-
Nadia Yala Kisukidi
Geopolitics ofthe Diaspora
Sometimes a given economic, political, or socialconjuncture will
lay bare in no uncertain termsthe insurmountable contradictions
inherent incertain ideas. For instance, it is nearlyimpossible to
disregard the context of the Covid-19 pandemic when thinking about
the contoursof the idea of “diaspora,” or more precisely
the(geo)politics that it delineates. The borders ofnation-states
were closed, putting a stop to theongoing cycle of trips back and
forth that shapediasporic lives. The pandemic slowed down,when it
did not actually block, the transfer offunds to their countries of
origin from diasporas– especially African – in Northern
countriesfacing an economic crisis.1 A whole economy ofexchanges
and movement came brutally undone.đđđđđđđđđđAt this point it seems
wise, beforeproceeding any further, to not keep my place
ofenunciation in the dark. Because this placeexplains in part the
thoughts that follow. I live ina Northern country, in France,
crossed by aborder – that of the Democratic Republic ofCongo. This
border may not be physical insofaras it does not materialize a
barrier between twoneighboring geographic regions, but it
isnonetheless real. According to Gloria Anzaldua,borders are truly
present whenever people ofdifferent cultures occupy the same land:
“Aborderland is a vague and undetermined placecreated by the
emotional residue of an unnaturalboundary. It is in a constant
state of transition.The prohibited and forbidden are
itsinhabitants.”2 The border that Anzaldua evokes inher writings is
a real physical territory located atthe point of contact between
Texas and Mexico.The border I’m speaking of presupposes aprocess of
affective, symbolic, and culturalexternalization that accompanies
itinerancy, theexile of a family. The “Congo” sign runs throughand
recomposes, in a minor key, the Frenchspace I inhabit. The “Souths”
live in the “Norths”;multiple spatial expanses shape the private
livesof families. Landscapes are superimposed andconjoined in the
inner life of the individual. Thisis how life in the diaspora is
territorialized.đđđđđđđđđđThe health security policies that have
haltedthe constant trips that characterize diasporicexistence have
partitioned the planet into aseries of hermetic physical spaces
thatreestablish boundaries. Planet earth is not one:it is a
multiplicity of small worlds, whichcoincide, unsurprisingly, with
the borders ofnation-states. The preventive measures3intended to
protect oneself and others from thepandemic force people to stay
put, to be rootedto a spot, to relocate their activities. The
veryidea of the “diaspora,” insofar as it designatesthe ability of
certain populations to form a unity,a people “despite the spatial
dispersion of theirmembers, by way of the unifying reference to
a
e-fl
ux jo
urna
l #11
4 —
dec
embe
r 20
20 đ
Nad
ia Y
ala
Kis
ukid
iG
eopo
litic
s of
the
Dia
spor
a01
/06
12.22.20 / 09:34:37 EST
-
Kiripi Katembo, Subir, from the seriesđUn Regard, 2011.
Copyright:đKiripi Katembo. Courtesy Fondation Kiripi Katembo Siku
et galerie MAGNIN-A.đ
02/0
6
12.22.20 / 09:34:37 EST
-
land or a territory,”4 supposes at the very least atension
between two places, return trips,uninterrupted circulation around
the globe.Diasporic existence describes a way of being inthe world,
forced or desired, which requiresmobility – that tenacious paradigm
of theglobalized twentieth century. The sense ofcommunity
withstands long distances and isconfirmed in the joy of
reunions.đđđđđđđđđđThe spatial concatenations of whichdiasporic
lives are composed describe a concreteform of ubiquity. To think
about the idea of thediaspora does not necessarily
entailproblematizing the “self” in reference to a nativeland that
would give it its ontological substanceand identity; it involves
thinking about the ideaof inhabiting. And more radically still, the
idea ofinhabiting two places, two lands at the sametime. Diasporic
life relies on an economy ofmovement, indifferent to finitude,
requiringcombustion and spending: flying, travelingacross oceans,
hitting the road, sending money.All this movement has been
undermined by thepandemic and what it reveals about theecological
catastrophe.đđđđđđđđđđFamilies scattered to the four corners of
theworld may no longer be getting together becauseof the virus, yet
it is hard to give up on thepolitical potentials of conceiving of
the diasporaas a “double presence,”5 in other words as amatter of
“inhabiting two places at the sametime.” We must give thought to
the politicalfecundity of ubiquity, and even more, give it aprecise
meaning, when the ecological situationno longer presents a unified
planet, but insteadworlds in conflict. What does it mean to
inhabittwo places at the same time, when these placesare in an
antagonistic relationship? The idea of“place” and “world” function
hereinterdependently: “place” refers to a realphysical location and
“world” refers to a wholethat materializes through interrelating
amultiplicity of human productions and geo-situated forms of
life.đđđđđđđđđđBy taking a position on a boundary at oncereal and
imaginary – the boundary separatingFrance and the Democratic
Republic of Congo –criticism grounds itself in a concrete
terrestrialsituation. Diasporic life traces the contours of
a“geopolitics,” whose meaning is almost literal: apolitics of the
land, or yet again a politics ofspatial localization. In spite of
the pandemic andthe immobility it imposes, it is important for usto
think through the real political fecundities ofthe constant passage
from one land to another. đđđđđđđđđđ***đđđđđđđđđđGeopolitics. To
reflect on worlds in conflictmeans to focus not only on war and
tensionsbetween sovereign states but also on aneconomy of death and
life. Colonization,
understood as the appropriation of lands andpeople, stands as
the paradigm of this sort ofvital economy. I would like to
illustrate thisthrough a look at some moments in the history
ofCentral Africa.đđđđđđđđđđCentral Africa’s encounter with the
West,which started in the fifteenth century – the erawhen the
Eurocentric order and a certainconsciousness of global space was
instituted –opened a cycle of “extraordinary violence,” inrepeated
patterns of collapse.6 Because worldscan indeed collapse several
times. The slavetrade developed after the arrival of thePortuguese
in the Congo in 1482.7 Thekidnapping and enslavement, along with
thedrain on the labor force, destabilized localinstitutions and
demographics. African landswere turned into a huge reservoir of
manuallabor, feeding trade channels that werebecoming increasingly
international.đđđđđđđđđđIn the nineteenth century, explorers
andcolonial societies competed on African soil in thename of
European states.8 The Conference ofBerlin in 18859 established the
legal terms of theEuropean occupation of Africa, guaranteeing
thesovereignty of each European nation andgranting them all
“complete freedom of trade.”10This conference, which consolidated
the rules of“commercial imperialism” that developed inAfrica
throughout the seventeenth andeighteenth centuries, is to be
understood as thepoint in time when “the European statesimposed
capitalism on the coasts of Africa.”11 Inthe Congo Basin – by then
the property of theKing of Belgium – rubber exploitation led
toviolent forms of extractivism12 that included thedestruction of
villages, the appropriation of land,the massacre and mutilation of
localpopulations, the destabilization of collective life,forced
labor, and the exploitation of naturalresources to profit foreign
companies. Congoleselands fueled the development of the
secondindustrial revolution in Europe.đđđđđđđđđđThese cycles of
depredation and pillage arebeing reconfigured in contemporary
postcolonialCongo. We must be able to reinterpret them froma vital
standpoint: the life of some requires thedeath of others. Societies
of superabundanceimply the extinction of societies that
functionexclusively as reservoirs of energy and material.This is
one of the formulations of theconflictuality of worlds in the
Capitalocene era.The two Congo wars, which gripped the regionwith
violence in the late twentieth century andhave continued into the
first quarter of thetwenty-first, have accompanied the revolution
ofdigital electronics, with Congolese mineralresources being
introduced into the globalmarket.13 The systemic violence raging in
theDemocratic Republic of Congo supports an
e-fl
ux jo
urna
l #11
4 —
dec
embe
r 20
20 đ
Nad
ia Y
ala
Kis
ukid
iG
eopo
litic
s of
the
Dia
spor
a03
/06
12.22.20 / 09:34:37 EST
-
“international supply systems coupled with aform of national and
regional redistribution ofresources.”14 Mass massacres, the
forceddisplacement of populations, rape, the increasedvulnerability
of human life, etc. The North/Southdivide is too broad to account
for theconflictuality of worlds. The economy of pillageand
extraction that has taken hold of the regionis supported by
international industrial andfinancial predations, but also by
intra-Africanalliances15 and a revenue system maintained bynational
elites.đđđđđđđđđđFaced with this economy of violence, hugedumping
grounds have been established whereunneeded populations, deemed
useless, arecondemned to live. Whole expanses have becomezones of
infra-life. The globe is riddled withholes, haunted by shadows,
dispossessed of theminimum required to satisfy vital
needs.đđđđđđđđđđ***đđđđđđđđđđThe conflictuality of worlds that is
ondisplay in Central Africa testifies to a becoming-vampire, for
the vampire is that mythicalcreature that feeds on the blood of the
living toincrease its vital forces. It is not the generalcollapse
of the planet that is being manifestedbut rather the way in which
some worlds requirethe collapse of others to maintain their
standardof living, in a context where limited resourcesimply their
rationing, and hence theirappropriation by some. The death of some,
whichpreserves the life of others, can never beconsidered a
scandal; at best, it deserves to beforgotten. In this context, many
words –“Humanity,” “Universalism,” “Cosmopolitanism”– are emptied
of their utopian overvaluation.Because it is a matter above all of
grasping whatthey do not allow us to think through, notablyhow the
life of some presupposes the death ofothers,16 and how life in
superabundancepresupposes the continual reiteration of acts
ofmassacre, the consent to the murder of thosewho, by their very
existence, take up too muchroom.đđđđđđđđđđIn this framework it may
be interesting toresignify, politically, the idea of
“diaspora.”Beyond the synthesis of opposites17 that itoperates, the
idea does not refer exclusively to aspatial conception of identity
that putsnationality, territory, and citizenship understrain.
Diasporic existence unhinges exclusiveaffiliations with the body of
the nation. To live inthe diaspora is to be a member of two spaces
atonce.đđđđđđđđđđThis double presence18 sheds light on theutopian
powers that run through diasporicexistence. Such an existing
(exister) presupposesheterological self-construction,
whichincorporates the other – any other possible place– into the
definition of what individuals, peoples,
and communities are. It entails the possibility ofa
disaffiliation from the national, a breakingdown of borders that
complicates relationshipsto places of origin and arrival. It
contestsrhetorics of authenticity and loyalty that demandtotal
allegiance to a nation defined as a block, asubstantialized body.
Diasporas can develop asui generis way of life by forming
“transnationaland transcultural minorities,” indifferent to
thelogic of existing nationalities.19đđđđđđđđđđTo think about the
diaspora as a doublepresence is not to privilege one world over
theother. The lack of loyalty of which those whoselives unfold
across several places are accusedneeds to be recoded positively as
multipliedpresences. Diasporic existence is a refusal, therefusal
to choose between two worlds. Thisrefusal assumes a singular form
when the twoworlds are in conflict. It summons a whole vitaleconomy
that contests a geopolitics founded onthe logic of predator and
victim.đđđđđđđđđđ“Double presence” has a material,terrestrial
significance. To think about thediaspora is to ask a question that
is not so much“Who am I?” as much as “Where do I live?” Theanswer
is unambiguous: the diasporic beingliving at the intersection of
antagonistic worldsinhabits a political conflictuality. On
theFrance/DRC border, this conflictuality is brutallyapparent:
modes of consumption in wealthysocieties rely on exploiting “blood
minerals” fromthe Congo.20 In diasporic lives, geopolitics
andinternational relations become family affairs.They run through
the affective lives ofcommunities. We must not shy away from
theviolence of the conclusion: the inequality ofworlds sometimes
means that one inhabits asociety that feeds on the blood of one’s
ownfamily. The dialectic is poor: to live well requiresthe negation
of the other.đđđđđđđđđđSo we must develop a practical approach
tothe idea of diaspora, as the refusal to see oneworld disappear so
that the other can live. As therefusal to see one’s kin die. Under
whatconditions are worlds in conflict equallyhabitable? How can
they provide the sameconditions of habitability to their
populations, tofamilies separated by a border? The point is notto
reactivate, in these finite times, a co-development logic that is
overly invested in thedevelopment paradigm, and that appears as
thehumanitarian facet of policies controllingmigration flows in
wealthy countries.đđđđđđđđđđDiasporic practices are micropolitics;
theytake the form of an internationalism that issituated rather
than abstract. Suchinternationalism is not some sort of
idealizedassumption of responsibility for the planet’sfuture,
theoretically positing a shared humanity.It is concerned, on the
contrary, with concrete
e-fl
ux jo
urna
l #11
4 —
dec
embe
r 20
20 đ
Nad
ia Y
ala
Kis
ukid
iG
eopo
litic
s of
the
Dia
spor
a04
/06
12.22.20 / 09:34:37 EST
-
modalities of action implemented by the peoplewho are
interpellated by two places at the sametime – two places in
conflict that shape the bodyof their biographies and their
attachments.đđđđđđđđđđTo think from two places in conflict is not
amatter of feeling nostalgia for the world’s lostoneness but rather
of questioning the way inwhich both spaces can be equally
habitable. Allof which implies a certain political practice
ofpostponement.21 To postpone the extinction, thedeath of a world,
on the one hand. And topostpone the economic and political logics
thatincrease superabundance, on the other. Povertyof words, poverty
of solutions, at a time whencertain processes of destruction
appearirreversible. But what we need to think about isthe way in
which geopolitics are embodied inpersonal lives. And traversing the
modes ofexistence that they demand, we need to try toawaken their
revolutionary potentials, knowingthat revolution here is firstly a
refusal – therefusal to see the death of one world support thelife
of the other. This is the utopia of diasporicexistence: to be
present in two worlds at once inspite of the poor dialectics that
link them, and tomake it possible in each of them to inhabit and
todevelop the possibilities of a life in spite of
all.đđđđđđđđđđ×Translated from the French by Gila Walker.
Nadia Yala Kisukidi was born in Brusselsđto aCongolese (DRC)
father and a Franco-Italian mother.She is Associate Professor in
philosophy at Paris 8Vincennes-Saint-Denis University, and
AdjunctDirector of the research center Les LogiquesContemporaines
de la Philosophie (LLCP). She wasvice president of the Collège
International dePhilosophie from 2014 to 2016. She is a member of
theeditorial committeeđofđCritical Time (DukeUniversity)đand
cocurator of the Yango II Biennale,Kinshasa / RDC (2021).
e-fl
ux jo
urna
l #11
4 —
dec
embe
r 20
20 đ
Nad
ia Y
ala
Kis
ukid
iG
eopo
litic
s of
the
Dia
spor
a05
/06
12.22.20 / 09:34:37 EST
-
đđđđđđ1Marième Soumaré, “Transfertsde fonds: Dangereuse
chutepour les ménages et … lesbanquiers,” Jeune Afrique, May17,
2020https://www.jeuneafrique.com/945715/economie/transferts-de-fonds-dangereuse-chute-pour-les-menages-et-les-banquiers/.
đđđđđđ2Gloria Anzaldua, Borderlands /La Frontera: The New
Mestiza(Aunt Lute Books, 2012), 19, 25.
đđđđđđ3(In French, such protectivemeasures are called
gestesbarrières – literally “barriergestures.” – Trans.) See
BrunoLatour, “Imaginer les gestes-barrières contre le retour à
laproduction d’avant crise,” AOC,March 30,
2020https://aoc.media/opinion/2020/03/29/imaginer-les-gestes
-barrieres-contre-le-retour- a-la-production-davant-crise /.
đđđđđđ4Stéphane Dufoix, La dispersion:Une histoire des usages du
motdiaspora (Éditions Amsterdam,2011), 16.
đđđđđđ5Nadia Yala Kisukidi, “Du retour:Pratiques politiques
afro-diasporiques,” in Politique destemps, ed. Achille Mbembe
andFelwine Sarr (Philippe Rey,2019), 147–74.
đđđđđđ6Isidore Ndaywel È Nziem,L’invention du Congocontemporain,
vols. 1 and 2(L’Harmattan, 2016), 143–44.
đđđđđđ7Raphaël Batsîkama ba Mampuyama Ndâwla, L’ancien Royaumedu
Congo et les Bakongo(L’Harmattan, 1999), 4.
đđđđđđ8Carl Schmitt, The Nomos of theEarth in the International
Law ofthe Jus Publicum Europeaeum,trans. G. L. Ulmen (Telos
Press,2003).
đđđđđđ9Carl Schmitt observes that the“culmination of this race …
wasa great international land-appropriation congress – theCongo
Conference in Berlin(1884–85).” Nomos of the Earth,216.
đđđđđđ10Schmitt, Nomos of the Earth,219.
đđđđđđ11Vincent Hiribarren, “Berlin,1885: Questions sur
uneconférence,” L’Histoire, no. 477(November 2020).
đđđđđđ12Anna Bednik, Extractivisme –Exploitation industrielle de
lanature: Logiques, conséquences,résistances (Le
PassagerClandestin, 2016). For thesituation of the Congo, see
AdamHochschild, King Leopold’s
Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror,and Heroism in Colonial
Africa(Houghton Mifflin, 1998).
đđđđđđ13Apoli Bertrand Kameni, Mineraisstratégiques (PUF/Le
Monde,2013), 156.
đđđđđđ14Kameni, Minerais stratégiques.
đđđđđđ15Colette Braeckmann, Lesnouveaux prédateurs: Politiquedes
puissances en Afriquecentral, 2nd ed. (Éditions Aden,2009).
đđđđđđ16Starting from the situation of theDRC, it is a matter of
questioningthe logic of the production of lifedetermined by the
logic ofinternational commerce. On theAfrican continent, forms
ofproducing life exist that are notconnected to the
relationshipwith societies of overabundance.(I thank Felwine Sarr
forsuggesting this point to me.)
đđđđđđ17Dufoix, La dispersion, 327.
đđđđđđ18On the issue of double presence,see Nadia Yala Kisukidi,
“Duretour”; and Dufoix, Ladispersion, 514ff.
đđđđđđ19Richard Marienstras, Être unpeuple en diaspora
(FrançoisMaspero, 1975).
đđđđđđ20Christophe Boltanski, Mineraisde sang (Grasset,
2011).
đđđđđđ21I’m borrowing the term fromAilton Krenak, Ideas to
Postponethe End of the World, trans.Anthony Doyle (House of
AnansiPress Incorporated, 2020).
e-fl
ux jo
urna
l #11
4 —
dec
embe
r 20
20 đ
Nad
ia Y
ala
Kis
ukid
iG
eopo
litic
s of
the
Dia
spor
a06
/06
12.22.20 / 09:34:37 EST