Discussing Transnational Identities within, and out of Africa
By Mathijs Cazemier and Gilda Christina Rodrigues
Sitting down with Axelle and Mo
Meeting point is a podcast that discusses African transnational identities, in this episode we sit down with Axelle do Rego, who was born in the Ivory coast, but has Togolese roots as well, at the age of two she moved to Tanzania, and eventual to Europe, first to France and later to the Netherlands. Our second guest Mohamed Mussa who was born and grow up in Tanzania, however moved to the UK at the age of 7 and later moved to the Netherlands.
On Transnational Identities
De Fina & Perrino argue that transnationalism is a direct product of globalization, where different global interactions might push masses to find other work opportunities elsewhere than their home countries. These global changes have an impact in how identity is constructed, and negotiated within these transnational communities, but as well outside of it. This leads to transnational communities, or individuals of being exposed to “inbetweenness” and hybridity. Thus, for this podcast we wanted to sit down with two individuals from whom one has transnational experiences within Africa (Ivorian-Togolese), as well as in Europe, or how transnationalism can work out if it is being in between the differences of two continents, as our second guest (Tanzania-UK-NL).
Listen to Axelle and Mo's experiences!
Conclusion
We would like to thank Axelle do Rego and Mohammed Mussa for being our guests on this episode of Meeting Point.
Making a podcast, and listening to a podcast on topics that consider the African continent feels as a complete way of doing research, instead of reading, or observing a phenomena on the outside, you engage in conversations and get more of an complete view of how the subject discussed works out in reality.
"The problem if you get to deep into that, you kind off get back in this lost world, but I think it is just important to have faith in yourself, and to understand that this is not an issue but a strength."
Bibliography
De Fina, A., & Perrino, S. (2013). Transnational Identities. Applied Linguistics, 34(5), 509–515.