University of Southern California

The Story of Everything

Diaspora

Ever since our forebears learned to walk upright in Eastern Africa nearly four million years ago, voluntary or involuntary migration has been a part of our life. A population that has been separated from its ancestral homeland is considered to have undergone a diaspora. Often these people carry their language and cultural traditions with them to their new location. The earliest historical mention of a diaspora is found in Deuteronomy 28:25, in reference to the Jewish colonies settled outside the holy land following the Babylonian exile.