human relations

Navigating youth, generating adulthood : social becoming in an African context

Medarbetare:	Christiansen, Catrine | Utas, Mats | Vigh, Henrik E.
Utgivare:	Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2006
Ämnesord:	youth, adolescents, children, Social environment, Living conditions, human relations, Social and cultural anthropology, case studies, Africa, Social anthropology/ethnography, Socialantrolopologi/etnografi

This book focuses on the lives and experiences of young people in Africa. On agents who, willingly or unwillingly, see themselves as belonging to the socio-generational category of youth and the ways in which they seek to shape and unfold their lives in a positive manner. Rather than seeing youth as either a social or cultural entity in itself, or as a predefined life-stage, the book argues for an exploration of how youth position themselves and are positioned within generational categories. In studying young people, social scientists must conceptualise youth as both social being and social becoming; a position in movement. It is from the duality of being positioned and seeking one's own socio-generational position that this book engages in the debate on contemporary African youth.

Diasporas within and without Africa : dynamism, heterogeneity, variation

Medarbetare:	Manger, Leif O. | Assal, Munzoul A. M.
Utgivare:	Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2006
Ämnesord:	Migration, internal migration, Migrants, human relations, Africans, identity, diaspora, Social anthropology/ethnography, Socialantrolopologi/etnografi

The book deals with two types of “African diasporas”, the first of which originated in the migration histories of the Indian Ocean and brought new groups into Africa. This is illustrated by case studies of Hadrami communities in Sudan and Zanzibar, and the Malay community in Cape Town, that produced trade links as well as processes of Islamization. The second type originated with the failing African states and cases discussed are an Eritrean diaspora in Germany, alongside Sudanese diasporas in Norway and the USA, and a Somali diaspora in Norway. The papers deal with processes of homemaking, political mobilization in the diaspora through local organisations, religious networks and cyberspace nationalism. The central conceptual argument is that “diaspora” is not only a post-modern reaction to the xenophobia of Western nation states but must be seen as part of a broader history of human migration and intercultural experience. This calls for a perspective which takes into consideration historically produced variation and dynamism.