Migrants and Strangers in an African City: Exile, Dignity, Belonging [Paperback]

In cities throughout Africa, local inhabitants live alongside large populations of strangers. Bruce Whitehouse explores the condition of strangerhood for residents who have come from the West African Sahel to settle in Brazzaville, Congo. Whitehouse considers how these migrants live simultaneously inside and outside of Congolese society as merchants, as Muslims in a predominantly non-Muslim society, and as parents seeking to instill in their children the customs of their communities of origin.Migrants and Strangers in an African Citychallenges Pan-Africanist ideas of transnationalism and diaspora in today's globalized world.

Finding place and identity in a globalized world

Bruce Whitehouse is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Lehigh University.

Read the author's blogBridges from Bamako

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Exile Knows No Dignity
1. The Avenue of Sergeant Malamine
2. Enterprising Strangers
3. Among the Unbelievers
4. The Stranger's Code
5. Transnational Kinship
6. Children of Exile
Conclusion: The Anchoring of Identities
Epilogue: Displaced Dreams
Appendix 1. Notes on Methods
Appendix 2. Survey Results
Notes
Bibliography
Index

[A] very readable and accessible ethnography . . . .

A worthy contribution to the growing fields of immigration studies, transnationalism, and globalization and a very readable analysis of the dynamics of contemporary life in an African city.

An excellent example of multisited research projects in an age of globalization. . . . Highly recommended.

Migrants and Strangers in an African City is very well written and, simultaneously, it is engaging in important scholarly debate while remaining accessible. To a large extent, the book benefits immensely from the author's demonstrated deep ethnographic knowledge of both the home and host countries.

[A]n in-depth study l`