Date of Award
5-11-2025
Date Published
June 2025
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Communication and Rhetorical Studies
Advisor(s)
Kendall Phillips
Keywords
African Immigrants;Belonging;Cultural Objects;Identity;Material Culture;Migration and Memory
Subject Categories
Communication | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
In this thesis, I explore how African immigrants in Syracuse, New York, use cultural objects to navigate identity, memory, and belonging in a new environment. Through interviews, story circles, and personal narratives, it examines how everyday items transform into meaningful symbols of home, acting as emotional anchors and ways to preserve culture. The study reveals that these objects, though initially practical, gain significance through migration, helping individuals cope with the experience, maintain ties to their heritage, and negotiate hybrid identities. However, their meanings are fluid: some objects retain emotional and cultural weight, while others fade as immigrants adapt. Beyond personal objects, African markets emerge as key transnational spaces where food and material culture bridge past and present. These markets function as sites of memory, community, and exchange that enable immigrants to recreate traditions as they adapt locally. By analyzing participant stories, I show how objects and cultural spaces like African markets facilitate continuity amid change, resist cultural erasure, and strengthen intergenerational connections. This work contributes to conversations on migration, material culture, and postcolonial identity by centering African immigrant perspectives. The narratives highlight migrant agency in redefining belonging, home, and culture. In essence, this study demonstrates how ordinary objects hold profound significance, that serves as a bridge between loss and renewal, preservation and adaptation in transnational lived experiences.
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Asifat, Faizat Oladunni, "What We Carry Carries Us: Narratives of African Immigrants Through Cultural Artifacts in the United States" (2025). Theses - ALL. 923.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/923
