At the time of the “backway” Mobility rules and moral breakdown from the standpoint of a rural Gambian community

• Published in: Focaal Vol. 2024; no. 99; pp. 41 - 53
• Main Authors: Vitturini, Elia, Bellagamba, Alice
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Brooklyn Berghahn Books, Inc 01-06-2024
• Subjects: Coups d'etat; Diaspora; Families & family life; Family networks; Immigration; Intergenerational relationships; Kinship networks; Migrants; Migration; Mobility; Rationality; Remittances; Rural areas; Rural communities; Urban areas; Villages
• ISSN: 0920-1297; 1558-5263
• DOI: 10.3167/fcl.2024.990104

Abstract “Backway” is the Gambian term for the outflow of people, mostly via the Mediterranean and oceanic routes that during the 2010s turned the country into one of the highest per capita origin points for sub-Saharan migrants in Europe. From the standpoint of Kerewan, a Gambian rural community proud of its migratory legacy, a mobility rules perspective uncovers the specificity of the “backway” in sensible arenas of village life: household and family networks, intergenerational relationships, and development. Since 2017, initiatives linked to the Euro-African mobility regime to immobilize young Gambians meet the practical rationality on the ground of communities like Kerewan engaged in a moral conversation about what family, village, intergenerational and transnational solidarity, and development should and do mean in the current predicament.