Negotiating Diasporic Black African Existence in Australia: A Reflexive Analysis

Abstract

he past twenty years has seen a somewhat steady flow of continental Africans into Australia. The arrival of such people, often constructed as 'blacks', raises several questions with respect to identity and belonging. For example, what does it mean to be and 'live black' in a society that not only abandoned its White Australia policy only a little over thirty years ago, but must also now grapple with the transnational nature of its citizenry, which includes African blacks? We use reflexive narratives to present a snapshot of our everyday experiences as black Africans, negotiating the multiple complex layerings of not just our blackness, but also our diasporic African existence. We address the challenges and contradictions of negotiating reified and homogenised black/African migrant/outsider labels and identities. In particular, we reflect on our endeavours to confront stereotypical and distorted interpretations that seek to identify and categorise our existence in terms of the problematised 'other': as the unknowing, uneducated, oppressed and dispossessed persons of colour. The ensuing analysis is not intended as a theoretical discussion of race, racism or race relations in the wider Australian context. Rather, these are 'our tales of blackness', of the dilemmas of negotiating subjectivity, of the multiple and paradoxical ways of being 'other' in a society that claims to be multicultural and is hailed as such worldwide.