Posted
on October 5, 2014
(First Sunday of October)
To
understand today's holiday, you have to understand the word diaspora.
This
word is always a noun, and you probably know that a noun can be a
person, place, thing, or idea. Well, this particular noun can be
people, places, or an idea.
Let's
start with the idea:
A
diaspora is the scattering of a people away from their ancestral
homeland (the area that they had lived for many generations). The
movement of people in a diaspora can be forced or voluntary, but it
isn't the movement of a whole bunch of people from Point A to Point
B. (That could be called migration.) Instead, it's the
movement of a whole bunch of people from Point A to many different
new locations.
So
the idea of “scattering” is important.
Also,
it is apparently an important part of a diaspora that the people who
have scattered maintain a connection with their homeland. Many
continue to think of themselves and label themselves primarily in
terms of the homeland rather than the country in which they ended up;
they have what are considered “founding myths” related to their
place of origin; they sometimes maintain customs and beliefs and
maybe even language of the homeland.
Now
for the people and places part of the definition of diaspora:
Diaspora
can refer to the people settled far from their ancestral homelands.
It
can also refer to the the place where these people now live.
When
it is capitalized, Diaspora refers to one particular diaspora:
the scattering of Jews outside of Palestine after the 6th Century
B.C.E. destruction of the temple by the Babylonians, and after the
Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 C.E. (A.D.)
But
scholars also use the word for other scatterings. Today we are
encouraged to think about African diasporas.
The
historical African diaspora is the result of the enslavement of
African peoples and their forced transport to other places,
especially places in the so-called New World. The U.S., Brazil, and
many Caribbean islands have large populations of people with African
ancestry because of the slave trade.
 |
| This map depicts the historical African diaspora resulting from the slave trade. |
The
two more modern African diasporas occurred. The first happened during
the time that European colonies in Africa had tied together more
closely two particular regions, and the second happened in the last
half century as several newly independent nations became
dictatorships, or fell into abject poverty, or as people faced
political persecution or civil war or even genocide (murder of entire
peoples). Whether African people were moving to European nations that
had colonized them, or were fleeing from terrible conditions, these
last two diasporas were voluntary, as African people moved in an
effort to find new economic opportunities, political freedoms, and/or
just plain old safety and stability.
(I
REALLY like safety and stability, so I can support that motivation!)
Did
you know...?
Also
on this date:
Flexagon
Month
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest boards for:
And
here are my Pinterest boards for:
A "diaspora" means the dispersing of a people from their original homeland. Diasporas are sometimes caused by natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions or horrific droughts, but they are more often caused by war, repression, or exile. The Azerbaijani diaspora resulted in Azerbaijanis living in European nations (such as Belarus, Ukraine, and the U.K.), in North America (Canada and the U.S.), and in nearby Asian nations (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan). I hope many people who live away from Azerbaijan will be able to visit there!
