Wealth, Consumption and Migration in a West African Society. New Lifestyles and New Social Obligations among the Kasena, Northern Ghana

Awedoba, Albert K.; Hans, H

doi:10.5771/0257-9774-2014-1-45

Cited by 3 publications

(6 citation statements)

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“…The migration of one family member is often (co-)financed by other family members or patrons, functioning as a kind of collective investment through the pooling of funds, the selling or mortgaging of assets, or loans. Migrants, in turn, are expected to support family members and bring money, gifts and consumer goods when they return (Abdul-Korah 2011; 2006; Awedoba and Hahn 2014; Kabki et al . 2004; Kleist 2015; Nieswand 2013).…”

Section: A Moral Economy Of Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The interlocutors thus linked high-risk overland migration and masculinity to two factors: the strength needed to traverse the desert; and the material and social effects of successful migration, such as the ability to send remittances and return with savings and gifts. Having material resources enables investment in social relations (Awedoba and Hahn 2014; Thorsen 2014), such as the family economy and proper male adulthood through saving money for a house, a business and marriage. Returning empty-handed implies a failure to realize these goals, of having suffered to no avail.…”

Section: ‘You're a Man You Should Give Something’: Family And Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Disrupted migration projects: the moral economy of involuntary return to Ghana from Libya

Kleist¹

2017

Africa

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This article contributes to the theorization of involuntary return and moral economies in the context of economic crisis and vulnerability prompted by restrictive migration regimes and conflicts. Drawing on fieldwork in a rural town in Ghana where international labour migration is an established livelihood, it analyses deportations from North Africa, Israel and Europe and emergency return from Libya following the civil war in 2011. The article argues that return to the home town, rather than being detained or stuck en route, constitutes a particular context precisely because migrants face family and community expectations upon their return. Involuntary return constitutes a disruption of migration projects when migrants return empty-handed, going from being remitters to burdens for their families. This creates conflicts and disappointments within family and the local community, especially in relation to norms of provision and gender ideals. The paper highlights three effects of the moral economy of involuntary return. First, that involuntary return does not constitute a priori termination of migration, as many involuntary return migrants migrate again, often in high-risk ways. Second, it discusses the ambivalence of reciprocity and interdependency in families. And third, it shows how involuntary return challenges dominant ideals of masculinity.

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Section: A Moral Economy Of Migrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: ‘You're a Man You Should Give Something’: Family And Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

Disrupted migration projects: the moral economy of involuntary return to Ghana from Libya

Kleist¹

2017

Africa

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“…Ghana Statistical Service, 2014). It must be stressed that the inhabitants of this area are predominantly engaged in small-scale farming, animal raring, natural resources harvesting, hunting and fishing as their main means of subsistence (Awedoba and Hahn, 2014). They do not earn money as such, but they provide their own food and housing and other household needs from materials that are available in their environment.…”

Section: The Frafra Indigenous Ethnic Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Gurune, Nankani, Talensi, Booni and Nabt are the main languages spoken within this ethnic group. The Frafra fall into three main groups-the Tallensi, the Nabdams and a third, known variously as Gurensis (Awedoba, 2010; Awedoba and Hahn, 2014). Ghana Statistical Service, 2014).…”

Section: The Frafra Indigenous Ethnic Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They constitute some of the most ‘vulnerable’ groups in Ghana, not least because their natural environments and consequently their livelihood and traditional cultural practices have been endangered by years of neglect. My reflections on the Frafra hinge upon the view that about 80% of the population is engaged in rural and natural resource-based livelihoods (Anabila, 2020; Awedoba and Hahn, 2014). Additionally, their perspectives on mobility and migration provide an incisive counter-hegemonic conceptual framework to narrow the essentialised readings of issues concerning the impact of climate-induced migration and environmental adaptation strategies – in effect, it provides an orientation for rethinking about Anthropocene migration within and beyond the region.…”

Section: The Frafra Indigenous Ethnic Groupmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Climate migration, resilience and adaptation in the Anthropocene: Insights from the migrating Frafra to Southern Ghana

Amo-Agyemang

2022

The Anthropocene Review

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Climate-induced indigenous migration has become a radical adaptation vision in the Anthropocene. The article focuses on the problematic of representation of indigenous traditional knowledge and imagination in the Anthropocene, in Frafra ethnic group especially. The article does so by critically examining how indigenous traditional knowledge politicise anthropogenic climate change and migration conceived as a struggle between regimes of governing. It analyses alternative approaches to adaptation and resilience, from the Western scientific knowledge and modernist ontologies, often relying on the engagement of local communities, actively produced through the possibility of the existence of multiplicity in the sense of contemporaneous plurality, understood as a relational outcome and contingent relation. I argue that indigenous traditional knowledge approaches to resilience and adaptation in the Anthropocene disrupt, contest and subvert modernist discourses of climate-induced migration. It is suggested that contemporary discourses of resilience and adaptation appear to be drawing to a close as it lacks an adequate agential, transformative and also opening up alternative possibilities.

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Africa Has Moved!

Shandy¹,

Lubkemann²

2019

A Companion to the Anthropology of Africa

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Wealth, Consumption and Migration in a West African Society. New Lifestyles and New Social Obligations among the Kasena, Northern Ghana

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Disrupted migration projects: the moral economy of involuntary return to Ghana from Libya

Disrupted migration projects: the moral economy of involuntary return to Ghana from Libya

Climate migration, resilience and adaptation in the Anthropocene: Insights from the migrating Frafra to Southern Ghana

Africa Has Moved!

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