"Crossing African Borders: Migration and Mobility"

Fifth Annual Conference of the African Borderlands Research Network ABORNE

"Crossing African Borders: Migration and Mobility", ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon

(21-23 September 2011)

Focusing on the role of African borders in migratory movements, the Conference will address several topics and discuss the importance and role of borders to the circulation and identity building, the implications of border management and the strategies of populations for migration and border crossing. Panels will analyze current changes and their historical roots; discuss the mutual implications of cross-border circulation, migration and identities; present empirical evidence of transformations taking place; contribute to the theoretical debate and methodological approach of borderland studies in Africa.

Keynote:
"Traders and Borders in the Sierra Leone-Guinea Region, 19th and 20th Centuries: Comparative and Theoretical Implications"
Allen M. Howard | Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Van Dyck Hall, Rutgers University
 Panels:

• Panel 1 - Methodologies for studying cross-border movements


• Panel 2 - Rethinking hierarchies of borders and border crossings?


• Panel 3 -The building of African territorial borders: the impact of pre-colonial and colonial migration on contemporary Africa


• Panel 4 - Forced migration and the role of borders


• Panel 5 - Border crossings and economic circulation: trade, smuggling, labour


• Panel 6 - Border regimes and migrant practices: citizenship, belonging and the making of migrant subjectivities


• Panel 7 - Partitioned Africans
   

Documentary film screenings:
 -"Kalahari Struggle: Southern Africa’s San under Pressure" (53 min.) by Manuela Zips-Mairitsch and Werner Zips
 - " 'We have come full circle': The forced migration of Angolan !Xun and Namibian Khwe to Platfontein, South Africa" by Manuela Zips-Mairitsch and Werner Zips
 - "Border Farm" (32 min), by Thenijwe Niki Nkosi
- "Esta Fronteira Não Existe" (41min), Perfectview