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- Convenors:
-
Mayke Kaag
(African Studies Centre Leiden)
Stefan Schmid (Goethe University Frankfurt)
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- Format:
- Panels
- Location:
- NB003
- Start time:
- 29 June, 2017 at
Time zone: Europe/Zurich
- Session slots:
- 1
Short Abstract:
This panel, organized by the AEGIS CRG 'Africa in the World' aims to bring together a collection of papers covering diverse aspects of how the African city and its inhabitants are part of, and co-shape, the Global Village.
Long Abstract:
Africa's relations to the rest of the World can i.a. be analysed by looking at macro-economic data or political agreements, but also by simply walking the African city. The latter has the advantage of encountering the ways in which external influences are integrated in the lives of Africans, and how they meet and work with these on a daily basis. We aim to bring together a diverse collection of papers covering diverse aspects of how the African city and its inhabitants are part of, and co-shape, the Global Village. Contributions could for instance focus on spatial aspects of Chinese presence in African towns, historical layers of architectural forms, infrastructural investments by diaspora groups, social relations between immigrants and African locals, or changing consumer habits. We particularly invite authors who on the basis of empirical case studies are also able to contribute to larger questions concerning Africa's position in the world, including the role of history, African agency, and questions related to inclusion and exclusion from the local to the global level. This panel is organized by the AEGIS CRG 'Africa in the World'.
Accepted papers:
Session 1Paper short abstract:
Based on fieldwork in Nairobi, the paper will explore how members of multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs) dream of becoming global entrepreneurs, try to make a living, but also how they struggle to morally justify their business practices.
Paper long abstract:
While the flows of goods and people between African and Asian cities have been increasing in the last decades, many people in Africa feel excluded from the possibilities that these connections bring about. In Nairobi, however, some new Chinese, Malaysian and Philippine companies offer everyone the chance to partake in new forms of wealth creation, and hundreds of thousands of Kenyans have joined them. While new members enthusiastically believe these promises, other Kenyans see such multi-level marketing schemes (MLMs) as borderline fraudulent.
After retelling the history of American and Asian MLMs in Kenya, the paper focuses on two successful members of a MLM. Due to their lack of education and other opportunities, MLMs offered a viable way to secure a middle-class lifestyle. To achieve this, both embrace the morals of late-capitalism that the MLM teaches; they have become - and fashion themselves as - hard-working entrepreneurs. However, both actors are also very much aware that they make their money by selling empty promises to new members. Their different ways to morally justify this come to the fore in their different understandings of business and religion, as both are also pentecostalist preachers. Additionally, their self-perception as entrepreneurs is threatened by the way they are treated by the Chinese owners of the company. While MLMs are very particular forms of the economic connections between African and Asian cities, they shed a light on the imaginary quality, the ongoing exclusion and the shifting moral landscape that these connections bring about.
Paper short abstract:
The paper explores the ways of everyday mobility and how driving and co-driving can become a lesson in deducing the fabric of social and cultural interactions in a changing African cityscape.
Paper long abstract:
"Johannesburg is hectic, bru. Even the hobos in the streets are hectic". This is what Samir answered, when I asked why he moved to the platteland. Samir, dressed in a qamis and wearing a beard like all devoted Muslims, was readily identifiable as Jo'burger. The whole conversation took place in his supermarket in a rural town. He was one of John's customers, a reserved Korean, who worked as freelancing trade agent, distributing artificial hair supplied by a Chinese importer based
Samir's characterization of Johannesburg en passant summarized a vivid scholarly debate, which goes on among urbanists, human-geographers, people from the arts, urban planners, and anthropologist for quite same time. Attempts to "read" Johannesburg seem almost to fail due to its "edginess" (Loren Kruger), "elusiveness" and "fluidity" (Achille Mbembe and Sarah Nuttal). Indeed, Johannesburg is hectic when John, like many others drive from their homes in the suburban sprawl to inner-city warehouses, to the visible imprints of the Chinese presence, China Malls and the "new" Chinatown in Cyrildene. Based on fieldwork with migrant traders in the sphere of Chinese Johannesburg, the paper explores the ways of everyday mobility. In order to understand "How to read Africa's changing global connections in the African cityscape", driving and co-driving became lessons in deducing the fabric of social and cultural interactions.
Paper short abstract:
Paper long abstract:
En 2010, nous avons conduit une enquête qui a interrogé, dans la ville de Dakar, 180 jeunes, autour de la façon dont ils se définissent et « vivent » en tant que musulmans. Dans la suite, nous avons mené plusieurs autres enquêtes portant sur le langage socioreligieux des jeunes urbains et des sociabilités religieuses qu'ils partagent, avec un point culminant par un sondage qui a mobilisé 1200 jeunes, en 2016. Un grand nombre de matériaux a ainsi été mis en place durant ces 7 années d'observation des manières dont on se définit comme urbain, mondialisé, jeune et musulman, au Sénégal. Ces observations et collectes se sont déroulées dans le contexte d'un agenda sécuritaire international suspicieux à l'égard de l'islam.
Cette présentation nous donne l'occasion de partager quelques premiers résultats qui insisteront sur la manière dont les jeunes urbains reconduisent et éconduisent tout à la fois, aussi bien les catégories de la mise sous surveillance internationale de l'islam, que les velléités d'encadrements sociaux dont ils sont l'objet au nom de celui-ci.
En effet, si ces jeunes sont certes sensibles à ces velléités d'encadrement moral qu'ils ne manquent pas de défendre comme des marques de leurs attaches socioreligieux, ils ne cessent cependant de s'inscrire dans des performances individuelles, collectives, culturelles diverses et surtout inscrites entre permanence et changement, local et global.