Sharing to Belong: African Women in Sydney and Practices of Social Solidarity

Nestled inside a 1980s-style arcade in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, the African Village Market is a meeting place, social enterprise and a site of recognition. The market was established as a means through which African women in Sydney could sell their own products, provide African goods that were otherwise hard to get and foster a sense of community across African groups in Sydney. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted at the African Village Market in late 2013-early 2014, this paper will explore how women at the market experience and give meaning to solidarity. While the market holds a particular resonance for the Kenyan community in Sydney, it also functions as a meeting place for other African communities. It is a particular site where solidarity is practised in the everyday through the act of sharing; the sharing of space, friendship, knowledge and support. By asking why people choose to share with each other, what they choose to share and who they choose to share with, this research will explore the complex ways that solidarity functions across various axes of difference. In the context of a steady decline in funding for ethnic group organisations, it is necessary to understand what role these spaces play as sites of difference that foster a sense of social solidarity within and across communities.