Moving Through and Passing On

Fulani Mobility, Survival and Identity in Ghana

Yaa P.A. Oppong (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

276 Seiten

2002
Transaction Publishers (Verlag)
978-0-7658-0126-5 (ISBN)

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The Fulani are one of West Africa's most populous and geographically dispersed ethnic groups. Commonly thought of as a pastoral people, primarily engaged in cattle herding, Fulani peoples are in reality highly differentiated in livelihood and patterns of mobility. Despite having a long history of residence in Ghana, Fulani are considered "aliens" in the eyes of the state and "strangers" by the various ethnic groups among whom they reside. Among Fulani themselves, differences of place, circumstance, and experience have generated parallel ambigoities on matters of identity and survival. In Moving Through and Passing On, Yaa P.A. Oppong focuses on the Fulani of the Greater Accra region to offer the first detailed account of the lives of this transnational community in Ghana.

Based on eighteen months of ethnographic fieldwork, Oppong develops detailed case studies and draws upon over two hundred in-depth life histories to explore issues of mobility, survival, and identity among this spacially dispersed and diverse group. Using perspectives and insights gained from oral life histories, private and public ceremonies, and ethnic associations, she examines the sites and circumstances in which people profess to be the "same" or "different" from one another. The markers of Fulani identity-as recognized by Fulani and non-Fulani alike-are examined. Oppong also explores the factors that allow them, as a distinct ethnic category, to maintain and perpetuate this identity and viability in Greater Accra. The metaphoric analogy of "construction sites" is employed to define the explicit and implicit events and recurring processes through which people conceive of themselves as Fulani. These locations and contexts of action include ethnic associations, public gatherings, and common rites of passage. The recurring processes include genealogical reckoning of kinship and endogamous marriage transactions, and the ways in which ties of descent and filiation are used to enhance individual survival and family development goals.

In tracing Fulani mobility, survival, and identity across space and through time, Oppong connects her investigation to universal experiences of migration, social change, education, and family life. Moving Through and Passing On will be of interest to anthropologists, sociologists, and Africa area specialists.

Yaa M.P.A. Oppong received her doctorate in social anthropology from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London in 1999. During the 1999-2000 academic year she was awarded a David E. Bell Fellowship in Population and Development at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies.

Tables and Figures, Maps, Acknowledgments, 1 Introduction, 2 Who are “We?”: Crossing Boundaries through Space and Time, 3 Fulani in Greater Accra: Following Cows and Forgetting Home, 4 Globalizing Kinship: Marriage and Mobility among Far-Flung Fulani Families, 5 Mobile Stories, Gendered Lives: Socialization, Training and Education, 6 Suudu-baabas: Fulani Ethnic Associations, 7 Performance and Identity: Conflict and Contradiction in Social Drama, 8 “We Have No Home Like Ghana…”, Appendix 1: A Note on Field Methods, Appendix 2: Myths of Origin, Appendix 3: Case Studies, Bibliography, Index

Erscheint lt. Verlag	31.5.2002
Verlagsort	Somerset
Sprache	englisch
Maße	152 x 229 mm
Gewicht	670 g
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
Themenwelt	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
ISBN-10	0-7658-0126-4 / 0765801264
ISBN-13	978-0-7658-0126-5 / 9780765801265
Zustand	Neuware