At 3rd Diasporic Dialogues Conference: Scholars say dialogue between diaspora, homeland necessary in solving conflicts.

This was highlighted during the third edition of the Diasporic Dialogues Conference, held under the theme: “Conflict, Migration and the Global Geopolitics of the 21st century”. 

The two-day conference was held at the campus of the University of Bamenda from August 2nd to 3. 

Speakers at the conference stressed on the importance of promoting research and encouraging discussions to mitigate conflicts and mass migration. 

The keynote speaker, Prof Blasius Agha'a Chiatoh, who is Head of Department of Linguistics in the University of Buea, underscored the need for individuals to understand the challenges and dangers of conflict. 

He said "we live in a world of conflicts, and we are either victims of conflict or promoters of conflict in one way or the other. If we, as individuals, do not conceive conflict, we can never be promoters of conflict". 

"My main idea is to make it clear to the scholars that conflict begins with the individual, and then grows outward into the world. And so, mitigating and resolving conflicts can only be possible if individuals understand the stakes, challenges, and dangers of conflicts," Prof Chiatoh said. 

The Chairman of the Conference, Prof Nixon Takor, who is Head of Department of History and Archeology in the University of Bamenda, urged the researchers to develop solutions through their academic work so as to address disparities between the diaspora and the homeland. 

"The conference comes at a crucial time when there is conflict and massive migration of young persons. It falls within the critical visions of the university and the higher education system, which is teaching, research and outreach,” he said.

“We are now more focused on solution-based research, and as we all know the critical concerns now are issues around conflict, migration and international politics. We, as academics, have to identify, diagnose and look for solutions to these problems, which can only come through research, and conferences like this one," Prof Takor added.

He added that: "This conference is also going to enable students have free interaction with university dons and very experienced professors who will share their wealth of knowledge and they can use this to identify research niches".

Critical scholarly reviews

During the conference, some participants presented papers before various panels, which enabled them to benefit from critical reviews from the different scholars. 

Dr Fonka Hans Mbonwuh of the English Department presented on 'psychological migration and homecoming'. He explained that, most people, look at migration as just a physical movement, but there are a lot of migrations that are psychological 

"People are on the same spot, but they have traveled and you can see it affecting how they live at home,” he said. 

The scholar added that before now, people did not value Cameroon English. But recently, they are beginning to understand that there is something called Cameroon English. 

“Some people migrate psychologically. For instance, they were speaking British and American English thinking they could only be foreigners, but they are now coming back home, after recognising their identity," he explained.

Another scholar, Dr Tanwie Talom Gilbert, from the Department of Communication and Development Studies in the University of Bamenda, talked on 'conflicts and opportunistic migration in the 21st century.'  He examined conflict as a motivating factor behind why people migrate. 

He said: "Conflict has been one of the major drivers of migration in history. So I am trying to investigate the fact that even though conflict sometimes may be a trigger, it is not really what motivates some people to migrate”. 

“Sometimes, there are people who migrate within a conflict but they had early motivations to migrate before the conflict. So, the conflict just provides an opportunity for them to migrate," he noted, adding that "what we are trying to get people to learn is that policy-makers should realise the importance of migration and remittances to development, especially in poorer countries". 

Dr. Tanwie also recommended the need for veritable dialogue on migration at the international scene. 

Around 60 academics presented papers during the conference. This was crowned by a drama performance by the Department of Performing and Visual Arts, titled Symphonic Shades

Over the past three years, the University of Bamenda has organised three post-graduate conferences and two international conferences, which continually emphasise on the need for research and dialogue on critical issues. 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3191 of Tuesday August 06, 2024