Awedoba, A.K., Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana; Hahn, H.P., Department of Social Anthropology, Institute of Ethnology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany

Abstract

Mobility and global entanglements in consumption are among the key concepts of globalisation. However, in social sciences there is an ongoing dispute about the consequences of human mobility, i.e., migration. Whereas many scholars assume that it has a beneficial effect on wealth in both, the sending and the receiving community, others relativise the economic effects and highlight the cultural patterns as motives for migration. This article sheds more light on these issues in a West African context. As shown through linguistic analyses and ethnographic evidence, migration leads to changing notions of wealth as such, thereby redefining in the sending community what is required to have a good life. The change of these concepts contributes to the increasing reconnaissance of consumption and to the expression of wealth through the possession of consumer goods. As a consequence, the acceptance of the consumerist concept of wealth engenders the desire to migrate: only through migration is it possible to acquire the financial means to participate actively in prestigious consumption. "Owning things" and "owning money" increasingly equals social reputation. This is also expressed through funeral arrangements, which become more and more costly. A proper funeral requires the financial means typically provided by migrants, thereby giving evidence for the deep cultural embedding of the new consumerist notion of wealth.