{"id":{"repo_id":"cape-town","oai_identifier":"oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29976"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cape-town/oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/29976","repository":{"repo_id":"cape-town","name":"University of Cape Town","base_url":"https://open.uct.ac.za/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Who are you calling obruni? A case study of African American Immigration to Ghana","abstract":"This thesis investigated the migration experiences and subjectivity of belonging of Members of the African American Association of Ghana (AAAG) in obtaining permanent status in Ghana. An estimated three thousand African Americans are living in Ghana (Brown, 2013). Fieldwork was conducted primarily in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana with sixteen Research Participants, including members of AAAG and the African American community at large. Life history interviews were conducted utilizing a twenty-one question instrument that guided the data collection. Participant observation and autoethnography was unique to this study as the Researcher himself; an African American, spent two years living in Ghana prior to submitting this thesis. This thesis offers new data and experiences to the ideas surrounding a “return” migration of the descendants of victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade to Ghana. Attention was given to the experiences of African Americans being referred to by Ghanaians as obruni, which effectively means “white man and/or foreigner” and what impact, if any, it had on my Research Participants. Necessarily, issues of identity, nationhood, race as well as religion/spirituality was explored with this thesis. Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory was utilized in looking at the interconnections of cultural capital between my Research Participants and what he describes as the embodied state, objectified state and the institutionalized state (Bourdieu, 1986). The results of this thesis are that the experiences of the Research Participants varied regarding the pursuit of permanent status in Ghana. Moreover, the use of the word obruni had various levels of interpretation and use that were expressed.","abstract_html":"This thesis investigated the migration experiences and subjectivity of belonging of Members of the African American Association of Ghana (AAAG) in obtaining permanent status in Ghana. An estimated three thousand African Americans are living in Ghana (Brown, 2013). Fieldwork was conducted primarily in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana with sixteen Research Participants, including members of AAAG and the African American community at large. Life history interviews were conducted utilizing a twenty-one question instrument that guided the data collection. Participant observation and autoethnography was unique to this study as the Researcher himself; an African American, spent two years living in Ghana prior to submitting this thesis. This thesis offers new data and experiences to the ideas surrounding a “return” migration of the descendants of victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade to Ghana. Attention was given to the experiences of African Americans being referred to by Ghanaians as obruni, which effectively means “white man and/or foreigner” and what impact, if any, it had on my Research Participants. Necessarily, issues of identity, nationhood, race as well as religion/spirituality was explored with this thesis. Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory was utilized in looking at the interconnections of cultural capital between my Research Participants and what he describes as the embodied state, objectified state and the institutionalized state (Bourdieu, 1986). The results of this thesis are that the experiences of the Research Participants varied regarding the pursuit of permanent status in Ghana. Moreover, the use of the word obruni had various levels of interpretation and use that were expressed.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Davis III, Ephious"],"institution":"Social Anthropology","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Swai, Marlon"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017","date_published":"2017","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:23:01Z","subjects":["migration experiences","African American Association of Ghana","Ghana","African American community"],"languages":["en"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29976","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Swai, Marlon"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Davis III, Ephious"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2019-04-25T11:39:11Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-04-25T11:39:11Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2017"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.department","label":"Dc Publisher Department","values":["Social Anthropology"]},{"key":"dc:publisher.institution","label":"Dc Publisher Institution","values":["University of Cape Town"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Master Thesis"]},{"key":"dc:type.qualificationlevel","label":"Dc Type Qualificationlevel","values":["Masters"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["migration experiences","African American Association of Ghana","Ghana","African American community"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["en"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29976"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["This thesis investigated the migration experiences and subjectivity of belonging of Members of the African American Association of Ghana (AAAG) in obtaining permanent status in Ghana. An estimated three thousand African Americans are living in Ghana (Brown, 2013). Fieldwork was conducted primarily in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana with sixteen Research Participants, including members of AAAG and the African American community at large. Life history interviews were conducted utilizing a twenty-one question instrument that guided the data collection. Participant observation and autoethnography was unique to this study as the Researcher himself; an African American, spent two years living in Ghana prior to submitting this thesis. This thesis offers new data and experiences to the ideas surrounding a “return” migration of the descendants of victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade to Ghana. Attention was given to the experiences of African Americans being referred to by Ghanaians as obruni, which effectively means “white man and/or foreigner” and what impact, if any, it had on my Research Participants. Necessarily, issues of identity, nationhood, race as well as religion/spirituality was explored with this thesis. Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory was utilized in looking at the interconnections of cultural capital between my Research Participants and what he describes as the embodied state, objectified state and the institutionalized state (Bourdieu, 1986). The results of this thesis are that the experiences of the Research Participants varied regarding the pursuit of permanent status in Ghana. Moreover, the use of the word obruni had various levels of interpretation and use that were expressed."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Who are you calling obruni? A case study of African American Immigration to Ghana"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Swai, Marlon"],"dc:creator":["Davis III, Ephious"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2019-04-25T11:39:11Z"],"dc:date.available":["2019-04-25T11:39:11Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2017"],"dc:description.abstract":["This thesis investigated the migration experiences and subjectivity of belonging of Members of the African American Association of Ghana (AAAG) in obtaining permanent status in Ghana. An estimated three thousand African Americans are living in Ghana (Brown, 2013). Fieldwork was conducted primarily in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana with sixteen Research Participants, including members of AAAG and the African American community at large. Life history interviews were conducted utilizing a twenty-one question instrument that guided the data collection. Participant observation and autoethnography was unique to this study as the Researcher himself; an African American, spent two years living in Ghana prior to submitting this thesis. This thesis offers new data and experiences to the ideas surrounding a “return” migration of the descendants of victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade to Ghana. Attention was given to the experiences of African Americans being referred to by Ghanaians as obruni, which effectively means “white man and/or foreigner” and what impact, if any, it had on my Research Participants. Necessarily, issues of identity, nationhood, race as well as religion/spirituality was explored with this thesis. Pierre Bourdieu’s cultural capital theory was utilized in looking at the interconnections of cultural capital between my Research Participants and what he describes as the embodied state, objectified state and the institutionalized state (Bourdieu, 1986). The results of this thesis are that the experiences of the Research Participants varied regarding the pursuit of permanent status in Ghana. Moreover, the use of the word obruni had various levels of interpretation and use that were expressed."],"dc:identifier.uri":["http://hdl.handle.net/11427/29976"],"dc:language.iso":["en"],"dc:publisher.department":["Social Anthropology"],"dc:publisher.institution":["University of Cape Town"],"dc:subject":["migration experiences","African American Association of Ghana","Ghana","African American community"],"dc:title":["Who are you calling obruni? A case study of African American Immigration to Ghana"],"dc:type":["Master Thesis"],"dc:type.qualificationlevel":["Masters"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:23:01Z"}