A Diaspora as an Agent of Development for a Receiving Country
30. Januar 2014
Ghanaian Contributions to Botswana's Societal Change
Arbeitsgespräch des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Kollegs
Prof. Dr. Rijk van Dijk is Senior Researcher at the African Studies Centre. Leiden, The Netherlands and Professor for Religion and Sexuality in Africa at the University of Amsterdam. Recently he is guest professor Ethnology at the University of Konstanz.
Abstract
This lecture explores how diasporas can be perceived agents of change not for the sending country, but for the receiving country by investigating the migration of Ghanaians to Botswana. While Ghana has put in place an idea of creating 'home summits' that invite its diaspora in becoming responsible for investing in the development of the country, the earlier record of the Ghanaian diaspora to Botswana is one in which the Botswana government recruited Ghanaians purposefully for being involved in the build-up of Botswana's public service.
From the Botswana governmental perspective, the Ghanaians were the ones best placed to do so, and decades of recruitment of Ghanaian skilled labour followed, such that there is a real diaspora in the sense of multi-generational involvement of Ghanaians in Botswana's development. There was an initial idea behind this of the “African Union” whereby African independent nation-states from Independence onward would involve each other's skilled personnel in development. While the interest for the manner in which diasporas worldwide can be perceived as agents of development has emerged very recently, there is an older record of how diasporas and development already came to inter-link within the continent, even before this nexus was transplanted beyond the continent.
Yet, the question remains what kind of change it actually brought to the receiving society. This paper ventures to demonstrate that while the diaspora of Ghanaians involved professional and intellectual classes, cultural change in Botswana resulted much more from the rise of a Ghanaian entrepreneurial class. This paper explores the reasons behind this development of a particular diaspora as an agent of change emerging from a sector involved in business.
Do, 30. Januar 2014, 18 Uhr s.t.
Kulturwissenschaftliches Kolleg Konstanz
Otto-Adam-Str. 5
78467 Konstanz
Ansprechpartner
Fred Girod
fred.girod[at]uni-konstanz.de