The Second International Conference of The Dakar Institute of African Studies will engage in exploration of the various ways in which the mobility of bodies, ideas, and material and immaterial cultures – from the caravans of the Sahara, the slave ships of the early modern era, the contemporary canoes of the “belly of the Atlantic,” to the knowledge highways via books, CDs, and various Internet applications and platforms – have not only led to particular conceptions of Africa, but also to the formation of the so-called modern and global world.
We invite participants, using this frame, to reimagine our ways of thinking Africa, African Studies, and African cultures and their relations to the world, especially now that the postcolonial and postmodern paradigms in Africana Studies seem to privilege the unfolding nature of time and therefore claim the fleeting nature of identity in general, and African-ness in particular. These questions are equally important in light of the rise of far right ideologies and politics in Europe, the Americas, and even within the African continent and their ensuing essentialist understandings of nation and nationality.
Particular attention will be devoted to the driving factors and mechanisms of migration and mobility, and their effects on the environment and the ecologies of space, place, and urban soundscapes. More specifically, we will explore the economic, political, and socio-cultural manifestations and effects of migration and mobility of Africans in Africa and beyond.