Finding the Voice. Positioning in African Diaspora Media

Abstract

For centuries the people of Africa have been on the move, seeking new opportunities, fleeing from dangers, or tragically uprooted through human greed and cruelty. In the twenty-first century, with over 40 million people migrating from and within Africa each year, it is clear that migration still has a significant impact on every aspect of African life. For this reason, Sarali Gintsburg and Ruth Breeze in their new book, African Migrations: Traversing Hybrid Landscapes, explore the hybrid landscapes of African migration and provide new insights into the complexity of migratory movements and migrant experiences associated with the African continent. Taking the view that the only ecologically valid way to understand migration is by looking at it through the eyes of the migrants themselves, the authors draw on a wide spectrum of first-hand evidence from a multitude of sources, including testimonies, media artefacts, workplace experiences, interviews, and ethnographic observations. The contributors reflect on a wide array of themes linked to the African context, such as diasporic mapping of landscapes, hybridity, heterotopia, métissage, cultural mixing, and complementation. This book presents the African continent not only in its cultural diversity but also to cover the complex and wide trajectories of migrations to, from and within Africa.