International Conference
Race, Identity and Globalization in the SADC region
University of Gaborone, Botswana,
22-23-24 February 2019
Together with GRER-ICT (Université Paris-Diderot)
and CREA (Université Paris Nanterre)
Southern Africa has been undergoing radical changes in social, economic and political terms since decolonization. International interest has focused on the RSA, with its long apartheid period (1948-1990), which established race as the main identity marker in an attempt to maintain white supremacy. However the question of race and identity has also been addressed in the
SADC area, albeit in very different ways since all those countries were preoccupied with independence struggles and nation-building strategies that had to account for the challenges of multilingualism, multiculturalism and multiple ethnic identities.
In an increasingly globalized world, an interconnected space with intensifying human interactions, and a growing flow of goods, capital and digital data, with massive migrations inside Africa or between continents, race and identities have been redefined and viewed in new perspectives. The variety of contexts within the SADC area provides fertile ground to interrogate such issues in the fields of education, language policy, as well as media development, culture or public policies among others.
Papers based more specifically on ethnic and racial questions including the treatment of indigenous peoples of the region, like the San, are welcome while globalization may be considered in the light of the clash with long-established traditional ways of life and cultures and the broader issue of modernity in African societies.
The empowerment of women as seen through the prism of intersectionality could also provide other interesting pathways into a better understanding of these countries. More historical proposals about the management of cultural diversity in the transition from ‘settler regimes’ to post-colonial states (including the questioning of any possible ‘British heritage’) will also be considered, as will proposals linking these countries to South Africa, and questioning their strategies to exist in the shadow of their imposing neighbour.
Botswana being the host country, there will be a special focus on ethnicity, identity and culture and the survival of Botswana amidst hostile settler regimes of Southern Africa.
Sociological, historical, political or linguistic contributions will be welcome.
Researchers are invited to send a 300-word abstract and a short bio-bibliographical notice to Marie-Claude BARBIER (mc.barbier.mosimann@orange.fr) and Tunda KITENGE-NGOY (KITENGEN@mopipi.ub.bw) before September 10th. 2018.