1 - Academic (Im)mobility: Ecology of Ethnographic Research and Knowledge Production on Africans in China
Corresponding Author(s) : Kudus Oluwatoyin Adebayo
Journal of Higher Education in Africa,
Vol. 18 No. 1 (2020): Journal of Higher Education in Africa: Special Issue on The Politics of Knowledge Production in Africa
Abstract
Since the emergence of China in the geopolitical and economic spaces of Africa, academics have followed Chinese and African people moving in both directions and conducted on-the-ground, cross-border ethnographies. However, academics are not equally mobile. This autoethnography analyses the intersections of ethnography, mobility and knowledge production on ‘Africans in China’ through a critical exploration of the contextual issues shaping the unequal participation of Africa-based researchers in the study of Africa(ns) in a non- African setting. Based on my experiences before, during and after migration to Guangzhou city, I demonstrate that ‘being there,’ fetishised as ideal-type anthropology, conceals privilege and racial and power dynamics that constrain the practice of cross-border ethnography in the global South.
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- Adebanwi, W., 2016, ‘Rethinking Knowledge production in Africa’, Africa, Vol. 86, No. 2, pp. 350–3.
- Akanle, O. O. A., Yusuff, Q. O., Adebayo and Adegboyega, K., 2013, ‘African scholarship and visa challenges for Nigerian academics’, International Journal of Sociology, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 79–95.
- Ake, C., 2011, ‘Social Science as Imperialism’, in H. Lauer and K. Anyidoho, eds., Reclaiming the Human Sciences and Humanities through African Perspectives, Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, pp. 1–30.
- Alatas, S. F., 2003, ‘Academic dependency and the global division of labour in the social sciences’, Current Sociology, Vol. 51, No. 6, pp. 599–613.
- Arowosegbe, J. O., 2016, ‘African scholars, African studies and knowledge production on Africa’, Africa, Vol. 86, No. 2, pp. 324–38.
- Berger, R., 2015, ‘Now I see it, now I don’t: Researcher’s position and reflexivity in qualitative research’, Qualitative research, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 219–34.
- Bourdieu, P. 2003, ‘Participant objectivation’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 281–94.
- Bredeloup, S., 2014, ‘West African Students Turned Entrepreneurs in Asian Trading Posts: A New Facet of Globalization’, Urban anthropology and studies of cultural systems and world economic development, Vol. 43, No. 1–3, pp. 17–56.
- Britz, J. J., and Ponelis, S., 2012, ‘Social justice and the international flow of knowledge with specific reference to African scholars’, paper presented at the Aslib Proceedings.
- Brooks, R., and Waters, J., 2011, Student mobilities, migration and the internationalization of higher education, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Bruce, S., and Yearly, S., 2005, The Sage Dictionary of Sociology, London: Sage Publications.
- Busia, A. P. A., 2006, ‘What is Africa to me? Knowledge possession, knowledge pro- duction, and the health of our bodies politic in Africa and the Africa diaspora’, African Studies Review, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 15–30.
- Canadian Association of African Studies, 2018, CAAS Statement on Visa Refusals. (https://caas-acea.org/advocacy-campaign-on-visa-refusals/caas-statement-on-visa-refusals). 21 November 2019.
- Cheng, Y. 2011, ‘From Campus Racism to Cyber Racism: Discourse of Race and Chinese Nationalism’, The China Quarterly, Vol. 207, pp. 561–79.
- Davies, C. A., 2002, Reflexive ethnography: A guide to researching selves and others, New York: Taylor & Francis e-Library.
- Dutton, J. E. 1980, ‘The Impact of Inbreeding and Immobility on the Professional Role and Scholarly Performance of Academic Scientists’, paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston.
- Favell, A., M. Feldblum, and Smith, M.P., 2007, ‘The human face of global mobility: A research agenda’, Society, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 15–25.
- Grgurinović, I., 2013, ‘The Travellers and the Still: on the Politics of (Academic) Mobility’, Studia ethnologica Croatica, Vol. 25.
- Grounds, M., 2019, ‘Systemic prejudice in the UK, and visa refusals for African academics’, M&G. (https://mg.co.za/article/2019-07-10-systemic-prejudice-in-the-uk-and-visa-refusals-for-african-academics/). 29 May 2021.
- Hage, G., 2009, ‘Waiting Out the Crisis: On Stuckedness and Govern- mentality’, pp. 97–106. (https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/infor-mit.077538461209525). 29 May 2021.
- Haugen, H. Ø., 2013, ‘China’s Recruitment of African University Students: Policy Efficacy and Unintended Outcomes’, Globalisation, Societies and Education, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 315–34.
- Ho, E. L. E., 2017, ‘The Geo-Social and Global Geographies of Power: Urban Aspira- tions of “Worlding”african Students in China’, Geopolitics Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 15–33. Howell, S., 2017, ‘Two or three things I love about ethnography, HAU: Journal of
- Ethnographic Theory, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 15–20.
- Keim, W., 2008, ‘Social sciences internationally: The problem of marginalisation and its consequences for the discipline of sociology’, African Sociological Review/ Revue Africaine de Sociologie, Vol. 12, No. 2.
- Lan, S., 2017, ‘“China Gives and China Takes”: African Traders and the Nondocu- menting States’, Focaal , No. 77, pp. 50–62.
- Larsen, M. A., 2016, Internationalization of Higher Education: An Analysis Through Spatial, Network, and Mobilities Theories, United States: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Lee, J. J., K. Paulidor and Mpaga, Y. A., 2017, ‘Sliding doors: strategic ambiguity in study visas to South Africa’, Studies in Higher Education, pp. 1–14.
- Liu, P. H., 2013, ‘Petty Annoyances?: Revisiting John Emmanuel Hevi’s an African Student in China after 50 Years’, China: An International Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 131–45.
- Lu, V. and Huang, M., 2018, ‘Africa-China Fieldwork and Knowledge Production Survey’, unpublished paper, pp. 1–10.
- Marfaing, L., 2019, ‘“Made in China” and the African “China Dream”: An Alternative to the West?’, in K. Giese and L. Marfaing, eds., Chinese and African Entrepreneurs: Social impacts of interpersonal encounters, Leiden: Brill, pp. 223–252.
- Mau, S., Gülzau, F., Laube, L., and Zaun, N., 2015, ‘The global mobility divide: How visa policies have evolved over time’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 41, No. 8, pp. 1192–213.
- Mkandawire, T. 1997, ‘The social sciences in Africa: Breaking local barriers and negotiating international presence. The Bashorun MKO Abiola distinguished lecture presented to the 1996 African Studies Association annual meeting’, African Studies Review, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 15–36.
- Neumayer, E. 2006, ‘Unequal access to foreign spaces: how states use visa restrictions to regulate mobility in a globalized world’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 72–84.
- Obadare, E. and Adebanwi W., 2010, ‘The visa God: Would-be migrants and the instrumentalization of religion’, in A. Adogame and , J. V. Spickard, eds., Religion Crossing Boundaries, Leiden: Brill, pp. 29–48.
- Omobowale, A. O., 2013, ‘Guest Editor’s Introduction: African Social Sci- ences Scholarship in a Globalized Academy’, International Journal of Sociology, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 3–7.
- Pang, C. L., and Yuan, D., 2013, ‘Chocolate City as a Concept and as Visible African Space of Change and Diversity’. 以后再给您纸质版图书, pp. 47–78.
- Pfafman, T. M., C. J. Carpenter, and Y. Tang. 2015, ‘The Politics of Racism: Construc- tions of African Immigrants in China on ChinaSMACK’, Communication, Culture & Critique, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 540–56.
- Sivak, E., and M. Yudkevich. 2015, ‘Academic immobility and inbreeding in Russian universities’, in M. Yudkevich, P. G. Altbach, and L. E. Rumbley, eds., Academic Inbreeding and Mobility in Higher Education, London: Palgrave Macmillian, pp. 130–55.
- Treiber, M. 2014, ‘Grasping Kiflu’s Fear – Informality and Existentialism in Migration from North-East Africa’, Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 111–41.
- Vigh, H. 2009, ‘Motion squared: A second look at the concept of social navigation’, Anthropological Theory, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 419–38.
- Wi g-Fai, L. 2015, ‘Who could be an Oriental angel? Lou Jing, mixed heritage and the discourses of Chinese ethnicity’, Asian Ethnicity, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 294–313.
References
Adebanwi, W., 2016, ‘Rethinking Knowledge production in Africa’, Africa, Vol. 86, No. 2, pp. 350–3.
Akanle, O. O. A., Yusuff, Q. O., Adebayo and Adegboyega, K., 2013, ‘African scholarship and visa challenges for Nigerian academics’, International Journal of Sociology, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 79–95.
Ake, C., 2011, ‘Social Science as Imperialism’, in H. Lauer and K. Anyidoho, eds., Reclaiming the Human Sciences and Humanities through African Perspectives, Accra: Sub-Saharan Publishers, pp. 1–30.
Alatas, S. F., 2003, ‘Academic dependency and the global division of labour in the social sciences’, Current Sociology, Vol. 51, No. 6, pp. 599–613.
Arowosegbe, J. O., 2016, ‘African scholars, African studies and knowledge production on Africa’, Africa, Vol. 86, No. 2, pp. 324–38.
Berger, R., 2015, ‘Now I see it, now I don’t: Researcher’s position and reflexivity in qualitative research’, Qualitative research, Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 219–34.
Bourdieu, P. 2003, ‘Participant objectivation’, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 281–94.
Bredeloup, S., 2014, ‘West African Students Turned Entrepreneurs in Asian Trading Posts: A New Facet of Globalization’, Urban anthropology and studies of cultural systems and world economic development, Vol. 43, No. 1–3, pp. 17–56.
Britz, J. J., and Ponelis, S., 2012, ‘Social justice and the international flow of knowledge with specific reference to African scholars’, paper presented at the Aslib Proceedings.
Brooks, R., and Waters, J., 2011, Student mobilities, migration and the internationalization of higher education, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bruce, S., and Yearly, S., 2005, The Sage Dictionary of Sociology, London: Sage Publications.
Busia, A. P. A., 2006, ‘What is Africa to me? Knowledge possession, knowledge pro- duction, and the health of our bodies politic in Africa and the Africa diaspora’, African Studies Review, Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 15–30.
Canadian Association of African Studies, 2018, CAAS Statement on Visa Refusals. (https://caas-acea.org/advocacy-campaign-on-visa-refusals/caas-statement-on-visa-refusals). 21 November 2019.
Cheng, Y. 2011, ‘From Campus Racism to Cyber Racism: Discourse of Race and Chinese Nationalism’, The China Quarterly, Vol. 207, pp. 561–79.
Davies, C. A., 2002, Reflexive ethnography: A guide to researching selves and others, New York: Taylor & Francis e-Library.
Dutton, J. E. 1980, ‘The Impact of Inbreeding and Immobility on the Professional Role and Scholarly Performance of Academic Scientists’, paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Boston.
Favell, A., M. Feldblum, and Smith, M.P., 2007, ‘The human face of global mobility: A research agenda’, Society, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 15–25.
Grgurinović, I., 2013, ‘The Travellers and the Still: on the Politics of (Academic) Mobility’, Studia ethnologica Croatica, Vol. 25.
Grounds, M., 2019, ‘Systemic prejudice in the UK, and visa refusals for African academics’, M&G. (https://mg.co.za/article/2019-07-10-systemic-prejudice-in-the-uk-and-visa-refusals-for-african-academics/). 29 May 2021.
Hage, G., 2009, ‘Waiting Out the Crisis: On Stuckedness and Govern- mentality’, pp. 97–106. (https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/infor-mit.077538461209525). 29 May 2021.
Haugen, H. Ø., 2013, ‘China’s Recruitment of African University Students: Policy Efficacy and Unintended Outcomes’, Globalisation, Societies and Education, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 315–34.
Ho, E. L. E., 2017, ‘The Geo-Social and Global Geographies of Power: Urban Aspira- tions of “Worlding”african Students in China’, Geopolitics Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 15–33. Howell, S., 2017, ‘Two or three things I love about ethnography, HAU: Journal of
Ethnographic Theory, Vol. 7, No. 1, pp. 15–20.
Keim, W., 2008, ‘Social sciences internationally: The problem of marginalisation and its consequences for the discipline of sociology’, African Sociological Review/ Revue Africaine de Sociologie, Vol. 12, No. 2.
Lan, S., 2017, ‘“China Gives and China Takes”: African Traders and the Nondocu- menting States’, Focaal , No. 77, pp. 50–62.
Larsen, M. A., 2016, Internationalization of Higher Education: An Analysis Through Spatial, Network, and Mobilities Theories, United States: Palgrave Macmillan.
Lee, J. J., K. Paulidor and Mpaga, Y. A., 2017, ‘Sliding doors: strategic ambiguity in study visas to South Africa’, Studies in Higher Education, pp. 1–14.
Liu, P. H., 2013, ‘Petty Annoyances?: Revisiting John Emmanuel Hevi’s an African Student in China after 50 Years’, China: An International Journal, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 131–45.
Lu, V. and Huang, M., 2018, ‘Africa-China Fieldwork and Knowledge Production Survey’, unpublished paper, pp. 1–10.
Marfaing, L., 2019, ‘“Made in China” and the African “China Dream”: An Alternative to the West?’, in K. Giese and L. Marfaing, eds., Chinese and African Entrepreneurs: Social impacts of interpersonal encounters, Leiden: Brill, pp. 223–252.
Mau, S., Gülzau, F., Laube, L., and Zaun, N., 2015, ‘The global mobility divide: How visa policies have evolved over time’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 41, No. 8, pp. 1192–213.
Mkandawire, T. 1997, ‘The social sciences in Africa: Breaking local barriers and negotiating international presence. The Bashorun MKO Abiola distinguished lecture presented to the 1996 African Studies Association annual meeting’, African Studies Review, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 15–36.
Neumayer, E. 2006, ‘Unequal access to foreign spaces: how states use visa restrictions to regulate mobility in a globalized world’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 72–84.
Obadare, E. and Adebanwi W., 2010, ‘The visa God: Would-be migrants and the instrumentalization of religion’, in A. Adogame and , J. V. Spickard, eds., Religion Crossing Boundaries, Leiden: Brill, pp. 29–48.
Omobowale, A. O., 2013, ‘Guest Editor’s Introduction: African Social Sci- ences Scholarship in a Globalized Academy’, International Journal of Sociology, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 3–7.
Pang, C. L., and Yuan, D., 2013, ‘Chocolate City as a Concept and as Visible African Space of Change and Diversity’. 以后再给您纸质版图书, pp. 47–78.
Pfafman, T. M., C. J. Carpenter, and Y. Tang. 2015, ‘The Politics of Racism: Construc- tions of African Immigrants in China on ChinaSMACK’, Communication, Culture & Critique, Vol. 8, No. 4, pp. 540–56.
Sivak, E., and M. Yudkevich. 2015, ‘Academic immobility and inbreeding in Russian universities’, in M. Yudkevich, P. G. Altbach, and L. E. Rumbley, eds., Academic Inbreeding and Mobility in Higher Education, London: Palgrave Macmillian, pp. 130–55.
Treiber, M. 2014, ‘Grasping Kiflu’s Fear – Informality and Existentialism in Migration from North-East Africa’, Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 111–41.
Vigh, H. 2009, ‘Motion squared: A second look at the concept of social navigation’, Anthropological Theory, Vol. 9, No. 4, pp. 419–38.
Wi g-Fai, L. 2015, ‘Who could be an Oriental angel? Lou Jing, mixed heritage and the discourses of Chinese ethnicity’, Asian Ethnicity, Vol. 16, No. 3, pp. 294–313.