PAUL TIYAMBE ZELEZA

Racial discourses and theories are socially constructed ... but repudiating race theory does not make it disappear in politics. Race matters ... because it functions as a marker and an anchor to establish and repudiate identity, status and position ... Races exist because racism exists.

Africans in the diaspora were constantly being reminded of Africa by their European masters who tried to impress upon them that Africa was primitive. Repudiating this thinly veiled justification of slavery required diaspora intellectuals to focus on Africa and demonstrate that it had made major contributions to world civilization. Consciousness of Africa was also sustained by the continuous flow of people, ideas, values, visions, practices, and expressive culture from Africa to the Americas and vice-versa.

Despite the enormous historical achievements of decolonization and civil rights, African and Caribbean states remain marginalized in the world and African diasporas in their host countries. The pace, breadth and depth of the strides we have made since independence and civil rights over the last fifty years vary enormously between countries and regions, among social classes and genders, across periods and sectors. Nevertheless, our states and societies are still largely pawns rather than players on the world stage. This will not fundamentally change unless we pull all our resources—demographic, political, economic, cultural, and imaginative—to fight for our collective emancipation and empowerment.

African migrants to the global North are unusually well educated. In 2000, while the continent’s proportion of skilled workers was only 4%, 30.9% of all immigrants from the continent were skilled workers. In other words, the ‘brain drain’ is exceptionally severe for Africa. For example, the African born population in the U.S. currently claims the highest levels of education of any group in the country, foreign born or native born. In 2000, among the African-born residents aged 25 and above, 49.3 per cent had a bachelor’s degree or more as compared to 25.6 per cent for the native born population and 25.8 per cent for the foreign born population as a whole. The irony of people from the least educated continent in the world having the highest levels of education in the world’s richest country is quite striking.

Despite the enormous historical achievements of decolonization and civil rights, African and Caribbean states remain marginalized in the world and African diasporas in their host countries. The pace, breadth and depth of the strides we have made since independence and civil rights over the last fifty years vary enormously between countries and regions, among social classes and genders, across periods and sectors. Nevertheless, our states and societies are still largely pawns rather than players on the world stage. This will not fundamentally change unless we pull all our resources—demographic, political, economic, cultural, and imaginative—to fight for our collective emancipation and empowerment.

African migrants to the global North are unusually well educated. In 2000, while the continent’s proportion of skilled workers was only 4%, 30.9% of all immigrants from the continent were skilled workers. In other words, the ‘brain drain’ is exceptionally severe for Africa. For example, the African born population in the U.S. currently claims the highest levels of education of any group in the country, foreign born or native born. In 2000, among the African-born residents aged 25 and above, 49.3 per cent had a bachelor’s degree or more as compared to 25.6 per cent for the native born population and 25.8 per cent for the foreign born population as a whole. The irony of people from the least educated continent in the world having the highest levels of education in the world’s richest country is quite striking.

Africans in the diaspora were constantly being reminded of Africa by their European masters who tried to impress upon them that Africa was primitive. Repudiating this thinly veiled justification of slavery required diaspora intellectuals to focus on Africa and demonstrate that it had made major contributions to world civilization. Consciousness of Africa was also sustained by the continuous flow of people, ideas, values, visions, practices, and expressive culture from Africa to the Americas and vice-versa.

Racial discourses and theories are socially constructed ... but repudiating race theory does not make it disappear in politics. Race matters ... because it functions as a marker and an anchor to establish and repudiate identity, status and position ... Races exist because racism exists.