# Mapping the African diasporas  
This section has six subsections with the following themes: the formation of communities; resistance; spirituality; languages; work and technology; and back-to-Africa migration.  
The first subsection covers the currents of voluntary and involuntary movement in the eastern and western Indian Ocean, as well as the creation of black communities in Europe, in the Indian Ocean region, on the west and east coasts of Africa and in the Americas. The notions of community and of political entities concern people seeking to establish bonds with others in a similar situation in the period between the fifteenth and the nineteenth century. The second subsection covers the various forms of resistance among Africans who were enslaved or under other forms of oppression and exploitation. In the third subsection, diasporic forms of religion are examined from the standpoint of community formation around their places of origin, which revives the debate between the global and the local. The fourth subsection focuses on the languages spoken in Africa and their presence in the lexicons of European languages and in music and other performance traditions. The fifth subsection deals with the different types of labour performed by Africans, besides work in mines and on plantations; it discusses the techniques Africans brought with them from their places of origin and introduced to the New World. Finally, the last subsection covers the return to Africa of Africans and their descendants from diaspora territories. The remainder of this introduction looks more closely at the six themes on which this section is based.