Dyaspora Defined
Derived from the word Diaspora, which means the dispersal of a people from their common point of origin, dyaspora is a Haitian Creole word that is often used as a signifier not simply for Haitians living abroad but specifically for Haitians who have returned to visit Haiti. The term connotes and assumes that Haitians returning to Haiti to visit family or work are removed from Haitian reality and thus not “fully Haitian.” So, to be a dyaspora is to exist in the interstitial space between Haiti and whatever first-world country that has come to stand for home.

 

Mission

The Dyaspora Coordinating Committee (DCC) works to cultivate, uplift, and celebrate the initiative and experiences of Africans in and across the Americas. With translocal exchange as its driving force, this work is done through the development of transnational partnerships, pathways, and pipelines. Through bringing people of the African diaspora together across nations, cultures, and geographies, the DCC seeks to support and create liberatory and decolonial artistic, cultural, and intellectual spaces of exchange, and to develop educational programs within and across community/cultural centers, K-12 schools, and two-year or four-year higher education institutions.

 

Objectives

As an aspiring collective of artists, activists, cultural workers, economists, educators, engineers, environmentalists, health care providers, and jurists, the Dyaspora Coordinating Committee aims to:

 

• Facilitate national and transnational partnerships between and among community, cultural, and education-based organizations that serve African peoples in the Diaspora.

• Foster and support decolonization methodologies in the development of partnerships.

• Initiate and support programs or activities that cultivate, uplift and celebrate the initiative and experiences of Africans in the Diaspora.

• Develop and implement curricula that seek liberation through gender, racial, and sexual equity, and economic justice.

• Support and initiate the creation of community, cultural, and educational spaces for decolonial learning and exchange.