Quotes & Sayings About The African Diaspora

For a certain generation of African immigrants cleaning offices became part of the culture like male circumcision and supporting Arsenal. — Ben Aaronovitch

Lawrence Hill, a cultural and spiritual descendant of West African griots, has used his vast storytelling talents to create an epic story that spans three continents. The Book of Negroes recites the pain, misery and liberation of one African woman, Aminata Diallo, who was stolen from her homeland and sold into American slavery. Through Aminata, Hill narrates the terrifying story of slavery and puts at the centre a female experience of the African Diaspora. I wept upon reading this story. The Book of Negroes is courageous, breathtaking, simply brilliant. — Afua Cooper

I think I would like to see more roles for South Asian performers that are more inclusive and part of the American Diaspora, the American tapestry, perhaps the way that African American and Hispanic roles have developed. — Aasif Mandvi

Making wine and drinking wine is not new to African Americans and others in the Diaspora. South Africa has a three-century history in growing, harvesting and distilling grapes as wine. The entire continent of Africa has a history in wine-making. In this country, slaves cultivated the vineyards owned by Thomas Jefferson and other vintners. — Andre Hueston Mack

Who we are as African-Americans, as black folks in the diaspora, our cultural destiny, has been shaped by both the enslaved and the free. — Bell Hooks

People think if you describe someone with glistening brown skin you're writing about race, as if the whole of the African diaspora is in someone's brown skin. — Jamaica Kincaid

In the next chapters I will deal with factors that have helped make this happen, including better leaders, a revival of African entrepreneurship, the return of the great diaspora and a hungry, innovative young population - the largest demographic of young people in the world. But I will start with what I believe has been the most important factor of all. Despite Africa's size and the great drama of her story - colonialism, war, famine, disease, dictatorship, corruption, hundreds of billions of dollars in wasted aid - it is astonishing to me that the thing that has probably helped us more than anything else is a tiny little device that can fit in your pocket. It's called a cell phone - and it's been a game changer. — Ashish J. Thakkar

I have always enjoyed storytelling, especially narratives told through the voices of the African diaspora. Their influences are so diverse, so vast. I love incorporating elements of fiction and fantasy into their realities. — CO Patrick

I mean in the community that I grew up in, you know, a very, you know, mixed, almost entirely African Diaspora community, one of the things that we were not ever supposed to say was how much self-hatred and colorism determined and guided what we would call our desire. In other words, what we would consider beautiful. — Junot Diaz

An impressively researched and documented collection of the finest thought produced by writers throughout the African Diaspora. A magnificent achievement. — Henry Louis Gates

I'm a member of the African diaspora: my parents left the Caribbean and came to London for a better life. — Marianne Jean-Baptiste