Thesis submitted for the fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy,in the Department of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Zululand, 2005. / African migrant entrepreneurship is fast becoming an increasingly important part of discourses of African migration to South Africa. This field of study is new in South Africa, because African women’s transnational activities have been neglected until now in studies on African entrepreneurship in South Africa. As Ghanaian women in South Africa through their entrepreneurial activities provided the background through which this researcher has initiated a discursive space, it has paved the way for Ghanaian transnational entrepreneurship to become an intellectual field. It is hoped that this study will become a starting point from which African women’s cross-border engagements can be viewed. Interrogating entrepreneurship through ‘cultural lenses’, this study reveals that the drive to succeed entrepreneurially and the spirit of entrepreneurship lie within certain groups of people, since they are embedded in peoples’ culture. Thus Ghanaian women have a high propensity to be engaged in entrepreneurial activities, even when they are living ans working in other countries. This study hopes to demonstrate that a shared culture facilitates entrepreneurial performance. The thesis has explored how their identity as Ghanaians in South Africa promotes their ability to succeed. This is because in post-apartheid South Africa, being a Ghanaian woman is being interpreted by South African blacks as knowing how to dress hair professionally. The findings indicate that although being first generation migrants, these women have developed hybrid and cosmopolitan identities in the manner in which they carry out their entrepreneurial activities. This has been facilitated by the researcher’s attempt to locate the women’s entrepreneurial activities within a historical context of identity formation and the contemporary melange of their identity in South Africa. The evidence suggests that there exists a symbiotic relationship between being a Ghanaian woman in South Africa and the tendency to succeed entrepreneurially, especially in the field of hair dressing. Their ‘maniere de fait’ allows them to be defined as a group of successful entrepreneurs. These women are also desperate to succeed because they are expected to send remittances home to their families and friends and also to participate in community projects in Ghana. Success is primarily judged by the assets they have acquired back in Ghana and their ability to bring family members to join them in the diaspora. These Ghanaian women are succeeding in this sector because after the fall of apartheid, hair care has become a major indicator of modernity for black South African women. This entrepreneurial area that these women have gotten into is one that has considerable opportunities for growth because black women after apartheid are earning more money and they want to spend that money on their appearance. The best way to show that they are modern is by keeping up with the latest hairstyles. This research has demonstrated that Ghanaian women’s entrepreneurship is producing benefits for South Africa. Coming from a system of apartheid where black South African women were not given the opportunity of knowing how to dress hair in what seems like western fashion, Ghanaian women have brought in these hairdressing skills and transmitted them to South Africans. These skills are being used by these South Africans as a source of both social development and economic empowerment. By providing employment to some South Africans (who before their encounter with Ghanaians were unemployed because of lack of skills), they are not only transmitting skills but providing for the daily needs of entire families. This sort of contribution by Ghanaians to the economy of South Africa is rewarding and represents a sufficient opportunity for recognition by the South African government. The study also reveals that in transnationalism, gender becomes unimportant. While the opportunistic tendency of migrants is given ‘the front seat’, gender is given ‘the back seat’. Through the need to migrate and the opportunistic tendency of migrants, hairdressing has produced a distinct social place in which Ghanaian men have hijacked a cultural space which had been a female domain as they have become hairdressers in South Africa as well as Ghanaian women. This research has also shown that religion and entrepreneurship are ‘bedfellows’. This is demonstrated by the fact that Ghanaian women believe that Christianity lies in the shadows of their business activities. Therefore, they see their businesses as a way of carrying out God’s redemptive plan and as one of God’s divine plans for them which gives significance to what they do. These values have been transmitted through different structures like schools and churches in Ghana and forms part of the socialisation process for children. When people who come from Ghana grow up, it becomes difficult for them to distance themselves from these values.

This dissertation explores multiple episodes of interaction between Ethiopians and Europeans throughout the early modern era. After overviewing the Ethiopian exploration of Europe in the 15th century and the first Catholic attempts to reconnect to the Ethiopian Church at the turn of the 16th century, it focuses on the Ethio-Lusophone encounter by considering the emergence of Ethiopian studies in early modern Lisbon, the Portuguese military intervention in the Ethiopian-Adal War (1529-1543) and the Jesuit mission to Ethiopia (1555-1632). This dissertation argues that in the context of the early-modern Ethio-European encounter, faith trumped skin color in the discourse on sameness and otherness: throughout the 15th and 16th centuries Europeans and Ethiopians perceived each other as belonging to the same Christian world and collaborated to defy the perceived Muslim threat. Starting in the late 16th century however, Counter-Reformation Catholicism and Jesuit proselytism transformed Ethiopians into others, and--in Ethiopian eyes--Europeans became a threat. The Jesuit mission engendered an era of turmoil that crippled both the Ethio-European encounter and the Ethiopian monarchy: in its aftermath, the Ethiopian elites maintained a policy of isolation from Europe, barred Europeans from entering their country and redirected their attention to the Muslim societies of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean basins. / History

This thesis examines the migration saga of Nigerians who follow the Libya-Mediterranean route to Europe and ended up in Sweden. With the use of Everret Lee’s Push and Pull theory as framework, this thesis provides a qualitative analysis of the reasons why Nigerian migrants choose to follow the Libya-Mediterranean route to Europe, how they ended up in Sweden, and why they choose to seek asylum in Sweden but not other countries in Europe. The study also discusses the Swedish migration and asylum policy in relation to Nigerian migrants. Through the use of interviews, first-hand information was obtained from four Nigerian migrants who had plied the Libya-Mediterranean route to Europe and agreed to participate in this study. The results of this study show that political instability, economic crisis, terrorism, insecurity, and stringent laws against homosexuality are all factors that could make some Nigerians migrate to Europe for a better life via the Libya-Mediterranean route.

La Libye est une zone clé sur les chemins de la migration entre Afrique et Europe. Si les Libyens ne constituent pas un peuple de migrants, leur territoire, lui, est un lieu de transit fondamental pour les migrations, notamment clandestines, des Africains de toutes origines vers l’Europe, surtout depuis que le Détroit de Gibraltar est étroitement contrôlé. Cette thèse s’interroge sur le phénomène de la migration illégale dans cet espace. Elle tente d’appréhender ce phénomène en relation avec la situation internationale de la Libye, et donc l’évolution sur une période qui couvre l’avant-embargo, l’embargo, et l’après embargo. L’immigration clandestine est un processus complexe qui a des origines aussi nombreuses que diverses, et dont les conséquences se font sentir aussi bien sur les migrants que sur les pays d’origine, de destination et de transit. Ainsi la Libye, pays de transit, considère t-elle désormais tous les enjeux diplomatiques qui se jouent à travers le passage des migrants africains sur son sol. Ses positions sur la scène internationale depuis la création de la Jamahiriya influencent ce facteur stratégique, tout comme elles sont influencées par lui. Au carrefour de la construction euro-méditerranéenne, la Libye sait user de sa situation de zone tampon, notamment dans ses relations avec l’Italie, qui elle-même fait le pont entre l’Union européenne et la Jamahiriya. C’est ainsi que la Libye négocie son implication dans les traités internationaux du type de l’Union pour la Méditerranée. Mais ses décisions politiques dépendent également des politiques de migration européennes, notamment du processus d’externalisation de la question migratoire. En raison de sa situation si spécifique, c’est à ce pays ouvert sur la Méditerranée de peser sur la mise en œuvre de politiques qui dépassent le simple aspect sécuritaire, qui permettent que tous les acteurs de ces vastes mouvements sortent gagnants de ces fluctuations qui sont désormais inéluctables. / Libya is a key area of migration between Africa and Europe. If the Libyans are not considered as migrant population, their territory, it is a fundamental transit point particularly for illegal migrants. The Africans from all origins take this way to Europe because of the enforced control of the Strait of Gibraltar. This thesis examines the phenomenon of illegal migration in this region. It reviews this phenomenon in relation to the international situation of Libya and it’s evolution over the pre-embargo, the embargo and post-embargo period. Illegal immigration is a very complex process that has numerous and various causes. It has many consequences on the migrants, both in countries of origin, transit and destination. This situation raises an important question. Thus is Libya, a transit country in the area, taking into consideration all diplomatic issues that rise from the passing of African migrants on its territory? The political positions of Libya on the international scene have a mutual strategic influence since the creation of the Libyan Jamahiriya. At the crossroads of Euro-Mediterranean point, Libya takes advantage of its position as a buffer; especially in its relations with Italy, which itself is the bridge between the European Union and Libya. This is how Libya negotiates its involvement in international treats such as the Union for the Mediterranean. But the political decisions of Libya depend also on European migration policies, particularly the process of outsourcing of migration issue. Because of its specific location, this country bordered by the Mediterranean must have a direct impact on the policies that go beyond this security aspect. These policies must allow all actors of these vast movements to overcome these fluctuations that are now inevitable.