This paper examines the productive role of secrecy in the nexus of transnational mobility, kinship, and intimate relations among Ghanaian-Dutch and Somali-Dutch in the Netherlands. Whereas secrecy... Show moreThis paper examines the productive role of secrecy in the nexus of transnational mobility, kinship, and intimate relations among Ghanaian-Dutch and Somali-Dutch in the Netherlands. Whereas secrecy is typically understood as one person concealing knowledge from another, implying the latter’s passivity, we argue that secrecy depends on mutually constitutive interactions. Secrecy is explored as the result of an interaction between those who obscure knowledge in creative ways and those who maintain a not-knowing. The paper analyzes how people negotiate moral expectations regarding sexuality, respect, and loyalty, while also manoeuvring to fulfil their personal aspirations. Especially in kinship relations, when people are bound to each other by moral and social obligations, the management of secrecy often makes people mutually dependent. Secrecy is revealed as skillfully choreographing relations by the ebb and flow of information where kinship, respect, or love and (not-) knowing reinforce another. Show less
Pentecostalism in Africa has developed a special relationship with the night as a time for conducting specific religious activities. Of these, the night vigil is the best known, with its underlying... Show morePentecostalism in Africa has developed a special relationship with the night as a time for conducting specific religious activities. Of these, the night vigil is the best known, with its underlying notions concerning darkness, invisible powers, faith and community. Ghanaian Pentecostals view the night as a kind of landscape where certain spaces and places become important to test the strength of one's personal faith and convictions, because the time after dark produces ambiguities of the good and the bad, or the superior and the inferior, of the spiritual powers that manifest themselves. Participation in Pentecostal night-time activities signals a modernity of Pentecostal beliefs and identities which, by confronting the powers of darkness, bring about a strengthening of the faith that churches and leaders aim to establish in interaction with their following. This contribution focuses on the Ghanaian community in The Hague, The Netherlands. It ventures to sensitize anthropology to the modernity of these forms of Christianity and the way they are becoming active producers of social and spiritual environments - defined here as Pentecostal nightscaping - as testing grounds for the efficacy of their faith. [Journal abstract] Show less
Dit rapport is het resultaat van een verkennend onderzoek naar de culturele achtergronden van de handel in Nigeriaanse meisjes die naar Nederland komen om in de prostitutie te gaan werken. Een... Show moreDit rapport is het resultaat van een verkennend onderzoek naar de culturele achtergronden van de handel in Nigeriaanse meisjes die naar Nederland komen om in de prostitutie te gaan werken. Een belangrijke overeenkomst in de verhalen die deze meisjes de Nederlandse politie vertellen betreft de 'voodoo'-rituelen waaraan zij voor vertrek naar Nederland worden onderworpen. In het rapport komen de volgende vragen aan de orde: wat doen handelaren met denkbeelden van 'voodoo'? Hoe creëren zij daarmee een sfeer van angst en intimidatie? Hoe komt het dat dit voor de meisjes evenzeer een werkelijkheid wordt als dat in de sinistere betekenis van het woord ook voor velen in de Nederlandse samenleving het geval is? Het rapport stelt dat 'voodoo' in de Nigeriaanse praktijk niet bestaat (er is wel een aantal andere rituele praktijken waar op wordt ingegaan) en in de Nederlandse situatie een goed begrip van de omstandigheden verhindert. Het rapport behandelt de sociaal-economische situatie in Nigeria en Edo State, het district waar veel van de betrokken meisjes vandaan komen; de positie van vrouwen in Nigeria t.a.v. huwelijk, seksualiteit, prostitutie, en de culturele achtergronden daarvan; aspecten van religie in West Afrika en Edo; een gevalsstudie; en het ongedefinieerde gebruik van het begrip 'voodoo' door Nederlandse hulpverleningsinstanties Show less
Rev. Mensa Otabil, the founder of the International Central Gospel Church in Accra, is considered an influential representative of a new Pentecostal-inspired Pan-Africanist ideology. His book ... Show moreRev. Mensa Otabil, the founder of the International Central Gospel Church in Accra, is considered an influential representative of a new Pentecostal-inspired Pan-Africanist ideology. His book 'Beyond the Rivers of Ethiopia' lays the foundations of a Pentecostal Liberation Theology that proclaims a Christianized sequel to Pan-Africanism. Operating from Ghana, his ideas for Africa and for 'black consciousness' have spread to Ghanaian migrant communities worldwide. While Otabil has been successful in transforming ownership of the intellectualist production of Pan-Africanism by tailoring it to the needs of the ordinary Pentecostal believer, it has not been adopted so extensively among all Ghanaian migrant communities in the West. By exploring Ghanaian migrant communities and their Pentecostal churches in the Netherlands, where the staunch identity politics of the Dutch government leave little room for the assertive proclamation of 'Africanness', this chapter demonstrates that Otabil's ideas do not act as a main source of inspiration everywhere in the Ghanaian diaspora. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [Book abstract] Show less
Among the many immigrant groups that have settled in the Netherlands, migrants recently arrived from Ghana have been perceived by the Dutch State as especially problematic. Explicit measures have... Show moreAmong the many immigrant groups that have settled in the Netherlands, migrants recently arrived from Ghana have been perceived by the Dutch State as especially problematic. Explicit measures have been taken to investigate marriages of Ghanaians, as these appeared to be an avenue by which many acquired access to the Dutch welfare State. While the Dutch government tightened its immigration policies, many Ghanaian Pentecostal churches were emerging in the Ghanaian immigrant communities. An important function of these churches is to officiate over marriages; marriages that are perceived as lawful and righteous in the eyes of the migrant community but nonetheless do not have any legal basis as far as the Dutch State is concerned. This contribution explores why the Ghanaian community attributes great moral significance to the marriages that are taking place within their Pentecostal churches. It investigates the changing meaning of the functions of Pentecostal churches in Ghana and in the Netherlands by distinguishing civil morality from civic responsibility. It seeks to explore how, in both contexts, legitimacy is created as well as contested in the face of prevailing State-civil society relations. This exploration indicates why, in both situations, Pentecostalism is unlikely to develop into a civic religion in the full sense of the term. [Journal abstract] Show less
The papers in this volume were earlier presented at the conference 'Globalization and new questions of ownership', which was held in Leiden, The Netherlands, from 26-27 April 2002. The volume... Show moreThe papers in this volume were earlier presented at the conference 'Globalization and new questions of ownership', which was held in Leiden, The Netherlands, from 26-27 April 2002. The volume challenges the dominant view that globalization is a primary threat to African societies. Instead, it emphasizes African agency in situating globality, that is, in selectively and creatively appropriating elements of the emerging global culture. Contributions: Situating globality: African agency in the appropriation of global culture (Wim van Binsbergen, Rijk van DijkandJan-Bart Gewald); Global and local trends in media ownership and control: implications for cultural creativity in Africa (Francis B. Nyamnjoh); Global media and violence in Africa: the case of Somalia (Jan-Bart Gewald); Can ICT belong in Africa, or is ICT owned by the North Atlantic region? (Wim van Binsbergen); 'Man will live well': on the poetics of corruption in a global age (Sanya Osha); 'Beyond the rivers of Ethiopia': Pentecostal Pan-Africanism and Ghanaian identities in the transnational domain (Rijk van Dijk); Global connections, local ruptures: the case of Islam in Senegal (Roy Dilley); How is a girl to marry without a bed? : weddings, wealth and women's value in an Islamic town of Niger (Adeline Masquelier); The social life of secrets (Senegal, Ferdinand de Jong); The persistence of female initiation rites: reflexivity and resilience of women in Zambia (Thera Rasing). [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
Dit rapport is het resultaat van een verkennend onderzoek naar de culturele achtergronden van de handel in Nigeriaanse meisjes die naar Nederland komen om in de prostitutie te gaan werken. Een... Show moreDit rapport is het resultaat van een verkennend onderzoek naar de culturele achtergronden van de handel in Nigeriaanse meisjes die naar Nederland komen om in de prostitutie te gaan werken. Een belangrijke overeenkomst in de verhalen die deze meisjes de Nederlandse politie vertellen betreft de 'voodoo'-rituelen waaraan zij voor vertrek naar Nederland worden onderworpen. In het rapport komen de volgende vragen aan de orde: wat doen handelaren met denkbeelden van 'voodoo'? Hoe creëren zij daarmee een sfeer van angst en intimidatie? Hoe komt het dat dit voor de meisjes evenzeer een werkelijkheid wordt als dat in de sinistere betekenis van het woord ook voor velen in de Nederlandse samenleving het geval is? Het rapport stelt dat 'voodoo' in de Nigeriaanse praktijk niet bestaat (er is wel een aantal andere rituele praktijken waar op wordt ingegaan) en in de Nederlandse situatie een goed begrip van de omstandigheden verhindert. Het rapport behandelt de sociaal-economische situatie in Nigeria en Edo State, het district waar veel van de betrokken meisjes vandaan komen; de positie van vrouwen in Nigeria t.a.v. huwelijk, seksualiteit, prostitutie, en de culturele achtergronden daarvan; aspecten van religie in West Afrika en Edo; een gevalsstudie; en het ongedefinieerde gebruik van het begrip 'voodoo' door Nederlandse hulpverleningsinstanties Show less
This chapter demonstrates how Ghanaian migrants in the Netherlands look to the Pentecostal Church for the deconstruction of Ghanaian traditions in favour of international mobility. The Pentecostal... Show moreThis chapter demonstrates how Ghanaian migrants in the Netherlands look to the Pentecostal Church for the deconstruction of Ghanaian traditions in favour of international mobility. The Pentecostal Church strongly identifies and propagates notions of individualism and the nuclear family. In this way traditional matrilineal social organization is displaced by more Western-style conjugality mediated by Pentecostalist beliefs. The author argues that the appeal of Pentecostalism is based on the opportunities it provides for bringing kinship obligations under the supervision of its individual members. Pentecostalism reformulates the hierarchical and obligatory gift-giving system upon which kinship relations are based. It subjects reciprocity to moral supervision while making it thoroughly multilocal. his is of particular significance in the diaspora where many migrants see themselves faced with the obligation to send money to relatives living n Ghana and elsewhere. Show less
Although Ghanaians have formed a substantial immigrant community in the Netherlands for decades, the relationship between the Dutch State and the Ghanaian community remains tense. Not only is... Show moreAlthough Ghanaians have formed a substantial immigrant community in the Netherlands for decades, the relationship between the Dutch State and the Ghanaian community remains tense. Not only is Ghanaian life in the Netherlands generally marked by a high level of suspicion with regard to the Dutch State, but the community itself has long taken over certain functions that are otherwise provided by the State. This chapter explores the dimensions of this tense relationship. It pays specific attention to the many Ghanaian churches that have emerged in the Netherlands and the role they play in the creation of a notion of self-reliance and self-esteem. There is some evidence to suggest that religious structures in Ghana have a history of antagonism with regard to State policies. This feature seems to have been carried over into the Netherlands. The Ghanaian churches do not take part in the formal contacts between the government and Ghanaian interest groups, and hardly take part in the formal structures of Dutch religious life. The moral authority they represent within the Ghanaian community is a distinctive one. The chapter first examines aspects of Ghanaian immigration, before focusing on the position of Ghanaian churches in the migrant community. Bibliogr Show less
This article deals with the moral panic that emerged in the Netherlands when it became publicly known that under-age Nigerian girls were being smuggled into the country to be put to 'work' in the... Show moreThis article deals with the moral panic that emerged in the Netherlands when it became publicly known that under-age Nigerian girls were being smuggled into the country to be put to 'work' in the sex industry. A police investigation not only found hundreds of cases but also uncovered the fact that certain unknown and occult rituals played a part in how traffickers, 'madams' and other sex bosses appeared to keep the girls locked in this exploitative system. Soon an unspecified notion of 'voodoo' came to dominate the police operation, the public image of what was happening to these girls, and the way in which the girls were treated within the Dutch judicial system. The article deconstructs the moral panic and the images of Africa and the occult which became so crucial to the way the Dutch state tried to deal with the situation. It sets this analysis in the context of an anthropology of globalization and a cultural exploration of how issues of morality and identity are affected by "the occult economies of late capitalist relations". It concludes that to a great extent the scale of the moral panic can be understood by pointing at the rigidity of the identity politics of the Dutch nation State in previous years. Research was carried out in 1996-1998. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French Show less
This article explores the role of religion in identity formation in situations where individuals are engaged in intercontinental diasporic movement, starting from R.P. Werbner's notion that... Show moreThis article explores the role of religion in identity formation in situations where individuals are engaged in intercontinental diasporic movement, starting from R.P. Werbner's notion that religion and strangerhood transform together. In particular, the author examines the diaspora of Ghanaians in the Netherlands and the role Ghanaian Pentecostalism appears to play in the forming of their identity as strangers in Dutch society. The author uses the term 'transsubjectivity' to indicate those processes by which religion deals with strangerhood as shaped by the power of the modern African and Western nation-State. He distinguishes two discourses in present-day Ghanaian Pentecostalism. The first, which he calls 'sending' discourse, involves so-called prayer camps in Ghana, to which (prospective) migrants may turn for spiritual help and protection in their transnational travel. The second, or 'receiving', discourse relates to the figure of the Pentecostal leader in the diaspora who represents the "abusua panyin", the family head. These two discourses 'inject' the migrant differently into transnational interconnectedness, and they deal differently with the body personal and the ways in which techniques of the self are employed in constructing the subjectivity of the Ghanaian as migrant and stranger. Bibliogr., notes Show less
