Men stay at home while women move out: new trends of mobility to China amongst Bamenda grassfield women (Cameroon)
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Abstract
This article examines the mobility of women from the Bamenda Grassfields to China. Prior to the improvement in road and air transport, men had always been seen as those who move out and thus the breadwinners in the family. However, there is an increasing shift from this paradigm and recently with advancement in road and air transport female migrants have in many ways become the breadwinners of their families thus changing the socio-cultural norms hitherto unknown in the region. Women’s mobility in the past was linked to spousal reunions or for family reasons. Drawing from archival and secondary sources, oral interviews, and secondary sources this article argues that the new wave of mobility of women from the Bamenda Grassfields to China has altered previously perceived notions of men as breadwinners of the family and has led to a new dynamic in this region with women becoming more assertive. These women have come to represent what is known as “China Women†and they have fundamentally challenged patriarchal roles and control in the cultural fabric of the sub region. What accounts for this new wave of migration to China? To what extent does this phenomenon impact on the existing notion of men as breadwinners? The article concludes that the stereotypical view that conceives women as sedentary to stay at home and look after the livestock and children while their husbands move in search of family incomes has been challenged by the women of this region.
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