The African Diaspora in Canada: Negotiating Identity and Belonging.
Viswanathan, Leela
The African Diaspora in Canada: Negotiating Identity and Belonging.
Wisdom J. Tettey and Korbla P. Puplampu, eds. Calgary: University of
Calgary Press, 2005. 256 pp. $39.95 sc.
Recent social studies on refugee and immigrant groups from Africa
have offered insight into the differences within and among African
communities in Canada. Even so, the experiences of continental Africans
in Canada and their transformative influence on Canadian society have
been largely overlooked in academic research and public policy analyses.
Wisdom J. Tettey and Korbla P. Puplampu have undertaken a tremendous
task to highlight and address some of these gaps in the research.
Through a combination of theoretical, conceptual, and empirical studies,
The African Diaspora in Canada brings to the fore critical analyses of
the vast complexity of continental African experiences in Canada. Each
chapter in the four sections of this edited volume contributes to the
discourses about the social construction of continental Africans in
Canada.
In the first section, Tettey and Puplampu analyze concepts of
"diaspora," "Black," and "African
Canadian" and the confounded and contested meanings of these terms.
The authors want readers to gain a better understanding of the complex
history of Africans in Canada, the social construction of Africa and
Africans in shaping Canada, and the differences among Africans in their
settlement within Canada. Ali A. Abdi's chapter offering a history
of the socio-economic exclusion of continental Africans in Canada and
explaining some of the systemic factors contributing to the current
marginalization of continental Africans caps off the first section. The
analyses in this first section underpin the structure of the entire book
and provide the context for the chapters that follow.
Section two takes a closer look at the denigration,
de-valorization, and de-legitimization of Africa and African Canadians
and how this is manifest in schools and universities. Henry M. Codjoe
illustrates how an "invisible curriculum," that is, the lack
of presence of Black Studies and Black history in schools, contributes
to a virtual erasure of Black experiences in schools and pedagogy.
Through the insights of African students currently in or recently
graduated from Edmonton secondary schools, Codjoe illustrates how school
curricula and "dominant paradigms" are implicated in
stigmatizing Africans and perpetuating notions of Western superiority.
George S. Dei's personal and professional insights into
institutional racism in education systems derive from his location as a
university scholar and educator. Both Codjoe's and Dei's
respective chapters show how knowledge that is created in classrooms by
and with students provides a more accurate picture of what it means to
live among peoples of Canada.
Both chapters in the third section discuss labour market outcomes
of continental Africans in relation to the systemic challenges
associated with foreign credential recognition in Canada. Samuel A.
Laryea and John E. Hayfron use human capital theory to analyze their
statistical findings regarding African immigrants' labour market
outcomes, while Adenike O. Yesufu debunks racial and gender stereotypes
through her case study of African women in Edmonton. In addition to
offering a critique of the impact of homogenizing African women into the
category of "Black," Yesufu shows how the lack of recognition
of foreign education and training credentials and employment experience
prevent these African women from effectively contributing to the
Canadian economy.
Section four introduces the notion of the "diasporization of
civil society," that is, the processes of creating diasporas
through the translocal mobility of Africans between Canada and their
homelands. Tettey and Puplampu reflect upon the need for new ways to
build both practical and conceptual understandings of citizenship and
civil society that bridge geographic borders. In her chapter, Martha K.
Kumsa presents the struggles faced by one specific African group, Oromo
refugee youths in Edmonton, for whom "longing and be-longing"
to Canada and to Africa reflect an overall longing for justice and
acceptance. In the final chapter, Philomena Okeke-Ihejirika and Denise
L. Spitzer illustrate the complex intergenerational relationships
between African women and youths. These relationships illustrate the
complexity regarding a "diaspora in the making" and how the
processes of diaspora run parallel to both generations' struggles
to be Africans and Canadians on their own terms.
The African Diaspora in Canada succeeds in its main intent and
avoids the trap of victimizing Africans in Canada. It succeeds in its
refusal to compartmentalize African-Canadian experiences into specified
norms or exceptions to an assumed overall immigrant or refugee or
settlement experience. This book portrays various practices of agency
among Africans of varied status in Canada, as well as the systemic
challenges and obstacles impeding their participation in society. Some
of the empirical case studies also shed light on African experiences in
Edmonton, which is a nice change from studies that often highlight
Canada's other large immigration centers. It would also have been
interesting to see if (and how) such urban experiences differ across
Canada. The book is appropriate for scholars in social and cultural
studies as well as in public policy. The variety of research studies
presented offer a much needed set of examples of contrasts regarding the
diversity of experiences among continental Africans in Canada.
Leela Viswanathan; viswanle@yorku.ca
Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University
