Pub Date : 2022-11-29DOI: 10.1163/18725465-bja10023
Nnaemeka Ezema
The continuous transnational mobility facilitated by various elements of globalisation, evidently, enhances transcultural consciousness. Despite the increasing interest in transnational mobility among critics, its effect on the different perceptions of new identity formation in Mahjoub’s Travelling with Djinns has not got the deserved critical attention. Using Achille Mbembe’s perspectives in On the Postcolony, the paper attempts to critically engage the transcultural sensibility of the characters and otherness that occur in their relationships and how all these affect their sense of belonging. Estranged from their supposed indigenous cultural affiliation, the characters are also unable to get integrated into the mainstream western culture. In the text, it is clear that while transnational mobility continues to influence new identity formation, the characters are still perceived with stereotypical indexicalities. Mahjoub’s text depicts the contested place of identity by juxtaposing transculturality and otherness, portraying their effects on the person, the family and the postcolonial state.
{"title":"Transculturality, Otherness and the Antimonies of Transnational Mobility in Jamal Mahjoub’s Travelling with Djinns","authors":"Nnaemeka Ezema","doi":"10.1163/18725465-bja10023","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-bja10023","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The continuous transnational mobility facilitated by various elements of globalisation, evidently, enhances transcultural consciousness. Despite the increasing interest in transnational mobility among critics, its effect on the different perceptions of new identity formation in Mahjoub’s Travelling with Djinns has not got the deserved critical attention. Using Achille Mbembe’s perspectives in On the Postcolony, the paper attempts to critically engage the transcultural sensibility of the characters and otherness that occur in their relationships and how all these affect their sense of belonging. Estranged from their supposed indigenous cultural affiliation, the characters are also unable to get integrated into the mainstream western culture. In the text, it is clear that while transnational mobility continues to influence new identity formation, the characters are still perceived with stereotypical indexicalities. Mahjoub’s text depicts the contested place of identity by juxtaposing transculturality and otherness, portraying their effects on the person, the family and the postcolonial state.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42937510","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-29DOI: 10.1163/18725465-bja10029
Naasiha Abrahams
Many years ago, my master thesis advisor told me that if I wanted to understand the history of a country, I should read novels. His statement caused me to reflect seriously on what it is that novels do, the truths (and untruths) they yield. This creative piece is inspired primarily by literature and is an attempt to understand how the needless death of a black university student could occur in a society that doggedly continues to view racism as something other societies do. It is simultaneously an attempt to explore how silences in the telling of history have been challenged by authors of colour, how the past reverberates into the present, and the implications for those living in the (African) diaspora. I draw on research that I conducted in two Flemish primary schools, which explored how doxic conceptions of education and belonging, equally racialized, are both reproduced and contested.
{"title":"Chronicle of a Death Foretold in Flanders","authors":"Naasiha Abrahams","doi":"10.1163/18725465-bja10029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-bja10029","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Many years ago, my master thesis advisor told me that if I wanted to understand the history of a country, I should read novels. His statement caused me to reflect seriously on what it is that novels do, the truths (and untruths) they yield. This creative piece is inspired primarily by literature and is an attempt to understand how the needless death of a black university student could occur in a society that doggedly continues to view racism as something other societies do. It is simultaneously an attempt to explore how silences in the telling of history have been challenged by authors of colour, how the past reverberates into the present, and the implications for those living in the (African) diaspora. I draw on research that I conducted in two Flemish primary schools, which explored how doxic conceptions of education and belonging, equally racialized, are both reproduced and contested.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-11-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45811094","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1163/18725465-bja10024
Josué Mbolipay Begu, M. Flahaux, Jocelyn Usatu Nappa
The literature suggests that returns that were prepared and decided by migrants tend to last on the long term and do not lead to new departures. What happens when these returns take place in an unstable context ? This article focuses on the case of migrants who decided to return to Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country that has experienced deep economic and political crises, and where returns have become rare. Using qualitative interviews, we analyse the intentions of returnees to settle permanently or to go back abroad according to their family situation. Our results reveal that individuals implement migration and family strategies that take into account the context and the way they foresee the future, not only for themselves but also for their children.
{"title":"Retourner de son gré dans un contexte d’ instabilité","authors":"Josué Mbolipay Begu, M. Flahaux, Jocelyn Usatu Nappa","doi":"10.1163/18725465-bja10024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-bja10024","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The literature suggests that returns that were prepared and decided by migrants tend to last on the long term and do not lead to new departures. What happens when these returns take place in an unstable context ? This article focuses on the case of migrants who decided to return to Kinshasa, the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, a country that has experienced deep economic and political crises, and where returns have become rare. Using qualitative interviews, we analyse the intentions of returnees to settle permanently or to go back abroad according to their family situation. Our results reveal that individuals implement migration and family strategies that take into account the context and the way they foresee the future, not only for themselves but also for their children.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41268573","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1163/18725465-bja10026
Jill Ahrens
There is a growing understanding that migration trajectories can be complex – spanning several destination countries and including multi-directional mobilities. This paper contributes to the ongoing theorisation of diasporas through a focus on the ‘return mobilities of onward migrants’ – return moves of individuals who have lived in several destination countries either to Nigeria or a previous country of residence. Given that a longing to return to the ancestral homeland has generally been understood as a defining feature of diasporas, relatively few studies have focused on ‘returns’ to other countries or locales. Based on research with Nigerian migrants in Germany, England and Spain, this paper explores some of the core elements that structure their transnational practices and mediate experiences of return mobility, including family dynamics at different life stages and evolving understandings of ‘belonging’. Thereby, this paper highlights the shifting geographic constellations of transnational families and the variety of ‘return’ mobility patterns.
{"title":"Returning to Where?","authors":"Jill Ahrens","doi":"10.1163/18725465-bja10026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-bja10026","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 There is a growing understanding that migration trajectories can be complex – spanning several destination countries and including multi-directional mobilities. This paper contributes to the ongoing theorisation of diasporas through a focus on the ‘return mobilities of onward migrants’ – return moves of individuals who have lived in several destination countries either to Nigeria or a previous country of residence. Given that a longing to return to the ancestral homeland has generally been understood as a defining feature of diasporas, relatively few studies have focused on ‘returns’ to other countries or locales. Based on research with Nigerian migrants in Germany, England and Spain, this paper explores some of the core elements that structure their transnational practices and mediate experiences of return mobility, including family dynamics at different life stages and evolving understandings of ‘belonging’. Thereby, this paper highlights the shifting geographic constellations of transnational families and the variety of ‘return’ mobility patterns.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44887835","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-02DOI: 10.1163/18725465-bja10028
M. Godin
{"title":"« Mon sol c’est la Belgique, mais j’ai le Congo tatoué sur mon visage »","authors":"M. Godin","doi":"10.1163/18725465-bja10028","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-bja10028","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48720529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-08-09DOI: 10.1163/18725465-bja10025
I. Oni
The aim of this paper is not to expand the argument that racism is a problem particular to Russia but to examine the transformation in the discrimination experienced by African migrants in Russia and their coping strategies. Using 32 in-depth interviews and an analysis of informal conversations with sub-Saharan African migrants in Moscow describing their experiences within the social and economic spheres of the country, the paper demonstrates the subtleness and implicit nature of racial discrimination that sub-Saharan African migrants experience in their social spaces, such as using the transport system and getting accommodation, and also within the economic sector. There is an overall feeling of being unwelcome that the African migrants perceive from the treatment received from their host community. The paper contributes to the global perspective of understanding the coping strategies used by African migrants to deal with their socio-economic conundrum in Russia.
{"title":"‘You Are Not Needed Here’","authors":"I. Oni","doi":"10.1163/18725465-bja10025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-bja10025","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The aim of this paper is not to expand the argument that racism is a problem particular to Russia but to examine the transformation in the discrimination experienced by African migrants in Russia and their coping strategies. Using 32 in-depth interviews and an analysis of informal conversations with sub-Saharan African migrants in Moscow describing their experiences within the social and economic spheres of the country, the paper demonstrates the subtleness and implicit nature of racial discrimination that sub-Saharan African migrants experience in their social spaces, such as using the transport system and getting accommodation, and also within the economic sector. There is an overall feeling of being unwelcome that the African migrants perceive from the treatment received from their host community. The paper contributes to the global perspective of understanding the coping strategies used by African migrants to deal with their socio-economic conundrum in Russia.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45407265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-01-11DOI: 10.1163/18725465-bja10005
O. Tade
Studies on xenophobic violence have mainly focused on their causes and effects, but have yet to probe how victimisation experiences of xenophobia trigger migration intentions and actual practices. In a balance of tales, I examine how families contributed to staying put/return decisions by Nigerian migrants in South Africa following the September 2019 xenophobic violence. The study asks: to what extent do family facilitate and/or contribute to the decision to return? And how do return strategies unveil the centrality of family in taking migration decisions? Data emerged through online interviews with Nigerian immigrants in South Africa who stayed put, and six family members in Nigeria were reached through snowball sampling. This was supplemented with secondary interviews conducted with Nigerian returnees in three National newspapers (The Punch, Vanguard, Nigerian Tribune and The Nation newspapers). Findings show the centrality of family in both migration intentions, staying-put, and the actual practices of Nigerian victims of xenophobia in South Africa.
{"title":"Factors Underlying Return Migration Decisions among Nigerian Victims of 2019 Xenophobic Violence in South Africa","authors":"O. Tade","doi":"10.1163/18725465-bja10005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-bja10005","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Studies on xenophobic violence have mainly focused on their causes and effects, but have yet to probe how victimisation experiences of xenophobia trigger migration intentions and actual practices. In a balance of tales, I examine how families contributed to staying put/return decisions by Nigerian migrants in South Africa following the September 2019 xenophobic violence. The study asks: to what extent do family facilitate and/or contribute to the decision to return? And how do return strategies unveil the centrality of family in taking migration decisions? Data emerged through online interviews with Nigerian immigrants in South Africa who stayed put, and six family members in Nigeria were reached through snowball sampling. This was supplemented with secondary interviews conducted with Nigerian returnees in three National newspapers (The Punch, Vanguard, Nigerian Tribune and The Nation newspapers). Findings show the centrality of family in both migration intentions, staying-put, and the actual practices of Nigerian victims of xenophobia in South Africa.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2022-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46910954","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-12-14DOI: 10.1163/18725465-bja10022
Arturo Marquez
Transnational social networks are vital to West Africans in managing relationships but also in ascertaining viable ways of being and belonging in the diaspora. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, this paper examines the ‘Baay Faal paradox’ to address sites of contention in West African endeavours to bind a sense of self to transnational social networks. I propose urban world-making practices that sustain connections to transnational social networks from the margins of these relations signal what I am calling ‘affective tethering.’ The term ‘tethering’ in my analysis foregrounds an imagined distance between normative models of practice and purported deviations that result in precarious, unstable and patchy connections to transnational social networks. This approach sheds light on the complex relationship between a person’s sense of self and the transnational social networks that inform ideas of personhood in the context of global mobility and settlement.
{"title":"World-Making at the Margins","authors":"Arturo Marquez","doi":"10.1163/18725465-bja10022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-bja10022","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Transnational social networks are vital to West Africans in managing relationships but also in ascertaining viable ways of being and belonging in the diaspora. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, this paper examines the ‘Baay Faal paradox’ to address sites of contention in West African endeavours to bind a sense of self to transnational social networks. I propose urban world-making practices that sustain connections to transnational social networks from the margins of these relations signal what I am calling ‘affective tethering.’ The term ‘tethering’ in my analysis foregrounds an imagined distance between normative models of practice and purported deviations that result in precarious, unstable and patchy connections to transnational social networks. This approach sheds light on the complex relationship between a person’s sense of self and the transnational social networks that inform ideas of personhood in the context of global mobility and settlement.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42623716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-16DOI: 10.1163/18725465-bja10020
Anaïs Ménard
This article analyses the individual aspirations of Sierra Leoneans living in France in relation to normative expectations related to mobility. It argues that aspirations and expectations are expressions of spatialized forms of social becoming situated within broader norms concerning socially-valued forms of mobility. Aspirations to social mobility link up distinct places in a fragmented transnational field, transform them as value-laden spaces, and inform migrants’ assessment of their own trajectory within them. Individual aspirations are formulated with regard to spaces migrants have left, spaces they live in, and spaces they would like to reach. Sierra Leoneans living in France have reached a ‘destination country’ and yet, do not experience their situation as the ideal migratory path. Their achievements are measured with regard to expectations of social mobility as imagined in English-speaking spaces, thereby reinforcing the narrative of mobility and the persistence of local idioms of ‘success’ based on historical transnational connections.
{"title":"Social Mobility and Spatialised Slowness","authors":"Anaïs Ménard","doi":"10.1163/18725465-bja10020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-bja10020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article analyses the individual aspirations of Sierra Leoneans living in France in relation to normative expectations related to mobility. It argues that aspirations and expectations are expressions of spatialized forms of social becoming situated within broader norms concerning socially-valued forms of mobility. Aspirations to social mobility link up distinct places in a fragmented transnational field, transform them as value-laden spaces, and inform migrants’ assessment of their own trajectory within them. Individual aspirations are formulated with regard to spaces migrants have left, spaces they live in, and spaces they would like to reach. Sierra Leoneans living in France have reached a ‘destination country’ and yet, do not experience their situation as the ideal migratory path. Their achievements are measured with regard to expectations of social mobility as imagined in English-speaking spaces, thereby reinforcing the narrative of mobility and the persistence of local idioms of ‘success’ based on historical transnational connections.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47687376","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-11-11DOI: 10.1163/18725465-bja10021
Anaïs Ménard, Maarten Bedert
This section introduction explores the imaginative dimension of mobility in two West African countries, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Building on literature that highlights the existential dimension of movement and migration, the authors explore three socio-cultural patterns that inform representations of im/mobility: historical continuities and the longue-durée perspective on mobile practices, the association of geographical mobility with social betterment, and the interaction between local aspirations and the imaginary of global modernity. The three individual contributions by Bedert, Enria and Ménard bring out the work of imagination attached to im/mobility both in ‘home’ countries and diaspora communities, and underline the continuity of representations and practices between spaces that are part of specific transnational social fields.
{"title":"Introduction","authors":"Anaïs Ménard, Maarten Bedert","doi":"10.1163/18725465-bja10021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725465-bja10021","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This section introduction explores the imaginative dimension of mobility in two West African countries, Sierra Leone and Liberia. Building on literature that highlights the existential dimension of movement and migration, the authors explore three socio-cultural patterns that inform representations of im/mobility: historical continuities and the longue-durée perspective on mobile practices, the association of geographical mobility with social betterment, and the interaction between local aspirations and the imaginary of global modernity. The three individual contributions by Bedert, Enria and Ménard bring out the work of imagination attached to im/mobility both in ‘home’ countries and diaspora communities, and underline the continuity of representations and practices between spaces that are part of specific transnational social fields.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2021-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42825843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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