FLIGHTS ARE BOOKED!!! I'll be back in Comoros from 15th of May until 30th of June... CAN'T WAIT!!!

My first publication is out!

...it's a revised version of my Master thesis. Unfortunately it only exists in german so far, but any updates on this blog will be either in english or in french, and my doctoral thesis will be written in french as well... for those who do understand german: I hope you like it!

Arbeitsblatt 53

Laura Münger (2011):

Im Kwassa-Kwassa nach Mayotte. Migrationsprozesse und sozialer Wandel in einem (post-)kolonialen Kontext.

Abstract

Mayotte is a small island of 374km2, situated off the Southeast coast of Africa, to the East of Mozambique and Northwest of Madagascar. In 1974, when Anjouan, Grande Comore, and Mohéli, the three other islands of then single French Overseas Territory of Comoros (Territoire d’Outre-Mer) claimed independence from the colonial power of France, the inhabitants of Mayotte decided to remain with France. This choice of separation was confirmed recently on 29th March 2009, when the population of Mayotte voted for the transformation of their political status into a French Overseas Department (Département d’Outre-Mer). Nevertheless, Mayotte still figures in both the French and the Comorian constitution. Several international bodies, among them the UN General Assembly, support the Comorian Government in still claiming the island on the grounds that France violated the principle that the territorial integrity of colonial territories should be preserved upon independence.

The fact that Mayotte is politically considered as being French stands in sharp contradiction to peoples’ notions of belonging, not only geographical, but also cultural. The population of Mayotte shares with the inhabitants of the sovereign state of Comoros adherence to a Sunni Islam and a social organisation that follows rules of matrilineality and matrilocality, both of which form together the basic sources of local law. Together with a significant wealth gap, and traditionally close familial interrelationships across the four islands, the perception of the political border as being unnatural and illegal leads to an important emigration from Comoro state islands to Mayotte: the 2007 population census showed that more than 30% of the population on Mayotte is of Comorian nationality, most of them being considered as illegal immigrants.

This study examines the mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion concerning citizenship politics in the very special field of French post colonialism, in an era marked by a profound social change – change which has been importantly influenced by legal transformations following departmentalization of the island.

Keywords

French overseas territories; Comoro islands; Mayotte; borderlands; irregular migration; citizenship; inclusion/exclusion; (post) colonialism; legal pluralism; Islam; customary law; social change; strategies of action.

113 Seiten.
ISBN-13: 978-3-906465-53-1
EAN: 9783906465531

Download the full text (pdf):

http://www.anthro.unibe.ch/content/e1765/e1766/e4997/

Missing my sis, bro and host mum and all my friends over there, I'll be back very soon... May, june 2011!