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- Convenors:
-
David O'Kane
(Nelson Mandela University)
Dmitry Bondarenko
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Panel
- Location:
- 10 University Square (UQ), 01/005
- Sessions:
- Tuesday 26 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
We insist on the centrality of African realities, as they are defined by communities in the continent and its diaspora. How, we ask, do Africa's peoples shape their visions of the reality around them, and how do concrete realities affect their actions to build the future?
Long Abstract:
Whether in the continent or in the diaspora, Africa's peoples face the future with realism, a consciousness of the concrete realities facing their continent in the twenty-first century. Those realities can inspire as much as constrain, but they are the decisive factor in all efforts, large or small, to transform the continent. The themes of hope, transformation and the commons remain a feature of research on Africa, but they must be handled in ways attuned to present-day African realities. The organizers of this panel welcome, therefore, any papers dealing with contemporary African realities as they are being defined, defended, or dismantled, by Africa's peasants, pastoralists and new urban working and middle class communities, and through interventions by African diaspora communities as well. Papers by African scholars are especially welcome. New problems of dependency and decolonization, threats of climate change and environmental degradation, and recurring problems of governance and democratization - these are all factors in conceptions of the present-day African reality, and of past and future realities as well. How, we ask, are such realistic visions constructed by Africa's people, and how do those visions inform their actions to build the future? The organizers are aspiring to bring together a range of papers that deals with as broad a set of cases and themes as possible: therefore, they look forward to receiving papers that are concerned with practical concerns and empirical cases, as well as those implying a broader focus on local ontologies and epistemologies.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Tuesday 26 July, 2022, -Paper short abstract:
At the core of Batwa realities is musicking. By closely examining how daily and occasional musickings are practiced, this paper demonstrates how their corporeal image constructs 'happy' actualities, realities and futures in correspondence to modern developing nation and forced resettlement.
Paper long abstract:
Almost 20 years have passed since the Batwa people of Central Africa have been evicted from the Virunga forest. Their traditional way of living, hunting and gathering has been prohibited, obliging them to adapt as peasants, yet another of their traditional practice, musicking (Small 1998) still thrives. Living together with their new neighbors, long-time peasants, under the umbrella of modern nation, their musical ‘actualities’ (Kimura 2001) is not immune to the ‘realities’ diffused by Protestant church songs, industrial pop songs and governmental publicity songs through radio, tv, digital media and social interaction. Together with traditional Batwa songs, this musical universe consists of a complex compound distributing the population on a matrix of different music styles and rhythms. In other words, this paper demonstrates different visions of constructed actualities, realities and futures among the community, by empirically examining their daily improvisational musicking and monetized traditional musical performances presented; when it occurs, with what songs, by whom, when and how. Data is gathered not only through participant observation and casual interviews but also filming by the researcher and the Batwa themselves. This is to consider actualities, realities and futures not only through linguistic concepts but through corporeal image (Belting 2011). Happiness 'kwishima' is said to be the drive for Batwa musicking, and so, this paper argues what kind of ‘happy’ visions are expressed in their musicking corresponding to ‘development’ promoted by the government and the un-easy relationships with their relatively new neighbors.
Paper short abstract:
The project of Eurafrica disappeared from European colonial agenda after WWII. African migrants are currently transforming European spaces through agency and mobility, letting Eurafrica re-emerge in a new anti-colonial perspective.
Paper long abstract:
The term "Eurafrica" first emerged between the two World Wars in variety of colonial discourses, spanning from European imperialism up to utopias of socialist internationalism. Relics of the Eurafrican geopolitical enterprise can be found in coeval documents, such as science-fiction novels, as well as visionary infrastructure projects. After the Second World War, Eurafrica disappeared from European political agendas, these having been redesigned by the Cold War. Eurafrica is currently re-emerging from the backfire of colonial rule, having the circulation of people, commodities, and imaginaries tightened the relationship between the two continents. This paper explores the re-emergence of this "forgotten continent" from the perspective of irregular migrants. I analyse the life-stories of four interlocutors from different west African countries who I have been following since 2017, as they arrived in Italy applying for asylum, and who are representative for trends of irregular migration from Africa to Europe. While facing European regulations and mobility restrictions, my interlocutors have managed to settle down in different European Countries acquiring a "legal" status after a period of "irregularity". The material that emerges from their life-stories shows Eurafrican geographies in a renewed perspective which disrupts European nation states' territories and cartographies, providing a renewed anti-colonial reading of both European and African spaces. Eurafrica acquires in this way new meanings, becoming the setting where African migrants are able to interpret past trajectories and foreshadow possible futures.
Paper short abstract:
This presentation is about marriages of Maasai men and European women who live in Tanzania. It concerns their economic strategies, Gender relations, relations with the extended family and hope for the future.
Paper long abstract:
Over the past decade Zanzibar has become a very popular holiday destination. In just five years, the number of tourists has almost doubled. At the same time many Maasai from mainland Tanzania migrate to Zanzibar for work purposes. These men find a job in the tourism sector, which means they are in regular contact with tourists. These meetings often result in developing closer relations with female Europeans. Some of them turn into long-term relationships, which sometimes end in marriage and often result in a change of one partner's place of residence, i.e. emigration of Maasai men to the tourists' countries of origin or the decision of women to live in Tanzania. My presentation concerns couples who have decided to live in Tanzania. I will discuss, among others, what kind of economic strategies they adopt; what actions are European partners taking for the benefit of the Maasai community that they live in; how children are brought up as well as how gender relations are shaped in the aforementioned relationships and how the spouses envision the future. I will present how the partners' performing of masculinity and femininity is changing. Maasai community is patriarchal, but relations with women from the Global North seems to be an alternative to gender relations understood in this way. I rely on my own ethnographic field research carried out in mainland Tanzania.
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores different forms of action that female domestic workers in Ethiopia and Tanzania employ, in the absence of institutional social protection, for the improvement of their rights.
Paper long abstract:
In this paper I draw upon ethnographic research in Ethiopia and Tanzania to explore different strategies that female domestic workers employ for the improvement of their rights in both countries. Domestic work is one of the most important sources of employment for women in both countries. Yet the lack of adequate protection leaves them open to several forms of exploitation and abuse. The legislation in the two countries – in one case, Ethiopia, excludes domestic workers, in another, Tanzania, it includes them in umbrella legislation for all workers, yet it falls short of accounting for many of their needs. Labour activists, and associations of female domestic workers, are currently advocating for the ratification of the ILO Convention No. 189 ‘Concerning Decent Work for Domestic Workers’. In the absence of institutional social protection, domestic workers employ alternative strategies of action outside of formal channels, such as informal gatherings, neighborhood interactions, various forms of emotional, practical and material support. The knowledge of survival strategies employed by women in absence of legal protection - from the intimacy of their work - is vital as, in several circumstances, solutions proposed by formal channels which foster the formalization of hired care work, need to be adapted to the various and complex realities in which women’s lives are embedded.