Research master thesis | African Studies (research) (MA)
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Abstract Inspired by personal experience, this research analyzes the challenges and paradoxes of belonging of the Rastafari returnees in Ethiopia. With a biblically and historically buildt identity...Show moreAbstract Inspired by personal experience, this research analyzes the challenges and paradoxes of belonging of the Rastafari returnees in Ethiopia. With a biblically and historically buildt identity, the Rastafari have formed a strong identity and view Ethiopia as Zion. However, the whistle that signaled repatriation is the 500 acres land grant given by His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I to the black peoples of the world, mainly those in the west, as a token of gratitude for reaching out to Ethiopia and its people during the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. The Rastafari people returned to Ethiopia, the Promised Land, fulfilling their “homecoming.” The research examines the multi-dynamic facets of the Rastafari community’s confrontations on their journey of striving to make a home and feel at home, thereby unravelling the consistent conditions that facilitated the contradicting relationship of the community with Ethiopia and Ethiopians. In order to do so, the research identifies the challenges and investigates how these are manifested and how the paradoxes of the community are demonstrated. Capitalizing on the opportunity of meeting the global Rastafari, the research curiously inquires whether the challenges faced by the community in Ethiopia are shared by Rastafari elsewhere. Furthermore, the study cross-examines the applicability of the directive issued by the Ethiopian government. In the absence of full integration, the research investigates whether the community in Ethiopia is leveraging on its international connections. To respond to these questions, the study makes use of Horst Moller’s theories on identity of (MacLeod, 2014), Nyamonjah’s belongingness (2006), the homeland-diaspora relationship examined by Wingrod and Levi (2006), and the zones of transit identified by Akinyoade and Gewald (2015). The research was conducted through an ethnographic approach in the Rastafari community in Ethiopia, with the researcher being a quasi-member of that community. Open interviews and participant observation are what the researcher immersed herself into in order to collect data. The personal experience and some specific quotes of the informants are compartmentalized to form the themes of the subjects included. This research-at-home also brings the personal experience to the text with the intention of enriching and deepening the experience of the reader. Unexpected events gave way to methods of unintended findings that perfectly and coherently suited the thesis, as it provides information on whether the experience of the Rastas in Ethiopia is shared by other Rastafari in Africa and globally. These events further helped to bring a fresh knowledge by thoroughly assessing the practicality of the directive concerning the Rastafari, which was issued by the Ethiopian government. The apparent persistence of the trans-nationality of the Rastafari cannot go unchecked. Therefore, the researcher shares the data collected in this regard. I conclude that the post-repatriation era of the Rastafari in Ethiopia is crammed with consistent tribulations, ironies, and paradoxes perpetuated by the state, by local Ethiopians and by the returnees themselves. However, this research equally concludes that, despite the challenges the Rastafari face in their daily lives, they are determined to stay ‘home.’Show less
Research master thesis | African Studies (research) (MA)
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There is a shortage of highly skilled aviation personnel in Tanzania. More than half of the pilots flying in the country are foreigners, while there are simultaneous reports of unemployed Tanzanian...Show moreThere is a shortage of highly skilled aviation personnel in Tanzania. More than half of the pilots flying in the country are foreigners, while there are simultaneous reports of unemployed Tanzanian pilots. This, in combination with the lack of research on Tanzanian aviation in general, provided the starting point for this research on the changing position of Tanzanian pilots in the Tanzanian air transport sector from 1917 to 2017. This thesis is the result of a historical qualitative research with a six months fieldwork period carried out in Dar es Salaam in 2014/2015. Additional data was collected in 2016 and 2017. Researching Tanzanian aviation elites has its own methodological challenges of access and positionality. The thesis gives an overview of a century of flight and fliers in Tanzania. It is argued that Tanzanian pilots have experienced some degree of deprofessionalization through loss of expertise, autonomy and status as a result of global and local conditions. However, measuring the state of community is not very helpful in examining Tanzanian pilots. Tanzanian pilots are not helpless in the face of deprofessionalization. Some Tanzanian pilots have moved into management functions at their airlines and others have organized in the Professional Association of Tanzanian Pilots (PATP). The labor aristocracy thesis proved not sufficient to explain the behavior of Tanzanian pilots. While once maybe rightly considered a labor aristocracy, Tanzanian pilots have become a very heterogenous group. In order to counter deteriorating conditions, some pilots organized in the PATP; this pilots-exclusive association used its connections to gain momentum, but it had severe confrontations with state and employers and pilots left the group when they got employed. This suggests that the Tanzanian pilots in the PATP were in some ways acting as a labor aristocracy, but judging from their composition, it was also an attempt to get back into one. Non-organization rather than organization became a way of dealing with the changes. The situation and (in)actions of Tanzanian pilots was very complex and must be understood in its own context. Further research is needed to find out more about individual motivations and to examine how different airlines deal with highly skilled workers. This thesis adds a Tanzanian perspective to debates on professional workers and changing professions in a globalized world.Show less
Research master thesis | African Studies (research) (MA)
open access
The UN Sustainable Development Goals acknowledge ‘that all cultures (…) are crucial enablers of sustainable development’. In academic literature on Africa, however, cultural diversity is analysed...Show moreThe UN Sustainable Development Goals acknowledge ‘that all cultures (…) are crucial enablers of sustainable development’. In academic literature on Africa, however, cultural diversity is analysed as a problem, rather than as an enabler. Africa is either seen as one culturally homogeneous whole or as incredibly diverse and fragmented – there seems to be nothing in-between. Therefore, the picture is incomplete at best. Yet information on culture is used as the basis for assertions on Africa and its problems in economic and other areas. This thesis questions both visions of African cultures, using Vansina’s theory on the autonomy of cultural traditions as its starting point. Methodically, it uses an approach developed in cross-cultural psychology. Cultures are described here as value systems that serve as common points of reference to peoples. Using the cultural dimensions approach of Hofstede and Minkov a new exploratory analysis has been made of current self-perceptions of Africans, using data from the World Values and Afrobarometer surveys. This leads to information on differences and similarities in cultural values between more than 200 ethnolinguistic groups from over 30 African countries. The information has been partly triangulated through Focus Group Discussions in Ghana and in Southern Africa and by comparing information from those countries with ethnographic and other literature. The thesis sheds new light on cultural differences and similarities in Africa. It shows that there are considerable cultural differences within Africa; not all cultures in Africa are equally ‘collectivist’, for example. The essentially Eurocentric shorthand method of equating language with culture cannot be used in Africa: in many cases, cultural areas share different languages; in other cases, one language may be shared by people with different cultures. The thesis shows that such situations may be relatively common in Africa. The thesis calls for a new perspective on African identities and draws attention to the need for rebuilding cultural autonomy, based in African languages.Show less
Research master thesis | African Studies (research) (MA)
open access
The thesis focuses specifically on exploring the ways in which an individual’s identity, particularly identity development processes, come into play in the decision making process which shapes...Show moreThe thesis focuses specifically on exploring the ways in which an individual’s identity, particularly identity development processes, come into play in the decision making process which shapes return to Kenya.Show less
