Contentious Cosmopolitanism. Transnational Circulations in the Life Trajectories of Reggae/Ragga Artists in Marseille
Résumé
This chapter analyze, in a broad sense, the trajectories of eight reggae musicians. All eight musicians share the experience of migration and discontinuity in their family histories, which gives them a dual sense of belonging. They have “origins,” as is often said, which places them in a process of negotiating their cultural identities in tension between their country of either birth or reception and that of their parents. Against a backdrop of distinct appropriations, reggae acts as a practice and a mediating element through which the musicians can construct an identity position that is not fixed or closed. Analyzing the meaning musicians give to their trajectories can reveal the types of “connections” (branchements) they make. Unlike the biological metaphor of métissage, the electrical metaphor of connection makes it possible to explore the derivation of meanings as well as the phenomenon of triangulation, in which the passage through a third element, in this case reggae, can lay the foundation for one’s identity.