HWS News
7 January 2026 • Faculty Dahouda Co-Publishes on the Return of the African Diaspora
Essay in Le Patriote highlights the diaspora’s role in advancing sustainable development in Africa.
Kanaté Dahouda, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of French, Francophone, and Italian Studies, has co-authored a thought-provoking opinion essay examining the return of the African diaspora and its role in advancing the continent’s development.
Written in collaboration with Youssouf Diarrassouba, the essay, “The Return of the African Diaspora,” was published in the African newspaper Le Patriote. The piece explores the strategic importance of diaspora return as a driver of sustainable transformation across Africa. Rather than framing return as a symbolic or purely emotional gesture, the authors argue that it represents a deliberate development strategy capable of reshaping Africa’s future.
The essay highlights the diaspora’s significant contributions, including advanced expertise, global professional networks and financial investment. At the same time, Dahouda and Diarrassouba emphasize that meaningful and lasting return depends on credible political, economic and institutional frameworks. They underscore the need for adequate infrastructure, sound governance and effective reintegration policies to ensure that returning members of the diaspora can contribute fully and sustainably.
Dahouda joined HWS in 2001 and holds a Ph.D. in Francophone comparative literatures and cultures from Laval University in Quebec, Canada. A prolific scholar, he has co-authored and contributed to numerous essays and articles published in scholarly journals, academic volumes, anthologies, dictionaries and reviews. His teaching and research focus on French and Francophone studies from Quebec, the Caribbean, and Africa, with particular attention to language, diaspora practices, memory, exile, violence, and identity formation from the colonial period to the postcolonial era.
Top: Associate Professor of French, Francophone and Italian Studies Kanate Dahouda conducts a lesson as part of “French for the Professions.”
