![]() The linguistic similarities between Tsivili spoken in Pointe-Noire, Tsiliji spoken in Cabinda and Tsiyombi spoken in the Bas Congo (southern province of DRC) are reflections of this historical transmigration of peoples. He migrated with a large number of his father’s subjects, recruiting others along the way. He rebelled against his father and fled all the way from the Equator region (in Zaire) to the Atlantic region of Congo. From oral sources (gathered by this author), it is narrated that historically the kingdom of Loango which presided over the creation of the city of Pointe-Noire in neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville, was formerly established by one of the sons of the King of the Kongo peoples by the name of Nimi Lukeni. Nation states borders in politically defined terms were inexistent, although chieftaincies were defined according to customarily assigned symbols. The needs for survival and escape from domination pushed peoples to travel short and long distances, and settle in new areas. In the pre-colonial time, most parts of the countries known today as Congo-Brazzaville, DRC and Angola (referring especially to its enclave of Cabinda) formed a territorial entity which was under the authority of the Kingdom of Kongo (Kongo-Diatotila or Banza Congo). It is part of the history and culture of the peoples of that country. Cross-border migration is not therefore a post-independence phenomenon as far as the DRC is concerned. ![]() Adepoju (2000) argues that movements across frontiers, fostered by shared culture, language and colonial experience, noticeable in many parts of Africa, as well as frontier labour migration, blur the distinction between internal and international migration, as well as that between migration in regular and irregular situations on the continent. This inter-relationship of communities in the region partly forms the human basis for the existence of cross-border mobility. Most of the populations in the region share common cultures, and have maintained relationships across borders, both before and after independence. The borders institutionalised since colonial times have never however ended the common cultural, social and economic ties that historically characterise transmigration of people. Cross-border in historical, political and social contextsĢ The Democratic Republic of Congo (here and after DRC) shares land and water borders with a large number of countries of the central and great lakes region of Africa. To contextualise the narratives, it is important to provide some elements of historical and political backgrounds to cross-border mobility throughout the state formation trajectory. Narratives collected from migrants are used to inform on the changes affecting their socio-spatial strategies (motives, social networks of reference, labour use) as they cross one border after another to end up in Swaziland. To link internal migration with international border crossing, each migrant is followed from the place of origin (in the Democratic Republic of Congo) to places of destination (in the sequence reflected in the successive moves to Swaziland). ![]() ![]() To empirically substantiate this argument, life stories of migrants living in Swaziland were obtained from in-depth interviews. My core argument is that the interplay of weak institutional policy apparatus along the inter-state borders makes it easy for migrants to create their own rules for free movement to fit their social aspirations and in this process a meaning to cross-border mobility is socially assigned and values are developed over time across geographical boundaries. I make use of an interpretive approach to demonstrate the extent to which migrants' experiences with border crossing are a livelihood and asset accumulation strategy within a somewhat borderless spatial system. It interrogates the extent to which (voluntary and forced) migrants create a borderless spatial system that circumvents the geographically defined state. Taking the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a case study for the generation of cross-border migration, this paper examines ways in which, through the spatial trajectories of migrants from Democratic Republic of Congo, different meanings are assigned to bordered territories. On the continent, men and women have always migrated to neighbouring countries or further afield in search of opportunities. 1 In people’s livelihoods, migration across international borders represents an important strategy for asset accumulation (Moser and Dani, 2008).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |