When Karen Slides into Your DMs

This chapter uses my experiences as both a Dubsmasher and a teacher to unpack the role that language plays in identity formation. Specifically, it analyzes outsiders’ perceptions of Renegades in tandem with the linguistic and theatrical ways that Renegades push against the dominant narrative. The argument is that the relationship between language, race, and power influences how Dubsmashers such as my students construct their identities through music as well as how others criticize those same identity formations. I again use my classroom as a case study, here focusing on what I refer to as “a tale of four messages,” or a one-hour period in January 2020 in which I posted a Dub of my students and me dancing to “COOKIE SHOP” by ZaeHD & CEO and then immediately received four messages—one hypercritical message from a White follower and three supportive messages from Black followers. This case study offers a point of departure to unpack the ways that White outsiders attempt to police language and, by extension, the cultures of my students and other Renegades.

Toward a comparative anthropology of activism: activist identity formations in Germany and Uganda

There is an ongoing debate in anthropology on the kinds of subject positions activists ascribe to the marginalized actors they encounter and the political consequences this brings about. Drawing from ethnographic research on refugee activism in Germany and transitional justice activism in Uganda, we revisit the respective debates on humanitarian activism, human rights activism, and political activism and argue to reframe the analysis. Instead of looking for the “right” subject position activists should ascribe to the people they engage with, the anthropology of activism should embrace a research approach that looks at the material conditions, in which activists and their subjects find themselves in and the kind of agency they are able to develop within these conditions.

'Being Chinese' in Mauritius and Madagascar: Comparing Chinese diasporic communities in the western Indian Ocean

Chinese migration to the Western Indian Ocean since the 1800s was part of an earlier historical trend that saw European colonial powers setting up plantation economies that required foreign laborers. Migrants from Southern China arrived in Mauritius and Madagascar first as indentured laborers, and later as free merchants. Despite many similarities between the two diasporas, they differed in terms of their cultural and linguistic propensities. Furthermore, since the 1990s, both Mauritius and Madagascar have been experiencing rising influences of Mandarin-speaking Chinese immigrants working in infrastructure construction, commercial and educational sectors. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in these two Western Indian Ocean countries between 2015 and 2020, this paper applies the theoretical lens of ‘diaspora-for-others,’ featured in this special issue, to explore the similarities and differences between Chinese migration trajectories to Mauritius and Madagascar, and their respective diasporic identity formations. Local socio-historical contexts in Mauritius, Madagascar, and China influence the transnational experiences of Mauritian and Malagasy Chinese communities, which further contributes to their heterogeneous, fluid and changing cultural identities. In addition, the People’s Republic of China’s increasing engagement in Western Indian Ocean countries as a gateway to Africa in the past two decades has also created more nuances in the distinguishable boundaries within the Chinese diaspora communities in the region.

Religion and Literature, Identity and Individual: Resetting the Muslim-Christian Encounter

In the first two decades of the twenty-first century inter-faith encounters have become a casualty of a paradigm shift in the thinking about the global order from the political-ideological bi-polar worldview of the Cold War era to a multipolar world marred by the prospect of culture wars along civilisational fault lines shaped by religiously-informed identity politics. On the back of 9/11 and other atrocities perpetrated by violent extremists from Muslim backgrounds, in particular relations with Muslims and the Islamic world are coined in binary terms of us-versus-them. Drawing on earlier research on cosmopolitanism, cultural hybridity and liminality, this article examines counter narratives to such modes of dichotomous thinking. It also seeks to shift away from the abstractions of collective religious identity formations to an appreciation of individual interpretations of religion. For that purpose, the article interrogates the notions of cultural schizophrenia, double genealogy and west-eastern affinities developed by philosophers and creative writers, such as Daryush Shayegan, Abdelwahab Meddeb, and Navid Kermani.

The Formation of Occultist Identities Amidst the Theosophy and Socialism of fin-de-siècle France

Fin-de-siècle occultism is usually analyzed within the context of the „occult revival” that implies the modernization of the older esoteric tradition. However, this notion is rooted in the defi ning esoteric discourses at the end of the nineteenth century. This article discusses two major aspects of these discourses. First, French esotericists polemically distanced themselves from the „Eastern” esotericism of the Theosophical Society by constructing an ésotérisme occidental. This separation of „East” and „West” occurred as a reaction to the T.S., and should thus be seen as a „nationalist” response to a global phenomenon. The second major aspect of occultist identity formations is socialism. Fin-de-siècle occultists were deeply interested in the socialist theories formulated during the July Monarchy but ambiguously distanced themselves from contemporary „materialist” socialisms.

Youth language in virtual space in Nigeria: Multimodal affordance, indexicality and youth identities

Virtual space expressions contribute to the proliferation of African youth lingo within the Nigerian environment. However, beyond the sheer accumulation of lingual features, virtual space in Nigeria is also a site for the projection of both modern and indigenous youth identities, and for the deployment of sundry communication codes and multimodal affordances. This article explores this twin deployment, first as a way of broadening the sociolinguistic profile of African urban and youth languages, and second as a platform for examining aspects of youth identity formations in the Nigerian setting and how these intersect with the larger linguistic and sociolinguistic environment. Employing the methodology of content analysis, the article establishes youth language practice in virtual space in the Nigerian environment as not only multimodal, but also as indexical. Data samples are drawn from multiple discussion threads on Nairaland, a Nigerian youth news and entertainment blog that is hugely representative of the virtual space youth speech community in the country. The article concludes that virtual space and multimodal affordances enable the projection of hybridized and sometimes nondescript youth identities and alter-egos, as well as a display of communicative usages that appear distinctively African.

Exploring Ethos in Contemporary Ghana

In this article, we discuss contemporary Ghanaian ethos reflecting on female sexual behavior as a discursive construction that shifts and changes across time and space. Borrowing from Nedra Reynold’s concept of ethos as a location, we examine the various social and discourse spaces of different rhetors on female sexual behavior in Ghana and how each establishes ethos through identity formations and language use from various positions of authority. With multiethnic, multilingual, and multiple religious perspectives within the Ghanaian population, how does ethos and moral authority speak persuasively on female sexual behavior? We examine contemporary discourses governing normative female sexual behavior and presentation as revealed in both proverbs and social media to drive the discussion toward how these discourses of female sexual behavior and ethos are discursively constructed in contemporary Ghanaian society.

Revoking Besieged Memories: Scanning Modes of Memory in Alexis Wright’s Carpentaria

The dominant history of Australia has always reflected the beauty and abundance of its aboriginal world,in dim light. An analysis of the literary canon too proves this lack of acknowledgement and understanding, of the native ways of life and identity formations. Carpentaria by Alexis Wright challenges the very notion of history as a single strand of chronologically ordered set of events. When besieged memories are evoked new traces of memory surface shedding new light on the past. It initiates a process rewriting history. Postmodern historiography today accepts the subjectivity and literariness of histories. Only a thin line exists between history and fiction. In a nation’s narrative, memory is a trope that foregrounds the polyphonic voices of the nation. The imaginary town of Desperance in Carpentaria is a microcosm of the Australian society. It is here, truth and appropriations crisscross to create a true picture of the Australian society.

Classing religion, resourcing women: Muslim women negotiating space for action

Approaching Islam as a discursive terrain, this article challenges the tacit understanding of Islam as a repressor in young women’s lives and argues that well-educated, young female Muslims in Denmark use a discursive distinction between “real” Islam and “misguided” ethno-cultural traditions to challenge restrictive gender norms. Inspired by research on everyday lived religion and lived Islam, we show how the women—backed by their middle-class identity formations—posit a culture/religion dichotomy turning the discursive terrain of Islam into a resource in intergenerational discussions with their own families and wider communities. Addressing a gap in research literature on European Muslims, the article illustrates how middle-class formations play a significant part in the women’s responses to conventional authorities as the women apply Islamic sources in negotiations of gender boundaries.