Emily Gordon ~ ‘We Are Nobody’s Diaspora’ — How Caribbean Culture Has Been Preserved

Photo: en.wikipedia.org

The art of storytelling is widely regarded as the oldest form of education, entertainment and cultural preservation.
In fact, some assert society can be transformed by storytelling.

Christopher Laird’s keynote address at the 18th Annual Africana Studies Student Research Conference and Luncheon explored this notion in Bowling Green State University’s Olscamp Hall Friday.
In his address “Nobody’s Diaspora? Africa in the Moving Picture Memory of the Caribbean,” the film producer, director and writer discussed how Caribbean culture has been preserved and shared through a digital archival process that has helped record aspects of Caribbean culture and politics and project it across the world.

The address’s title was inspired by Trinidadian author and activist Marion Patrick Jones, who spoke out against the concept of “being someone’s diaspora,” a scenario in which the effects of European and American colonialism and imperialism frames Caribbeans as “overseas” Europeans, Indians, Chinese and Africans.