Congolese Social Networks by Owen Joy;

Author:Owen, Joy;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books/Fortress Academic

Part III

Onward and Upward

The Romance Factor

Successful migration, however configured by transmigrants themselves, is an outcome of the cultivation of various relationships, both temporary and enduring. In order to survive the passage to another country, undocumented migrants rely on others who have the knowledge of the landscape, the placement of the border and possible border patrols, and the wherewithal to deal with bandits. Yet others like the guys travel by plane crossing the border legally. Once there they apply for asylum. Less cautious migrants will set off unaware of what lies ahead, yet may succeed in their aims. At their destination they cultivate new relationships in order to further their migrant careers. In short migrants are adaptable and flexible human beings who take risks; sometimes considered and rational risks, oftentimes daring risks.

The creation of an intimate relationship is a risk of another kind. An intimate relationship opens one to scrutiny, makes one vulnerable and provides a series of encounters where another witnesses the depth of your life. Relationships created across cultural difference, language impediments and societal norms are the most challenging and hence the riskiest of all forms of intimate relationship. Why might a migrant take such a risk? Setting aside biological urges and the desire to settle down with a stable partner at a certain life stage, it is possible that some migrants risk intimacy and even entertain marriage with a stranger for the same reasons that they take other risks in their migration careers: to further the goals that set them on the migration course in the first place! In this final section of the monograph I entertain this among other hypotheses while presenting case studies of actual transnational relationships forged by Congolese men during and since my fieldwork in Muizenberg.

In the previous section, I provided a narrative of certain functions of relationships. In chapter five, I grappled with what seemed to be a purely rational and economically driven relationship between my research participants and Robert. The sketch of this economic relationship is fleshed out further in chapter eight. But in chapter five I unveiled the religious dynamics or aspects that were innate to the functioning of this relationship. The chapter demonstrates that religion, and specifically Christianity in this case, can be instrumental to the adaptation of Congolese men and women to the local environment. I ended the chapter by initiating further thinking around the opportunity structure provided by the church for meeting similar others in faith—other Christians—and dissimilar national others—Americans, Germans, South Africans, Ghanaians, Congolese—in the Muizenberg Community Church (MCC).

In this final section I relate the conclusion of those relationships created within the church between single Congolese men and women of different nationalities. I was never party to the intimate dynamics of each. However my contextualization of these relationships, and the inscription of their meaning are positioned within a transnational social space that crosses a number of countries (DRC, South Africa and countries in Europe), cuts across three time periods (past, present and future), spans two continents—Africa and Europe—and intertwines the colonial with the postcolonial.

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