Conceptualising integrative exchanges: marginalisation, music and identity of African diaspora in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper examines the integration process among African diaspora in Hong Kong. It explores how they negotiate an identity by performing African drum music at various places in the context of marginalisation as it exists in the city. Drawing on in-depth interviews and participant observation with a group of Africans in Hong Kong, this paper proposes ‘integrative exchanges’ as an analytical tool to reveal migrant’s agency that creates an appropriate space for meaningful contact with majority population. This research argues that African drum plays important functional and symbolic roles in their ongoing integration process. Functionally, Africans use their traditional culture to break down social boundary, which offers a favourable context for building friendship. Symbolically, by playing African drums at various places, Africans consciously engage in identity politics. Integration is a process requiring willingness to engage and change by the local population and the migrants. The concept of ‘integrative exchanges’ highlights the importance of a tool the migrants utilise that triggers the exchanges to occur during the integration process, and the motivation and benefits to engage in the intercultural contacts.