Intimate Ethnographic Encounters in a Mobile Community: Expressing the Notion of Belonging through 'Life Crisis' Performances amongst Cameroonian Migrants in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

Contemporary African societies are increasingly mobile but this mobility does not prevent migrants from continuously seeking to partake in ritualistic activities related to birth, marriage and death in their host and home countries as the Pinyin and Mankon communities from Cameroon living in Cape Town do. This article focuses on how mobile communities, although away from home, continue to uphold and participate in ritual practices and ceremonies in the host and home countries simultaneously to maintain their identities of Pinyin-ness and Mankon-ness. I show how rituals are dynamic and reconfigured as a result of mobility and new communication technologies, and I go on to explore the ways in which these new technologies allow rituals to be transformed on the basis of migrants' desire to be involved. With a focus on birth, marriage and death rituals I show how these rituals vary within societies and how 'outsiders' may find the performances meaningless because strands of meaning change from one culture to another. Performing these rituals enhances their connectivity and implicitly expresses their sense of belonging. By the same token, these rituals are a form of verbal expression and a means of attaining a greater sense of identity. The funeral rites thus encapsulate and symbolize the society as well as being the one that disconnects the most. Hence, rituals connect people of similar orientation and disconnect them from others.

Keywords: Migrants, Pinyin, Mankon, Rituals, Ceremonies, Belonging, Birth, Marriage, Death