CHAPTER ONE: Introduction

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction …Exile, unlike nationalism, is fundamentally a discontinuous state of being. Exiles are cut off from their roots, their land, their past… Exiles feel, therefore, an urgent need to reconstruct their broken lives, usually by choosing to see themselves as part of a triumphant ideology or a restored people… (Said 2001: 177) This study on the narrative construction of the experiences of Cameroonian asylum seekers and refugees was motivated simultaneously by the rising preoccupation with refugee issues globally and the long-standing debates on the socioeconomic and political existence of forced migrants in South Africa. Above all, it was also sparked off by the desire to explore alternative research paradigms to the seemingly monolithic approach, which has so far dominated recent studies on African refugees in the South African context. One key interest of this study is therefore to explore fresh directions for research on asylum seekers and refugees in post-apartheid South Africa. 1.1 Aims and Context of Study. Through an analysis of Cameroonian oral testimonies, the study seeks to understand the experiences and conditions of exile and homelessness of this community of forced migrants. The main thrust of this thesis is based on an analysis of life testimonies, oral narratives and the stories that Cameroonian asylum seekers and refugees living in Johannesburg tell about themselves; their past, present and future; their journey to exile; and their aspirations, memories of home and sense of identity as forced migrants. It focuses primarily on the narrative construction of migrant experiences and how varied narrative strategies are used to articulate broader exilic discourses such as the construction of memory, identity and spaces. Against this backdrop, I hope to access 1 individual lives and the subjective and collective experiences of Cameroonian forced migrants in Johannesburg and how they interpret and construct these experiences. Finally, this thesis attempts to collate creative and imaginative patterns of narration into a discursive text, which exemplifies how Cameroonian displaced persons have succeeded in reconstructing new identities, remembering their experiences and representing migrant spaces as they sojourn in Johannesburg as refugees and asylum seekers. On this journey, the locus of interest will be to investigate the literary genres and strategies utilised by my interviewees in a bid to narrate their social experiences. The thesis draws significantly on the theoretical conception that narratives provide a fascinating space for the expression of personal experiences and the complex realities of forced migration as well as assessing and evaluating broader migrant discourses such as identity, space and memory (Tonkin, 1992; Swindells, 1995; Kenyon & Randall, 1997; Fortier, 2000; Whitebrook, 2001; De Fina, 2003). It is also positioned around the disturbing fact that since the end of the Cold War and the advent of globalisation, the number of involuntarily displaced persons around the world has risen significantly, assuming particular importance and new characteristics (Van Hear, 1998; Black, 1999; Spencer, 2003). This increase is due to two pertinent forces. Firstly, the increase in global capitalism and cross social, cultural and technological exchanges has led to the upsurge of migration (Chambers, 1994; Castles, 2000; Castles & Alistair, 2000). Because of these global trends, not only economic migrants but also refugees and asylum seekers have been forced to relocate to viable economies in pursuit of better lives. Secondly, the extraordinary proliferation of violence, armed conflicts, terrorism and authoritarianism in developing countries has also contributed immensely to involuntary displacement. In 2 Africa alone, an estimated fifty million people have been forcefully displaced from their homes with the largest number coming from countries seriously affected by politically motivated armed insurgents and ethnic conflicts. Some glaring examples include the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Rwanda, Somalia, and Côte D’Ivoire. Moreover, with the exacerbation of socio-economic deprivations and political tensions around the African continent, the numbers of involuntarily displaced persons have continued to soar. This form of migration has been described as the most dehumanising if compared to other forms of cross border mobility, and the people affected constitute “the most vulnerable and marginalised members of society” (Spencer, 2003: 75). Thus, The age of migrancy is symptomatic of the deepening waves of globalisation which have increased the mobility of people far away from their home, a trend that was not very noticeable fifty to a hundred years ago. It is also symptomatic of the upsurge in global violence, as well as natural hazards. These characteristics have provided a formidable terrain for the theorisations and critical examinations of the dynamics of migration and migrant discourses. In South Africa, “refugee problems” have repeatedly and increasingly come under the spotlight especially in political and, most recently, in academic arenas. This rising preoccupation with refugee issues has been the result of the influx of involuntary migrants from other parts of Africa and the world since the demise of the Apartheid regime. Immediately after the demise, South Africa shifted from a refugee producing to a refugee accepting country. Also, the legitimacy of forced migrant claims has preoccupied politicians and the media, as have repeated remonstrances by humanitarian agencies against seemingly inhumane treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in South Africa. 3 The relatively tranquil political atmosphere that has reigned in South Africa since the collapse of the apartheid regime and the growing economy of South Africa have been two major pull factors for the rapidly increasing numbers of immigrants in South Africa (Peberdy, 1999; Timngum, 2001; Landau, 2004). Alongside the steady increase in voluntary and involuntary migration over the years, the social existence of refugees and asylum seekers1 in particular has been defined by increasing experiences of xenophobia, racism and social exclusion within the “host” country. Against this broad background, this chapter argues for the importance of this study, outlines key assumptions underlying the research, and provides an overview of political trends in Cameroon as well as a historical perspective of Cameroonian asylum seekers and refugees in South Africa, two important frameworks relevant to this study. It also examines the theoretical illustrations that have informed my analysis of testimonies of Cameroonian asylum seekers, describes the methodological paradigms and provides a summary of chapters in this thesis. 1.2 The Importance of the Study. As a number of scholars have pointed out, involuntary migration is unquestionably a problem of considerable magnitude and has always been a sphere of immense interest for political and academic debates. While the South Africa government, on the one hand, is trying relentlessly to implement viable and more pragmatic approaches to dealing with 1 In this study, I have used refugees and asylum seekers concurrently because involuntarily displaced persons in South Africa are either refugees on grounds that they have been granted refugee status by the South African government or asylum seekers on grounds that their applications for asylum are still pending. 4 the increasing numbers of voluntary and involuntary migrants in South Africa (Refugee Act, 1998; Revised Immigration Law, 2004), students at academic institutions have found fresh research opportunities in the field of forced migration. This is evident from the array of recent studies, especially from the University of the Witwatersrand’s Forced Migration Studies Programme and from other South African universities. These studies are aimed at exploring the politics and complex trends of forced migration problems in post-apartheid South Africa. For example, the University of the Witwatersrand’s Forced Migration Studies is rapidly growing into a landmark programme for forced migration research in South Africa, attracting visiting researchers and postgraduate students who have carried out a variety of research projects on African forced migrants in South Africa. One of these projects culminated in a publication in 2004 entitled Forced Migrants in the New Johannesburg: Towards a Local Government Response, providing an insight into the social experiences and the livelihoods of forced migrants in post-apartheid Johannesburg.2 This global crisis has therefore produced a corpus of studies on displaced persons and has also attracted attention from humanitarian bodies such as the Human Rights Commission and Jesuit Refugee Centre. These international organisations seek primarily to make a contribution to finding viable solutions to the problems of forced displacement as well as protecting the interests and rights of displaced persons in the South African context. Yet “not only do refugees and asylum seekers flee from situations of racial and ethnic discrimination and violence, but they are increasingly confronted with such hostility in their countries of refuge” (Human Rights Watch, 2001:2). It seems rather unfortunate that 2 Also see Timngum (2001) and Atam (2004), unpublished MA Research Reports on Congolese and 5 in the pursuit of a safe home, displaced persons go through different crippling experiences as they are often caught in even more

Load more