The Spread of the African Diaspora

By Gregory Simpkins

I am a volunteer contributor to the William O. Lockridge Foundation in Washington, DC, which seeks to inform young people in the less privileged parts of the city about opportunities in international affairs. It is not surprising that a lot of background about the African Diaspora has been denied to them in schools, but it also is clear that too many adults among us also are uninformed about what the Diaspora is, its origins and its global dimensions.

Africa is the birthplace of the human race, believed to have begun around Africa’s Great Lakes region. The first modern humans began moving outside of Africa starting about 70,000-100,000 years ago.

The Birth and Spread of African Civilizations

About 15,000 years ago, people in present-day Egypt and Sudan developed the cultivation of wild grains, including wheat, rice, wild rice, corn, oats, barley, millet, and rye. That allowed them to grow their population and expand to new territories.

Languages spread as a result. Semitic and Berber languages spread from Ethiopia throughout the Horn of Africa, such as Amharic, Hebrew and Swahili.

Nilo-Saharan languages spread from Sudan to areas from Algeria to Benin in the west; from Libya to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Central Africa, and from Egypt to Tanzania in the east. These include Nubian, Dinka and Acholi.

The Bantu originated in what is now Cameroon about 5,000 years ago and reached the Natal region of South Africa. Bantu languages include Lingala, Luba-Kasai and Kongo.

After the Sahara Desert originated in 2500 BC, North Africa and what we now call sub-Saharan Africa were geographically divided. As populations dispersed throughout Africa, they were further divided by large rivers, mountains and gorges, and Africans developed more than 2,000 distinct languages or dialects (sub-languages) among smaller groups, which was an obstacle to communication with even nearby ethnic groups.

For example, Nigeria alone has 522 languages or dialects. Various languages, dialects and traditions continue to divide Africans today.

In order to communicate, there are around a hundred languages that are widely used for communication between ethnic groups. The most popular are Arabic, Somali, Berber, Amharic, Oromo, Igbo, Swahili, Hausa, Manding, Fulani and Yoruba that are spoken by tens of millions of people.

There is much evidence that the global African presence long predates the Transatlantic slave trade.

Global Connections and the African Legacy Abroad

Contacts made outside Africa, due to trade, conquest and exploration have linked Africa to other parts of the world. Africans are believed to have been in China for more than a thousand years.

The Muslim conquest of North Africa linked that area of the continent to the Middle East and became the platform for the Muslim conquest of Spain and Portugal, including by the black Muslims known as the Moors, in 711 AD. Muslim control and influence over what is called the Iberian Peninsula lasted for more than 700 years.

The Jarawa people, considered to be associated with the Jangli ethnic group in Africa, live on the Andaman Islands in India. They are believed to be the first successful ethnic group to move out of Africa.

A group known as the Siddis emigrated from southeastern Africa to India and Pakistan beginning in 628 AD. They number about 850,000 in those two countries combined.

The slave trade brought Africans to the Middle East, Europe, parts of Asia, North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean. As a result of the European exploration and conquest of most of Africa, African people learned English, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, Italian and German.

These languages eventually were useful for inter-ethnic communications as well.

So, the next time you meet someone born in Africa, keep in mind that they likely speak multiple languages. The first time I went to South Africa in the late 1980s, I met a waiter from my hotel, while I was eating in another restaurant, and he told me he spoke eight different languages.

The African Diaspora Across the Globe

You will find the descendants of Africa, who we call the African Diaspora, living all over the world. The countries where more than one million African Diaspora residents are in order of population:

• Brazil
• United States
• Haiti
• Columbia
• France
• Venezuela
• Jamaica
• United Kingdom
• Mexico
• Peru
• Canada
• Dominican Republic
• Cuba
• Italy
• Spain

This list gives you some idea of the broad spread of the African Diaspora worldwide, but there are significant numbers of African people or people of African descent living in Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Palestine, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Romania and Russia.

During the early days of the Ukraine-Russia war, thousands of African students and African people living and working in Ukraine found themselves trapped after Russia’s invasion when border officials prevented them from leaving until all Ukrainians were taken out of the country first.

Africans have lived in Europe for many years, including some who are quite notable. For example, Alexander Pushkin, considered to be perhaps Russia’s greatest poet, was the grandson of Major-General Abram Petrovich Gannibal, a nobleman of sub-Saharan African origin, who was adopted and raised in the Russian Emperor’s court household as his godson.

Alexander Dumas, a Black French writer, was one of the more prolific writers in the 19th-century literary world. You probably are familiar with at least a couple of his books: The Three Musketeers or The Count of Monte Cristo.

So don’t let anyone tell you that the Transatlantic Slave Trade defines the African Diaspora’s history. Our people have achieved wherever they went – whether by force or by choice.

The African Diaspora has been miseducated about its history for many years; it is now time that we reverse this trend and educate ourselves so we understand how powerful we really are.

The Global Dispersal of African People

According to social scientist Kaiya Aboagye, blackness in the global South region, which is below the Equator, is seen in people from Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia, as well as the Torres Straits, Vanuatu, Tonga, Fiji, as well as people in Papua New Guinea and the Maori. She wrote that the Aboriginal people of Australia make up one of the world’s oldest continuing black civilizations.

There is much evidence that the global African presence long predates the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The construction of statues with African features outside of Africa is a topic of ongoing research and debate.

While there’s no definitive answer, various theories and findings suggest that ancient civilizations may have had contact and exchange with Africa, resulting in the creation of such statues. Here are some examples:

• Ancient Connections: In South America, specifically in present-day Ecuador and Peru, archaeological evidence suggests that East Africans, possibly from the Axumite Empire, may have visited or even settled in the region. Statues and artifacts found in these areas show African features and architectural styles similar to those found in Ethiopia.
• Sumerian and Egyptian Influences: Some researchers believe that the Sumerians and ancient Egyptians may have had contact with East Africa, which could have led to the spread of architectural and artistic styles, including statues with African features.
• Trade and Cultural Exchange: The presence of African features in statues outside of Africa could also be attributed to ancient trade and cultural exchange networks. These networks would have allowed for the sharing of ideas, goods, and artistic styles across vast distances.
• Local Artistic Expression: It’s also possible that local artists outside of Africa created statues with African features as a result of their own artistic expression, without direct influence from African cultures.

Some notable historic cases of statues with African features outside of Africa include:

• Ecuadorian Stone Heads: A stone head found in Ecuador depicts a man with African features, wearing a circular earring, similar to those found in ancient African cultures.
• Peruvian Artifacts: Moche pottery from ancient Peru shows depictions of people with African features, and some statues found in the region have African-like characteristics.
• Asian and Latin American Statues: While specific examples are not well-documented, there are likely many statues and artifacts with African features found in Asia and Latin America that warrant further research and study.

These findings highlight the complexity and richness of human cultural exchange and artistic expression throughout history. No matter how we and our ancestors came to be where we are now, the African Diaspora lives, works and studies all over the world.

The African Diaspora has been miseducated about its history for many years; it is now time that we reverse this trend and educate ourselves so we understand how powerful we really are.

Gregory Simpkins, a longtime specialist in African policy development, is the Principal of 21st Century Solutions. He consults with organizations on African policy issues generally, especially in relating to the U.S. Government. He further acts as a consultant to the African Merchants Association, where he advises the Association in its efforts to stimulate an increase in trade between several hundred African Diaspora small and medium enterprises and their African partners.