Paper short abstract:

The paper examines the uneasy relationships that African Diaspora, western women and far relatives engage with as a survival mechanism to meet their financial, sexual material drives.

Paper long abstract:

This article focuses on African men who came to Western countries as students and who, due to study-related (financial) hardship and high economic demands from their kith and kin back home, entered romantic relationships with Western women. I argue that students in Australia and European countries function under unprecedented tensions and pressure from home economic demands, and from the host cultural and academic challenges. They are found between and betwixt as on the one hand, they have to adapt and cope within their new milieu in the Diaspora while on the other, they are placed under additional economic demands from their areas of origin. As living in a Western context, paying school fees and sending remittances home is often an unattainable goal. Returning home without financial and/or academic success is often also not an option. As a result, some men feel romantic relationships with Western women is the only option left, as such relationships can lead to significant less financial stress, as well as an eventual Permanent Residency. The western women (often times the elderly) who hardly find love among their peers also exploit the vulnerable African men for their sexual gratification. It is this trio of exploitation that this paper explores. This has escaped the attention of scholars, a lacuna which this paper sets out to fill. This article is based on author's ethnographic research on romantic relationships between Western women and African men.