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- Convenors:
-
Jeannine-Madeleine Fischer
(University of Konstanz)
Mahsun Oti (Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey)
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- Formats:
- Panel
- Mode:
- Face-to-face
- Sessions:
- Friday 26 July, -
Time zone: Europe/Madrid
Short Abstract:
With a view of the African continent, we discuss activist forms as potentially perpetuating aspects of the crisis they seek to overcome. We invite scholars to engage in a “post-activist” critique to rethink how resistant practices themselves might reproduce oppressive mechanisms.
Long Abstract:
Ways of contemporary activism highly resonate with this conference’s notion of „undoing“: dedicated activists seek to undo neo-/colonial structures, persisting and novel forms of oppression, normalized hierarchies, and unequal power relations. Inspired by Bayo Akomolafe’s concept of „post-activism“ or „para-activism“, we ask in this panel how resistant practices of undoing are themselves challenged to be undone. In Akomolafe’s reading, activist forms might perpetuate aspects of the crisis they seek to overcome. Similarly, the action repertoires deployed by activists aiming to bring change may also reproduce the oppressive mechanisms within and among the activist frameworks, which may lead to the failure of the social movements.
We invite scholars to rethink and deconstruct ideas of activism and resistance in their diverse fields, touching on various points: „who“ is the activist subject if we draw on the ideas of transjectivity, territory, entanglement, and atmosphere? How can we revisit the concept of resistance beyond the common us/them distinction and conceive of thick, inconsistent, and contested relationships within activism? How do future, vision, and hope take shape if we undo common ways of thinking about trajectories and progress in wounded postcolonial societies? We want to delve into the cracks, fissures, and in-betweens that Akomolafe invites us to take seriously as spaces of acting, thinking, and feeling together with.
As scholars working on social movements in Africa, we limit our geographical focus to the African continent. We look forward to engaging in rich methodological and conceptual discussions based on fresh empirical research.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 26 July, 2024, -John Chidubem Nwaogaidu (University of Nigeria, Nsukka)
Paper short abstract:
This study puts into perspective the variations of the positive and negative effects of the various levels of Christian-Muslim encounters in the Northern Igbo of Nigeria at such a micro-level, as well as how such a state has strained the relations between Christians and Muslims over the years.
Paper long abstract:
Christian-Muslim relations have become a critical area of research in this contemporary period. This is following the continued tension that has coloured their engagement in the recent past. Their battered images are enrolled in pages of histories, respective ideologies, social and anthropological congruencies, and politics. This study took seriously the areas of their interaction, putting into perspective the variations of the positive and negative effects of the various levels of encounter. It evaluates the state of the Muslim minority in the Northern Igbo of Nigeria at such a micro-level, as well as how such a state has strained the relations between Christians and Muslims over the years. The study is anchored on the theory of social construction of reality and interrogates the areas of inter-cultural and religious relations between Muslims and Christians in the Northern Igbo. To administer the empirical study, the research used interviews as its instruments of data collection. The empirical findings confirmed and found some areas smacked with conflicts. The research highlighted some areas that shed hope in the efforts toward peaceful co-existence. Some of the measures outlined by the study include public enlightenment to deemphasize religious and ethnic-regional consciousness, fostering inter-religious dialogue and politics of inclusion.
Silas Udenze (Universitat Oberta de Catalunya)
Paper short abstract:
This ethnographic study Investigates the nexus between implicit collective memory and the emergence of implicit activism within Nigeria's EndSARS Movement.
Paper long abstract:
On October 3 2020, a 22 years young man, Joshua Ambrose, was shot by a team of the Nigerian Police Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Delta State, Nigeria, on the allegation that he was an Internet fraudster (Dambo et al., 2021). The shooting was captured in a video. The viral video generated outrage that condemned the victim's ordeal and reflected the long-standing frustration about police brutality in Nigeria (Agbo, 2021). In a few days, the online agitation had transformed into vast decentralised street protests, mainly organised through social media, in major cities in the country. Researchers (Nwakanma, 2022; Wada, 2021; Uwalaka, 2022; Obia, 2023)have explored the EndSARS movement from diverse angles. Despite the burgeoning literature on EndSARS, the literature lacks studies from a memory studies perspective (Zamponi, 2020; Smith, 2020). This work expands upon the prevailing focus on memory studies primarily centred around commemorations to focus on implicit memory as a driving force for social movements in the context of the EndSARS in Nigeria. This study's specific research question is: How does implicit memory fuel implicit activism in the EndSARS movement? To answer this question, I employed the digital ethnographic approach on Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram and a combination of face-to-face interviews across three States in Nigeria. The results indicate four themes which explain how implicit collective memory fuels implicit activism. I conclude that understanding the interplay between implicit activism and implicit collective memory is vital for comprehending the dynamics of modern social movements and their potential for lasting impact.
Kim Schumann (University of Cologne)
Paper short abstract:
This presentation critically examines the concept of delinquency as a mode of political engagement through the perspectives of ex-members of armed separatist groups.
Paper long abstract:
The Anglophone Crisis is a conflict between the Cameroonian state and separatist groups from the Anglophone minority, affecting the North-West and South-West regions. It developed out of decade-long tensions between the majority-francophone state and an oppositional movement criticising it for the alleged marginalisation of Anglophone Cameroonians. Following state violence against protestors in 2016, separatist voices gained popularity, and the movement developed an armed flank. Hailed by some as liberation fighters, the groups have been criticised for their treatment of civilians.
Regarding earlier waves of radical youth groups in Cameroon, and Africa more broadly, which were likewise accused of hijacking political causes for personal opportunity, Bayart has argued that the disenfranchised "cadets" appropriating the violence and perceived self-enrichment of the elites through delinquency is in itself a form of disruptive political engagement.
Taking delinquency seriously as an activist form, I will locate it within the contemporary context of Cameroon’s narrow civic space for non-violent activism. At the same time, I am arguing that, though radicalism and delinquency are intertwined, the relationship is more complex than causal. Through ethnographic interviews with ex-members of armed separatist groups, I observe that, in appropriating elite powers, fighters are simultaneously buying into the elite's patrimonial hegemonies they mobilised to oppose. To illustrate this pattern, I will discuss the aspects of (often questionable) consent in recruitment, members’ perspectives on the relationship between separatist ideology and strategies, and their struggles with infantilisation and dependency before, during, and after their time in the armed groups.
Sara Morais (UnB) Gianira Ferrara (INET-md - Universidade Nova de Lisboa)
Paper short abstract:
The aim of our paper is to discuss different aspects of the political-musical activism of the performative practice of timbila, present in southern Mozambique, associated with Chopi ethnolinguistic groups, through data constructed in field research carried out between 2017 and 2019.
Paper long abstract:
The mbila (sing. of timbila) is a xylophone that comes in different sizes and tunings and is made entirely from natural materials from the local ecosystem. N'godo is the term given to the main performative genre played by an ensemble of xylophones which includes dancing and singing. Our analyses are the result of fieldwork in the fields of anthropology and ethnomusicology, carried out between 2017 and 2019 in the rural communities of Zavala (Mozambique), considered the territory par excellence where this cultural manifestation is practiced. For the purposes of this paper, we will take as a case study the annual timbila festival called M'saho. Although the use of this term by the Chopi is older than we realize, the word began to be widely used in Mozambique from 1994 onwards, echoing the democratic values adopted by the newly formed nation in 1990. Based on our field data, our aim in this paper is to reflect on two ideas of resistance conveyed by the M'saho: one is inspired by the conceptual distinction of the pair revolution versus rebellion, in order to qualify the activism performed by the lyrics of the songs, seen as a focus of resistance to the colonial regime; and a second is aimed at scrutinizing the subtle strategies of opposition to the political dirigisme despite its strongly normative character, which have been experienced contemporaneously as a form of resistance by the timbileiros in performative places.
Alma Ionescu (University College London (UCL))
Paper short abstract:
Based on an engaged ethnography of mental health activism in Uganda, this paper explores the limits of 'traditional' activism and suggests alternative ways of viewing activism. Particularly, we consider how an ethic of care can be understood as resistance towards hostile dominant power structures.
Paper long abstract:
Activism has long carried negative connotations, due to its associations in the public imaginary as being 'loud' and 'unruly'. In an increasingly divided world, such stereotypes have been used as discursive tools to vilify efforts of resistance. Based on an engaged ethnography of mental health activism in Uganda, this paper explores alternative understandings of what activism means and looks like.
In the Ugandan context where mental health is highly stigmatised (and even criminalised), in part as a consequence of the legacies of colonial psychiatry, individuals are often subjected to experiences of marginalisation and processes that seek to make them 'invisible'. In response, much of mental health activism efforts strive to 'undo invisibility', in one way or another. However, given the tense political landscape that associates activism with the contested national opposition party, 'traditional' forms of activism and resistance may not only be hard to operationalise but also unproductive. In the spirit of 'undoing', we challenge commonly held ideas of activism, and instead look at activism as acts of compassionate care amongst activists that are rooted in contextualised understandings of need that draw on an ethic of care. It pertains to the ways people create spaces to make others feel seen in ways that are not afforded to them within wider societal structures, effectively enacting everyday resistance to unequal power structures. This then shifts our focus to consider how the value of activism may lie more in the 'process', in all its messiness, rather than the end goal.