Home away from home: a study of the Ewe unification in the United States

Kothor, Djifa

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Description

Title

Home away from home: a study of the Ewe unification in the United States

Author(s)

Kothor, Djifa

Issue Date

2013-02-03T19:30:17Z

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Miraftab, Faranak

Department of Study

Center for African Studies

Discipline

African Studies

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.A.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Ewe nationalism
• United States
• immigration
• Ghana
• Togo

Abstract

This master’s thesis attempts to identity the reasons and causes for strong Ewe identity among those in the contemporary African Diaspora in the United States. An important debate among African nationalists and academics argues that ethnic belonging is a response to colonialism instigated by Western-educated African elites for their own political gain. Based on my observation of Ewe political discourses of discontent with the Ghana and Togolese governments, and through my exploratory interviews with Ewe immigrants in the United States; I argue that the formation of ethnic belonging and consciousness cannot be reduced to its explanation as a colonial project. Ewe politics whether in the diaspora, Ghana or Togo is due to two factors: the Ewe ethnonational consciousness in the period before independence; and the political marginalization of Ewes in the post-independence period of Ghana and Togo. Moreover, within the United States discrimination and racial prejudice against African Americans contribute to Ewe ethnic consciousness beyond their Togo or Ghana formal national belongings towards the formation of the Ewe associations in the United States. To understand the strong sense of Ewe identity among those living in the United States, I focus on the historical questions of ethnicity, regionalism and politics in Ghana and Togo. I contextualize this experience within the broader literature on contemporary African migration to the United States and how migration affects notions of Ewe ethnonational consciousness.

Graduation Semester

2012-12

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/42284

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2012 Djifa Kothor

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