African Immigrant Religions in America

10: Transnationalism, Religion, and the African Diaspora in Canada: An Examination of Ghanaians and Ghanaian Churches

10 Transnationalism, Religion, and the African Diaspora in Canada An Examination of Ghanaians and Ghanaian Churches Wisdom J. Tettey Introduction Increasingly, a lot of people are being compelled to leave their countries of origin to settle in other places as a result of socioeconomic problems wrought by global forces and/or political turmoil in their home countries.1 These developments, combined with the constriction of “time-space distanciation ”2 made possible by advances in technology, have led some observers to argue that the distinction between temporary and permanent migration is becoming increasingly blurred, if not unsustainable. Richmond , for example, contends that “globalization has facilitated worldwide network linkages with friends and families in the former country, and with the international labour market.”3 This, he points out further, has resulted in the phenomenon of transilience, that is the ability to move back and forth between two or more countries and cultures. A corollary to these processes of shifting locations and attachments is the reconfiguration of people’s identities in ways which are anti-essentialist and transcend fixed notions of self, location, culture, ethnicity, and citizenship.4 The simultaneous occupation of multiple locations is the basis for the concept of hybridity, which allows us to examine migrants’ experiences in ways that overcome the tendency toward “victimology of transnational migrants, empowering them, linking the past with the present.”5 To capture the multiple complexities that characterize immigrants’ “in-between” status6 and to give the concept of hybridity a more encompassing essence vis-à-vis issues of belonging, otherness, and identity, it is important that 229 we explore other dimensions of the immigrant experience, beyond the traditional focus on culture and cultural difference. In order to do this, Anthias puts forward an analytical framework premised on the idea of “translocational positionality.”7 This framework facilitates the interrogation of other constructions of difference, beyond culture, based upon various identifiers and signifiers. Such a tool makes it possible to look beyond immigrant communities as homogenous groups that are bound by a collective identity in relation to others and opens up analytical insights into different narratives of belonging and otherness in the context not only of the host society but of the societies of origin, as well. As Anthias argues: Collective identities involve forms of social organization postulating boundaries with identity markers that denote essential elements of membership (which act to “code” people), as well as claims that are articulated for specific purposes. The identity markers (culture, origin, language, colour and physiognomy, etc.) may themselves function as resources that are deployed contextually and situationally. They function both as sets of self-attributions and attributions by others. By focusing on location/dislocation and on positionality, it is possible to pay attention to spatial and contextual dimensions, treating the issues involved in terms of processes rather than possessive properties of individuals.8 In the following discussion, we use the framework of “translocational positionality” to analyze the multiple ways in which Ghanaians in Canada connect with their communities and country of origin via religion, in spite of the spatial distanciation that their location in Canada imposes. The rationale behind using this framework stems from the fact that it allows us to escape the constraints of a binary division between subjectivity on the one hand and cultural determinism on the other. Rather, what we have is a dialectical approach that facilitates the appreciation of the multiple, simultaneous, fluid, and sometimes conflictual positions occupied by individuals and groups as they negotiate their sense of self and consequent attachments to cultures, religion, ethnicities, places, and nations. We will also draw from a related schema on translocation and religion provided by Hagan and Ebaugh.9 It is an apposite framework for analyzing how religion intersects with migration to shape the experiences of Ghanaians in Ghana and in the Diaspora. The authors point out that the role of religion in the stages of the migration process has been overlooked 230 w i s d o m t e t t e y by both immigration and sociology of religion scholars. They contend further that the relationship between migration and religion is largely seen in historical and recent case studies that tend to emphasize the roles of the church vis-à-vis the settlement of immigrants in their host communities . Added to this focus in the literature is an interest in how religion facilitates the propagation of transnational...