A Reunion of "Sisters": Personal Reflections on Diaspora and Women in Activist Discourse
Summer 2008 marked the end of my time at Barnard College, but my
reflection and learning did not stop with my diploma. That summer, I
attended a one-month gender-sensitive training institute for young women
activists (and a few men) of the African continent and its diaspora. The
training institute focused on economic and social justice, with goals to
build the capacities of the young women of African descent in
attendance, to encourage the formation of personal networks, and to
explore the tools needed to actively engage in monitoring and fighting
for social justice. On the eight-hour flight from New York's JFK Airport
to Senegal's Leopold Senghor Airport in the capital city Dakar, I looked
across the aisle and knew that I was flying with my sisters. They read
books on my list of personal favorites—books that I was currently
reading or intended to read. We were sisters, united by our interests,
convictions, and aspirations to effect change in our communities.
I heard about the training institute from a Barnard graduate involved
as both an organizer and a participant while studying abroad in Senegal
a few years earlier. I viewed this as a unique graduation present that
would expose me to women from all over the world who were striving to
embody a vision of social justice through their work. The fact that
airfare was included eliminated any financial obstacles that would have
prevented me from going. And I couldn't wait to meet the sixty women and
seven men in attendance, ranging in age from seventeen to thirty and
descending from all parts of the continent and the diaspora. The group
consisted of students, professors, intellectuals, government officials,
non-profit managers, actors, and radio show hosts. Yet beneath these
titles were real people with stories of strength and survival within
diverse contexts. There was an HIV-positive woman from the Southern
African region; a West African refugee who spent the past ten years in
the U.S.; the daughter of a prominent Brazilian political leader in O
Movimento Negro; a maroon-descendent from Suriname; and a former
child bride. There was even a young man who dedicated his life to
helping men in his country learn about the negative impact of
traditional practices on women's health—along with someone actually
formerly involved in those traditional
practices.[1] The array of
personalities, experiences, and causes in attendance amazed me, as did
our common passion for the psychological, economic, and social
liberation of women of African descent.
A group of activists from the diaspora conducted various workshops.
They included a woman from the Southern Africa region who described
herself as an "International Water Warrior" and conducted lessons about
globalization and water privatization; professional economists from
Jamaica, the Gambia, and Senegal who facilitated workshops about trade
liberalization; and a Ghanaian residing in England who facilitated
discussions of the sexual and reproductive rights of women. There was
even a "cross cultural arts facilitator" of Jewish descent from the
U.S., whose role was to use alternative means (games, role-plays, and
murals) to help participants process the themes discussed in class. The
outcome of the workshops is best summed up by the comment of one
participant who, toward the end of the training institute, said, "I
finally have the 'big words' to describe my everyday experiences." This
declaration reveals the strength of the training institute, during which
participants learned how to view their personal experiences as part of
global phenomena, thus making their experiences understood by people
outside of their own local worlds. Possessing such a language is
paramount in enabling ordinary people to make themselves understood by
the larger world.
Upon returning home, I was asked the standard question: "How was your
trip?" I responded with the same three words: "Phenomenal, symbolic, and
challenging." It was phenomenal because the training institute
represents an incredible endeavor that may, in fact, be the first
meeting of its kind. That summer, I met women from all over the
world—women who serve as leaders in their own nations and share a common
passion for social justice issues. The experience was also symbolic
because these women, abounding from Zambia, Mozambique, Egypt, Brazil,
England, Trinidad, and other places, gathered on Gorée Island—one of the
most active slave ports during the slave trade. This place, which saw
the division of families five centuries earlier, became host to a family
reunion of sorts, with descendants coming together to interrogate social
and economic implications of that historical legacy.
Despite the phenomenal and symbolic aspects of the experience, I also
describe it as challenging because, as a member of the diaspora, I felt
the limitations of a theoretical program that, at times, seemed
disconnected from real life and real people. It was only later that I
began to make sense of—and support—the program's transformative
potential to effect change in a more subtle way.
This paper, I hope, continues that legacy of change by exploring the
dynamics of the activism discourse in relation to my experience at the
training institute. I use the implications of "diaspora" and "women" as
legitimate categories of analysis to frame this discussion. Rather than
critiquing the particular training institute that I attended, my goal is
to make a general comment about the impact of certain discourses on
activism. I first evaluate the legitimacy of identifying "diaspora" as a
category of analysis and then reflect on my personal experiences and
interrogate the unique realities of those referred to as members of the
diaspora. Next, I examine the use of "women" as a category of analysis
through a treatment of the feminist scholar Chandra T. Mohanty's
discussion of this topic. Finally, I discuss an alternative model of
mobilizing activists (the activist exchange network), which aims to
disrupt assumptions about diaspora and women by bringing activism back
to the field of action.
The impressions and critiques that follow are based entirely on my
personal experiences and do not in any way represent those of other
participants at the training institute. My position as the only
African-American participant frames my analysis and shapes my
experiences. Before going, I questioned the particular space that I
would occupy as both an African-American (born in Jamaica to a Jamaican
father and an African-American mother) and a recent graduate of an elite
university. I also recognized that my particular ideas about global
power dynamics and the material implications on African lives were
mainly theoretical. My hope was that by meeting self-described
"activists" from the continent and the diaspora, I would emerge with a
better understanding of the other side of the theoretical training I
received at Barnard; in other words, I hoped to emerge with more
awareness of real-life experiences. I planned to use my ability to
communicate with Anglophone, Francophone, and, to some extent, Lusophone
participants to interact with a broad range of people from diverse
backgrounds. Having lived in Central Africa and volunteered in East
Africa (and done a good bit of traveling elsewhere), I remained aware
that these characteristics could define my worldview as "Western,"
"privileged," and even "elitist." My experiences, however, are presented
as I have lived them, though they embody an understanding of the
challenges and limitations of my worldview and the institutionalized
endeavors that have shaped my thoughts.
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