This book focuses on Akan-speaking Ghanaians in London and explores in detail the experience of African migrants living in Britain, investigating how they construct their British citizenship through their membership of the church.
Building on extensive ethnographic research in London and Ghana, the author explores the relationship between religion and citizenship, the emergence of transnational subjectivities, and the making of diaspora aesthetics among African migrants. Starting from the understanding that citizenship is dialogical, a status mediated by a subject’s multiple and intersecting identities, the author highlights the limitations of existing conceptualisations of migrant citizenship. Anchored in a case study of the British/Ghanaian Methodist Church as a transnational religious organisation and cultural polity, the book explores diasporic religious subjectivities as both cosmopolitan and transnational, while being configured in emotionally and morally significant ways by the Methodist Church, as well as family, ethnicity, and nation.
Interdisciplinary by nature, this book will be of interest to a wide range of researchers and scholars across the social sciences and humanities working in the fields of anthropology, religion, sociology, postcolonial studies, and African studies, and additionally policy makers interested in diaspora and migration studies.
Author(s): Mattia Fumanti
Series: Routledge Studies on Religion in Africa and the Diaspora
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 204
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The New African Diaspora – Ethnicity, Religion, and Citizenship in the Gateway City
Prologue: Sunday in North London
Doing Research in Haringey: Gentrification, Regeneration, and Associationism
Tropes and Topoi: The Making of Akan London
Methodology and Positionality: Familiarity, Familiality, and the Predicament of Positionality
Book Outline
Notes
References
1 Haringey: Associational Life and Black Leadership in a North London Borough
Introduction
Haringey: A Snapshot of the Borough
Africans in Haringey
A History of Haringey: From Industrial Hub to Post-Industrial Forgotten Inner City
Shopping City, the Battle for Wood Green and Broadwater Farm: Haringey in the 1970s and 1980s
Leisure, Associational Life, and Active Citizenship in Haringey
Haringey in Recent Years: Associationism and the Voluntary Sector (The London Peace Alliance and Africans in the Borough)
Conclusion
Notes
References
2 Migrant Spaces and Transnational Networks Between London and Ghana
Prologue: The GNLA. A Ghanaian Association in North London
Introduction: Migrant Spaces
Associational Life, Transnationalism, and Citizenship
GNLA: Love, Virtue, and Care in North London
Migration Models in North London: Work, Well-Being and Virtuous Citizenship
Kweku’s Network: Church and Family Networks Between London and Ghana
Conclusion
Notes
References
3 “Virtuous Citizenship”: Ethnicity and Encapsulation Among Akan-Speaking Ghanaian Methodists in London
Introduction
Addressing Active Citizenship in Britain: Towards a Feminist and Aristotelian Synthesis
Ghanaians Methodists in London and the Construction of Virtuous Citizenship
Empathy (.tema), Christian Ideology, and the Virtuous Citizen
The Virtuous and Virtual Life of an Overstayer
Encapsulation, Suspicion, and Trust
Methodism, Multiculturalism, and Citizenship
Conclusion: Virtual Citizens, Virtuous Citizens
Notes
References
4 Agape Love: Gender, Class, and Transnational Subjectivities in a Methodist Women’s Fellowship
Introduction: Auntie Abena’s Funeral
“The Ladies’ Club”: The Emergence of Professional Women in the Ghanaian Methodist Church
Susanna Wesley Mission Auxiliary (SUWMA-UK Branch)
Distinction and “Bling” Culture
Commemorating the Mother of Methodism
Upsetting Conventions: SUWMA-UK, the British Methodist Church and the Role of African Migrants in Britain
Conclusion
Notes
References
5 “Showing-Off Aesthetics”: Looking Good, Making Relations, and “Being in the World” in the London Akan Diaspora
Introduction
Showing Off and Dressing Up: Clothes and Visibility in Akan Migrants’ Events
Photographs and Video-Making in the Diaspora: Showing Off and Reaching Out
The Competitive and Relational Nature of Akan Obituaries
Conclusion
Notes
References
6 Intimacy, Citizenship, and Transnational Family Lives Between London and Ghana
Prologue: Christmas in Kumasi
Transnational Family Networks and Citizenship Between London and Kumasi
Transnationalism, Migration, and Intimate Citizenship
Remotely Intimate: Aspirations, Entrustment, and Citizenship in Transnational Ghanaian Families
Kweku’s Family: Migration, Relations, and the Morality of Kinship
Business and Transnational Families: Strains and Necessities
Nana’s Story: Reimagining Citizenship in Transnational Families
Conclusion
Notes
References
Conclusion: Everyday Practices of Citizenship and the Struggle for Recognition and Distinction in Akan London
Note
References
Index
