Ten million Africans now constitute an invisible nation that resides outside Africa. Although invisible, it is a nation as populous as Angola, Malawi, Zambia or Zimbabwe. If it were to be a nation with distinct borders, it would have an income roughly equivalent to Africa's gross domestic product. Although the African Union does not recognize the African Diaspora as a nation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) acknowledges its economic importance. The IMF estimates the African Diaspora now...read more
Ten million Africans now constitute an invisible nation that resides outside Africa. Although invisible, it is a nation as populous as Angola, Malawi, Zambia or Zimbabwe. If it were to be a nation with distinct borders, it would have an income roughly equivalent to Africa's gross domestic product. Although the African Union does not recognize the African Diaspora as a nation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) acknowledges its economic importance. The IMF estimates the African Diaspora now constitutes the biggest group of foreign investors in Africa. What few realize is that Africans who immigrate to the United States contribute 40 times more wealth to the American than to the African economy. According to the United Nations, an African professional working in the United States contributes about $150,000 per year to the U.S. economy. Can the “brain drain” be reversed? This is the question posed in a keynote speech to the Pan African Conference on the Brain Drain held in Elsah, Illinois in October 2003. "My answer is: yes. But in order for it to happen, we must try something different," says Philip Emeagwali, who won the Gordon Bell Prize for inventing a formula that allows computers to perform their fastest computations - a discovery that inspired the reinvention of supercomputers. Debate the African Diaspora by reading this speech and sending your opinions to [email protected] for publication in Pambazuka News.