Diaspora Plurality, Imprecision of ‘African Diaspora,’ and the Emergence of Yorùbá Diaspora Studies

This paper interrogates the concept of diaspora vis-à-vis the narrowness, imprecision and misrepresentation of various migration categories as models of diaspora. Drawing on theorizations of scholars within the knowledge field, I rethink the concept and contest the appropriateness of the rubric (African Diaspora), submitting that the term is a misnomer that panders to the European supremacist agenda of rendering Africa and its diasporas as homogenized Other. The article calls for the identification, recognition and study of multiple African Diasporas. Consequently, it identifies the Yorùbá Diaspora in the Americas as a specific diaspora group that can help validate the imperativeness of fostering specificity on African cultural groups around the world. The article discusses two categories of Yorùbá Diaspora (old and new) and advocates adoption of Yorùbá Diaspora Studies as a hyponymous construct within the superordinate African Diaspora Studies.