How subjects move or do not move tells us much about

what counts as human, as culture and as knowledge?

Caren Kaplan, “Transporting the Subject”

The Guest Editors of African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal announce the Call for Papers on (Re)mapping Contemporary Migration and Mobilities: Trends and Challenges in Africa.

It is an undisputed historical fact that the past century has witnessed the large-scale displacement and dispersal of populations across the world as a result of major political upheavals, among them the two European wars, decolonization and the Cold War. Following these historical events, globalization, spurred by free trade and increased capital flows, and new technologies of communication, information, and travel, have accelerated the movement of people, commodities, ideas, and cultures across the world. The transnational mobility of people is the result of forced or voluntary migration, of self-exile or expulsion. Refugees, people in transit, are the products of war, ethnic conflict and natural calamity.

Migration remains a fundamental factor in the history of the Africa where various forms of mobility,  both voluntary and forced have been unfolding with regular frequency given diverse social, ethnic, political and economic contexts in the continent. Most migration flow configurations are determined by a shared culture, language and national settings that also blur the distinctions between internal and international migration and circulation, and between migration in regular and irregular situations within a particular region (s).

Public debate and policy attention on contemporary migration process have focused in recent years on so-called migration crises in the Mediterranean region and in Europe, much less sustained attention has been given to the processes and dynamics of migration and displacement within contemporary Africa. Although thousands of African migrants risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe, a majority of Africa migrants stay at home or migrate to other regions within the continent. Preliminary research indicates that more people move from the Horn of Africa to southern Africa than those crossing the Sahara to north Africa to reach the European. Within West Africa, more people are on the move -- a region that historically had porous borders. More and more people from East Africa now find their way to the Gulf states and beyond fleeing conflict or in search of better economic opportunities. These regional variations and the underlying dynamics of African migration and mobility within the continent have not been sufficiently studies.  Whether forced or voluntary, migration in Africa uproots people from their homes, communities as well as livelihoods and places them in new, unknown locations and national cultures — for the first time profiled by national and international institutions, state agencies and circulating discourses.

The Call for Papers seek to shed light on the diverse dimensions and experiences of African migration and forced displacement within contemporary Africa in order to foster a wide-ranging debates and dialogues on the intersection between migration, mobility and contemporary economic and social conditions as well as the ways in which local   actors such as states,  humanitarian agencies (NGOs) play a critical role in the migration process within the continent.

The Guest Editors invite scholars, practitioners and policymakers to submit articles, theoretically informed and empirically grounded submissions that seek to redress the following issue(s)

• Migration and mobility policies of African states in the age of neoliberal globalization
• Livelihood strategies of migrants, refugees and internally displaced people in Africa
• African migrants in time of environmental and health crisis in Africa
• Gender and migration in Africa
• Border control, policing and African migrants
• Identity politics, xenophobia and African migrants and asylum seekers in Africa
• The criminalization of migrants and asylum seekers in Africa.
• Inclusion and exclusion of African migrants and refugees into host communities in Africa
• Local governance of migration in Africa 

Submission guidelines

Perspective contributors are invited to submit proposals for articles in the form of a 400-500 word abstract by October 30, 2020.

Authors will be notified regarding acceptance of abstracts by November 30, 2020. Authors of accepted abstracts will be expected to submit articles (no more than 8,000 words)  by a strict deadline of May 30, 2021. Abstracts submitted should be titled and accompanied with the following on a separate page: the full name of the author, university affiliation, title of the abstract, mailing address and telephone number. All submissions and queries regarding the special issue should be directed to the Guest Editors: Dr. Fassil Demissie (fdemissi@depaul.edu) and Dr. Sadio Soukouna (sadio.soukouna@univ-paris1.fr)

The journal

African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal (Routledge) is devoted to a critical interrogation of the trans/national movements, locations and intersections of subjectivity within the African Diaspora in the context of globalization as well as in different discourses, and political and social contexts. The journal maps and investigates the theoretical and political shifts imposed by nation-states to provide a counter narrative of subject positions of people of the African Diaspora, grounded in cultural and political negotiations.

Guest Editors

• Dr. Fassil Demissie Editor, African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal (Routledge) Chicago, IL. 60645 fdemissi@depaul.edu
• Dr. Sadio Soukouna Chercheuse Post-doctorante à l’IRD UMR Développement et Sociétés 45 bis Avenue de la Belle Gabrielle 94130 University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne sadio.soukouna@univ-paris1.fr