Extant Culture of Migration in Africa: Juxtaposing Pre-Modern Practice with Contemporary Pattern
In-depth exploration of extant procedures for inter-personal interaction across the length and breadth of pre-modern African society has been indicative of a pattern of the inherent culture of migration across time and space. Despite ostensible pre-colonial and post-colonial impediments to cross-border interactions, for instance distance, imposed colonial languages, uncommon colonial experiences and multiple monetary zoning, the migration and mobility of Africans has been increasing across histories. Although various colonial regimes in parts of Africa had tended to encourage only intra-border migration at the detriment of cross-border migration within emergent African nation-states, pre-existing cross-cultural interactive patterns had made related cross-border relationships sustainable across histories. Meanwhile, the migratory network of most cultural groupings in Africa, for instance the case of the Yoruba ethnic group within the West African sub-region, has been largely predicated on extant interpersonal (familial) ties.
Nevertheless, specific individual interests and relevant social spaces have jointly determined the patterns of integration of the migrants within the host societies. Essentially, the migratory success of most migrant groups in Africa had accounted for the harmonization of what would have ordinarily been dual identities as a unique regional identity. The situations in the modern-day East and West African sub-regions have been particularly striking. Such a cross-border pattern of human exchange is noted as central to stimulation of productive and sustainable free movement of persons and goods across the African continent, which is equally considered imperative in discouraging irregular trans-continental migration of mostly African youth, which has remained the fulcrum of prevalent migration crises within the continent.
Although the precise periods of commencement of mobility of most ethnic migrant groups within the African continent have been largely indeterminable, related documentation and undocumented and oral evidence from various exploratory sources conducted in East, West, North and South Africa have convincingly indicated that such migratory processes did predate mid-nineteenth century colonial invasion of parts of Africa. Through pre-modern shuttle trade expeditions (and as a result of the continuous need to escape prevalent communal unrest in parts of ancestral African societies), contact had been made with other parts of modern-day African society earlier than could be captured within the colonial and the post-colonial contexts, for example, Bantu-speaking Shona and Ndebele ethnic migrants from Zimbabwe in South Africa, Mossi ethnic migrants from Burkina Faso in Cote dâIvoire and Ghana, the Maasi ethnic group from Sudan in Kenya and the Tuareg ethnic group from Niger Republic in Libya.
However, with the integration of migrant groups such as the Tawergha in Libya and the Maasi in Kenya into the socio-economic frameworks of the host societies and the recognition of traditional practices such as the institution of âObaâ (Yoruba Kingship pattern) among the migrant Yoruba group in Cote dâIvoire, which is unique to the Yoruba ethnic group, in the early twentieth century by the Ivorian authorities, the stage seemed set for the adoption of respective host societies as home by these migrant groups (Adeniran 2009a, b, 2012: 1). Of course, this scenario can be applied to other migrant ethnic groupings and empires across the African continent.
At the root of the pre-modern migratory expeditions, trekking was the order of the day as the means of traveling hundreds of kilometers for prospective migrants, unlike the situation now in a globalizing African society. Subsequently, the use of animals was common until the early 1900s when rail and water transportation became accessible in parts of Africa. The development of road infrastructure (and introduction of vehicles) during the 1950s as a means of transportation in West Africa, for instance, was a sign of modernization, and, indeed, of the enhancement of the cross-border migratory trend within the sub-region. Improvement in both communication and transportation infrastructure has been directly correlated to worsening crises of migration within the African continent.
During the first segment of the migratory cycle (i.e., from the late 1800s to early 1900s), most migrants had worked as farmers within the host societies. The second segment, that is, from the early 1900s to date, has witnessed the shift from most migrants being colonial employees to independent artisans, business owners, teachers and so forth.
While the total number of Ejigbo-Yoruba (Nigerians) in Cote dâIvoire as of 1930 was approximately 500, of the estimated 1,200,000 Nigerians living in Cote dâIvoire in 2006, the Ejigbo-Yoruba migrant community accounted for more than 90 per cent. The population census held in Nigeria in 2006 revealed that the Ejigbo community in Nigeria had a total of 132,641 members (National Population Commission 2006). As of 2006, well over 80 per cent of the entire Ejigbo-Yoruba population was living in Cote dâIvoire. The granting of citizen rights to West African migrants by the regime of the late Ivorian President Felix Houphouet-Boigny in the early 1960s caused a further explosion of the migratory trend along the Nigerian-Ivorian corridor. Prevalent interpersonal ties among migrants and the practice of cross-cultural marriage with the host society has been a strong impetus in this respect (Adeniran 2011).
It is therefore interesting to note that contact between various migrating groups within Africa not only pre-dates the advent of colonialism on the continent, and has grown sustainable over time and space, it has been holding out a formidable promise for the realization of the goal of a borderless African regional space, which should be a positive development for encouraging Africans stay in Africa. Put more succinctly, it appears that Africa has always been a moving continent, and migration concerns here are not a particularly new phenomenon. What is disturbingly new is the crises that have become the face of mobility within and beyond the shores of the continent due to disequilibrium in accessing societal resources and expanding the rate of population change on the continent.
How, then, have the inherent socio-historical backgrounds of active cross-border mobility of Africans within the continent informed budding migration crises within and beyond its shores? How does the network that facilitates related mobility function? In what ways do Africans integrate within the âreceiving societiesâ in and outside of Africa? What prospect does the characteristic fluid nature of cross-border interaction in Africa hold for the larger continental integration drive, and for dissuading Africans from embarking on unstructured trans-continental migrations (thereby addressing emanating migration crises)? These and related questions are the focus of this book.
Theoretical and Conceptual Discourse on Migration Processes in Africa
Most analyses of âtransnationalism-in-migrationâ have focused on interpretation of related âmotivations for movingâ and their socio-economic impacts on both âreleasingâ and âreceivingâ societies (Shulman 2000; Richards and Seary 2000). Thus, routinely excluding issues that bother on cross-cultural interaction (i.e., attitudinal), yet transnational and developmental in scope and functioning; of whose prism is perfectly fitting to the prevalent culture of migration and life-long practice of cross-societal eking out of a living in Africa. As noted by Mabogunje (1970) in the âsystems approach to a theory of rural-urban migrationâ, migration changes the socio-cultural, economic and institutional contexts of inter-personal interaction in both sending and receiving countries and enables an intertwined developmental space specific to processes of mobility.
In essence, a fluid delineation exists between what Africans term âhome spaceâ and âaway spaceâ within the framework of respective regional trans-border interaction. What is judged as âchain networkingâ within the African migratory context is the process of attempting to meet and talk to other closely connected or familial individuals who may be useful for the realization of oneâs aspirations, for instance in the process of cross-border or transnational mobility. Often, social capital that produces measures of direct and indirect utilization of âsocial connectionsâ drives the entire process.
Essentially, a fusion of Max Weberâs social action theory (1991), Peggy Levitt and Nana Glick-Schillerâs transnational social field theory (2004) and Walt Whitman Rostowâs The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (1960) is considered expedient in understanding the context of migratory relations and practices of Africans within and beyond the confines of Africa.
Weberian social action theory as espoused by Walter Garry Runciman (1991) is of the view that realities are mere expressions of individual dispositions from the perspectives and orientations of these individuals. If any affirmation can be judged as essential to Weberâs societal perception, it is that an individual act can only be understood in relation to the perception of what he or she intends to do, or to achieve with such an act. What makes up social reality according to Weber is âsubjectively meaningful actionâ. To fully grasp what behavior connotes, we must learn the subjective interpretations individuals routinely adduce to their actionsâhow they themselves view and explain, or construct, their disposition or related existential realities, within a specific historical context. Interestingly, Karl Marxâs perspective on the relation of âbeingâ and âconsciousnessâ seems to offer a useful explanation in this respect, but Weber emphasized what Marx de-emphasized: that individuals act freely. Again, Weber stresses the social action of the individual action, that is, in which the actor considers the past, present and future behaviors of others in order to act. Actions then entail the ideas that people have about one another, their ability to take on the role of the other, and their definitions of the situations in which they find themselves.
In the context of transnational social field theory, as presented by Levitt and Glick Schiller (2004), in order to fully understand the process of mobility from both the pre-migratory and post-migratory perspective, there is a need to extend the limit of migration to interaction because it is central to individual and group construction of reality. The notion of the âtransnational social fieldâ has been a formidable tool for conceptualizing the potential array of social relations linking those âwho move and those who stay behindâ. It takes us beyond the direct experience of migration into domains of interaction where individuals who do not move themselves maintain social relations across borders through various forms of communication (Levitt and Glick Schiller 2004: 610). Individuals who have such direct connections with migrants may connect with others who do not. It should not be assumed that those with stronger connections will be more âtransnationallyâ vibrant than those with weaker connections, or that the actions and identities of those with more indirect connections are less impacted by the dynamics within the transnational framework than those with direct transnational ties (Levitt and Waters 2002). Rather, a view of society and social membership based on a concept of social field that differentiates between âways of beingâ and âways of belongingâ is emphasized. The boundaries of such fields are often fluid and the field itself is routinely created by participating network members who are connected in their desire for social mobility.
Rostowâs The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto contextualized a linear-stages-of-growth model that defines development as a cumulative process of social change through which all societies must pass in order to advance in a sustainable manner. A related conception of the nature and process of development has served as the fulcrum for conceptualizing what modernization and modernization theory precisely entail. The ensuing tradition of global capitalism has derived huge impetus from this perspective. The notion of a globalized culture had had as one of its significant attributes free movement of persons, goods and services at both regional and transnational level, that is, the idea of a âborderless global spaceâ. This is particularly applicable in explaining the current desire of mostly young Africans to migrate toward the relatively developed societies of Europe. Specifically, the bourgeoning irregular pattern of mobility along the ancient Saharan-Libyan-Mediterranean Sea-Southern European route could be understood within this context. More notably, the irregular migration of African youth to Europe in particular could be deemed an integral component of Rostowâs âconditions for take-offâ, which signify a process of transmutation from âtraditional societyâ.
Theoretical Synthesis
While the âtransnational social fieldâ perspective emphasizes the nature and structure of ongoing social relations within the transnational framework, the âsocial actionâ postulate explains the actual functioning of individuals and institutions within the transnational social space, that is, the manner in which social capital as ethnic identity is deployed in constructing a tenable network identity for network members in the course of their transnational engagements. With this intention in focus, the inherent âfluidityâ of the transnational field in Africa has become established as an apt platform for constructing and explaining the migratory capacity and practice of Africans within the context of budding global capitalism. It appears that the urge to seek a âgood lifeâ is ably supported by the principles of global capitalism and its vestiges.
Research Design and Sources of Data
The book utilizes an exploratory design which entails non-participant observations, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews (IDIs) and case profiles in generating needed data. Primary and secondary data were sourced from nine purposively selected African countries: Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana, Cote dâIvoire, Morocco, Tunisia, South Africa, Kenya and Libya. Content analysis and ethnographic summary were engaged in order to transform the collected data into an analytical format. The research instruments were designed in longitudinal and case study formats.
Socio-Historical Undertones of African Transnationalism
In pre-colonial Africa, the mobility of Africans has often been confined to their respective regions and has routinely been conducted between or among communities with closely related cultures. This is observable in the cases of Bantu-speaking Shona and Ndebele ethnic migrants from Zimbabwe in South Africa, Mossi ethnic migrants from Burkina Faso in Cote dâIvoire and Ghana, the Maasi ethnic group from Sudan in Kenya and the Tuareg ethnic group from the Republic of Niger in Libya.
However, contextualizing patterns of pre-colonial mobility and migration in parts of Africa as either intra-border or cross-border could be infeasible due to the fact that most of the ethnic nationalities existed in kingdoms and empires. Nevertheless, the existence of cross-border interaction was evident in the movement of natives who participated in the capture of or trade in slaves, inter-ethnic strife and wars (Alkali 1985; Mahadi 1989). Equally, trading across the Sahara and nomadic herding has led to human mobility and migration across parts of Africa (Akinjogbin 1980).
The transnational experience of Yoruba (Nigerian) migrants, who are mainly found in the West African countries, has been profound. The cross-border exposure of these people has been evident in most of their âhometownsâ back in Nigeria, for instance in Ejigbo town in Nigeria. Apart from the native Yoruba and the Nigeriaâs official language, English, French is freely spoken within the community (Asiwaju 1992). It is rare to hear anyone speaking English on the streets. Rather, they speak and transact in French because they are part of Francophone West Africa (Afolayan 2004; Adepoju 2006).
The transnational engagement of the Yoruba within the West African sub-region has been cross-generational:
âŠour forefathers did traverse Cotonou [Benin Republic], Lome [Togo] and Accra [Ghana] to get here [Abidjan, Cote dâIvoire] since period the pre-modern era. (IDI (Yoruba), male, retiree, 86 years, Abobo-Abidjan, Cote dâIvoire, June 20, 2010)
What could be referred to as âpre-modernâ from the above submission is clearly indicative of a primitive era when a rudimentary and subsistence pattern of living was prevalent in parts of Yorubaland, as in other cultural settings in Africa. The exposure that followed the contact with the âwhite menâ facilitated the end of this era of primitive existence. Notably, trade and related economic interests such as sourcing for arms and ammunitions to prosecute the then prevalent inter-ethnic strife across parts of the pre-colonial African society facilitated the contact of the people with other societies across the continent. Cultural goods such as âilekeâ, âiyunâ and âaso okeâ (Yoruba) were taken along by the migrants (sojourners or traders) to sell or exchange to either send the much-needed ...