The brain drain Africa suffered since the double waves of decolonisation and structural adjustment did not only impact negatively on political and economic developments, but also decimated Africa as professional and business elite - students and refugees emigrated to escape crisis, famine and infrastructural decay.
Although migration is a global phenomenon, statistics indicate that more than 215 million people (3 percent of the world's population) live outside their countries of birth; Africa bears the heavy brunt of this because, according to a World Bank estimate, it has lost roughly 100,000 university graduates, fully or partly educated in Africa, to Western industrialized countries.
This figure does not include the millions of Western educated Africans who stayed on because they could not see a future for themselves in returning home.
Nonetheless, Africa has benefitted from its diaspora. According to a World Bank report, remittances to developing countries reached $406 billion in 2012 and are projected to reach $536 billion in 2015. Most significantly, the report reveals that Nigeria and Egypt are the two African countries in the top 10 recipients of remittances with a figure of $21 billion and $18 billion respectively.
However, most of these remittances are not for investment but money sent to sustain families and loved ones. So, the impact of remittances is mostly felt at a micro-economic level.
It is when remittances are used for investment that its impact can be felt at the macro level. But this cannot happen haphazardly, it needs planned and sustained strategies by African governments to harness this resource.
A few initiatives have been launched by African governments to engage with its diaspora. For example, Nigeria's Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga, claimed that "[the country] is leveraging on the large Diaspora population we have in the UK, who can actually be the catalyst - those agents for trade between the two countries".
And at the Nigeria Diaspora Youth Leadership Summit held at King's College, London, in August, 2012, keynote speakers urged Nigerian students to rise up and drive the modernisation of Nigeria.
However, such overtures have not translated into long lasting and sustained collective action. The problem is that African governments pay more attention to the process rather than to the product of engagement.
The difference between the two approaches is that the former appeals to cultural sensibilities of the Africans in the diaspora, while the later gives them a sense of ownership and direction.
Two notable examples of the latter approach will illustrate its value. First, the 'National Research Centre' in Egypt was established in 1956 to give 'young researchers who have left the country a chance to return to top-class facilities... and a free rein to discover and innovate'.
Second, the Ghana Joseph Project was established in 2007 to 'reconcile and unite the African peoples so that their positive spirit and strengths would be released in a focused manner to help rebuild Africa and the image of Africans worldwide'. But little effort has been made to promote and sustain the existing or initiate new projects to make them appeal to the next generation of African Diasporas.
However, African diaspora media outlets can help bridge this gap. Most especially, they could complement and extend the role of the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD), by providing 'an open, multidisciplinary platform to debate, discuss and exchange knowledge on migration issues'.
Thanks to advances in communications technology, media for and by African Diasporas have proliferated since 2000 in the UK. They emerged out of the shadows of ethnic media to project black perspectives on civic issues and to redress the marginalisation, alienation and negative stereotypes of black people in the mainstream media.
Significantly, they appeal to first and second generation African Diasporas by showcasing the best of African entertainment (music and Nollywood films). Some examples of well-known media of African Diasporas include Bright Entertainment Television, The Africa Channel, Klear TV, Voice of Africa Radio, African Voice and Somalia Voice.
These media outlets have the potential to foster engagements and reinvigorate diasporic dialogue. But African governments need to recognise the media of African diaspora as an extension of Africa itself. This means incorporating them into their communication strategies and supporting them with advertising revenues to keep them afloat.
It is ironic that most African governments will give exclusive interviews to western journalists and pay thousands in hard currency to advertise in western media to the neglect of that produced by the diaspora. African diasporas and their media are vital resources that Africa should no longer ignore in its efforts to rebuild the continent.
Dr Ola Ogunyemi is the Convenor of Media of Diaspora Research Group at the University of Lincoln, UK.
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My understanding of the African Diaspora, is that this definition includes those of us in the states descended from the Atlantic slave trade. From what I've seen of the AUs discussions, this is so, but I keep seeing articles such as yours which seems to not include our numbers. I say this because if your definition included our numbers, your time frame would go back further. I have no illusions about Africa. It has extremely educated and capable artisans in every endeavor. Yet, the irony of what I see as your position is that Africa's children of the slave trade actually dominate the world media entirely. Thus the importance of our inclusion as defined by the AU. I don't see the issue as the Link is missing, I think it is overlooked. Some of us in the States don't feel connected to Africa. Yet there are many that do but we are neither sought out or apparently valued. I personally would love to invest in and work on behalf of Diaspora Media and anything else related to Africa. Yet my friends and I have yet to identify any vehicle which would allow us to with any reasonable confidence nor is there any single source of information from the Continent that even attempts to communicate a message broad enough to encompass us. I've always said since Africa has so many cultures and languages, there may be no single way that we can communicate, but we could at least have four or five channels world wide that could run all our content side by side. If the language changes so be it. Why not. I watch Korean soap operas and I believe that Africa's chidren understand each other well enough without the same language. Why not just get the diaspora to invest in the station and be shareholders. Honestly I have been frustrated because I have not seen a unified term whether Diaspora or otherwise to identify my business with or recognize other Diaspora business. That's what's missing more than anything else. Everything else will come, but those of us who identify with this desire and mindset need a way to identify ourselves and reach out to to others.
Some of the diaspora is a ridiculous waste of human resources .many good brains have been lost along the way in europe anyway due to the hardship of going through university and without 1 or 2 other disporia relatives supporting you on menial wages ( still sending home money to feed everyone back home too)the road to specialise after your doctorate is nigh impossible.i personally know a medical doctor who is specializing in old age instead of his real passion heart surgery and another who got the highest marks that year as an anisathist and couldnt get placed to get forward so will probably end up selling trinkets in the street.with the african young adult rate of heart disease due to diets of palm oil its really not good enough .someone else selling trinkets is qualified in 2 year but stoppped in biology/ agriculture and theres 2 doorman one second year in pharmacy and another dropped out of economics he got the highest marks from a main paris university because the choice was either let everyone not go to school and stave back home and carry on studying or get menial jobs for the rest of your life.thes guys were all best in their class and would of gone back home and earned more than what they do now if they had finished !!so if you want to reach out to africa talk to that male cleaner silent in hiss job he may be one of these guys with his visa run out !with an hour of internet equal to half a works day wage in most of poor africa your not going to get many comments on here also.as for going back to make investments ha! Apart from land grabs and micro finance, for a lower middle class investment of over 400 thou and under 1.5 mil dollers no bank will lend you for longer than 5 years, morgages seem to be a dirty word, unless you making so much money you dont bother thinking of going to the bank because the interest rate is too high! Its a complete risk when investing there due to the fact theres no safe way of borrowing unless your backed by complete outside money ,i hope it changes soon because real africa without outside interests is fantastic ,inoventive positive hopeful intelligent fun very well mannered humanistic and wise ive had the great opertunity of going to a pretty poor area of a typical african city and its a real eye opener on how happy and posative people are and i go on holiday there because it cheers you up so i presume if i was an americanafrican id get even more out of this experiance so get over there make the link and have fun ! As long as you have great respect for everyone you meet i dont see a problem always get a yellow fever jab for some areas though
Useful observations for tomorrow AFRICA.
The game is over. When wisdom is absent Man is bound to suffer. Africans originally were not curious people as nature provided their immediate needs and therefore was unnecessary to move from their comfort zones. This naivity persuaded our ancestors to welcome and accept ideologies from the eastern and western part of the world. Democratic institutions were already in existence before the arrival of strangers. Unemployment was absent in the African vocabulary as family members inherit skills from ancestors and division of labour was active. Slavery, colonialism were the consequences of being too nice and the descendants are still paying the price. However, this same players are also fighting for their survival as that is innate quality of man, personal interest, your people and then others. Africans all over are different from their predecessors, curious, adventurous and ready but not prepared to change the image. African Americans should be encouraged and included in the fight for Africa as their host country represent the most powerful nation on earth. Most of them or ancestors were either forcefully taken from the continent or had no choice but to leave, just maintening the status-quo. Contributors irrespective of their background or place or continent of birth should also be encouraged and included in this process of changing this evil image.