The compartmentalisation of African diaspora reveals its complexities and affirms the need to widen the analytical lenses of African diaspora studies by interrogating the field’s conventional conceptions and boundaries. The conceptual challenges of the African diaspora also bedevil the definition of diaspora. In many cases, the term diaspora is used in a fuzzy and uncritical manner in which all manner of movements and migrations between countries and even within countries are encapsulated in its generous conceptual bosom, and no adequate attention is paid to the historical conditions and experiences that produce diasporic communities and consciousness, or lack thereof. This study explores the salient issues that are involved in the distinction between the old and new African Diaspora.
