Conclusion: Decolonisation and Diaspora

Abstract

Our modern ‘globalised’ world was the unpredicted and unpredictable outcome of an extraordinary conjuncture. The collapse of the Soviet Union and its ’eastern bloc’ clients; the opening of China; the financial deregulation of Western economies; the revolution in communications brought by the Internet and its humbler companion, the ubiquitous containership: all helped to create the unprecedented intensity of commercial and cultural connections between different parts of the world. But this globalised world was also the product of two other transformative changes, the key concerns of this book: decolonisation and diaspora. As earlier chapters have made clear, in the Portuguese case as well as in others, decolonisation and diaspora were not separate phenomena. The meaning of each was partly produced by the other just as the impact of each was magnified by the other. If we fail to observe the geopolitical context that decolonisation created, both the causes and character of our contemporary diasporas will remain deeply puzzling.

I am most grateful to the editors for their comments and advice.