Navigating ‘ngunda’/‘adoro’ and negotiating economic uncertainty amongst mobile Cameroonian migrants in Cape Town (South Africa)

Abstract

Using the concept of ontological (in)security, this paper examines how Cameroonian Anglophone migrants in Cape Town negotiate and mitigate the loss of ontological security through asylum-seeking and engaging in economic activities, as well as connecting ancestrally in the metaphysical world. Based on qualitative research, the paper explores and analyses the creative ways in which these groups of migrants are able to circumnavigate the challenges of border crossing and regularization of their immigrant status through particularly astute asylum (‘ngunda’/‘adoro’) practices. While obtaining asylum is a spring board to achieving economic freedom and enabling them to engage in the economic sector, it also shields migrants from the complexities of insecurities. Such adaptability and flexibility are simultaneously edifying and challenging to the conventional ideas of personhood and ontology as they have been raised by Cameroonians and Africans. The paper contributes to understanding how personhood, conviviality and strategies help migrants counter insecurities by providing them with new forms of circumventing various control mechanisms to attaining refugee status and those that govern sales of particular goods and financial transactions within and between states.

Cet article utilise le concept d’(in)sécurité ontologique pour examiner comment les migrants anglophones camerounais de Cape Town négocient et compensent la perte de sécurité ontologique par le biais d’une demande d’asile et d’un engagement dans les activités économiques, ainsi qu’en se connectant comme l’ont fait les ancêtres au monde métaphysique. En s’appuyant sur une recherche qualitative, l’article explore et analyse les moyens créatifs par lesquels certains groupes de migrants parviennent à contourner les défis que représentent le passage des frontières et la régularisation de leur statut d’immigré à travers des pratiques d’asile particulièrement astucieuses (‘ngunda’/‘adoro’). Obtenir l’asile est un tremplin pour atteindre la liberté économique et leur permet de s’impliquer dans le secteur économique, mais c’est aussi pour les migrants un bouclier contre les complexités des insécurités. Une telle adaptabilité et flexibilité sont édifiantes mais représentent dans le même temps des défis pour les idées conventionnelles de l’identité individuelle et de l’ontologie telles qu’elles ont été évoquées par des Camerounais et d’autres Africains. L’article tente de contribuer à mieux comprendre comment l’identité individuelle, la convivialité et les stratégies aident les migrants à parer aux insécurités en leur fournissant de nouveaux moyens pour contourner divers mécanismes de contrôle d’accès au statut de réfugié et ceux qui régissent les ventes de biens particuliers et de transactions financières au sein des Etats et entre ceux-ci.

Keywords:

• Ngunda/adoro
• economic uncertainty
• ontological (in)security
• personhood
• conviviality
• inter-relationality and interdependence

Mots-clefs:

• Ngunda/adoro
• incertitude économique
• (in)sécurité ontologique
• identité individuelle
• convivialité
• inter-relationalité et interdépendance

Acknowledgements

This paper is part of the special edition ‘Vital Instability: Ontological Insecurity and African Urbanisms’ edited by Matthew Wilhelm-Solomon, Peter Kankonde Bukasa and Lorena Núñez developed from a colloquium held at the University of the Witwatersrand, 15–17 October 2014.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Cameroonians do not need a visa to go to Mozambique. An invitation letter is required, which costs 200USD from one of the many migration syndicates.

2. Among the informants spoken to, none has been given a refugee status with a passport. They are given a permit between three months and two years.

3. The buying of scrap metals and reselling to recycling companies.

4. A statement made by a member of the said association re-echoing the importance of the Pinyin association in the lives of migrants. Loosely translated as; ‘your parents in Cape Town is the hometown associations’.

5. All name used are pseudonyms.

6. Interview with Henry, Cape Town: 20 August 2010.

7. Assist them to fabricate ‘credible stories’ that would enable them get refugee status.

8. Conversation with Chris and observational accounts with the latter at the DHA, Cape Town: 8 July 2012.

9. Research notes.

10. Some of which are stolen items, especially mobile phones.

11. Interview with Edwin, Cape Town: 27 March 2011.

12. The insistence on registration before qualifying for a soft loan is because in the event of default, the member's surety savings is confiscated and he is suspended from the meeting until the money is paid. New members are given the equivalent of their surety, except a further surety by a member that the amount could go up to R1000.

13. Interview with Henry, Cape Town: 20 August 2011.

14. See footnote 15.

15. Interview with Rachael, Cape Town: 27 August 2011, loosely translated as, it a ritual to honour the dead, he has to call traditional dance, fire a den gun and offer food to the people so that the village will know that he has mourned the loss of his wife.

16. Interview with Mama Esther, Pinyin: 10 October 2011.

17. Interview with Zora, Cape Town: 24 August 2011; loosely translated as, ‘his path will be bright and whatever he sets out to do will be met with success’.

Additional information

Funding

I would like to acknowledge funding from University of Cape Town URC and NRF SarChi funds. I owe much gratitude to the peer reviewers and this volume’s editors.