# Defining Global Africa beyond the Black Atlantic  
In recent decades, scholars have been defining and redefining African diaspora studies in order to advance conceptual, geographic, temporal, methodological and thematic ideas (Du Bois, 1915; Shepperson, 1965; Asante, 1987; Wynter, 1995; Alpers, 2001; Manning, 2003; Hine and McLeod, 2001; Davies, 2003; Davies et al.; 1999; Zeleza, 2005). The concept of the African diaspora enables new approaches in order to rewrite the history and to change national narratives. A synthetic definition is offered by Joseph E. Harris, a pioneer in the field:
'The African diaspora concept subsumes the following: the global dispersion (voluntary and involuntary) of Africans throughout history; the emergence of a cultural identity abroad based on origin and social condition; and the psychological or physical return to the homeland, Africa. Thus viewed, the African diaspora assumes the character of a dynamic, continuous, and complex phenomenon stretching across time, geography, class, and gender' (Harris, 1982, p. 5).  
In the 1990s, Colin Palmer offered a historically-based concept of the African diaspora:  
'The modern African diaspora, at its core, consists of the millions of peoples of African descent living in various societies who are united by a past based significantly but not exclusively upon "racial" oppression and the struggles against it; and who, despite the cultural variations and political and other divisions among them, share an emotional bond with one another and with their ancestral continent; and who also, regardless of their location, face broadly similar problems in constructing and realizing themselves [...]