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Creating Modernities through Conversation Groups: The Everyday Worlds of Hausa Migrants in Niamey, Niger

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Scott M. Youngstedt
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Abstract:

This article focuses on how Hausa men in Niamey, Niger, use street side hira (“conversation”) groups to navigate their lives as migrants and to experience, negotiate, and create their own understandings of modernity. In Niamey, hira groups are the most important institution of public culture. More than any other aspect of Hausa social organization, hira groups bring together, in a concentrated fashion, circulating people and circulating ideas and thus offer a prime localized entry into the global reality of modernity.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cet article se concentre sur la manière dont les hommes Hausa de Niamey (Niger), utilisent les groupes de hira (conversation) dans les rues pour guider leurs vies en tant que migrants, mais aussi pour vivre, négocier et créer leur propre version du monde moderne. À Niamey, les groupes de hira constituent l'institution la plus importante de la culture populaire. Plus que tout autre aspect de l'organisation sociale des Hausa, les groupes de hira réunissent, de façon concentrée, des personnes et des idées en mouvance, et offrent donc une entrée localisée de premier plan dans la réalité globale du monde moderne.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , December 2004 , pp. 91 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2004

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