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Paper short abstract:

Building on the racist crisis in Tunesia in 2023, I explore the entanglement of African nationalism, race, and gender in the backdrop of EU border externalization. Drawing on the perspectives of Black migrant activists, I critically reassess racialized patriarchal constructs of African postcolonies.

Paper long abstract:

The violence of Western border and migration regimes is intensifying. Borders racialize and sexualize. They delineate the spheres of rights and non-rights, of being and non-being, and shape our participation in economic life and ability to survive.

Simultaneously, the process of externalizing Western borders into the territories of the South blurs the geopolitical line between North and South, especially evident in the interplay between the European Union and African governments. Postcolonial, race-critical, and intersectional border studies foreground the entanglement of the EU's neoliberal, racialized, and gendered border politics and the social relations and hierarchies in Africa and emphasize the need to decolonize hegemonic migration and border theories to grasp these processes.

The racist violence in Tunisia in early 2023, triggered by President Saied's nationalist discourse on the "great replacement" by black migrants and the subsequent fatal expulsions at the Tunisian-Libyan border, starkly exemplifies the effects of neocolonial bordering on African territories. In this context, Black and Sub-Saharan migrants face intersectional forms of oppression and exploitation along the lines of race, class, and gender.

Building on these events, my contribution explores the entanglement of postcolonial nationalism, race, and gender regimes in the backdrop of EU border externalization. Drawing on the perspectives of Black African migrant activists in Germany, Niger, and Senegal, I critically reassess racialized and patriarchal constructs of African postcolonies and revisit Pan-African visions of a decolonized future.