ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the adaptive strategies by Senegalese and Ghanaian immigrants when replicating one of the primary African family ceremonies, the baby naming ceremony, in Los Angeles. With the far and wide transmigration of Africans during the past few decades, family ceremonies such as baptisms, weddings, and funerals have become more transnational and multi-sited. Rituals and celebrations are often performed in dual or multiple locations in Africa and abroad, and often include “stand-ins” to represent important family elders or relations. In terms of performance practice, immigrants’ notions of authenticity and appropriate behavior are constantly re-negotiated in the diasporic performance settings. Ghanaian and Senegalese immigrants in Los Angeles formulate their identities as transnational subjects by alternately adapting to and resisting assimilation into the host society. On the one hand, immigrants adapt their rituals and celebrations to the constraints and limitations of the foreign surroundings, making subtle or significant changes to the rituals. On the other hand, immigrants Africanize the landscape and soundscape of their surroundings to ensure ritual efficacy, in both religious and social terms.
