African DiasporaPub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1163/18725457-12341239
Sarah Demart
{"title":"Congolese migration to Belgium and postcolonial perspectives","authors":"Sarah Demart","doi":"10.1163/18725457-12341239","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725457-12341239","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Long absent from the scholarly literature, Congolese migration to Belgium now occupies a greater place in academic research. Nevertheless the various disciplinary approaches undertaken and the many topics of interest explored have not exhausted the complexity of this diaspora, too often the object of prejudice in popular opinion and public policies. The position of “the Congolese issue” in the academic world is thus rarely problematized due to confusion over how to categorize the Congo and the Congolese – either as ‘Africa,’ ‘Central Africa,’ ‘Sub-Sahara,’ etc. This reflects a ‘geography of the Other’ that significantly confounds current social processes at work in Belgium and the particularity of this (post)migratory situation. Grounded in empirical research, this issue in moving beyond merely highlighting a relatively marginalized group in Belgian Migration Studies, is focusing on the postcolonial stakes of the Congolese presence in Belgium. The authors take different viewpoints to explore the place of the Congolese in the former metropole and the forms of marginalization they face. The everyday life, the state regulations and the dynamics of identity are then various lens to bring to light the racial logics at work in the Belgian multiculturalism.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/18725457-12341239","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64810806","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}
African DiasporaPub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1163/18725457-12341240
U. Manço, M. Robert, Billy Kalonji
{"title":"Postcolonialisme et prise en charge institutionnelle des jeunes belgo-congolais en situation de rupture sociale (Anvers, Bruxelles)","authors":"U. Manço, M. Robert, Billy Kalonji","doi":"10.1163/18725457-12341240","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725457-12341240","url":null,"abstract":"Resume Se basant sur une observation participante et le temoignage professionnel de deux travailleurs sociaux congolais, l’article souligne, a Anvers et a Bruxelles, les rapports entre autorites locales et associations belgo-congolaises qui rappellent l’ordre colonial. Cette reminiscence peut fournir une explication aux dysfonctionnements qui apparaissent lors de la prise en charge des jeunes belgo-congolais. Les besoins socioculturels des Belgo-Congolais ne sont pas rencontres et leurs associations ne sont pas assez reconnues ni financees. La contribution etudie egalement la question identitaire de ces jeunes en proposant deux hypotheses qui pourraient fournir une base explicative au phenomene des « bandes urbaines », concernant la destructuration de la famille migrante congolaise et l’effet socio-psychologique des sequelles coloniales. Cette approche tend a rendre caduque la reduction (souvent operee par les pouvoirs publics) des realites sociales des jeunes Belgo-Congolais a celles des jeunes Belges issus des immigrations marocaine et turque.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/18725457-12341240","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64810912","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}
African DiasporaPub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1163/18725457-12341244
Sarah Demart, B. Meiers, Anne Melice
{"title":"Géographies religieuses et migrations postcoloniales: déclinaisons kimbanguistes, pentecôtistes, et olangistes en Belgique","authors":"Sarah Demart, B. Meiers, Anne Melice","doi":"10.1163/18725457-12341244","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725457-12341244","url":null,"abstract":"Resume L’Eglise kimbanguiste (EJCSK), les Eglises de reveil, le Ministere du Combat Spirituel du couple Olangi, sont trois mouvements religieux d’origine congolaise affirmant un christianisme africain affranchi des assignations coloniales et neocoloniales. Bien que ces mouvements soient irreductibles les uns aux autres sur le plan historique, ils sont tous travailles par la thematique du combat spirituel. Sur la base de recherches menees au sein de ces mondes religieux plurilocalises, les auteurs examinent la redistribution temporelle et spatiale des territoires sorciers. Apres avoir rappele les metamorphoses de la sorcellerie dans la societe congolaise depuis les annees 1990, les pratiques et les discours relatifs a la sorcellerie sont examines pour chacun des mouvements. Les recompositions religieuses qu’engage la migration en Europe sont ensuite mises en perspective en posant la question de savoir dans quelle mesure ces pratiques et discours en situation migratoire activent le referent postcolonial. Si le projet migratoire est avant tout un projet de realisation de soi et d’affranchissement pour les adeptes du combat spirituel, il est en meme temps associe a une entreprise de redemption d’une Europe jugee en perdition, et meme, selon les kimbanguistes, en proie a la sorcellerie. Ce fond commun supporte toutefois aussi des divergences. Tandis que la migration est associee a une reformulation des discours sur la famille pour les olangistes et a une forte transformation des discours et des pratiques de delivrance au sein des Eglises de reveil, le deplacement en Europe correspond au contraire pour la diaspora kimbanguiste, a une confrontation accrue avec un territoire considere comme eminemment sorcier.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/18725457-12341244","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64811144","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}
African DiasporaPub Date : 2013-01-01DOI: 10.1163/18725457-12341243
C. B. Sinatu, Marie Godin, N. Grégoire
{"title":"\"Le Kivu, c'est notre Alsace-Lorraine, monsieur ! \" : Femmes d'origine congolaise dans l'espace public belge et contraintes de la dénonciation en situation postcoloniale","authors":"C. B. Sinatu, Marie Godin, N. Grégoire","doi":"10.1163/18725457-12341243","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725457-12341243","url":null,"abstract":"Resume A partir d’une situation d’interpellation parlementaire mettant en scene une tribune de femmes d’origine congolaise denoncant la situation de guerre et de violence sevissant a l’Est du Congo, cet article se penche sur la presence croissante de femmes d’origine congolaise dans l’espace public belge. Tout d’abord, l’article met en relation l’histoire de l’evolution des rapports sociaux de sexe au Congo et la socialisation politique de certaines femmes d’origine congolaise dans l’espace public belge a travers notamment le developpement d’un tissu associatif congolais particulierement feminise. Ensuite, le cadre dans lequel la denonciation faite par les femmes prend place est analyse par le biais d’un outillage theorique innovant, articulant des concepts de la sociologie pragmatique (Boltanski et al. 1984; Boltanski et al. 2007) et de la theorie des mouvements sociaux (Snow et al. 1986). L’analyse montre que les rapports postcoloniaux belges peuvent donner lieu, dans l’espace public, a des situations d’interaction paradoxales ou l’histoire coloniale, alors qu’elle sous-tend l’ensemble des echanges, doit etre gardee sous silence sous peine de grever la legitimite et la coherence de la prise de parole en public. Cette strategie d’evitement du cadre postcolonial permet aux femmes de faire entendre leurs voix.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2013-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/18725457-12341243","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64811062","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}
African DiasporaPub Date : 2012-01-01DOI: 10.1163/18725457-12341235
E. Ratia, C. Notermans
{"title":"“I was crying, I did not come back with anything”: Women’s Experiences of Deportation from Europe to Nigeria","authors":"E. Ratia, C. Notermans","doi":"10.1163/18725457-12341235","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725457-12341235","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract The aim of this article is to study the impact of deportation on women’s lives, via the narrated experiences of Nigerian women deported from the European Union. It focuses on women’s stories about the period prior to their travel to Europe and their motivations for doing so; on stories about the journey and their experiences as migrants; and finally on stories about their deportation and their life after returning home to Nigeria. By taking this three-step approach and by focusing on deportees’ experiences, the authors want to contribute to an emic understanding of deportation in which gender and kinship play a crucial part. The obligation to migrate is a social as well as an economic duty for women in the Nigerian context. Whereas anthropological studies have so far focused on deportees’ feelings of non-belonging, this article shows that women’s experiences of deportation are highly connected to family belonging.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2012-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/18725457-12341235","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64810330","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}
African DiasporaPub Date : 2012-01-01DOI: 10.1163/18725457-12341236
T. W. Higgins
{"title":"Mission Networks and the African Diaspora in Britain","authors":"T. W. Higgins","doi":"10.1163/18725457-12341236","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725457-12341236","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Scholars have frequently commented on the networks fostered by Africans living in the diaspora. It is not commonly recognized that many African Christians also relied upon ‘mission networks.’ These networks exerted a degree of influence on migrants, but were also a great help, particularly to students, and for that reason many Africans valued them while living in Britain. Such was the case with G. Daniels Ekarte, who founded the African Churches Mission in Liverpool, and others including: James ‘Holy’ Johnson, Byang Kato, Parmenas Mukiri Githendu and Emmanuel Akingbala.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2012-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/18725457-12341236","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64810883","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}
African DiasporaPub Date : 2012-01-01DOI: 10.1163/187254612X646215
D. Schans
{"title":"'Entangled in Tokyo': exploring diverse pathways of labor market incorporation of African immigrants in Japan","authors":"D. Schans","doi":"10.1163/187254612X646215","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/187254612X646215","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In this article I explore employment practices and pathways of labor market incorporation of sub-Saharan African immigrants in Japan. Based on secondary information as well as 5 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo and its suburbs, I will first describe the history of migration from Africa to Japan and the current demographic characteristics of African immigrants in Japan. I will then continue to describe the employment practices of African immigrants to explore questions surrounding integration, incorporation, and the use of human and social capital in the Japanese context. My findings give a first indication of the mechanisms behind the diverse trajectories, especially highlighting the importance of entrepreneurship, transnational ties with the country of origin, and ties with Japanese nationals in facilitating labor market incorporation. Finally, attention is also given to the role of the Japanese state in facilitating or hindering opportunities for employment.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2012-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/187254612X646215","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64813090","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}
African DiasporaPub Date : 2012-01-01DOI: 10.1163/187254612X646206
S. Bredeloup
{"title":"African Trading Post in Guangzhou: Emergent or Recurrent Commercial Form?","authors":"S. Bredeloup","doi":"10.1163/187254612X646206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/187254612X646206","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract In the early 2000s, nationals of Sub-Saharan Africa who had settled in the market places of Hong Kong, Bangkok, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur, moved to Guangzhou and opened offices in the upper floors of buildings in Baiyun and Yuexiu Districts. These were located in the northwest of the city, near the central railway station and one of the two fairs of Canton. Gradually these traders were able to create the necessary conditions of hospitality by opening community restaurants on upper floors, increasing the number of showrooms and offices as well as the services of freight and customs clearance in order to live up to an African itinerant customer’s expectations. From interviews carried out between 2006 and 2009 in the People’s Republic of China and in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Dubai, and West Africa, the article will first highlight the economic logics which have contributed to the constitution of African trading posts in China and describe their extension from the Middle East and from Asia. The second part will determine the respective roles of migrants and traveling Sub-Saharan entrepreneurs, before exploring their interactions with Chinese society in the setting up of these commercial networks. It will also look at the impact of toughening immigration policies. It is the principle of the African trading posts of anchoring of some traders in strategic places negotiated with the host society that allows the movement but also the temporary settlement of many visitors. The first established traders purchase products manufactured in the hinterland to fulfill the demand of the itinerant merchants who in turn supply customers located in other continents.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2012-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/187254612X646206","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64813439","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}
African DiasporaPub Date : 2012-01-01DOI: 10.1163/18725457-12341237
B. Lecocq
{"title":"The hajj from West Africa from a global historical perspective (19th and 20th centuries)","authors":"B. Lecocq","doi":"10.1163/18725457-12341237","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18725457-12341237","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Over the last years, in average, 2,1 million people per year performed the hajj. These millions stand in contrast to the numbers visiting Mecca half a century ago. On average, until 1946 a rough 60,000 pilgrims visited Mecca annually, with at least half of these coming from the Arabian Peninsula. Today Saudi nationals make up about a quarter of all pilgrims. The explanations for the staggering thirtyfold increase in total pilgrims, and the even more spectacular growth of the number of foreign pilgrims in slightly more than half a century are quite simple. First of all, the increasing world population in general led to larger numbers of pilgrims. Second, the journey became safer and better organised during the 20th century. In those parts of the Muslim world where it was not already (the Ottoman Empire), the organisation of the hajj became a state affair, organised first by the colonial authorities, and by the postcolonial states afterwards. Third, despite growing disparities in the distribution of global economic wealth an increasing number of Muslims could afford to pay for the journey. And finally the availability of cheap mechanical mass transport increased over this time period. This paper will look at these interconnected reasons for the spectacular growth of the hajj in the past half century from a world historical perspective, focussing on the West African Sahel in the 19th and 20th centuries. In this paper I hope to sketch how state rule, changing economies, motorised mass transport, and religion are interconnected phenomena, which are all shaped by and giving shape to world historical events in the Muslim world. The focus will be largely on the changing demography and social geography of the pilgrimage journey to Mecca as performed by pilgrims from the Sahel, and the changing significance of this journey in their lives.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2012-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/18725457-12341237","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64810729","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}
African DiasporaPub Date : 2012-01-01DOI: 10.1163/187254612X646189
M. J. Alpes
{"title":"Bushfalling at All Cost: The Economy of Migratory Knowledge in Anglophone Cameroon","authors":"M. J. Alpes","doi":"10.1163/187254612X646189","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/187254612X646189","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Despite high financial costs, deportations and many frustrated departure attempts, young Anglophone Cameroonians maintain high aspirations for migration. In this article, I lay out the social rationalities of aspiring migrants, as well as the economic, symbolic and informational context of their emigration decisions. On the basis of three case studies, I analyze how information on emigration is controlled, processed, and evaluated. While discourses within migration policy often posit that aspiring migrants are naive and uninformed, I demonstrate how migration choices and strategies are developed under circumstances more complex than can be grasped by the simplistic alternative between being informed or not informed about migratory risks. Rather than to consider flows of information, I argue what matters is whether or not information is trusted and how it is interpreted. By looking at the costs and gains of migration from the standpoint of aspiring migrants, this article shifts the focus towards migration dynamics at the point of departure.","PeriodicalId":42998,"journal":{"name":"African Diaspora","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.6,"publicationDate":"2012-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1163/187254612X646189","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"64813165","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}