WESTAFRGLOBDIA: Citizens and 'Strangers': The Global Diamond Industry, Migration and Citizenship in West Africa (1920-80)

WESTAFRGLOBDIA：公民和“陌生人”：全球钻石产业、西非的移民和公民身份（1920-80 年）

• 批准号: EP/Y029658/1
• 负责人: Martin Thomas
• 金额: $ 25.55万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2024 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FY029658%2F1
• 关键词: WESTAFRGLOBDIA; Citizens; Strangers; Global; Diamond

This project will be the first comparative and in-depth account of diamond extraction, migration and citizenship in West Africa. It will compare the development of the diamond industry in Ghana, Guinea and Sierra Leone from its early years of production in the 1920s to its nationalisation in the 1980s. My central hypothesis is that the growing demand for West Africa's diamonds not only provided additional opportunities for work and mobility, but also increased colonial and postcolonial anxieties among governments and the industry's bosses. These anxieties coalesced around three issues: how best to develop the nation, how to channel movements of people, and how to control labour. This research project will build upon previous research I carried out in West Africa and Europe. It will provide a deep historicization of the ways in which thousands of men and women came to be included and excluded from diamond mining in West Africa. It will demonstrate how new colonial agendas of industrial exploitation and development interacted with different realms beyond the merely economic sphere. It will shift current preoccupation with migratory trends between Africaand Europe to the more significant movements of people taking place within Africa. The project will develop a systematic dialogue between History, Development and Migration StBased on a multidisciplinary approach, the project explores the relation between the global diamond industry in West Africa, the ideology of Pan-Africanism and policies to control migration and citizenship rights. Its central argument is that this industry not only provided more opportunity for migrant labourers, it also increased colonial and postcolonial anxieties on how to best develop the nation and contributed to make ideas of nation and citizenship more exclusive. This work will shift our attention from movements of people along the Global South/Global North axis to the deeper histories of migration taking place within the African continent.

该项目将是第一个对西非钻石开采、移民和公民身份进行比较和深入的研究。它将比较加纳、几内亚和塞拉利昂钻石行业从 20 年代初期生产到 1980 年代国有化的发展历程。我的中心假设是，对西非钻石不断增长的需求不仅提供了更多的工作和流动机会，而且还增加了政府和行业老板之间的殖民和后殖民焦虑。这些焦虑集中在三个问题上：如何最好地发展国家、如何引导人员流动以及如何控制劳动力。该研究项目将建立在我之前在西非和欧洲进行的研究的基础上。它将深入历史记录成千上万的男人和女人是如何被纳入和排除在西非钻石开采之外的。它将展示新的殖民议程的工业剥削和发展如何与经济领域以外的不同领域相互作用。它将把目前对非洲和欧洲之间移民趋势的关注转移到非洲境内发生的更重要的人口流动。该项目将在历史、发展和移民之间建立系统的对话。该项目基于多学科方法，探讨西非的全球钻石工业、泛非主义意识形态以及控制移民和公民权利的政策之间的关系。其核心论点是，这个行业不仅为移民劳工提供了更多机会，还增加了殖民和后殖民时期对如何最好地发展国家的焦虑，并导致国家和公民观念更加排他性。这项工作将把我们的注意力从沿着全球南/全球北轴的人口流动转移到非洲大陆内发生的更深层的移民历史。