Africa and its Diaspora

The word 'diaspora' has as its origin a Greek word meaning "scattering." It has come to refer to a scattered population with a common origin from a small geographic region. Africa, as the single largest geographic region in the world, has a very large dispersed population, both of a voluntary and an involuntary nature, that has had and continues to have a wide impact on world history and geopolitics.

So that's a long-winded set up for the Second Annual International Conference on Africa and its Diaspora, AICAID 2013, that will be held at UGA beginning next Wednesday, Nov. 13:

The AICAID 2013 conference will build on the foundation laid during the first conference held in November 2012 as part of the 25th anniversary of African studies at UGA. Participants from North America, Europe, New Zealand, the Middle East and Africa will present more than 100 papers at the conference.

"It is hoped that the conference will, once again, offer a forum for intensive exchanges between scholars, researchers and technocrats from various disciplines working in Africa and the African Diaspora," said Akinloye Ojo, director of the UGA African Studies Institute and associate professor in the department of comparative literature in the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. "Globalization continue to impact millions of people worldwide—and none more acutely than the diverse populations within Africa."

Featured speakers for the three-day conference on "Africans and Globalization: Contents and Discontents" will include Mamadou Diawara of Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and Charity Angya of Benue State University in Nigeria.

The African Studies Institute is an important campus and Franklin unit for this very reason: organizing such forums for international leaders and he campus community to interact on ongoing crucial topics. We are glad to support and look forward to these events. Registration information available here.

Image: Professor Mamadou Diawara, courtesy of The Sacramento Bee/Renée C. Byer