This paper examines the productive role of secrecy in the nexus of transnational mobility, kinship, and intimate relations among Ghanaian-Dutch and Somali-Dutch in the Netherlands. Whereas secrecy is typically understood as one person concealing knowledge from another, implying the latter’s passivity, we argue that secrecy depends on mutually constitutive interactions. Secrecy is explored as the result of an interaction between those who obscure knowledge in creative ways and those who maintain a not-knowing. The paper analyzes how people negotiate moral expectations regarding sexuality, respect, and loyalty, while also manoeuvring to fulfil their personal aspirations. Especially in kinship relations, when people are bound to each other by moral and social obligations, the management of secrecy often makes people mutually dependent. Secrecy is revealed as skillfully choreographing relations by the ebb and flow of information where kinship, respect, or love and (not-) knowing reinforce another.

本文研究了秘密在荷兰加纳－荷和索马里－荷之间跨国迁徙，血缘关系和亲密关系中的生产性作用。尽管通常将保密理解为一个人向另一个人隐瞒知识，这暗示了另一个人的被动性，但我们认为保密性取决于相互构成的相互作用。通过以创造性的方式掩盖知识的人们与保持不了解的人们之间的相互作用来探索秘密。本文分析了人们如何就性，尊敬和忠诚度达成道德期望，同时又为实现自己的个人愿望而进行了调整。特别是在亲属关系中，当人们受到道德和社会义务的束缚时，保密的管理常常使人们相互依赖。