‘Showing-Off Aesthetics’: Looking Good, Making Relations and ‘Being in the World’ in the London Akan Diaspora

Abstract

For Akan-speaking Ghanaians in London, public events and rites of passage are constitutive of their diasporic subjectivity and sociality, re-establishing and reinforcing material and symbolic connections within the diaspora and the home country. Their participation reasserts their ontological presence in the world and renders them visible and distinct in the eyes of fellow migrants, thus denying their social marginality. This ontological presence is produced through a uniquely Akan aesthetic, realised in linguistic terms, through proverbs, mottoes and wise sayings; in material terms, through sartorial ostentation and the use and display of elaborate dresses and other material objects; in taste, through the consumption of ethnic food; and in visual terms, through the use of videos and photographs. By drawing on a range of ethnographic examples from London and Ghana, this paper shows the complex overlap between the discursive and the material in the formation of Akan migrants' aestheticised subjectivity as they reassert their place in the London diaspora.

Space in Pentecostal Healing Practices among Ghanaian Migrants in London

“…The promise of healing through the power of the Holy Spirit makes these strands of Christianity especially successful in areas of the world that are characterized by extreme economic stratification and political tensions, and that are also the sending regions of many migrants to the global north (Hüwelmeier and Krause 2010:2). London has become a central node for churches founded by migrants; Ghanaians, next to Nigerians, and recently also Congolese, have contributed greatly to this development (Adogame 1998;Daswani 2010;Fumanti 2010;Garbin 2013;Harris 2006;Krause 2008a).…”

Using photography in research with young migrants: addressing questions of visibility, movement and personal spaces

“…The choice of subjects this specific group of young participants made may have been affected by the expectations raised by the medium (Änggård, 2015) and by the understanding that a camera is for taking pictures of attractive surroundings and friends. Moreover, the choice needs to be inscribed in the specific West African tradition of self representation and aesthetics (Peffer and Cameron, 2013) for which which studio portraiture constitutes a means for 'photographic self-making' (Fumanti, 2013). However, it is also possible that there were many photographs the children, both in Italy and in Ghana, were prevented from taking because of the particular circumstances in which they found themselves.…”

Mining morals, muck and Akan gold in New York City

“…While the cornerstone of Akan artefact lies in its visibility and public display in order to observe economic success (Fumanti 2013), wealth also remains, on the one hand, "the kind that feeds the people", but, on the other, "the kind that eats them" (Ferguson 2006:73).…”

“…Among the Ghanaian diaspora today, the display of wealth and artefact becomes illustrative, as Fumanti (2013) demonstrates, of a uniquely Akan aesthetic that allows Ghanaians to reassert their ontological presence in the world and renders them "realised in linguistic terms, through proverbs, mottoes and wise sayings " (2013: 200). The exhibition of wealth and its associated artefacts, writes Fumanti (2013), also allows individual Ghanaians to reclaim their place in the world, to assert and reassert their moral, economic and social identity in strange and alien settings (2013: 217).…”

“…The exhibition of wealth and its associated artefacts, writes Fumanti (2013), also allows individual Ghanaians to reclaim their place in the world, to assert and reassert their moral, economic and social identity in strange and alien settings (2013: 217). People want to show their success and symbolise it through the wearing of kente cloth inscribed, for example, with proverbs and adinkra symbols (Fumanti 2013: 209).…”