Strangers and Migrants in the Making of African Societies: A Conceptual and Historical Review

Abstract

At the extremes, there are two forms of engagement with strangers—the anthropophagic, where outsiders are swallowed and digested, and the anthropoemic, where aliens are discarded, institutionalized, incarcerated or expelled. Using this dyad as a conceptual tool, I examine seven patterns of inclusion/exclusion in African societies, covering early agricultural societies, the formation of kingdoms, societies formed by refugees, strangers in pre-colonial cities, migrants in colonial cities, ethnic expulsions as a result of modern state formation and migrants in contemporary global cities. The aim of the article, based on an extensive review of secondary literature, is to add historical, comparative and typological elements to an often inadequate sociological and anthropological sensibility concerning hosts and strangers.