Identity and Belonging: Sounds of the African Diaspora

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Bibliography - Identity and Belonging in the African Diaspora

Baily, J., & Collyer, M. (2006). Introduction: Music and migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32(2), 167–182.

Gordon, E. T., & Anderson, M. (1999). The African diaspora: Toward an ethnography of diasporic identification. Journal of American Folklore, 112(445), 282–296.

Kalra, V., Hutnyk, J., & Kaur, R. (2005). Diaspora and hybridity.

Krings, M., & Simmerset, T. (2020). African popular culture enters the global mainstream. Current History, 119(817), 182–187.

Monson, I. (Ed.). (2004). African diaspora: A musical perspective. Routledge.

Waterman, C. A. (1990). Jùjú: A social history and ethnography of an African popular music. University of Chicago Press.

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Wavin' Flag - From Somalia to the World, and What It Means to Endure

Wavin' Flag' by K'NAAN is one of the most understated, yet potent songs in the diaspora repertoire. As a Somali-born raised in Canada after being displaced by civil war, K'NAAN's music is loaded with the burdens of being forced to leave home. The song started off as a song about survival, about not disappearing, not surrendering, not dying when the world seems to have given up on you. Later, when it became the FIFA World Cup theme song for 2010, the song was transformed into a global celebration but the original spirit, which was a tale of real refugee experience, remained. This is an excellent example of “music as a means of rupturing and reconstructing identities in migration”, in the words of Baily and Collyer (2006).

K'NAAN's path from Mogadishu to the world stage isn't one of leaving Africa behind. It's a story that carries Africa forward, in his voice, in his words, and that he wouldn't let suffering be the only story he has.

In this song the two truths of a diasporic life are captured: the pain of uprooting, as well as the remarkable strength that emerges from it. Loss is not the only part of the African diaspora. It is marked by creativity, survival and the sense of belonging that is shaped, patiently and assertively, wherever African people are in the world. Wavin' Flag waves for all of it.

Listen: K'NAAN — Wavin' Flag:

Citation: Baily, J., & Collyer, M. (2006). Introduction: Music and migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32(2), 167–182.

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Free Mind - Tems and the Inner Journey of Diaspora

Not every diasporic travel is a travel in the flesh. In the search for a self that is complete and feels free from the expectations of the homeland and adopted country, some of the most profound migrations occur within. Tems' Free Mind is an exploration of this inner path of the depletion of doing another person's identity and the radical silence of being your own. We discussed the process of music formed as a result of migration, not only as a geographical process, but as an inner negotiation of identity (Baily & Collyer, 2006), a process which Free Mind is a perfect sonic illustration of.

Tems is a Nigerian artist whose music has earned a large fan base worldwide, but has never lost its intimacy or emotional honesty. That's what's great about diaspora art; it is resonant, global and yet so personal. The song fails to address the conflict of living in-between cultures. It just provides a little bit of something that is not common, permission to stop explaining oneself to anybody.

That is radical permission, for a diaspora community that is often called upon to be African enough or assimilated enough. Free Mind does not give you any answers about you. It's a nudge to remind you that you can breathe while you're working it out.

Listen: Tems - Free Mind:

Citation: Baily, J., & Collyer, M. (2006). Introduction: Music and migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 32(2), 167–182.

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Brown Skin Girl - Celebrating Blackness Across the Diaspora

With the release of Brown Skin Girl featuring Wizkid, Blue Ivy and SAINt JHN, Beyonce wasn't just making a song, she was making the correction in the culture. The song was a first for Black women everywhere in the diaspora, born into a world that constantly measures them against Eurocentric beauty. The main star of that collaboration was the Nigerian Afrobeats star that is Wizkid; a shout out to the unity of the African diaspora across the Atlantic. But for many young Black girls, it was one of the practices that helped to create diasporic identity, as Gordon and Anderson (1999) remind us.

The song also brings up some salient issues our class discussed on representation and voice. Questions we need to always ask are whose stories are being ‘amplified’ and what do they actually represent and reflect of diverse lived experiences across the diaspora? Brown Skin Girl is mostly successful ,it is not a prettified, commercialized rendition of African and blackness, but an honest celebration of it. But it also reminds us that there is always a negotiation that involves a commercial way of doing things and a cultural power way of doing things when it comes to representation in popular media.

In the end this song is a compelling act of affirmation and identity making: a three-minute collaboration between a Houston icon and a Lagos superstar, and a song that is transcending the diaspora to make millions of people feel seen.

Listen: Beyoncé ft. Wizkid - Brown Skin Girl:

Citation: Gordon, E. T., & Anderson, M. (1999). The African diaspora: Toward an ethnography of diasporic identification. Journal of American Folklore, 112(445), 282–296.

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Burna Boy - African Giant and the Politics of Identity

Burna Boy is not only a musician, he's an argument-maker. All his artistic work is rooted in his opposition to the domestication of African culture for export to other cultures. It's a Yoruba word of praise and thanks, and a creatively resonant word in Africa, but it's a creatively resonant word everywhere, because it's a creatively resonant word in Africa. We discussed in class how music in the African diaspora serves as an expression of culture and as a social media that helps to keep communities alive across geographical distance (Monson, 2004). That's exactly what Ye does: He makes a sonic space where listeners around the world feel like they're connected to something greater than themselves.

This kind of music is a lifeline, then, for diaspora communities: a reminder that culture does not vanish because you have crossed a border or an ocean. The loud and clear call of Burna Boy's voice in both Yoruba, Pidgin and English is itself a political move to avoid the pressure to assimilate that is so common among diaspora artists.

Burna Boy represents the unapologetic visibility of Africa on the world stage. He's not sitting at the table, he's creating his own table. In the process he voices a generation of diasporic youth who are tired of the dichotomy between their African identity and their global aspirations.

Listen: Burna Boy - Ye:

Citation: Monson, I. (Ed.). (2004). African diaspora: A musical perspective. Routledge.

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Ojuelegba - The Hometown That Travels With You

The diaspora has its own version of Ojuelegba, a place, memory, and a version of home that resides beyond the map. Ojuelegba is a homage to places and people; his roots from the Lagos neighbourhood where he grew up but also to the streets that raised him before the world could hear his name. We studied music as an ethnographic reflection of social life and culture in class, and this song is a perfect example of that (Waterman, 1990). It's local but it's universal to anybody who ever felt the need of their place.

The diasporic condition of always being away from home, while still never being at home is what Ojuelegba beautifully documents. The song is a cultural document and an emotional experience: It reveals who Wizkid is, his roots, and what he will never forget even as his world grows. Refusing to forget is itself an act of diasporic identity making.

A song like Ojuelegba puts you in the place and makes you feel that you belong. It reminds millions of listeners around the world of their own journey and journeys, and reminds them that they were not lost.

Listen: Wizkid — Ojuelegba:

Citation: Waterman, C. A. (1990). Jùjú: A social history and ethnography of an African popular music. University of Chicago Press.

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Afrobeats Goes Global And It's Bigger Than Just Music

Afrobeats is not a fluke, it is the voice of the African diaspora, screaming its message to the world. African popular music has come into the global arena in ways that are transforming the international image of Africa, as Krings and Simmerset (2020) point out. Rema's Calm Down, Ojuelegba of Wizkid and Fall of Davido are more than chart-toppers; they are statements of identity, of diasporic identity that is carried into the living rooms, clubs and playlists of every continent.

It is the hybridity of Afrobeats, which is what accounts for its strength. With African rhythms and global influences of pop and reggaeton, Calm Down illustrates how diasporic identity is created by the syncretism of multiple cultural forces (Kalra et al., 2005). The music does not question, it requires you to be both African and global, and it is not at all apologetic. That message is very much like what millions of youthful Africans living in a world between worlds hear.

But it's a question that arises in this global context: When African music is globalized, whose Africa is amplified and whose is left out? Commercial success is preferred by streaming platforms and this can lead to the displacement of African sounds that are more local or traditional. It is true that Afrobeats are successful and that is wonderful, but it is imperative that we listen more critically to Afrobeats.

Listen: Rema — Calm Down:

Citations:- Krings, M., & Simmerset, T. (2020). African popular culture enters the global mainstream. Current History, 119(817), 182–187.- Kalra, V., Hutnyk, J., & Kaur, R. (2005). Diaspora and hybridity.

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Who Are We? Understanding the African Diaspora

African Diaspora is used frequently, but what does it mean to live the Diaspora? The African diaspora is the African-American communities found around the globe as a result of the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism and migration. However, in this diaspora identity is never fixed or easy. However, as Gordon and Anderson (1999) suggest, diasporic identity is not fixed but is continually created as a result of cultural activities and experiences. Diasporic identity is not something you're born with the way you dress, talk, and eat, and, most importantly, listen to music, are all ways of negotiating the diasporic identity.

The beauty of this is that it manifests in unique ways in various places. These three people, whose backgrounds are from across the continent, all live in North America: a Kenyan in Nairobi, a Nigerian-British person in London and a Ghanaian-American in New York and, despite having a common African heritage, their experiences with identity are very different. These are not the same stories for the diaspora. It is millions of seemingly conflicting stories, all going back to the question: Where do I really belong?

In this blog series, we'll be trying to answer those questions with music in this case, with a play list comprised of 15 songs by artists such as Burna Boy, Tems, Wizkid, Angelique Kidjo and K'NAAN that we call Identity and Belonging in the African Diaspora. The music is the common thread that ties together the African diaspora stretching from one country to the next and from one generation to the next. That's where we start.

Listen to the full playlist here:

Citation: Gordon, E. T., & Anderson, M. (1999). The African diaspora: Toward an ethnography of diasporic identification. Journal of American Folklore, 112(445), 282–296.