European colonization of Africans in the late 1800s replaced European enslavement of Africans from the 1450s to the 1870s. Colonization and enslavement were two sides of the same coin. Both were involuntary. In both the European was the master and beneficiary and the African the enslaved and exploited. Barely half a century after European decolonization of Africa, new voluntary wave upon waves of African migration have reached global dimensions. The agency of change seems to have shifted from Europeans to Africans. “Bushfallers” is the Cameroonian designation for this new African agents of change—the restless-young unemployed and unemployable at home, who migrate abroad in search of greener pastures. Cast within the context of defining moments in the political history of contemporary Cameroon, The New African Diaspora… draws from the colonial experiences that predated the emergence of decolonized Cameroon and offers glimpses into the impact of neocolonialism on the existing situation and analyzes how bushfallers are struggling to navigate through the confining tempest by venturing outward in preparation for executing the role that history seems to have pre-determined and designed for them. What will become of Cameroon’s bushfallers when after having exhausted their energies “bushfalling” abroad decide to turn their attention to politics at home? It is toward this end that Konde rises to the apex of originality by prescribing “DISDEFORG” in the Postlude—a “Three-Ds’ and One-O” formula for achieving success consisting of four principles: Discipline, Discovery, Definition, and Organization.
