When "home" means more than one country

This book collection is in two parts; reconstruction of identities through everyday life experiences and reconstruction of identities through literary and creative works. The chapters that feature in the collection are scholarly and carefully chosen to shed light on identities construction in trans-national contexts. The contributors variously explored issues of migration from Brazil, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon and Romania contexts. The collection addresses discursive construction of identities which is a central concern amongst researchers across a wide range of disciplines both within the humanities and the social sciences. The construction of identities in this book is necessitated mainly by migration which is a process of social change where an individual, alone or accompanied by others, because of one or more reasons of economic betterment, political upheaval, education or other purposes, leaves his geographical area for prolonged stay or permanent settlement in another geographical area. When people migrate from one nation or culture to another they carry their knowledge, worldview, fears and aspirations with them. On settling down in the new culture, their cultural identity is likely to change and that encourages a degree of belonging; they also attempt to settle down by either assimilation or biculturalism. Language, probably more than any other human factor is the greatest contributor to, and a manifestation of this process of identity construction. Table of Contents: RICARDO GUALDA (Universidade Federal da Bahia, Brazil) Living on the Edge of African Dreams: New Identities for African and African Diaspora Caribbean Students in Brazil MUNGAI MUTONYA (Washington University in St. Louis, USA) Reframing Kenya from Majuu: Language use among Kenyans in the Diaspora BENSON OJWANG (Department of Linguistics, Maseno University, Kenya) Change or Continuity? Sociolinguistic Trends in Nubi Ethnolinguistic Identity in Kenya and Uganda DAVID MUGAMBE (Makerere University, Uganda) “Whose Interests Do We Represent?” The Nexus of Ugandan Diasporas, Social Media and the 2016 Elections IULIA-ELENA HOSSU “Where is Home?” or Building an Identity: The Case of Transnational Families ANCA RALUCA AŞTILEAN Feminism and Migration – the Romanian Approach of the Situation JOSEPH MBONGUE, (University of Yaoundé I, Cameroon) ‘Ni Noir ni Blanc’ as the paradox of an illusory double identity PHYLLIS W. MWANGI, KIGURU GATITU & PURITY M. NTHIGA (Kenyatta University, Kenya) The English Language and the Refugee Identity: Insights from Dadaab Refugee Camps ISAAC SSETTUBA The Indian in Luganda Literature OBALA MUSUMBA (Humboldt University of Berlin, Germany) Seeking Liberation in the Unknown: An Analysis of the Flight Motif and the Child Character in Nuruddin Farah’s Third Trilogy ESTHER G. WANJAU (Karatina University, Kenya) Narratives of Identity in Migrant Women’s Autobiography Index Biography ISBN 9783862888863. LINCOM Studies in Social Politics 02. 222pp. 2018.