Parables of the Prodigal: Engaging the African Immigrant Nurse in Homeland Health

In this analytic autoethnography, I examine the potential agency of African immigrant nurses (AINs) in contributing to health development in their sub-Saharan African homelands. Scholarship and policy discourses on diaspora engagement often position AINs within broader health diaspora groups, and primarily emphasize their clinical skills. This framing obscures the strategic, analytic, and advocacy capacities AINs can contribute to global health and homeland development. In light of expanding opportunities for diaspora engagement and global health partnerships, this study explores how AINs, including myself, can cultivate the skills necessary to navigate equitable development collaborations. These include the ability to recognize and challenge subtle assumptions that constrain diaspora participation and to reimagine modes of contribution beyond traditional clinical roles. Through critical self-interrogation, reflection on lived experience, and engagement with anthropological and historical insights on development practice, I construct a reflexive self-dialogue that illuminates how AINs negotiate identity, legitimacy, and opportunity across borders. This reflexive inquiry generates four guiding strategies for meaningful participation in homeland health development. Together, these strategies provide a foundation for more pragmatic future initiatives and underscore reflexivity as a form of self- empowerment in global health engagement.

Grantor dc:publisher

Creighton University

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Maboshe-Sitali, Mooka

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Travers-Gustafson, Dianne

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is retained by the Author. A non-exclusive distribution right is granted to Creighton University and to ProQuest following the publishing model selected above.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/124255

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:cdr.creighton.edu:10504/124255