| dc.description.abstract | This qualitative study critically examined how African women conceptualize their identity in Norway. It attempts to explore the different aspect and inteserect and the tension it brings, when trying to naviagte and or negotiate their way in between different cultures. Through in-depth interviews It was discovered that all of the participants shared a common hybrid identity combining several aspects of religious, racial, gender, cultural or ethnic identity, alongside identifying with the Norwegian culture. However, they had different strategies and approaches to how they negotiated and navigated through these experiences. The understanding of belonging to the Norwegian culture is expressed by the participants as their ties to the city that they grew up in, the schools that they attended as children and/or their neighborhood. From the study, it was evident that identifying as Africans was not an issue, but rather identifying as black, as many Africans struggle with being identified as "black" and in many instances resists the term. It was also evident that from the native country, categorizing a group of people as Black was also a tool used to amplify the concept of “othering” creating distance and hierarchy. The tension of being both black and African, alongside with being a woman of a particular religious belief, created different inteserct and issues for many of the participants. Over the years, they had to negotiate their identity as Africans, black, Muslims and or Christians whiles coming off age in Norway. This process of negotiation took a long time and was though, yet they found a way to build different strategies and ressitense mechanism, that empowered them and hopefully can inspire other young women. By using postcolonial theory, I discuss the participants as racialized subjects, coming from previous colonized countries to a racialized society. From a study done by, Godfried Agyeman Asante (2012) "Becoming black in America: Exploring the racial identity development of African immigrants," he concluded that there was a tension between ethnic identification as Africans and racial identification as black, where most of the participants affirmed their ethnic identity as Africans over their racial identity as black. In my research however, I would like to take the disource a little further by discussing gender and religion, how these categories are a part of shaping or reshaping the experience of being African and or black. All of the participants have memories of living in their native country, but most of their childhood, teenage years and adult years were spent in Norway, therefore adopting a hybrid identity with the experience and consciousness of being a migrant. | |