The Future of African Diaspora with Eiman Kheir - Head of Diaspora Division at the African Union

As an African publication that was started outside the continent, the topic of diaspora has been dear to us since our inception. Many of our magazine issues have consistently had a section on the diaspora and one of our most read articles on our website is a piece on African diaspora guide to returning home. That said, over the years, we’ve found it frustrating that numerous gaps exist when it comes to the way the diaspora connects officially with their home countries and the continent at large. This is why we were pleased to have a comprehensive interview on everything diaspora with Eiman Kheir, an amazing and humble young leader who is currently in charge of the Diaspora file at the African Union as the Head of Diaspora Divison, Citizens and Diaspora Organizations (CIDO). 

Please Introduce yourself to the TAP FAM

 My name is Eiman Kheir and I work with the African Union (AU). 

From an insider's perspective, exactly what is the African Union and what is its mandate? 

Well, before the African Union (AU) there was the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). OAU was basically a club of member States. It was heads of States centered because their goal was to fight colonization and apartheid. After achieving political independence, they realized they still had issues like internal conflict mostly linked to development to contend with on the continent. Thus they understood that a new mandate was needed and a new constitution that focused on peace, security and development was key. So the AU was born. 

They further realised that when you speak about development, you need to include everyone. So then they said “we are including people”.So it changed from the OAU to the AU and it became a people centered organisation. But then, who are the people? Who are the African people? 

There was a discussion that we have a large segment of African people living outside the continent. The diaspora,who needed to be included! But then who are the diaspora? People who just left the African continent? But then there are those who left unwillingly as a result of slavery! So they came up with a comprehensive definition of an African diaspora.

So who is the Diaspora?

The diaspora is officially defined as people of African origin living outside the continent and who, irrespective of  their current citizenship or nationality, are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union.

A consensus on the definition was reached in 2005 by the AU. 

However, it’s not just that you need to be African by blood or of the soil.

You need to be willing to contribute to the  development of the continent and the building of the AU to qualify as an “African Diaspora”. 

Why is this last part of the definition so important? 

Because when we say that we want to include the diaspora, it is a partnership.

That linkage to the continent is important because there are people who do not want to be involved with the continent for some reason, and that’s ok. 

Interesting. And is this how CIDO was born?  

Right. When they said that they realised that they needed to have a department that speaks about non-state actors;civil societies, faith groups,trade unions and  diaspora CIDO was created.

So CIDO was created with two divisions;The civil society division that deals with everyone inside the continent and the Diaspora division that deals with everyone outside the continent.

I work with the Diaspora division.

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Eiman Kheir

“The diaspora is officially defined as people of African origin living outside the continent and who, irrespective of their current citizenship or nationality, are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union. ”

— Eiman Kheir

So in short what is CIDO's Mandate?

The overall goal of CIDO is to ensure the people are close to the AU and the AU is close to the people, so we try to involve all African people in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation. This is important because the AU is a norms heading organisation. It does policies specifically. Implementation is not something we do. The AU writes policies and these policies go to member states that should apply them and it goes down to the people. So we try to create this relationship. Before this relationship was only linked to monitoring and evaluation and that is why you hear non state actors are like watch dogs and its a term I dislike because it creates this hostility and animosity between them and governments. Of course they do play that part but it’s also important that they are partners in the process so that they can better understand what the challenges are, what is happening and what they can do. So with the Diaspora file, I try to show how the diaspora can contribute to everything; whether in peace & security, whether in skills, whether in resources etc. We are also working to make sure that as this happens something goes back to the diaspora as well. it is a two way street. 

What are some of the model countries when it comes to engaging the diaspora 

We have model examples of countries that support or engage the diaspora well. For example,  countries that apply dual nationality. Some countries still don’t apply dual nationality because they are afraid of backlash from the people within the country and they create other schemes e.g an alien card. A card that gives you specific rights in the country and you don’t need a visa but you need to renew it and it. Other countries have done very well with knowledge transfer. You see professionals such as doctors especially come and do operations and teach medical students across Africa. Sudan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana does this. 

Morocco applied this concept very well with their renewable sector. They made sure they targeted scientists abroad, brought them back and paid them well. They invested in them so they didn’t have to come mainly for patriotic reasons or charity. Morocco now has one of the largest solar and renewable energy plants. People even go to study how they did that.

Rwanda is another example. It made it very clear and visible to citizens in terms of how they can benefit from the diaspora. They partnered with the diaspora for the one dollar campaign. They made sure this program changed a whole village from thatch housing to proper housing. This is something visible, development you can see. Rwanda also does amazingly well when it comes to interacting with her diaspora through Rwanda Day events across Europe, North America,  Asia etc.

What are some of the events that have shaped the diaspora narrative

With the AU something that really helped change the idea of diaspora and its member states’ idea of diaspora is Ebola. Ebola happened and it was a crisis,an actual emergency. No one wanted to declare it an emergency even though we saw the growing numbers in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea but it’s because of the diaspora and diaspora individual celebrities like Samuel Etoo, the AU made sure, with the private union, that they had a campaign, “Africans against Ebola”. This saved lives. 

It is because of this message that it was declared an emergency. It was because of this message that people poured a lot of money into a fund for Africans Against Ebola. There was a campaign known as lunchbox initiative where people cooked food that Sierra Leoneans ate and provided it to clinics.

Small initiatives like this require people who understand the context of their countries and these are diasporas. They see what is happening abroad, they know how to connect this and they bring solutions. After that Sierra Leone and Liberia immediately came to the AU and said they wanted to open up to the diaspora because they had always had poor relations with them. Because their diasporans are interested in politics, they thought they were against them but they realised in times of need these are their people. George Weah is the president of Liberia and he was in the diaspora for a very long time as well. Small things like these have changed narratives about the diaspora.

From your various engagements, what has been the most disturbing fact that you’ve encountered in the diaspora scene 

The diaspora scene to date is filled with old men. You don’t see women or young people. It’s become like a club of men. That for me has always been disturbing. We try to involve more women or youth in the networks. It is important that half are youth and half of them are women.

Tell us about the decade for people of African descent and how the AU is involved?

The decade for people of African descent is a decade that was initiated by the UN, the office of the high Commissioner of human rights from 2015 to 2025. They want to focus on the fact that people of African descent across the world seem to be facing many challenges. It has three pillars: Justice, recognition and development. We had the first meeting to relaunch the event with the UN officially at the AU in the first half of the year (2018), then in September we had the first event with the UN in Accra, Ghana. We brought different groups to raise awareness about what this decade is about and what  member states can do. It was also very good that it happened in Ghana because Ghana and Ethiopia last year conferred citizenship or nationality to people of African descent. With Ethiopia they did that with the Rastafarian community. Ethiopia realized that these people have so much love and are putting back resources into the country.

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Tell us about the African Diaspora scorecard? 

We thought that creating a scorecard or a mechanism if you may, to help the African Union member states evaluate themselves on what they are doing and how they are doing things while also helping the diaspora see how they can engage the continent more meaningfully. We want to take this to the summit and give prizes to those countries that are doing well. We also created a toolkit here at CIDO that we will launch next year. It is a diaspora toolkit that is supposed to help you understand how to engage the diaspora. We speak about knowing the diaspora, building your capacity and then monitoring and evaluation because everybody creates something and it is great but nobody wants to do evaluation. The kit is also cost effective because you don’t have to fly with a delegation to come to our offices; this is a booklet that will be available for you wherever you are.

Interview initially done in December 2018.