What would it mean to read diaspora spatially? How might an examination of the nature of movement, the travel itineraries undertaken, the borders crossed, the routes navigated, allow us to better understand the intellectual movements that were born out of mobility or lack thereof? 

Digitizing Diaspora maps the travels of prominent thinkers and actors in the African diaspora. This visualization allows us to plot physical movement through space on a map and corresponding timeline, in order to analyze how the spaces through which black writers, activists and intellectuals travelled shaped and challenged their thinking on global black identities and the (im)possibility of solidarity across national borders. 

Digitizing Diaspora provides curated access to archival material and allows users to consult and engage with a variety of primary documents including letters, interviews, pictures and journal entries that highlight the role of space, place and movement in the making of the African diaspora.

Recently Added Items

Crossing the Sahara: Fanon's notes on African Unity

Frantzfanonpjwproductions.jpg

Long recognized as one of the most prominent thinkers of the African diaspora, Martinican-born psychiatrist Frantz Fanon has nevertheless been read in…

Congo Diary: Eslanda Robeson's Second African Journey

Bundesarchiv_Bild_183-B0708-0014-004,_Oberstes_Gericht,_Globke-Prozess,_Publikum.jpg

This first exhibit charts African American anthropologist and civil rights activist, Eslanda Robeson's travels through colonial Central Africa in…