The New Diaspora

1. The New Diaspora • Myths and Realities of Higher Education as a Vehicle for Nation-Building in Africa • Seth Agbo • State University of New York at Potsdam

2. Sequence of Topics • What is the African Diaspora? • Phases of Africa’s presence in the New world • The new diaspora • Post-independent higher education policy • Theoretical perspectives on development • Realities of higher education in Africa • Pan Africanism • Conclusion

3. The African Diaspora • Diaspora--Greek word for dispersal as enshrined in the Book of Deuteronomy (28:25). • First used widely for the scattering abroad of the Jews--began to have the adjective African or Black in mid 1950s and 1960s. • The term African Diaspora first originated in 1956--First International Congress of Negro Writers and Artists in Paris.

4. 3 Paradigmatic Phases of the African Diaspora • The era of the labor imperative--the source of the diaspora of enslavement--labor globalization • Slavery from the 16th century onwards--wasted brain drain. • Territorial imperative--the era of imperialism--the Monroe Doctrine (1823) and founding of Liberia as a repercussion for the Scramble for Africa. • Extractive imperative--Resource globalization--industrialization • Critical minerals--gold & diamonds • agricultural raw materials--cocoa, coffee, etc. • Oil

5. The African Diaspora • Represents a global space, a worldwide web, that accounts as much for Africa as for wherever in the world her offspring may have been driven by the unkind forces of history. • The valor, skill, and fertility of the African Diaspora made it possible for Europeans to subdue, settle and develop the New World. • African labor did much to facilitate the rise of industrial capitalism, and with it European hegemony over the globe.

6. The New Diaspora--Labor Globalization(2 Forms) • 20th century labor movements--voluntary brain drain. • Colonial ties--early migration of Africans to the U.K., France, Belgium, etc. • Changes in immigration policies • Focus from Europe to North America • Immigration policies favor highly educated migrants from Africa.

7. 1990 U.S. Census • Over 400,000 Africans in the U.S. • Most were human capital immigrants, highly educated and skilled African immigrants, have higher scores that promote employability than the general U.S. population. • African immigrants have lower scores on human capital variables that increase dependency.

8. Post independent investment in education for social and economic development • Investment in education tied to economic development and technocratic visions of societal reconstruction. • Generate direct benefits to the state in the form of providing necessary high level manpower • Carry out development-oriented research • Serve needs of society by rendering various services and advice to policy-makers.

9. UN Checklist for Development • minimum standard of living compatible with human dignity • underpinned improvement of the wellbeing of the individual • sharing of benefits by society at large • more equitable distribution of income and wealth • a greater degree of income security • the safeguard of the environment

10. Theoretical perspectives on development • Modernization Theory • Human Capital Theory • Dependency Theory

11. Modernization theory • Response scholars gave to nation and institution building after WW II. • Modernization closely linked with acquisition of modern values. • Interest for politicians of the West to demonstrate that newly independent countries could sustain development by adopting Western strategies. • David McClelland (1961)--some societies are more advanced than others because of differences in cultural and personality styles--advancement caused by the need for achievement.

12. Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth • The traditional society • The preconditions of take-off • The take-off • The drive to maturity • The age of high mass consumption

13. The Human Capital Theory • Schultz (1961)-- • The most productive route to the development of any society depends on its population--human capital • Education as productive investment and not merely a form of consumption. • Education improves individual choices available to people and provides the category of labor force required for industrial development and economic growth

14. Returns to education for selected countries: rates of return by educational level (Adapted from Psacharopoulos & Woodhall, 1985).

15. Education for Development or Vehicle to Dependency? • DEPENCY THEORY rejects modernization theory. • The persistent poverty of the Third World is an image of its dependency (Andre Gunder Frank). • Persistent poverty in the Third World is caused by exposure to the economic, political and social influences to the advanced industrialized countries.

16. Growth of advanced countries means the concurrent underdevelopment of countries whose economic surplus the ADCs exploit • Given time, poor countries would develop, but as long as they are subject to the exploitation of advanced countries, their poverty would persist.

17. Realities of Higher Education in Africa • Structure--serving interests of former colonial masters. • Foundation grounded in the shadow of European affiliates--academic programs based on international standards with no relevance to domestic community. • Institutions embedded in educational philosophies and ideologies aimed at training and sponsoring privileged elites

18. Realities of Higher Education in Africa (cont.) • Functions--irrelevant to national development. • Graduates--produced in the sciences who, either do not understand, or are not dedicated to solution of national problems (Saha, 1991). • Lack of relevant curricula, adequate teaching methods and sufficient equipment and facilities for instructional development (Van den Hoogen, 1989).

19. Development for Dependency Catastrophe • Dependency theorists--Education as a means of creating an exclusive, culturally dependent elite likely to accept the fundamental principles and values of the dominant power and assist in administering the former colonies. • Schooling as an importation from the Western world and continues to benefit the dominant social group as it did for the colonial system as a whole.

20. Development for Dependency Catastrophe (cont.) • Schools as a new form of colonialism and imperialism that adopt selection procedures and curricula structures of former colonial powers to continue serving their interests. • Schools produce a local elitist class--Lumpenbourgeoisie--who serve overseas interests (Andre Gunder Frank).

21. The Pan-Africanism as the New Diaspora • The emergence of a Black middle-class that begins to challenge Whites for public position resources--middle-class jobs, middle-class housing, modest forms of material accumulation, official standing in politics, and legitimation of the culture.

22. Problems • The objective majority perceives racelessness and blamelessness as the original inhabitants, while diasporans (or visible minority) constitutes an unwanted intrusion and even a possible contestant for the use of power by the majority in the pursuit of its objectives. • Daily struggles with police, poverty and other manisfestations of raw racism at the mass level, while more subtle forms of oppression are experienced by other middle-class Blacks and those few in the upper strata society.

23. CONCLUSION • Pan Africanism as a new meaning for the diaspora • There is the need for the struggle to achieve community • The need for the struggle to maintain the community • The need for the struggle to use its resources in the achievement of personal and collective social objectives • A dialectical process must occur between people in the diasporas and their ancestral homes. • The need to refer to people of African descent as no longer African but as “Black” people and to objectify their identity.

24. The African University • The African university needs to become closely related to, and draw inspiration from its traditional environment, for in it are embedded the roots of African culture and civilization--worldview, values, customs, and traditions, creative works, knowledge, skills, and technology. It must be a force in the preservation of the traditional environment and pride in the cultural heritage (Sherman, 1990.

25. A Challenge to Diasporans