Bridging Mobilities : ICTs Appropriation by Cameroonians in South Africa and the Netherlands / Henrietta Mambo Nyamnjoh.

Includes bibliographical references.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (ebrary, viewed January 21, 2014).

This is a study on the creative appropriation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) by mobile Africans and the communities to which they belong, home and away. With a focus on Cameroonian migrants from Pinyin and Mankon who are currently living in Cape Town and the Netherlands, this book examines the workings of the social fabric of mobile communities. It sheds light on how these communities are crafting lives for themselves in the host country and simultaneously linking up with the home country thanks to advances in ICTs and road and air transport. ICTs and mobilities have complemented social relational interaction and provide migrants today with opportunities to partake in cultural practices that express their Pinyin-ness and Mankon-ness. Pinyin and Mankon migrants are still as rooted in the past as they are in the present. They were born into a community with its own sense of home, moral ethos and cultural pride but live in a context of accelerated ICTs and mobility that is fast changing the way they live their lives. Drawing on this detailed ethnographic case study and related literature, Henrietta Nyamnjoh argues that while ICTs continue to enhance mobility for those who move and for those who stay put, they have become inextricably linked in forging networks and reconfiguring existing ones. Contrary to earlier studies that predicted radical social change and the passing of traditional societies in the face of new technologies, ICTs have been appropriated to enhance the workings of existing social relations and ways of life while simultaneously pointing to new directions in ever more creative and innovative ways.

Cover; Title page; Copyright page; Contents; List of photographs, maps and diagrams; Acknowledgements; 1. Introduction; Setting the scene; Mobility; Transnationalism or ...?; Pinyin and Mankon as frontier people; 'Tuyau' and 'lines': Social and kinship networks; Society and technology; Habitual practice; Belonging and home; Research questions and outline of the book; 2. Methodological considerationsand data collection; Introduction; Methodological reflections; Methods; Life histories; Archival research; Conclusion; 3. Mobility and migration at the crossroads:Mobile communities; Introduction.

Mobility trends in Cameroon from colonial timesto the current wave of migration to South AfricaMobile society; Migration to South Africa and The Netherlands; Migration governance or governance fragmentation?; Conclusion; 4. A new form of madness in the village: The arrival of information andcommunications technologies (ICTs); Introduction; Overview of current debates on ICTs; Phoning before the proliferation of mobile phones (1980s-1999); Conceptualizing ICTs in Pinyin and Mankon; The Internet and social media; Appropriation of ICTs before and afterthe revolution of communication technologies.

Navigating the conundrums of the mobile phoneConclusion; 5. Networks and shifting relations: Social and kinship networks andthe formation of a network society; Introduction; Overview of network in the migration process; Network intrigues; Studying networks; Networking amongst mobile communities; Kinship relations and social networks; Networking through marriage; Gender social and kinship network relations; Negotiating ngunda: Social networks inasylum/refugee circles in Cape Town; Conclusion; 6. 'Going to the field': Pitching andmigrants' economic activities; Introduction; Informal economy.

EncountersThe role of women in the informal economy; Pitching: An overview of economic activities in Cape Town; Mobility and social networking in the informal economy; The notion of success and material wealth; Commodification of relationship; Discussion and conclusion; 7. 'Your mami and papa for this country na meeting': PIFAM and MACUDA as agencyin a transnational world; Introduction; Overview and characteristics of PIFAM and MACUDA; Overview of trends; Associations as agents of development; Status and social hierarchies in elite formation; Social life of PIFAM and MACUDA.

Inter-cultural communication and associational networkingExchange visits between associations; Transnational/trans-virtual associational networks; Conclusion; 8. A mobile community as a fortress: Reinforcing the notion of belongingthrough 'life crisis'; Introduction; Understanding rituals and ceremonies; Birth; Marriage; Death; ICTs as evidence of ritual autopsy; Rituals as communication and the embodiment of society; Conclusion; 9. 'I di beep na for beep, them di call': Straddling relationships between the home and host countryamongst kin and kith; Introduction.

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