Together Online: Diasporic Identity on AfricanHipHop.com
Cultural identity has been one of the most prominent themes in contemporary discourse surrounding the African Diaspora. Who belongs to the diaspora? How is this belonging articulated? And how can unity be attained without collapsing important cultural differences? In other words, how can a common diasporic identity be developed amongst the many disparate cultural identities already established throughout the diaspora?
In this paper I will attempt to answer these questions by examining how the complicated web of African diasporic connections is understood and constantly remade through the website AfricanHipHop.com. Through a careful consideration of both the content and the organizational infrastructure of the site, I will reveal how, using the common language of hip hop, artists, authors and users of AfricanHipHop.com offer one possible approach to the conceptualization of diasporic identity. To contextualize my discussion I will also situate the site within the larger context of diasporic practice and the Internet. Finally, to evaluate the viability of this approach I will conclude by considering both the strengths and limitations of AfricanHipHop.com as a space of diasporic practice.
Keywords: Diaspora, Africa, Hip Hop, Internet, Popular Culture
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