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Accepted Paper:

"Being in the world": Ontology, Aesthetics and the construction of Diaspora Subjectivities among Ghanaian migrants in London  
Mattia Fumanti (University of St Andrews)

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between ontology and aesthetics in the formation of a diasporic subjectivity among Ghanaian migrants in London through an analysis of Ghanaian public events both in Ghana and the Diaspora.

Paper long abstract:

For Ghanaians in London attending public events and rites of passage is fundamental for the process of socialisation and for the formation of a diasporic subjectivity. Naming ceremonies, christening, birthdays, weddings, associations' parties, church services and funerals all play a very important role in the life of Ghanaian migrants as they define life in the Diaspora, as spaces for recognition and distinction, and provide a way to re-establish and reinforce material and symbolic connections with Ghana. In this sense these events acquire an ontological dimension as they represent a way of reasserting one's presence in the world, 'of being in the world' in Heidegger's sense. That is being visible and distinct within an otherwise invisible context. In this paper I want to argue that Ghanaian migrants' ontology is best understood when seen in dialectical relation not only with Ghanaian aesthetics, but more broadly with West-African aesthetics both in the African Diaspora and Ghana. This is realised in linguistic terms, through proverbs, mottoes and wise sayings, in material terms, through the use and display of elaborate dresses and other material objects and through the consumption of food, and finally in visual terms, through the use of videos and photographs. By using a range of ethnographic examples from London and Ghana I will show how the complex overlaps of the linguistic, the material and the visual in Ghanaian and West-African Aesthetics contribute to the formation of an African migrant's subjectivity and to the reassertion of one's place in the world in the London Diaspora

Panel P29
The aesthetics of diaspora
  Session 1