Paper short abstract:

Utopias are an inherent part of travel and imaginaries of "elsewhere/the Other". In this paper I analyze how ideas of utopian self and society feed into the travel experiences of young Afrodescendent women from Germany. Does the concept of utopia help coping with inequalities within communities?

Paper long abstract:

Utopia and the search for a better or different life elsewhere is an inherent part of travel and feeds into travel imaginaries. As such, travel plays also an inherent role in the making of diasporic identities. In this paper I analyze how ideas of utopian self and society feed into the travel experiences of young Afrodescendent women from Germany. To be able to understand the imaginaries of the future of the young women, this study uses a life-story approach and an ethnographic approach of travelling with participants.

It follows the travels of Aminata C. and her family to Ghana to visit family and explores the tensions which exist in a transnational family with inherent social and economic inequalities. A central motivation of Aminata C. is to give back to the community in that case extended kin and like that alleviate the differences which exist between their global positions. She is faced with a dilemma: Global Inequality is dealt with on a personal level yet it is impossible to make up for it on an individual level.

Another example is given following the travels of an Afro-Feminist artist couple Oxana C and Layla Z. Mobility for them is an ideal in life and a means to achieve a personal idea of utopia by bringing together feminist and Black activist communities.

An underlying question of this paper is: Does the concept of utopia help coping with inequalities within communities or on the contrary does it make coping more complicated?