CRG Seminar: From West Africa to Latin America: journeys of Africans on-the-move since the beginning of the 21st century
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Since the early 21st century, Africans have been moving across the Atlantic — traveling by boat or plane — and roaming around Latin America. This movements are often framed by states, international organizations, and NGOs as "mixed flows" (a category that includes Asians and Latin Americans with similar trajectories), their ultimate destination being the United States or Canada. However, ethnographic and journalistic research reveal a more complex reality, highlighting diverse trajectories that deviate from this path. Some Africans settle in Latin American countries, others temporarily stay before continuing north, and yet other individuals, midway through their journey, contemplate staying in the places they pass through. In response to these movements, states and other institutions intervene in various ways to prevent trafficking, offer assistance to women and children, address basic needs, and encourage voluntary return. For many Africans on-the-move, this means delaying their journeys.
Drawing on multi-sited ethnographic research, this presentation reflects on the implications of these divergent views. It examines how, in times of hightened fears of invasion, moving crowds emerge and how states and other institutions contribute to their production.
This seminar is organised by the CRG Africa in the world - Rethinking Africa’s global connections.
Speaker
Jonathan Echeverri Zuluaga is Professor at the Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia. He received a PhD in Anthropology of the University of California, Davis. His main topic of interest is human movement. His dissertation entitled “Errant Journals: Stories of Movement of Africans in Dakar, Senegal” develops the concept of errance as an alternative to understand the travel stories of Africans who look for better horizons beyond the African continent. His most recent project, located in the Northwest tip of Colombia, is entitled “Following the thread of errance: itineraries of South-South travelers through Uraba.” The main ethnographic site for this project is Necoclí, a port in the Gulf of Urabá where the journeys of people from Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and Latin America periodically get suspended. Other research interests are, on the one hand, economic anthropology and, on the other, audiovisual and its potential for ethnographic writing. At the ASCL, he plans to write two chapters of a book that gathers research conducted in Senegal, the Colombia-Panamá border and other locations in South America. He will be working with the CRG Africa in the World - Rethinking Africa's global connections.
Date, time and location
12 March 2025
15:00 - 16:30
Herta Mohrgebouw / Faculty of Humanities, Witte Singel 27a, 2311 BG Leiden
0.30
Registration
Posted on 27 February 2025, last modified on 28 February 2025