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Transnationalism and the Politics of Belonging: African Muslim Circuits in Western Spaces

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 32; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/13602004.2012.746578

1469-9591

Zain Abdullah,

African history and culture analysis

Abstract As Westerners debate the presence of Muslims on the world stage and public concerns about unstable African states increase, this article explores the kinds of themes emerging in the English literature on African Muslims as transnational migrants. While the concept of transnationalism has been widely deployed across disciplines and thus, variously defined, it generally refers to the multiple processes that allow people to live in ways that span two or more societies simultaneously, essentially merging these multiple locations into a single field of activity. However, transnational studies have virtually ignored religion and African migration, including the role they play in our understanding of this research area, as African Muslims integrate into Western nations and negotiate their unique sense of belonging. As such, I discuss three subject areas that attempt to provide a way of thinking about how African Muslims are engaged in transnational processes: (1) transnationality and the African Muslim Diaspora; (2) a transnational African Islam from below; and (3) Africa and transnational Muslim networks. Ultimately, this work offers insights from a rich and growing tradition of transnational activity among African Muslims, and it urges scholars to consider the limitations of transnational studies without the inclusion of this critical material. Notes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Writer as Two Selves: Reflections on the Private Act of Writing and the Public Act of Citizenship”, Spencer Trask Lecture, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, October 20, 2010. http://lectures.princeton.edu/2010/chimamanda-ngozi-adichie-2/ [accessed December 30, 2011]. Ibid. A Nigerian whose complexion is uncharacteristically lighter in tone might be questioned about identity as well. But the guest speaker, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is sublimely dark brown with a wooly Afro, which becomes apparent only when she forgoes her customary vibrant headdress. And thus her appearance was clearly not the reason for this question about her identity. JoAnn D'Alisera, An Imagined Geography: Sierra Leonean Muslims in America, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2004, p. 3. For an early usage in French anthropology, see Jacques Maquet, Africanity: The Cultural Unity of Black Africa, New York: Oxford University Press, 1972, pp. 8–9. For a discussion of the different approaches employed by British anthropology and French anthropology, see Sally Falk Moore, Anthropology and Africa: Changing Perspectives on a Changing Scene, Charlottesville, VA: The University Press of Virginia, 1994. For the 2011 May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, the cover read, “The New Arab Revolt”. And in the lead article by Lisa Anderson, she says, “The important story about the 2011 Arab revolts in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya is not how the globalization of the norms of civic engagement shaped the protesters’ aspirations”. See Lisa Anderson, “Demystifying the Arab Spring: Parsing the Differences between Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya”, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 90, No. 3, May/June 2011, pp. 2–7, p. 2. Also see, David D. Kirkpatrick and David E. Sanger, “A Tunisian-Egyptian Link Shook Arab History”, New York Times, February 14, 2011. One may also consider the fact that their regime change is called “revolts” and “uprisings” instead of “revolution” (a term often reserved for European and American revolts). For a quintessential albeit dated work on the politics of Middle East reporting, see Edward W. Said, Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine How We See the Rest of the World, New York: Pantheon Books, 1981. Mayanthi L. Fernando, “Review of Trica Danielle Keaton, “Muslim Girls and the Other France: Race, Identity Politics and Social Exclusion”, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 40, No. 2, 2008, pp. 316–317, p. 317. Given the widespread use of social media before and during the unrest, some seemingly doubt the sophistication of the revolters to deploy new technologies and thereby generate transnational networks, linking the rebellion throughout the region. Lisa Anderson argues that information technologies were not a major factor in the Arab Spring revolts. Asef Bayat, in contrast, contends that “Egyptian youth used Facebook to mobilize some 70,000 … . The January 25 mass demonstration in Egypt was primarily organized through Facebook and Twitter”. Anderson, “Demystifying the Arab Spring”, op. cit., p. 2; Asef Bayat, “A New Arab Street in Post-Islamist Times”, Foreign Policy, January 26, 2011, http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/01/26/a_new_arab_street [accessed December 30, 2011]. For an extensive treatment of the suspect community concept, see Paddy Hillyard, Suspect Community: People's Experiences of the Prevention of Terrorism Acts in Britain, Boulder, CO: Pluto Press, 1993. The Transnational Studies Reader: Intersections and Innovations, eds. Sanjeev Khagram and Peggy Levitt, New York: Routledge, 2008, p. 1. See, Eric Schmitt and Eric Lipton, “Suspect in Terror Attempt Claims Ties to Al Qaeda”, New York Times, December 27, 2009; John F. Burns, “Terror Inquiry Looks at Suspect's Time in Britain”, New York Times, December 30, 2009. Other newspaper reports state that elected officials are concerned with the possibility of growing terrorism in Nigeria and unstable African states. See, Anahad O'Connor and Eric Schmitt, “Terror Attempt Seen as Man Tries to Ignite Device on Jet”, New York Times, December 26, 2009. For more selective discussions on Africa, Islam, failing states and terrorism, see Transnational Islam and Regional Security: Cooperation and Diversity Between Europe and North Africa, ed. Frederic Volpi, New York: Routledge, 2008; Gregory L. Joachim, “Draining the Swamp or Feeding the Crocodiles in Subsaharan Africa?”, Orbis, Vol. 49, No. 1, Winter, 2005, pp. 155–170; Princeton N. Lyman, “The Terrorist Threat in Africa”, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 83, No. 1, January/February, 2004, pp. 75–86; Michael C. Mbabuike, “The Unfolding North/South Relationship: Africa in the Scheme of Things”, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2003, pp. 614–617; Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka, “The Fashion of Democracy: September 11 and Africa”, Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2003, pp. 603–607. Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, “Introduction: Religion, States, and Transnational Civil Society”, in Transnational Religion & Fading States, eds. Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and James Piscatori, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997, pp. 1–24, p. 1. Steven Vertovec, “Diaspora, Transnationalism and Islam: Sites of Change and Modes of Research”, in Muslim Networks and Transnational Communities in and Across Europe, eds. Stefano Allievi and Jørgen Nielsen, Boston, MA: Brill, 2003, p. 312. For a discussion on transnationalism as a concept, for example, see Khagram and Levitt, eds., The Transnational Studies Reader, op. cit.; Nina Glick Schiller, “Transnationality”, in A Companion to the Anthropology of Politics, eds. David Nugent and Joan Vincent, Blackwell Publishing, Blackwell Publishing Online, 2007 [accessed December 30, 2011]; see chapter 3, “Transnationalism Old and New”, for Nancy Foner, In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration, New York: New York University Press, 2005, pp. 62–88; Michael Peter Smith and Luis Eduardo Guarnizo eds., Transnationalism From Below, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1998; Alejandro Portes, Luis E. Guarnizo and Patricia Landolt, “The Study of Transnationalism: Pitfalls and Promise of an Emergent Research Field”, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol. 22, No. 2, March, 1999. My focus on certain English texts does not in any way diminish the importance of the many works in French, German, Italian or other languages. Arjun Appadurai, Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1996, p. 49; Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch, Cristina Blanc-Szanton, “From Immigrant to Transmigrant: Theorizing Transnational Migration”, Anthropology Quarterly, Vol. 68, No. 1, January 1995, pp. 48–63, p. 52; Michael Kearney, “The Local and the Global: The Anthropology of Globalization and Transnationalism”, Annual Review of Anthropology, Vol. 24, 1995, pp. 547–565, p. 553. Linda Basch, Nina Glick Schiller, and Cristina Szanton Blanc, Nations Unbound: Transnational Projects, Postcolonial Predicaments, and Deterritorialized Nation-States, Langhorne, PA: Gordon and Breach, 1994, p. 2. Ruba Salih. “Moroccan Migrant Women: Transnationalism, Nation-States and Gender”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4, October 2001, pp. 655–671, p. 656. Myria Georgiou, “Diaspora, Identity and the Media: Diasporic Transnationalism and Mediated Spatialities”, New York: Hampton Press, 2006; Khachig Tölölyan, “Rethinking Diaspora(s): Stateless Power in the Transnational Moment”, Diaspora: Journal of Transnational Studies, 1996, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 3–36. Schiller, “Transnationality”, op. cit., p. 9. See Rima Berns McGown, Muslims in the Diaspora: The Somali Communities of London and Toronto, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999. Vertovec, “Diaspora, Transnationalism and Islam”, op. cit., p. 313. In her conclusion entitled “Tranformative Islam”, McGown says that Islam has changed for Somali Muslims in very distinct ways. “The Islamists’ influence is obvious”, she says, “in the very way that the practice of Islam has evolved for diaspora Somalis. The old religious symbolism—the local Sufi shaykh [spiritual leader], the dhikr [religious formulas], the token Qur'anic memorization—has given way to a sense of Islam as a vital force in understanding how to live in this new world, a force that might require more blatant identification (via, for instance, a beard or the hijab) or personal study (a parallel with the Jewish yeshiva might be made here)”. See McGown, Muslims in the Diaspora, op. cit., p. 229. Ibid., p. 199. Ibid., p. 5. Ibid., p. 75. Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, Wanderings: Sudanese Migrants and Exiles in North America, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002. Ibid., p.148. Ibid., p. 164. Ibid., p. 147. Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome and Bertrade Ngo-Ngijol Banoum, “Africans on the Move: Transnational, Intranational, and Metaphorical Migrations”, Ìrìnkèrindò: A Journal of African Migration [online journal], Vol. 2, September 2002, pp. 1–27, p. 10. http://www.africamigration.com/ [accessed December 28, 2011]. While Sudanese Muslims try to transcend ethnic and religious differences between them and their compatriots, this does not mean that their various issues mysteriously disappear, even though they are African immigrants from the same country. In fact, sharing events is a very difficult process, as Wisdom J. Tettey argues about the transnational lives of Ghanaian Christians in Canada. Tettey quotes Seteney Shami saying, “… even with the formation of collective approaches to the homeland, people who journey back and forth, their motivations, aims, representations and the kinds of landscapes they construct as they travel these circuits vary significantly”. See Wisdom J. Tettey, “Transnationalism, Religion, and the African Diaspora in Canada: An Examination of Ghanaians and Ghanaian Churches”, in African Immigrant Religions in America, eds. Jacob K. Olupona and Regina Gemignani, New York: New York University Press, 2007, p. 232. Nadje Al-Ali, Richard Black and Khalid Koser, “Refugees and Transnationalism: The Experience of Bosnians and Eritreans in Europe”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4, October 2001, pp. 615–634, pp. 631, 626. Ibid., 618. Paul Stoller, Money Has No Smell: The Africanization of New York City, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2002, p. 154. Ibid., p. 38. Peggy Levitt and Jessica Hejtmanek, “Constructing Religious Pluralism Transnationally: Reflections from the United States”, in International Migration and the Governance of Religious Diversity, eds. Paul Bramadat and Matthias Koenig, Kingston, ON, Canada: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2009, pp. 75–103, p. 76. Paul Stoller likens these African Muslim traders to the jaguar, who moves about the forest undetected and eventually “takes from the kill what it needs and moves on … . The young travelers dreamed of economic adventure and fashioned themselves as jaguars—young, solitary, sleek, adaptable, knowledgeable, and daring”. See Stoller, Money Has No Smell, op. cit., p. 28. Vertovec, “Diaspora, Transnationalism and Islam”, op. cit., p. 318. Ibid.; Camilla Gibb, “Religious Identification in Transnational Contexts: Becoming Muslim in Ethiopia and Canada”, Diaspora, 1998, Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 247–269, p. 260. Tettey, “Transnationalism, Religion, and the African Diaspora in Canada”, op. cit., p. 248. In terms of the un-mosqued character of some migrants, Peggy Levitt has argued that “… many migrants do not feel a sense of belonging to any one congregation. They are comfortable worshipping at whatever church, temple, or mosque is close by. Their faith does not depend on their ongoing participation with the same members of their faith community”. See Peggy Levitt, “Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging: The Transnationalization of Religious Life”, in Everyday Religion: Observing Modern Religious Lives, ed. Nancy T. Ammerman, New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 103–120, p. 109. Even for African Christian immigrants, Wisdom J. Tettey states that “It must be noted that a large number of Ghanaians do not attend church for a variety of reasons … . The fact that the silent members’ group does not attend church should not be misconstrued to mean that the role of religion in their lives is any less important …”. See Tettey, “Transnationalism, Religion, and the African Diaspora in Canada”, op. cit., p. 232. Karen Leonard, “Transnational and Cosmopolitan Forms of Islam in the West”, Harvard Middle Eastern and Islamic Review, 2009, Vol. 8, pp. 176–199, p. 192. See Stoller, Money Has No Smell, op. cit., p. 22. “Furthermore”, Peggy Levitt argues, “religion does not stay inside the walls of official religious buildings. Private, informal religious rituals often reveal much more about the changing nature of religious life than what goes on at the church or at the temple … . When a Muslim silently says her prayers while stopped at a traffic light because there is no place nearby to pray, she is transforming Islam in America”. See Levitt, “Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging”, op. cit., p. 109. Thomas Faist, “Diaspora and Transnationalism: What Kind of Dance Partners?”, in Diaspora and Transnationalism: Concepts, Theories and Methods, eds. Rainer Bauböck and Thomas Faist, Amsterdam: IMISCE (International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe) Research/Amsterdam University Press, 2010, pp. 9–34, p. 11. Transnationalism From Below, eds. Smith and Guarnizo, op. cit., p. 25. Ibid.; Peggy Levitt, Transnational Villagers, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001, pp. 6–7. For some reference to transnationalism as “above” and “below”, “high” and “low”, and “macro” and “micro”, see Transnationalism From Below, eds. Smith and Guarnizo, op. cit. Donald Martin Carter, States of Grace: Senegalese in Italy and the New European Immigration, Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1997, p. 6. Ibid., p. 206. Ibid. As for the definition of da'ira, Carter says that The Da'ira is an urban organization of the members of the order that apparently became an effective type of association in the 1940s in Senegal and then spread also to the villages … . More recently, the Da'ira in urban centers in Senegal have made an effort to recruit urban youth to the order. Often the Da'ira takes on the role of the darra or religious school in the urban world, training and organizing religious ceremonies … . The context of the Da'ira provides the followers a chance to study the texts and chants of the founder. The Da'ira may collect funds for various purposes and may even act to organize members for job recruitment. The Da'ira may also place the members of the community into closer contact with the central organization of the Khalifate in Senegal or for those urban Da'ira with the rural center of the order.See Carter, States of Grace, op. cit., pp. 78–79. It is also spelled, “dahira”. The Sufi or spiritual order is also spelled variously as Murid, Mouride, and Mourid. And, at times, it is referred to as Muridiyya. Rudolph, “Introduction: Religion, States, and Transnational Civil Society”, op. cit., p. 3. For another look at transnational Mourides in Italy, see Bruno Riccio, “Transnational Mouridism and the Afro-Muslim Critique of Italy”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 30, No. 5, 2004, pp. 929–944. About the Da'ira as an intermediary between the micro- and macro-levels of transnational activity, Carter states that “The urban Da'ira or Mourid religious center is not only a refuge of the Mourid from the European world but a point of possible conversion to Islam for members of the host society. Through the innovation of urban religious centers throughout the world the Mourid have provided a base also to members in diaspora”. See Carter, States of Grace, op. cit., p. 7. The History of Islam in Africa, eds. Nehemia Levtzion and Randall L. Pouwels, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2000. About the strained relations between France and the Muslim world, Trica Danielle Keaton has perceptively remarked: “It is relevant to note that French history is filled with antagonisms connecting France to the Muslim world, and that history plays an integral role in how French secularism and Muslims are viewed in the country. Further, that history helps to explain current antagonisms and poor social relations between French Muslims and French people of European heritage”. See Trica Danielle Keaton, Muslim Girls and the Other France: Race, Identity Politics, & Social Exclusion, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2006, p. 190. Ibid. Ibid., p. 99. Ibid., p. 317. Other African migrants self-segregate, and, of course, the impact of this refusal to assimilate on the part of immigrants who expect to return home differs markedly from the exclusion of second-generation, African immigrants who consider their family's place of settlement their home. Thomas Owusu argues about African Christians that … the overwhelming majority [of Ghanaians] (91 percent) replied that they will return to Ghana permanently … . Ghanaians tend to remain strangers, wherever their destination, because they do not intend a permanent stay. This rate of return migration seems high, given that averages of 20 percent of all immigrants return to their homeland permanently.See Thomas Owusu, “Transnationalism among African Immigrants in North America: The Case of Ghanaians in Canada”, in The New African Diaspora in North America: Trends, Community Building, and Adaption, eds. Kwado Konadu-Agyemang, Baffour K. Takyi, and John A. Arthur, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006, pp. 273–285, 278–279. John A. Arthur, African Women Immigrants in the United States: Crossing Transnational Borders, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, p. 80. “Media images of attacks described as ‘Islamic terrorism’”, Keaton writes, “and reports on drug users highlighting people of African descent, coupled with imports of U.S. television programs like Cops, encourage the French public to see youths like those depicted in these broadcasts as responsible for crime and terror”. See Keaton, Muslim Girls and the Other France, op. cit., p. 68. Zain Abdullah, Black Mecca: The African Muslims of Harlem, New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Ibid., pp. 115–116. Transnationalism From Below, eds. Smith and Guarnizo, op. cit., p. 13. Moreover, “[t]hus transnationalism”, Luis Eduardo Guarnizo and Michael Peter Smith argue, “far from erasing the local identifications and meaning systems, actually relies on them to sustain transnational ties”. See Luis Eduardo Guarnizo and Michael Peter Smith, “The Locations of Transnationalism”, in Transnationalism From Below, eds. Michael Peter Smith and Luis Eduardo Guarnizo, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1998, pp. 3–34, p. 15. See Abdullah, Black Mecca, op. cit. Also, regarding the transnational link between migrants and non-migrants, Peggy Levitt argues that “… sometimes migration is as much about the people who stay behind as it is about those who move. In some cases, the ties between migrants and nonmigrants are so strong and widespread that migration radically transforms the lives of individuals who remain at home. Actual movement is not required to participate across borders”. See Levitt, “Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging”, op. cit., p. 106. Americanization of Islamic practices also involves the forging of new relationships between Africans and native-born, Black residents. “Attending African masjids has afforded African American Muslims a sense of belonging they never experienced at Arab or South Asian places of worship”. See Abdullah, Black Mecca, op. cit., p. 74. For how African Muslims are creating a new “sacred geography”, see Abdullah, Black Mecca, op. cit., 2010, p. 168. For a discussion on the African Muslim divide between orthodoxy and heterodoxy in Harlem, see Abdullah, Black Mecca, op. cit., 2010: 138. For a reference to the dar al-harb and dar al-Islam and a discussion on translating this phrase within an American context, see Abdullah 2010: 139, 242, 262n52. As for the inevitable occurrence of localized versions of Islam, Steven Vertovec argues that “Islam was ‘transnational’ (in the sense of long-distance, border-crossing) long before there were ‘nations’. Its social forms, modes of practice and interpretations of belief have almost always been locally adapted … . Their responses are as different as the countries and local contexts in which they find themselves (multiplied by gendered, generational differences within each context)”. See Vertovec, “Diaspora, Transnationalism and Islam”, op. cit., p. 324. While the Americanization of their Islamic practices can be observed in how their imams are forced to visit the sick, counsel troubled couples, or consult with the local authorities about all sorts of issues, their beliefs also change. Or, at the very least, their beliefs about issues like pre-marital sex, homosexuality, gender relations including modesty will be challenged in an American setting, an environment that often runs contrary to many traditional religions including those of the Amish, Mormons and other non-Muslim beliefs. For my argument about why Murids and other African Muslims in Harlem differ in their Islamic practice, see Abdullah, Black Mecca, op. cit. By making Islam their “own”, I am referring to a process by which African Muslims create religious practices and activities that speak to their everyday reality. One example of this is at jum`ah, the weekly Friday services. At several African masjids, the sermon is divided into several languages, typically French, an African language like Dyoula, Fula, Malinke, Mandingo, or Wolof, and English with Arabic either dispersed throughout or given its own time. This ethnicization of the service speaks to how they are making Islam their own in the African Muslim Diaspora. See Abdullah, Black Mecca, op. cit. Schiller, “Transnationality”, p. 7. D'Alisera, An Imagined Geography, op. cit., p. 2. In her attempt to define transnational migrants, Karen Leonard cites Ulf Hannerz who “defines transnationals as those who carry with them meanings that are embedded in social networks”. See, Karen Leonard, “Transnational and Cosmopolitan Forms of Islam in the West”, op. cit., p. 177. See, Smith and Guarnizo, eds., Transnationalism From Below, op. cit., p. 19. John R. Bowen, “Beyond Migration: Islam as a Transnational Public Space”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 30, No. 5, September 2004, pp. 879–894, p. 891. Here I am thinking of the differences of opinion adjudicated by Imam al-Shafi’, who migrated quite a bit, and Imam Malik, who essentially remained in the city of Madinah (Saudi Arabia). Ibn Khaldun and others like Ibn Battuta and al-Biruni are important and their travels helped to shape the canon. See Zain Abdullah, “Culture, Community, and the Politics of Muslim Space”, Journal of History and Culture, Vol. 1, No. 3, Summer, 2010, pp. 26–42. D'Alisera, An Imagined Geography, op. cit., p. 84. See Janet Saltzman Chafetz and Helen Rose Ebaugh, “Prologue: Lessons from American Immigrant Congregations”, in Religion Across Borders: Transnational Immigrant Networks, eds. Helen Rose Ebaugh and Janet Saltzman Chafetz, Walnut Creek, MD: AltaMira, 2002, p. xv. As it relates to Muslims as imagined communities, D'Alisera says “Muslim communities are imagined, constructed through the vision, faith, and practice of its members”. See D'Alisera, An Imagined Geography, op. cit., p. 12. For more on Muslim networks, see Muslim Networks from Hajj to Hip Hop, eds. Miriam Cooke and Bruce B. Lawrence, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2005. Paul A. Silverstein, Algeria in France: Transpolitics, Race, and Nation, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004, p. 8. Silverstien describes the crux of his work in terms of the various ways these migrants navigate two states. “Algeria in France”, he says, “plumbs the post-colonial predicament that unites Algeria and France into a single transpolitical space … . The pages that follow introduce these broader conditions of Algerian immigrant life in France”. See Silverstein, Algeria in France, op. cit., p. 2. Ibid., p. 6. Ibid., pp. 216–217. Owusu, “Transnationalism among African Immigrants in North America”, op. cit., p. 273. Dale F. Eickelman, “Trans-state Islam and Security”, in Transnational Religion & Fading States, eds. Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and James Piscatori, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997, pp. 27–46, p. 34. Ousmane Oumar Kane, The Homeland is the Arena: Religion, Transnationalism, and the Integration of Senegalese Immigrants in America, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 246. Ibid., p. 229. Ibid., p. 17. In his work on Ghanaian immigrants in Canada, Wisdom J. Tettey briefly discusses how religious forms impact the entire process of migration. See Tettey, “Transnationalism, Religion, and the African Diaspora in Canada”, op. cit., pp. 231–232. For more on how transnationalism among Senegalese in Italy is not an abstract process, see Bruno Riccio, “From ‘Ethnic Group’ to ‘Transnational Community’?: Senegalese Migrants’ Ambivalent Experiences and Multiple Trajectories”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4, 2001, pp. 583–599. Levitt, “Redefining the Boundaries of Belonging”, op. cit., p. 114. In an online article about dual citizenship in Africa, Dibussi Tande stated that during the finals for a football (soccer) match, the Saudi squad complained that a Cameroonian star played illegally, since he held a French passport. The Cameroonian government, however, rebuffed their claims stating that regardless of his passport, he had the full right to defend his native country. See Dibussi Tande, “Why Liberalising Nationality Law is a Win–win Situation”. http://thenewblackmagazine.com/view.aspx?index=269 [accessed December 31, 2011]. Sarah J. Mahler, “Theoretical and Empirical Contributions Toward a Research Agenda for Transnationalism”, in Transnationalism From Below, eds. Michael Peter Smith and Luis Eduardo Guarnizo, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1998, pp. 76–78. Garbi Schmidt, “The Transnational Umma—Myth or Reality?: Examples from the Western Diasporas”, The Muslim World, Vol. 95, October, 2005, pp. 575–586, p. 581. For a further discussion on the importance of grasping the levels of analysis in transnational studies, see Luis Eduardo Guarnizo and Michael Peter Smith, “The Locations of Transnationalism”, op. cit., pp. 24–25.