among those keen to serve and maintain empires, especially in cases of military occupations and lastly the Cultural diaspora.

The current African middle-class or working class that makes up the public sector is normally skewed to a certain region of a given country or limited to a given ethnicity that holds political power at that time. It also translates to the private sector as having political power influences affluence hence a distinct tribe controls capital and owning an array of businesses. If this trend lasts for some decades the rest are locked out and drop on the social class ladder to being destitute of sorts in their own country or whatever colonial experiment they find themselves in. Even the few who may have the reach and the rich to educate their children will hit a dead end when they are either unemployed or underemployed because they are not someone’s sons and daughters.

In the end, those Africans that have been sidelined by a systematic economic and social apartheid that is characterized by among others capture of factors of production like land have one option which is to leaving the country to move elsewhere for survival. Regional African trading blocks could have been a safety net but they are a myth this further means off the continent and that’s what happens in a new form of slave trade. The current destination is the middle east and to Saudi Arabia, to UAE, to Iraq, to Oman, and all over the gulf off Africans below the age of 40 go to toil in the sand.

After independence Africans went to Europe and the Americas as coups happened on the continent. They later returned as rebels some successful others failed and many even ended up as citizens where they had moved to as a result of brain drain and falling populations where they had moved to.

With this new age of muscle drain to the Arab world, there is no hope for citizenship because these societies for hundreds of years have mastered how to keep their societies mostly pure and they do it at all costs with stories of castration in the past. This means the African diaspora has to return home and they have to plan and make their time in slavery count. By slavery, I am referring to the form of capitalism they have to endure that starts with acquiring loans back home to travel which amounts are so huge that they are upwards of $ 4000. They then enter into one-sided agreements with labor export companies that are basically legal human traffickers. Then spend the first years of work paying off debt and enriching the traffickers.

We all know someone who is working in the sand, if you don’t you are most likely part of the problem and are disconnected from reality. The stories of ladies sliding into depression, rape, body organs thievery, and all sorts of inhumane treatment are first-hand information. We have all seen how they return with almost nothing and also how they recycle money as they buy land only to sell it and fund their return to continue the deception of making it to the top.

This population is a time bomb to African society, their effect economically is yet to be felt and so is their impact in the future of the continent they will return to. If we look at the history of other diaspora we watch an assemblage of people who share a common nationality, civic and ethnic exactness and who were either forced to leave or willingly left their countries and became residents in a new countries had their children remain curious of their origin and have been prepared to reengage with their ancestral home, especially in West Africa and India. This is what is going to happen with the African diaspora in the middle east, which is bitter and gaining all sorts of exposure out there.

As Africans go about in the sand they meet up and form communities that cut across all over the breadth of the gulf. These communities are bound to their original geographical locations by a common vision, memory, and what they expect their countries to be through exposure. They strongly harbour a belief that they will never be accepted by their slave masters and as they develop autonomous cultural and social needs they are aware home is the end goal. From a few instances, they have proved to have a strong motivation to maintain support for their motherland and a unique consciousness and solidarity to keep an interest in political affairs which they have even funded.

The new African diaspora will have by all means to impact the leadership of the continent going forward and if the current ruling class doesn’t prepare for that eventuality or tries to make the field unleveled they may turn to more radical means to that end.

Buy me a coffee