Preliminary Programme

Tue 13 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Wed 14 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Thu 15 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

Fri 16 April
    8.30
    10.45
    14.15
    16.30

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Tuesday 13 April 2010 14.15
S-3 AFR03 Mapping Africa
M101, Marissal
Network: Africa Chair: Jan-Bart Gewald
Organizers: - Discussants: -
Arthur Hanna Jr. : Rastafari, Repatriation, Reparations, African National Identity and the Concept of Globalization: A Critical Re-evaluation of the PanAfrican Black Star Agenda in the 21st Century
This paper explores Rastafarian conceptualization of citizenship, national identity, nationhood, and concomitant diasporan aspirations for repatriation to “Mother Africa”and demands for reparations for centuries of injustices against the African people at home and abroad, in the context of the 21st century globalization. This entails a critical re-evaluation of the genius ... (Show more)
This paper explores Rastafarian conceptualization of citizenship, national identity, nationhood, and concomitant diasporan aspirations for repatriation to “Mother Africa”and demands for reparations for centuries of injustices against the African people at home and abroad, in the context of the 21st century globalization. This entails a critical re-evaluation of the genius of Marcus Mosiah Garvey’s PanAfrican Black star agenda for repatriation and the creation of a strong, powerful and united African nation which would stand in the defence of the African people “At Home and Abroad”. In line with the theme of this conference, this engages a review of the PanAfrican ideal of “Africa” in the emerging Western inspired space of Globalization.

Our inquiry will engage a multi-disciplinary analytical paradigm and traverse a global socio-legal, economic and political environ which is rapidly changing (Hall 1978;1988;1989; 1998:488;2000) and producing hybrid manifestations of and dialectic interactions between social phenomena such as racism, ethnicism, class and gender discrimination (ibid.). In consequence, we utilize a socio-legal historical and multi-disciplinary paradigm of analysis to examine these complex social phenomena, which are amoeba like in their structures, responding to time and space in dynamic and ever changing ways, creating new and plural manifestations (ibid.).

The western project of modernity manifest in 21st century globalization is distinguished by economic, political and ideological practices in the establishment of social formations, “ascribing the positioning of different social groups in relation to one another and securing the hegemony of a dominant group over subordinate ones, in such a way as to dominate the whole social formation in a form favorable to the long term development of the economic productive base” (ibid.).

The PanAfrican Garvey ideal which has been essential in shaping Rastafarian doctrine and analytical logic, is crucially important and essential in the context of the spatial dimensions of human action, particularly the dialectical dynamic of diasporan engagement with 21st century globalization, regionalization, transnationalization, re-nationalization and the impetus for migration, and provides “yeast for the dough” for a critical analysis of concepts of self identity, repatriation and reparations.

As Nettleford points out in the context of West Indian university education, in the African diaspora the culturally diverse Caribbean is more than well placed and equipped to contribute to the global discourse on human development in preparation for the challenges confronting the 21st century (Nettleford 2007:7). This is in juxtaposition to self doubt, lack of confidence which has generally characterized the post-colonial diasporan experience, with a tendency to follow what the North Atlantic has done, is doing or is likely to do (ibid.). Nettleford asserts that the generation of ideas, concepts, conceptual frameworks and hypotheses rooted in keen in-depth observation, analysis and reflection on one’s own history and existential reality, local and global, is an imperative, not just for gaining self-knowledge but for economic development, which depends on much of that very knowledge of self in terms of the grasp of one’s creative potential and capacity for action (ibid.). (Show less)

Andrew Macdonald : Mind Maps: Migrant Associations and the Social Meaning of Borders in Southern Africa c.1900- c.1950
It is becoming commonplace that by the early 20th century previously disparate regions of the global south were increasingly networked through overlapping, lateral connections in economic, cultural, intellectual and political spheres.Yet beneath these exchanges also lay an unmistakeable crisis as templates of authority - imperial, national and ethnic notions of ... (Show more)
It is becoming commonplace that by the early 20th century previously disparate regions of the global south were increasingly networked through overlapping, lateral connections in economic, cultural, intellectual and political spheres.Yet beneath these exchanges also lay an unmistakeable crisis as templates of authority - imperial, national and ethnic notions of citizenship, racialised class hierarchies and religious orthodoxies - collided with a globalised crowd of migrating men and women. This paper investigates aspects of that confrontation and the role of migrant associations in tying migrants to particular repertoires of identity.

I focus on southern and eastern African in the first half of the 20th century. Here, the imperative to build a white settler polity was especially acute. Central to this project was the establishment of a sophisticated and self-consciously modern regime of migration control through border-controls and passport type documentation, a process that was itself part of a global constructions of whiteness that invoked liberal notions of self-improvement. Over the next half-century the sea and rail ports of the region became loci of racial, sexual and criminal anxieties in officials' offices. These were met with cumulative legislative and administrative labours to define legitimate/illigetimate mobility and to install – in very material ways – claims to territorial sovereignty. For most, mobility and exchange became increasingly difficult and required collective organisation. I look at a range of religious, ethnic and labour associations of diverse orgins: Asian, Arabian, Mediterranean and southern African associations feature prominently. Each are considered in the paper, which is based on extended engagement with immigration department meetings, associational papers and their circulated print media.

The response of the associations to border-controls varied in at least four ways. Firstly and most obviously, associations were collective protectors' of individual migrant interests. They facilitated protest through the provision of lawyers, deputations and the circulation of printed material to mobilize their constituency against exclusions and often arbitrary actions of the immigration officers. Yet associations protested less against the discriminatory migration regime than they championed their own exemption from it, justifying their right to inclusion with the same civilizational discourses by which colonial policy-makers had initially mobilised support for border controls. These civilizational terms pivoted on concepts of language, history, religion, loyalty and respectability and rested on an implied and often explicit politics of difference. A third response of migrant associations was to enter into a strange alliance with the bureaucracy, offering to perform the work of selection, sifting and repatriation given the department's logistical inadequacies. Conflicts within communities also meant that factions within immigrant communities conspired with the Department of Immigration to have compatriots deported or restricted. Finally, less formal associations of men and women facilitated networks of clandestine migration. While at face-value these informal associations subverted the immigration bureaucracy, I argue that the value of fraudulent documents, the high fees charged by people smugglers and the risks of illegal migration actually deepened the currency of border-controls for ordinary men and women. (Show less)

Paulo Polanah : Westernity in Africa: Cui Bono?
The massive Western presence throughout the African continent, in its multiple expressions, is assumed as a natural, necessary, legitimate, and even inevitable state of affairs. Whether 'developmentalist," aid-purveyor, proselytist, academic, tourist driven, or pursuer of natural resources, the vast Western investment in many regions of the continent remains exceptionally problematic ... (Show more)
The massive Western presence throughout the African continent, in its multiple expressions, is assumed as a natural, necessary, legitimate, and even inevitable state of affairs. Whether 'developmentalist," aid-purveyor, proselytist, academic, tourist driven, or pursuer of natural resources, the vast Western investment in many regions of the continent remains exceptionally problematic and, arguably, tragically disabling.

Concerned with the vacuities and failures of decolonization, my paper offers some reflections on the continuing debilitating effects of Westernity upon African societies, drawing attention to ponderous questions of infantilization and hyper-paternalism involved in West/African relations, while considering the meaning and merits of a historical withdrawal of Westernity from the continent. Within this framework, I reflect specifically on the conceptual violence inherent in the (re)production of Western metaphysics -- history, philosophy, science, arts - in African cultural spaces. (Show less)

Ana Roque : Disputing Borders: the case of Mozambique-Tongaland Border (19th-20th century)
As probably many other African countries, Mozambique faces today the problem of the rebuilding and the readjustment of the official borders. Due to natural causes or to political issues, in some areas the former delimitation of the physical border has disappeared. Old beacons are missing and negotiations must be done ... (Show more)
As probably many other African countries, Mozambique faces today the problem of the rebuilding and the readjustment of the official borders. Due to natural causes or to political issues, in some areas the former delimitation of the physical border has disappeared. Old beacons are missing and negotiations must be done in order to rebuild the border line accordingly to the former treaties and agreements of the early 20th century between the governments of Mozambique and of the adjoining countries of Swaziland and South Africa.
Whatever might be the conditions, the “remaking” of the history of a country is definitely not easy and in this specific case, when the borders were defined by a colonial power strange to the local interests, this task become even more difficult to attempt as most of the documents supporting the decisions responsible for the actual country shape are kept outside the country, in the national Archives of the former colonial powers.
In Portugal, most of these documents are in the Tropical Research Institute, more specifically in the Portuguese Overseas Archive (AHU) and, unfortunately, not all of them are available for research and study .
One of the most relevant nucleus of documents concerning this subject is the so-called Archives of the Frontiers, concerning the specific work of the Portuguese Commission of Cartography on this subject all over the territories under the Portuguese sovereignty during the last century.
Making use of the different types of documents of these Archives – maps, reports, photos… - we will try to emphasize either their importance for the “rebuilding” of the History of South Mozambique or their specific contribution for enlightening of some present day situations. (Show less)



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