This chapter examines the existing tensions between hosts and clients, youth and an older generat... more This chapter examines the existing tensions between hosts and clients, youth and an older generation as they attempt to negotiate changing relations in their struggles to survive and prosper. The first part of the chapter examines existing tensions between hosts and clients as a result of the reluctance of the former to set up a communal garden. The second part of the chapter examines changing agrarian relations between older and younger generations as increasing numbers of young women and girls are being educated and moving out of farming. As children go to school in greater numbers, and a younger generation refuses to farm, the female hosts of Suma Kunda are increasingly having to rely on their clients to work and preserve their land.Keywords: agrarian production; female hosts; Suma Kunda
This chapter explores the way in which key historical aspects of Mandinka social organisation rem... more This chapter explores the way in which key historical aspects of Mandinka social organisation remain central to contemporary Mandinka society and life in Brikama today. Further, it shows how narratives about the founding of Brikama serve to produce knowledge about and give legitimacy to contemporary host-stranger differences, which are central to the (re) production and representation of Mandinka ethnicities. The chapter provides a detailed description of: Brikama; its residential organization; the make up of the old quarter, the neighbourhood where hosts have historically resided; and the location of different wards in order to elucidate the link between host-stranger distinctions and the organisation of the city. The chapter provides a detailed description of Brikama and the make-up of the old quarter, in order to elucidate the link between host-stranger distinctions and the organization of the city.Keywords: Brikama; host-stranger distinctions; Mandinka
This chapter focuses on the gendered nature of land access among hosts through the use of a numbe... more This chapter focuses on the gendered nature of land access among hosts through the use of a number of biographies. This will entail an examination of the various ways in which hosts gain access to and establish rights in land. The chapter highlights the complex and varied nature that claims to land can take, both in terms of the different parties involved and the nature of their claims, the author begins with the story of a local land dispute. 'Cultural norms and practices have effectively barred women from land ownership and from decisions regarding allocation and usage of land'. The chapter focuses on the key features of customary land law and highlighted the ambiguity surrounding notions of ownership and usufruct in Gambian land tenure.Keywords: customary land law; Gambian
This chapter focuses on the strategies used by migrants to establish cliente list relations with ... more This chapter focuses on the strategies used by migrants to establish cliente list relations with hosts through an examination of: the experiences of a number of different migrants; and the ways in which hosts benefit from their clients' labour. Clients' unremunerated labour represents a flexible form of labour upon which hosts rely heavily. Within the context of an increasing shortage of agrarian labour, the provision of this labour is a highly valued resource. The chapter examines the periods during which clients' labour is most crucial and the strategies some hosts adopt in order to ensure that they are in a position to provide land to clients.Keywords: agrarian clientelist relations; female agrarian labour; livelihood strategies
This chapter examines the way in which social identities are affirmed through the daily act of gr... more This chapter examines the way in which social identities are affirmed through the daily act of greeting, and in the practice of daily life. This is followed by a detailed description of the social relations of agrarian production, which are central to the practice of daily life. In Brikama people are motivated to retain membership in sinkirolu and compounds because of the exigencies of consumption and the relationship between personal achievement, financial investment and social identity. Adult farmers can generally rely on the use of child farm labour. This chapter has examined the structure, lay-out, composition and centrality of the compound as a place in which to eat, sleep, socialise, procreate, pray and, in the case of women and girls, fulfill domestic labour obligations and expectations about appropriate gendered behaviour.Keywords: agrarian production; Brikama; sinkirolu; social relations
This chapter serves to place contemporary female agrarian clientelist relations into an historica... more This chapter serves to place contemporary female agrarian clientelist relations into an historical context by providing a brief examination of processes of commoditization and the history of economic accumulation in The Gambia from the beginning of the nineteenth century. It focuses on the effects of the commoditization of groundnut production, which include: the intensification of agrarian production; the development of a new labour regime, the strange farmer labour system; changes in the social relations of agrarian production; and the development of alternative accumulation strategies. It explores in greater detail the nature of the change in the gender division of labour, which became more crop and less task specific, and the effects of a severe reduction in cereal production on the local economy.Keywords: Agrarian transformation; groundnut production; political economy; strange farmer labour system; The Gambia
This chapter focuses on the gendered nature of land access among hosts through the use of a numbe... more This chapter focuses on the gendered nature of land access among hosts through the use of a number of biographies. This will entail an examination of the various ways in which hosts gain access to and establish rights in land. The chapter highlights the complex and varied nature that claims to land can take, both in terms of the different parties involved and the nature of their claims, the author begins with the story of a local land dispute. 'Cultural norms and practices have effectively barred women from land ownership and from decisions regarding allocation and usage of land'. The chapter focuses on the key features of customary land law and highlighted the ambiguity surrounding notions of ownership and usufruct in Gambian land tenure.Keywords: customary land law; Gambian
This chapter examines the way in which social identities are affirmed through the daily act of gr... more This chapter examines the way in which social identities are affirmed through the daily act of greeting, and in the practice of daily life. This is followed by a detailed description of the social relations of agrarian production, which are central to the practice of daily life. In Brikama people are motivated to retain membership in sinkirolu and compounds because of the exigencies of consumption and the relationship between personal achievement, financial investment and social identity. Adult farmers can generally rely on the use of child farm labour. This chapter has examined the structure, lay-out, composition and centrality of the compound as a place in which to eat, sleep, socialise, procreate, pray and, in the case of women and girls, fulfill domestic labour obligations and expectations about appropriate gendered behaviour.Keywords: agrarian production; Brikama; sinkirolu; social relations
... answered my questions with patience and good humour. Lamin Ceesay, my head of department at t... more ... answered my questions with patience and good humour. Lamin Ceesay, my head of department at the Gambia College, gave me an initial introduction to Gambian social and cultural life. BK Sidibe, the former head of the Gambian ...
British Nigerian youth are being sent to boarding school in Nigeria partly to escape economic pre... more British Nigerian youth are being sent to boarding school in Nigeria partly to escape economic precarity and low educational attainment in the U.K. Their transnational practices are central to educational planning, social mobility and the reproduction of middle-class subjectivities within neo-liberal globalization. I argue that migration, and the transnational practices that it engenders, lead to accumulation of cultural and symbolic capital, in the form of educational qualifications, dispositions, and deportment, and social capital, in the cultivation of friendships. It is imperative that they cultivate useful friendships in the right milieu; in this sense, boarding schools, as places of privilege, foster new relations. Paradoxically, it is, in part, their Britishness that serves as a form of cultural capital and attributes them with status in the eyes of their contemporaries at boarding school in Nigeria.
This article examines transnational kinship relations between Gambian parents in the UK and their... more This article examines transnational kinship relations between Gambian parents in the UK and their children and carers in The Gambia, with a focus on the production, exchange and reception of photographs. Many Gambian migrant parents in the UK take their children to The Gambia to be cared for by extended family members. Mirroring the mobility of Gambian migrants and their children as they travel between the UK and The Gambia, photographs document changing family structures and relations. It is argued that domestic photography provides an insight into the representational politics, values and aesthetics of Gambian transatlantic kinship relations. Further, the concept of the moral economy supports a hermeneutics of Gambian family photographic practice and develops our understanding of the visual economy of transnational kinship relations in a number of ways: it draws attention to the way in which the value attributed to a photograph is rooted in shared moral and cultural codes of care ...
This chapter examines the existing tensions between hosts and clients, youth and an older generat... more This chapter examines the existing tensions between hosts and clients, youth and an older generation as they attempt to negotiate changing relations in their struggles to survive and prosper. The first part of the chapter examines existing tensions between hosts and clients as a result of the reluctance of the former to set up a communal garden. The second part of the chapter examines changing agrarian relations between older and younger generations as increasing numbers of young women and girls are being educated and moving out of farming. As children go to school in greater numbers, and a younger generation refuses to farm, the female hosts of Suma Kunda are increasingly having to rely on their clients to work and preserve their land.Keywords: agrarian production; female hosts; Suma Kunda
This chapter explores the way in which key historical aspects of Mandinka social organisation rem... more This chapter explores the way in which key historical aspects of Mandinka social organisation remain central to contemporary Mandinka society and life in Brikama today. Further, it shows how narratives about the founding of Brikama serve to produce knowledge about and give legitimacy to contemporary host-stranger differences, which are central to the (re) production and representation of Mandinka ethnicities. The chapter provides a detailed description of: Brikama; its residential organization; the make up of the old quarter, the neighbourhood where hosts have historically resided; and the location of different wards in order to elucidate the link between host-stranger distinctions and the organisation of the city. The chapter provides a detailed description of Brikama and the make-up of the old quarter, in order to elucidate the link between host-stranger distinctions and the organization of the city.Keywords: Brikama; host-stranger distinctions; Mandinka
This chapter focuses on the gendered nature of land access among hosts through the use of a numbe... more This chapter focuses on the gendered nature of land access among hosts through the use of a number of biographies. This will entail an examination of the various ways in which hosts gain access to and establish rights in land. The chapter highlights the complex and varied nature that claims to land can take, both in terms of the different parties involved and the nature of their claims, the author begins with the story of a local land dispute. 'Cultural norms and practices have effectively barred women from land ownership and from decisions regarding allocation and usage of land'. The chapter focuses on the key features of customary land law and highlighted the ambiguity surrounding notions of ownership and usufruct in Gambian land tenure.Keywords: customary land law; Gambian
This chapter focuses on the strategies used by migrants to establish cliente list relations with ... more This chapter focuses on the strategies used by migrants to establish cliente list relations with hosts through an examination of: the experiences of a number of different migrants; and the ways in which hosts benefit from their clients' labour. Clients' unremunerated labour represents a flexible form of labour upon which hosts rely heavily. Within the context of an increasing shortage of agrarian labour, the provision of this labour is a highly valued resource. The chapter examines the periods during which clients' labour is most crucial and the strategies some hosts adopt in order to ensure that they are in a position to provide land to clients.Keywords: agrarian clientelist relations; female agrarian labour; livelihood strategies
This chapter examines the way in which social identities are affirmed through the daily act of gr... more This chapter examines the way in which social identities are affirmed through the daily act of greeting, and in the practice of daily life. This is followed by a detailed description of the social relations of agrarian production, which are central to the practice of daily life. In Brikama people are motivated to retain membership in sinkirolu and compounds because of the exigencies of consumption and the relationship between personal achievement, financial investment and social identity. Adult farmers can generally rely on the use of child farm labour. This chapter has examined the structure, lay-out, composition and centrality of the compound as a place in which to eat, sleep, socialise, procreate, pray and, in the case of women and girls, fulfill domestic labour obligations and expectations about appropriate gendered behaviour.Keywords: agrarian production; Brikama; sinkirolu; social relations
This chapter serves to place contemporary female agrarian clientelist relations into an historica... more This chapter serves to place contemporary female agrarian clientelist relations into an historical context by providing a brief examination of processes of commoditization and the history of economic accumulation in The Gambia from the beginning of the nineteenth century. It focuses on the effects of the commoditization of groundnut production, which include: the intensification of agrarian production; the development of a new labour regime, the strange farmer labour system; changes in the social relations of agrarian production; and the development of alternative accumulation strategies. It explores in greater detail the nature of the change in the gender division of labour, which became more crop and less task specific, and the effects of a severe reduction in cereal production on the local economy.Keywords: Agrarian transformation; groundnut production; political economy; strange farmer labour system; The Gambia
This chapter focuses on the gendered nature of land access among hosts through the use of a numbe... more This chapter focuses on the gendered nature of land access among hosts through the use of a number of biographies. This will entail an examination of the various ways in which hosts gain access to and establish rights in land. The chapter highlights the complex and varied nature that claims to land can take, both in terms of the different parties involved and the nature of their claims, the author begins with the story of a local land dispute. 'Cultural norms and practices have effectively barred women from land ownership and from decisions regarding allocation and usage of land'. The chapter focuses on the key features of customary land law and highlighted the ambiguity surrounding notions of ownership and usufruct in Gambian land tenure.Keywords: customary land law; Gambian
This chapter examines the way in which social identities are affirmed through the daily act of gr... more This chapter examines the way in which social identities are affirmed through the daily act of greeting, and in the practice of daily life. This is followed by a detailed description of the social relations of agrarian production, which are central to the practice of daily life. In Brikama people are motivated to retain membership in sinkirolu and compounds because of the exigencies of consumption and the relationship between personal achievement, financial investment and social identity. Adult farmers can generally rely on the use of child farm labour. This chapter has examined the structure, lay-out, composition and centrality of the compound as a place in which to eat, sleep, socialise, procreate, pray and, in the case of women and girls, fulfill domestic labour obligations and expectations about appropriate gendered behaviour.Keywords: agrarian production; Brikama; sinkirolu; social relations
... answered my questions with patience and good humour. Lamin Ceesay, my head of department at t... more ... answered my questions with patience and good humour. Lamin Ceesay, my head of department at the Gambia College, gave me an initial introduction to Gambian social and cultural life. BK Sidibe, the former head of the Gambian ...
British Nigerian youth are being sent to boarding school in Nigeria partly to escape economic pre... more British Nigerian youth are being sent to boarding school in Nigeria partly to escape economic precarity and low educational attainment in the U.K. Their transnational practices are central to educational planning, social mobility and the reproduction of middle-class subjectivities within neo-liberal globalization. I argue that migration, and the transnational practices that it engenders, lead to accumulation of cultural and symbolic capital, in the form of educational qualifications, dispositions, and deportment, and social capital, in the cultivation of friendships. It is imperative that they cultivate useful friendships in the right milieu; in this sense, boarding schools, as places of privilege, foster new relations. Paradoxically, it is, in part, their Britishness that serves as a form of cultural capital and attributes them with status in the eyes of their contemporaries at boarding school in Nigeria.
This article examines transnational kinship relations between Gambian parents in the UK and their... more This article examines transnational kinship relations between Gambian parents in the UK and their children and carers in The Gambia, with a focus on the production, exchange and reception of photographs. Many Gambian migrant parents in the UK take their children to The Gambia to be cared for by extended family members. Mirroring the mobility of Gambian migrants and their children as they travel between the UK and The Gambia, photographs document changing family structures and relations. It is argued that domestic photography provides an insight into the representational politics, values and aesthetics of Gambian transatlantic kinship relations. Further, the concept of the moral economy supports a hermeneutics of Gambian family photographic practice and develops our understanding of the visual economy of transnational kinship relations in a number of ways: it draws attention to the way in which the value attributed to a photograph is rooted in shared moral and cultural codes of care ...
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