18세기 말 대서양흑인의 디아스포라 정체성

Diasporic Identity of Atlantic Blacks in the Late 18th Century

Transatlantic slave trade forced Africans to disperse in the West Indies and America and brought black diaspora to Canada, England, and back-to-Africa. These diasporic Africans shard the experience of forced displacement and racial oppression and it led them to a discourse of resistance and solidarity. The diasporic lives of Hammond, Marrant, and Equiano showed cosmopolitan experience different from the lives of slaves and shared ocean life and seamen culture in the Atlantic, which dissolved national and racial boundaries. Transatlantic adventures of diasporic blacks also led them to criticism on slavery and racism, with Christian consciousness of the chosen people and African identity with Ethiopianism. Specially Equiano was a modern nomad crossing various continents and oceans, and he pursued a career of antislavery activist with a firm belief in free market economy and religious openness. However, ‘return to Africa’ project proved Africa as a place of mythic desire and imaginative identity, revealing partition of ‘African’ identity among Nova Scotians and native Africans. The construction of diasporic African nation required a whole new blueprint that goes beyond identical skin color.