Questions raised

At Monday’s meeting we were asked to reflect on the idea of diasporic youth work and if or how it supports diaspora young people develop positive identities. This raised lots of questions for us.

In our group we questioned the use of the term ‘diaspora’. We suggested that it may be helpful to be clearer or more specific, after all we are referring to African diaspora youth i.e. Black young people. We considered the politics of being unapologetic about our target group and that when African diasporic groups focus on their communities they tend to be negatively perceived by others.

Secondly, we wondered what the best practices would be and who would determine if or how something qualified? I wondered if the best practices in Amsterdam and London would have commonalities? How different might they be? Would there be clashes due to our different European or African / Caribbean contexts?

Next our conversation moved to the idea of ‘diasporic youth work’. We wondered whether the youth worker needed to be African diasporic themselves in order for it to count as diasporic youth work. Or was the definition purely dependent on the cultural background of the young people engaged with. Accordingly, we wondered whether a youth worker (who was not of the African diaspora) be effective at helping African diasporic young people develop positive identities. Could a white youth worker help a young Black person develop a positive sense of self? If they used an African diasporic youth work approach/methodology would it have the same impact as Black youth worker?

My perspective is that the identity of the youth worker does make an impact and does have an effect. It is not a neutral or benign aspect of interactions and considerations need to be taken on board before a youth worker can engage most effectively. The youth worker’s own identity, preconceptions and privilege need to be recognised by them in order for them to move forward effectively and most importantly for there to be positive outcomes for the African diasporic youth engaged with.