Aligners, lovers and deceptors: aspirations and strategies of young urban hustlers in the Gambia
View/ Open
Date
05/07/2017Author
Ceesay, Ismaila
Metadata
Abstract
This study investigates young Gambians’ social and economic aspirations. It considers how
young Gambians’ aspirations are shaped and negotiated, and the strategies they employ to
achieve their objectives. Whilst existing research tends to view young Gambians’ social and
economic advancement through a lens of international migration, this study focuses on the
aspirations and strategies of those who find themselves in a state of ‘involuntary immobility’
– that is, an aspiration to migrate but the inability to do so. The study looks at how two groups
of young urban Gambians from low socio-economic backgrounds pursue local livelihoods.
Known as ‘beach hustlers’ and ‘chanters’, these youths take advantage of the resources of the
tourism sector and of opportunities provided by information and communication technologies
(ICT) in an attempt to fulfil their aspirations.
Drawing on data collected from multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2013
and 2014 in Kololi, the country’s main tourism hotspot on the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, and
Brikama, where internet use in cybercafés has rapidly grown over the past two decades, I use
the cases of ‘beach hustlers’ and ‘chanters’ (cyber hustlers) to shed light on the life-trajectories
of young Gambians. I discuss how ‘beach hustlers’ take advantage of the Gambia’s booming
tourism industry by engaging in diverse informal economic activities. I then consider how
‘chanters’ accumulate wealth by employing various methods and ruses in their interactions
with toubabs (white westerners) through internet-mediated encounters.
This study shows that the majority of young Gambians who find it increasingly difficult to
migrate to the West pursue local livelihoods to fulfil their aspirations of social and economic
advancement. The aspirations and strategies of the hustlers in this study are shaped and
influenced by intervening social, cultural and religious obligations and expectations. The study
argues that the formation of Gambian hustlers’ aspirations is the result of an interplay between
familial and societal dynamics; such as generational and gender relations and reciprocal social
exchange, and personal desires of upward social mobility. The study further shows that the
strategies young Gambians employ are influenced by the structural constraints and
opportunities that appear in specific space–time conditions. By doing so, this study contributes
to the literature on the aspirations of urban youths in developing countries and the strategies
they employ to achieve them, and how young people experience and respond to conditions of
‘involuntary immobility’.