What Is A Diasporic Community

For African Diasporic communities, there is a constant fight for true freedom. True freedom, liberation is an idea that has been analyzed by many scholars, religious leaders, artists, and everyday people in diasporic communities. Descendants of enslaved Africans, as well as many brown communities throughout the world, struggle to liberate themselves from the damaging effects of European influence. The Oxford Dictionary defines Freedom as “the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.” Advancing this definition of freedom to pertain to diasporic communities would be the right to live without hindrance or restraint. Since enslavement, the lives of Africana people has been political.
America, a country
On a historical timeline, African Americans have been oppressed longer than they have been free in America. Noting that there is an extensive history of Africana people free, ruling themselves in pre-colonial Africa is very important. Africans had their own civilizations that were inherently African and from a modern perspective were very progressive. However, focusing on the history of Africana people in America demonstrates the consistent oppression the community has faced. Starting with the removal of Africans from their native lands and transplanting them in America to build the nation as we know it. Then “freeing” enslaved African through legislation with no reparations for the pain endured during enslavement. Followed by the rise of Jim Crow, convict leasing, segregation, the war on drugs, and currently the industrial prison
During enslavement, there were some African Americans who were able to buy their freedom. But were these people truly free? Were they able to relate to the tenants promised in the preamble of the constitution? Were enslaved Africans who escaped to the North truly free, knowing that any day under the Fugitive Slave Act they could be returned to bondage in the South. Throughout history there has been a false account of what freedom is, and that African Americans can obtain it in America. Newly emancipated African Americans believed they were free because they took one step out of legal subjugation, but the community as a whole was still treated as second-class citizens. From a contemporary lens, we can see that these early African Americans weren’t free at all because they did not have the right to live without hindrance or restraint.
Recently, the conversation of freedom in America for Africana people has resurfaced. The “Black Lives Matter” illustrates that African Americans have not achieved “true freedom” in America. African American artists constantly have themes of freedom throughout their music, poetry, or canvases. The most recent case would be Beyoncé’s Lemonade. In her visual album, she has a song titled Freedom, with a chorus that begs the question, where is freedom for Africana