Degrees of Conviviality Among Frontier Citizens: Exploring the Lived Experiences of Second-Generation African Immigrants on the Continent

Abstract

This paper draws on and extends Nyamnjoh's ideas regarding the fluid lived experiences of the many individuals on the African continent whom he calls frontier citizens. It focuses on the experiences of second-generation African immigrants whom we describe as embodying conviviality in their very existence. Based on in-depth interviews with 30 individuals, we extend Nyamnjoh's concept of conviviality beyond its implicit binary formulation to explore the degree to which these individuals experience conviviality both in and outside their domestic settings. We show how nationalistic stereotypes directed at their parents constrain the degrees to which they experience conviviality in and outside domestic spaces. We then demonstrate that the frontier citizens who experience lowered degrees of conviviality respond to this in two main ways, either by naming and claiming the stereotyped identity as they so desire or rejecting it to make their lives simpler. We conclude that a more fluid understanding of Nyamnjoh's concept of conviviality provides a lens to understand the nuanced lived experiences of Africans with multiple identities.