The Postcolonial African Migration to the West as a Desire for Recognition

In this chapter, African migration to the West will be discussed in relation to African patriarchal and autocratic cultural structures. I discuss postcolonial African migration to the West as a manifestation of the desire for recognition and a means for achieving social status in the origin. The successful migrants to the West bring the adored West to the origin. They and their families back home are not only richer than those who want to migrate but cannot; they are also “whiter”, which increases their social value and their chance for recognition. The achievement of recognition is believed to depend on the success of overcoming the Western physical and psychological borders, that is to imitate successfully the white world and to bring it to black Africa.