I attended the event, Pan African Voices in the Era of BLM: Intergenerational Diasporans Speak on their Experiences in America. This conversation was led by professors Lupenga Mphande, Randy Quaye, Teresa Temu, as well as students, Emmanuel Latio and Keji Latio. African Diaspora was the main topic of the conversation. This is a term that not a lot of people are familiar with. African Diaspora refers to the many communities of people of African descent dispersed throughout the world as a result of historical movements. Something that I took away from the conversation is that African-Americans just as much as native Africans who know where they are from in the continent of Africa are a part of the African-Diaspora. I also learned alike African-Americans, other Africans in the diaspora face challenges in their countries, and share a common history.
I am the child of two immigrant parents from Mauritania and I resonated with some of the points made by Keji Latio and Emmanual Latio. As a child that was raised in both West Africa and the United States, I always assumed I was Africa-American and not because of what I was culturally but what I looked like and the box I checked on applications. I was raised speaking three West-African languages and eating jollof rice frequently. I was only expected to be African-American because I was Black. I learned about the African-American culture outside of my household. In high school, I also witnessed the divide between African-Americans and native Africans like myself. Unfortunately, that uprooted an identity struggle for myself. Am I African? Am I American? Am I African-American? One thing that was pointed out by Keji and Emmanuel is that we are all one. I feel like acknowledging that is the first step in understanding who we are as one and individually.