HOW DID THE DIASPORA START - Destination Ghana

My ancestors should have allowed themselves to be captured and sent into exile because this country is a problematic one, a friend of mine said. Her gleeful remark, however, sparked lots of controversial arguments as to whether growing at home is the best compared to the Diaspora and this led to the question ” how did the Diaspora, even come up?

Diaspora explained in simple terms means being away from one’s country of ordinary gin. We have people come up with theories like Joseph E. Harrison, and George Shepardson come out with their findings in ” Introduction to African Diaspora and the African abroad respectively to give more insight into the bone of contention. Biblically the Jews were among the nations to experience this when they were captured by the Babylonians this present-day Iraq through war and stayed in exile for many years.

Narrowing it down to our part of the world, some people very early on traveled of their own volition to either trade, school, seek greener pastures, explore different worlds and so on which is voluntary whereas there were instances where foreign powers like the Dutch, British, French, Portuguese and many more came to this part of the world to trade in Gold, species, spread their religion and so on after doing so for a while, while in need of helpers in terms of communicating with local merchants, farm hands and so on started the buying of slaves thus human beings and sending them across oceans to different countries foreign to these slaves which brings us to the involuntary diaspora. Locals were very involved in this act too as it was very lucrative then. There is also the case of overlapping of diasporas whereby different races in the Diaspora intermarry example, a Ghanaian and a Nigerian marry and give birth, such kids though born in those foreign countries are also in Diaspora.

It is estimated that almost 12.5 million as of the 16th and 17th centuries alone had been sold and transported abroad leaving Africa to bear with the loss of able men and women to help in nation-building. A very sad but once-upon-a-time reality that destroyed a whole continent, with impacts even felt up to today.

World Heritage Sites highlight forts, castles, and slave markets like the Salaga slave market and so is sad, interesting, and intriguing history to be told in another historical journey shows that Diaspora, indeed took place and Africa is living proof of such