Family Affairs – An Intergenerational Dialogue on Diaspora

Descendants of international migrants have differing relations and connections to the country of their parents’ origin. Through the portraits of Aminata and her father Lansana – both Germans of Guinean origin, I studied the shifting meaning of “diaspora” for subsequent generations. The diasporic identity could be seen as disentangled from the country of parental origin shifting from a centered to a decentered expression of belonging for the descendants of migrants.

When studying diaspora or diasporic practices and belonging, including the relations between communities living in dispersed geographical locations, it is revealing to look at how several generations of descendants of transnational migrants, maintain or develop contacts to their countries of origin. Historically, diaspora studies have gone through three currents, which co-exist today. One in which diaspora was defined as a closed entity and community with a certain set of predefined criteria, such as a shared experience of forced exile, as well as a strong reference to a place of origin. The Jewish and/or Armenian diaspora were/was seen as the prototype of a diaspora (Safran 1991, Tölölyan 1996).

This inflexible vision of diaspora was particularly contested by scholars in cultural studies, who, instead, proposed a decentered concept based on a hybrid and diffused character of a diaspora going beyond a reference to a shared origin (Clifford 1994, Gilroy 1993, Hall 1990).

The third approach holds a more constructivist point of view. A diaspora is seen as a set of relations and practices with a focus on feelings and perceptions, as well as on an intergenerational perspective, which also served as a starting point for my research project (Brubaker 2005, Bidet and Wagner 2012, Trémon 2019). By focussing on the intergenerational diasporic practices of a father and a daughter, two biographic views of the same family, I was able to bear witness to an intergenerational dialogue on identity, diaspora and home.

Biography of a Transnational Family

Lansana C. came to Germany in the 1970s. Born in the city of Conakry in Guinea in the 1950s, he began to study economics after finishing high school. Due to a difficult post-colonial political situation, but also his openness to discovering new places and learn new languages, he applied for scholarships in Germany, where he obtained a scholarship from a West German student foundation. Lansana C. came to live in Frankfurt where he met Sabine, a student from Würzburg. They got married and had two children, among them, Aminata, who is a woman in her thirties today with a family of her own. They all continue to live in Frankfurt and are politically engaged, which seems to run in the family, although the contexts and the directions are different.

Father – A Centred Practice of Diaspora

At his arrival to Frankfurt, Lansana C. was in his ‘20s bearing witness to the spirit of the generation of 1968: “Frankfurt was left, the lefties were everywhere”, he said. Already interested in politics in Guinea, he loved to spend time in bars to discuss politics. At that time, the city of Frankfurt was a hub for international students, which gave rise to the new left-wing movement instigated by the 1968 student revolt. Since Lansana C. has been living in Europe, he has always been active in Guinean politics, as part of the diaspora, similarly to many others who left the country during the 60s and 70s due to an unstable political situation.

Today, there are also small Guinean political organisations in German cities. Lansana’s efforts are directed towards political change in Guinea. Since living abroad, he has been a member of the RGE (Rassemblement des Guinéens de l’étranger) and today is a member of the Guinean liberal party UFDG (Union de force démocratique de Guinée, opposition party) with many members outside Guinea. “We have good chances of winning the next elections with our opposition candidate” he explained. Using the “we” in the sentence shows how involved he feels in the political development of his birth country.

Daughter – A Decentred Practice of Diaspora

While her father’s political work is geared towards Guinea and bringing Guineans of the diaspora together, Aminata has a different view of the diaspora. She sees it going beyond national alliances, in her view, it relates to people of African descent living in Germany or Europe more broadly. This is due to the fact of feeling rooted in Germany while at the same time occupying a racialized subject’s position, which connects people of African descent and creates a shared political identification as Blacks – Black German or Black European. Aminata would very self-confidently speak of her Black identity, whereas her father would never refer to himself as Black, but rather a Guinean with a German passport. The reference to Blackness emerged more in the 1980s in Germany from the then formed Afro-German movements like ISD (Initiative Schwarze Menschen in Deutschland), related to the US-term Black American, which was positively reappropriated by the Civil Rights movement and transported to Germany through people, such as the poet and activist Audre Lorde.

But there is more to her identification as an Afro-descendent: new tools of communication such as Instagram among others offer new forms of identification for a generation of Afro-diasporic youth. These young people are referred to as Millenials or Generation Y, people who came of age after the year 2000, and who, for the most part, are digital natives. The digital space plays an important part in promoting music or literature for people of African descent and helps to create a global community. Aminata uses Instagram often to be inspired by fashion or natural hair bloggers of African descent, in France, USA, Germany, United Kingdom, Ghana or Nigeria. Her reference points for an African diasporic identity are multiple and diffuse.

Studying diasporic practices and feelings with an intergenerational perspective allows one to see how creating belonging is an active process. While Lansana C. never failed to cultivate his belonging to Guinea through his engagement in politics within the diaspora, the practice of diaspora for his daughter Aminata is not only attached to a country of parental origin. Guinea, although an important reference for her as she lived there as a child and feels connected to the country through her family relations, serves only as one of the many ways in articulating her relations to the African diaspora. Politically, she is connected to other people of African descent (and more generally people of color) through her engagement in anti-racist politics (Black politics in Germany) and culturally, she connects more broadly to the digital networks promoting Afro-centrism in music, fashion and lifestyle on Instagram or Facebook. It can, therefore, be concluded that Lansana practices a centered vision of diaspora, whereas Aminata practices a decentered vision of it.

Silvia Wojczewski is a PhD candidate and teaching assistant in Anthropology at the Université de Lausanne, Institute of Geography and Sustainability.

Literature:

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