Homesickness, Violence and Prostitution: Amharic Literature on Labour Migration to the Gulf States
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu13.2017.106Abstract
Thousands of people are leaving Ethiopia monthly to be employed in the Gulf states. This involvement of Ethiopians in labor migration shapes the modern culture of the country. There are hundreds of songs, poems and movies based on the concept of siddet — an Amharic term which can be roughly translated as migration or exile. In this paper the way in which labor migration is presented in Amharic fiction is analysed. Two Amharic novels taken for the research (“Thorny gold” by Saada Muhammed and “Alemnesh, a refugee in the Middle East” by Melake Teezazu) appear to reproduce the negative discourse on migration. Thus, stories about successful migration are absent making suffering of compatriots the major topic of the narration. I argue that the concept of siddet manages to create a new transnational Ethiopian identity, based on the idea of common national tragedy. Although the culture of exile is mostly created by the diaspora, it is in demand among those how stay behind.
Keywords:
labour migration, discourse on migration, nationalism, Ethiopia, fiction
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References
Литература
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Jørgensen M. W., Louise J. Ph. Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. London, Sage publication, 2002. 229 p.
Kamrava M., Zahra B. Migrant Labour in the Persian Gulf. London, Hurst & Company, 2012. 238 p.
Evans-Pritchard E. E. Nuer Religion. London, Oxford University Press, 1956. 336 p.
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ASI (Anti-Slavery Internationalv). Trafficking in women, forced labour and domestic work in the context of the Middle East and Gulf. Anti-Slavery International, 2006. 77 p.
Fernandez B. Cheap and Disposable? The Impact of the Global Economic Crisis on the Migration of Ethiopian Women Domestic Workers to the Gulf. Gender & Development, 2010, no. 18(2), pp. 249–262.
Mesfin Dessiye. The Challenges and Prospects of Female Labour Migration to the Arab Middle East: A Case Study of Women Returnees in the Town of Girana, North Wollo, Ethiopia. Bergen, University of Bergen, 2011. 115 p.
de Regt M. Ethiopian Women Increasingly Trafficked to Yemen. Forced Migration Review, 2006, no. 25, pp. 37–38.
Sosena Tsegaye. The Migration of Ethiopian Female Domestic Workers to Arab Countries: With Special Reference to Returnees. Addis Ababa, Addis Ababa University, 2013. 99 p.
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Published
2017-03-20
How to Cite
Стеблин-Каменский, Н. И. (2017). Homesickness, Violence and Prostitution: Amharic Literature on Labour Migration to the Gulf States. Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies, 9(1), 58–69. https://doi.org/10.21638/11701/spbu13.2017.106
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Literary studies
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Articles of "Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Asian and African Studies" are open access distributed under the terms of the License Agreement with Saint Petersburg State University, which permits to the authors unrestricted distribution and self-archiving free of charge.
