Tragic and Heroic Moments in the Lives of Forced Migrants: Memories of Political Asylum-Seekers in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Ernest A. Pineteh; Thecla N. Mulu

doi:10.25071/1920-7336.40285

Tragic and Heroic Moments in the Lives of Forced Migrants: Memories of Political Asylum-Seekers in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Authors

Ernest A. Pineteh Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Thecla N. Mulu University of the Western Cape

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40285

Keywords:

South Africa, Cameroonian asylum-seekers, forced migration, post-apartheid, political asylum, credibility, memory, storytelling

Abstract

This article examines the memories of a group of Cameroonian asylum-seekers in South Africa, analyzing personal accounts of memories of fear, suffering, and pain as well as resilience and heroism during their forced migration. The article argues that the legitimacy of applications for asylum often depends on accurate and consistent memories of specific life-threatening episodes at home and during migration. Drawing on theoretical conceptions such as construction of memory, autobiographical memory, and politics of storytelling, this article teases out how personal memories of asylum-seekers provide a discursive space to access and understand the asymmetries of seeking political asylum in post-apartheid South Africa.

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Author Biographies

Ernest A. Pineteh, Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Faculty of Informatics and Design

Thecla N. Mulu, University of the Western Cape

Doctoral Researcher

African Centre for Citizenship and Democracy

School of Government

cover image of Refuge issue with special focus on age discrimination

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Published

2016-11-23

How to Cite

Pineteh, E. A., & Mulu, T. N. (2016). Tragic and Heroic Moments in the Lives of Forced Migrants: Memories of Political Asylum-Seekers in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees, 32(3), 63–72. https://doi.org/10.25071/1920-7336.40285

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Issue

Vol. 32 No. 3 (2016): General Issue, with Special Focus on Age Discrimination in Forced Migration Law, Policy and Practice

Section

Articles

License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Refuge authors retain the copyright over their work, and license it to the general public under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial License International (CC BY-NC 4.0). This license allows for non-commercial use, reproduction and adaption of the material in any medium or format, with proper attribution. For general information on Creative Commons licences, visit the Creative Commons site. For the CC BY-NC 4.0 license, review the human readable summary.