10 research outputs found
A Jamaican-Congolese Wedding in Maine
No full textBrief piece about the wedding of Jamaica-born Michelle Sophia Williams and Francois Mayel, born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and how the ceremony reflected the cultural heritage of both bride and groom
A Flavorful Intersection of Taste and Language
No full textBrief account of a combined cooking and English language learning class that was held at State Street Church in Portland, sponsored by the nonprofit Hope Acts. The instructor was John Messer, a volunteer English teacher with Hope Acts and a passionate cook. Attendees were Hope Acts students from Angola, Burundi, Egypt, Gabon, and other places who learned new vocabulary centered around food and cooking, tasted culturally different foods, and enjoyed the opportunity to meet in person
Negotiation of identities and language practices among Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town
No full textPhilosophiae Doctor - PhDThis thesis is an exploration of the historical, socio-cultural, economic, and political settings in which identities are negotiated and performed among Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town. Focusing on language as localized practices and different interaction regimes, the thesis investigates how Cameroonian immigrants maintain and reconfigure the Anglophone/Francophone identity options in novel and hybrid ways. In addition, the study examines how ideologies favouring different languages are reproduced and challenged in translocal and transnational discourses. Guided by the poststructuralist theories the thesis explores the stance that reality is socially constructed, based on symbolic and material structural limitations that are challenged and maintained in interaction. That is, whatever we do or believe in, is supported by some historical or cultural frames of meanings in our lived world, which often gives room to some manoeuvre to do things in a new way. The study adopts a multiplex interpretive approach to data collection. This entails a qualitative sociolinguistic approach where interviews, discussion and observations at different socio-economic places namely; meetings, workplaces, homes, restaurants, drinking spots and many sites from all over Cape Town, were explored. The study suggests that Cameroonians have a multiplicity of identity options, which are manifested and negotiated performatively through language, dress code, song, food, business, and other practices that comprise their lifestyles. These identities are translocal and transnational in nature, and tend to blend South African, Cameroonian, and even American traits. It is also suggests that the different identity options which they manifest are highly mobile, enabling Cameroonians to fit into South African social structures as well as the Cameroonian ways of doing things. Additionally, the multiplicity of identities that Cameroonians manifest, blur the fault-line between Anglophone/Francophone identities. It is evident from the study that hybridity and the reconstruction practices are not only confined to languages. Hybridity also extends to discourse orders especially in terms of how meetings are conducted. The Cameroonian meetings captured through the activities of Mifi Association and CANOWACAT are characterised by �disorder of discourse� in which both formal and informal versions of English and French are used separately or as amalgams alongside CPE and their national languages, not only in side talks, but also when contributing to the meeting proceedings. Ultimately, the study concludes that Cameroonians are social actors making up an indispensable part of the social interaction in the Cape Town Diaspora. Just as they influence the languages, the entrepreneurial practices, and spaces in which they interact, the Cameroonian immigrants are also transformed. The major contribution of the study is that it adds to the recent debates about the nature of multilingualism and identities in late modern society. It emphasises that languages and identities are fluid, complex, and unstable. The distinction or boundaries between the various languages in multilingual practices are also not as clear-cut. This leads to a reframing of voice and actor hood as meaning is constructed across translocal and transnational contexts and domains in a networked world transformed by the mobility of endless flows of information, goods, ideas, and people. Thus, the study contributes to those arguing for a paradigm shift in sociolinguistic theory in which language is not a property of groups, nor is it an autonomous and bounded system fixed in time and space. Thus, identities, languages and the spaces of interaction are not fixed systems; identities, languages, and spaces are dynamic and in a state of flux. This in turn questions the notions of multilingualism and language itself, as well as the veracity of concepts such as code-switching, speech community, language variation, as the search for a sociolinguistic framework that can deal with phenomena predicated by motion, instability, and uncertainty, continues.South Afric
Negotiation of identities and language practices among Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town
No full textPhilosophiae Doctor - PhDThis thesis is an exploration of the historical, socio-cultural, economic, and political settings in which identities are negotiated and performed among Cameroonian immigrants in Cape Town. Focusing on language as localized practices and different interaction regimes, the thesis investigates how Cameroonian immigrants maintain and reconfigure the Anglophone/Francophone identity options in novel and hybrid ways. In addition, the study examines how ideologies favouring different languages are reproduced and challenged in translocal and transnational discourses. Guided by the poststructuralist theories the thesis explores the stance that reality is socially constructed, based on symbolic and material structural limitations that are challenged and maintained in interaction. That is, whatever we do or believe in, is supported by some historical or cultural frames of meanings in our lived world, which often gives room to some manoeuvre to do things in a new way. The study adopts a multiplex interpretive approach to data collection. This entails a qualitative sociolinguistic approach where interviews, discussion and observations at different socio-economic places namely; meetings, workplaces, homes, restaurants, drinking spots and many sites from all over Cape Town, were explored. The study suggests that Cameroonians have a multiplicity of identity options, which are manifested and negotiated performatively through language, dress code, song, food, business, and other practices that comprise their lifestyles. These identities are translocal and transnational in nature, and tend to blend South African, Cameroonian, and even American traits. It is also suggests that the different identity options which they manifest are highly mobile, enabling Cameroonians to fit into South African social structures as well as the Cameroonian ways of doing things. Additionally, the multiplicity of identities that Cameroonians manifest, blur the fault-line between Anglophone/Francophone identities. It is evident from the study that hybridity and the reconstruction practices are not only confined to languages. Hybridity also extends to discourse orders especially in terms of how meetings are conducted. The Cameroonian meetings captured through the activities of Mifi Association and CANOWACAT are characterised by ‘disorder of discourse’ in which both formal and informal versions of English and French are used separately or as amalgams alongside CPE and their national languages, not only in side talks, but also when contributing to the meeting proceedings. Ultimately, the study concludes that Cameroonians are social actors making up an indispensable part of the social interaction in the Cape Town Diaspora. Just as they influence the languages, the entrepreneurial practices, and spaces in which they interact, the Cameroonian immigrants are also transformed. The major contribution of the study is that it adds to the recent debates about the nature of multilingualism and identities in late modern society. It emphasises that languages and identities are fluid, complex, and unstable. The distinction or boundaries between the various languages in multilingual practices are also not as clear-cut. This leads to a reframing of voice and actor hood as meaning is constructed across translocal and transnational contexts and domains in a networked world transformed by the mobility of endless flows of information, goods, ideas, and people. Thus, the study contributes to those arguing for a paradigm shift in sociolinguistic theory in which language is not a property of groups, nor is it an autonomous and bounded system fixed in time and space. Thus, identities, languages and the spaces of interaction are not fixed systems; identities, languages, and spaces are dynamic and in a state of flux. This in turn questions the notions of multilingualism and language itself, as well as the veracity of concepts such as code-switching, speech community, language variation, as the search for a sociolinguistic framework that can deal with phenomena predicated by motion, instability, and uncertainty, continues.South Afric
Assessing patterns of language use and identity among Cameroonian migrants in Cape Town
No full textMagister Artium - MAThis study explored Cameroonian migrants language use and the various language forms they use to manifest their identity. It also dealt with multicultural/multilingual people in an equally multicultural/multilingual society - Cape Town. The study was carried out in the wider and interdisciplinary field of applied linguistics with focus on the specific domain of sociolinguistics.South Afric
Assessing patterns of language use and identity among Cameroonian migrants in Cape Town
No full textMagister Artium - MAThis study explored Cameroonian migrants language use and the various language forms they use to manifest their identity. It also dealt with multicultural/multilingual people in an equally multicultural/multilingual society - Cape Town. The study was carried out in the wider and interdisciplinary field of applied linguistics with focus on the specific domain of sociolinguistics.South Afric
A Particle Swarm Optimization Copula-Based Approach with Application to Cryptocurrency Portfolio Optimisation
No full textBlockchain and cryptocurrency are gradually going mainstream with new cryptocurrencies introduced every single day. The speculative nature of these digital assets expose their prices to large fluctuations. Trading these crypto-assets necessitate an adequate understanding of this emerging market as well as adequate tools to model the market risk and efficient allocation of funds. This may assist crypto investors in taking advantage of the highly volatile aspects of these assets. The portfolio consider in this study consists of six cryptocurrencies: four traditional cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, BNB and XRP) and two stablecoins (USDT and USDC). We examine the copula particle swarm optimization (CPSO) portfolio strategy against three other portfolio strategies, namely, the global minimum variance (GMV), the most diversified portfolio (MDP) and the minimum tail dependent (MTD). CPSO appears to be a promising strategy during extreme market conditions while GMV seem favorable during normal market conditions. Most importantly, hedge and safe-havens ability of the two stablecoins is clearly exhibited with CPSO, while their diversification property is inhibited
‘Tradition’ versus ‘modernity’: generational conflict in Vuta n'Kuvute, Kufa Kuzikana, Msimu wa Vipepeo and Tumaini
No full textThe paper focuses on generational conflicts as depicted in four Swahili novels namely: Vuta N’kuvute, Kufa Kuzikana, Msimu wa Vipepeo and Tumaini. Generational conflicts depicted in the novels are seen as a contest between tradition and modernity when viewed against the cultural changes that have taken place within the East African societies. Authors have dep-loyed narrative voice and focalization narrative techniques to communicate the implied au-thor’s ideological stance on the notions of tradition and modernity in respect to the conflicting issues captured in each novel.
Section two highlights some postulations about the concepts of ‘modernity’ and ‘tradition’. The third section discusses the concepts of generation and generational conflicts while the fourth focuses on narrative voice and focalization as the narrative strategies that reveal gene-rational conflicts portrayed in the four novels. The final section is the conclusion relating the ideological stance of the implied author in relation to the concepts of modernity and tradition
Representations of Voodoo : the history and influence of Haitian Vodou within the cultural productions of Britain and America since 1850
No full textThis thesis is the first major investigation into the representations of Vodou
within the cultural productions of Britain and America. It also opens up
opportunities for further research to be undertaken in the representations of
Vodou, Haiti and the culture and religions of other Caribbean countries.
This thesis explores the representations of 'Voodoo,' the widely accepted and
recognised term for the re-imagined religion, in Britain and America since 1850.
The history of the Caribbean and Haiti is examined before considering the
influence that the religion of Haitian Vodou has had on cultural production.
Through a historical perspective the thesis will consider the evolution of Vodou
during the horrors of slavery. The historiographic representations form the basis
of the productions and are explored to contextualise Vodou in the British and
American imagination. All genres of literature are examined, from the first
mention of Vodou in the eighteenth century through to the present day. This is
followed by an examination of the cultural reproductions of Vodou in film,
animation, theatre and television to explore the diversity of the representations.
The wider societal influences are considered throughout this work to
contextualise the productions of 'Voodoo'.
This thesis argues that the cultural reproductions of Vodou since 1850 have not
changed greatly, despite various efforts to redress the misrepresentations, they
remain rooted in colonialism. It will argue that many of the cultural productions
are reliant on previous representations. They do not in the majority introduce
authenticity, instead opting for the more sensational approach. Many of the
representations will be shown to be derogatory to the religion, culture and people
of Haiti and the diaspora. This is despite Vodou as a religion having survived,
gained strength and continuing to thrive in the twenty-first century
Body, time, and the others: African-American anthropology and the rewriting of ethnographic conventions in the ethnographies by Zora Neale Hurston and Katherine Dunham
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.This research looks at the ethnographies Mules and Men (1935) and Tell My Horse: Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica (1938) by Zora Neale Hurston focusing on representations of Time and the anthropologist’s body. Hurston was an African-American anthropologist, folklorist, and novelist who conducted research particularly between the end of the 1920s and the mid-1930s. At first, her fieldwork and writings dealt with African-American communities in Florida and Hoodoo practice in Louisiana, but she consequently expanded her field of anthropological interests to Jamaica and Haiti, which she visited between 1936 and 1937. The temporal and bodily factors in Hurston’s works are taken into consideration as coordinates of differentiation between the ethnographer and the objects of her research. In her ethnographies, the representation of the anthropologist’s body is analysed as an attempt at reducing temporal distance in ethnographical writings paralleled by the performative experience of fieldwork exemplified by Hurston’s storytelling: body, voice, and the dialogic representation of fieldwork relationships do not guarantee a portrayal of the anthropological subject on more egalitarian terms, but cast light on the influence of the anthropologist both in the practice and writing of ethnography. These elements are analysed in reference to the visualistic tradition of American anthropology as ways of organising difference and ascribing the anthropological ‘Others’ to a temporal frame characterised by bodily and cultural features perceived as ‘primitive’ and, therefore, distant from modernity. Representations and definitions of ‘primitiveness’ and ‘modernity’ not only shaped both twentieth-century American anthropology and the modernist arts (Harlem Renaissance), but also were pivotal for the creation of a modern African-American identity in its relation to African history and other black people involved in the African diaspora. In the same years in which Hurston visited Jamaica and Haiti, another African-American woman anthropologist and dancer, Katherine Dunham, conducted fieldwork in the Caribbean and started to look at it as a source of inspiration for the emerging African-American dance as recorded in her ethnographical and autobiographical account Island Possessed (1969). Therefore, Hurston’s and Dunham’s representations of Haiti are examined as points of intersection for the different discourses which both widened and complicated their understanding of what being ‘African’ and ‘American’ could mean.Isambard Research Scholarship from Brunel University and grant from Allan & Nesta Ferguson Charitable Trust
