This month, I was fortunate enough to be featured in Issue 12 of Afrik Air‘s in-flight publication Wings ‘African Identities‘ by Belinda Otas. Otas takes a look at Africans living in the Diaspora and features Mariéme Jamme (Co-founder of Africa Gathering), Taiye Selasi (Writer, author, dancer, photographer & documentary filmmaker), Meruschka Govender (Tourism specialist) and Lulu Vanessa Kitololo (Designer & founder of Afri-Love).
A few years ago, the term ‘Afropolitan’ came to define a modern movement in creative realms from fashion to literature. Then came Afropeans, Afro-optimists and Afropreneurs. Wings explores the ideas and subcultures defining an era.What does it mean to be African or an African living in the diaspora? What about the daughter or son of African migrants born outside the continent, many of whom feel a strong sense of affinity to their motherland? It is a complex and complicated process even to assert the exact number of Africans living outside the continent. The World Bank estimates that over 30 million Africans fit into the category. It is no wonder, then, that at a time when we live in a world of instant global media reach on a 24-hour basis, with Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms readily at our fingertips, the discourse about African identities continues to evolve and be reconstructed. Hence, terms like Afropolitan, Afro-Optimist, Afro-Klectic, Afro-Phile, Afro-Centric, and Afri-Capitalist – if Afro is a noun, then all you need do is type it into Twitter search – AFRO – and an array of adjectives that extend beyond the above list will gladly welcome you to a world of identity creators in a cluttered space of online chaos. The Afros are growing (pun intended), aided by a savvy generation living in a new-media village…
You can read the rest of the article at Wings.com.
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