Approved panels

This panel investigates the patterns, causes and consequences of political representation in Africa considering both elite and citizen-level perspectives. It aims to discuss and complicate the dominant view that political representation in Africa is mainly driven by ethnic and clientelistic appeals, while substantive forms of representation are rather absent. It also seeks to survey the ways in which different forms of representation (formal and informal) coexist and overlap within African political systems; and identify the channels and factors that hinder or promote the quality of representation. The panel tackles the following (and related) questions: Which groups and interests are more (under)represented in Africa? (Why) Do legislators pay more attention to some constituents than others? To what extent do policy issues shape representation in Africa? What do citizens expect from their representatives, and how do they voice their interests? Does the quality of representation at the elite-level shape citizens political behaviour? The panel welcomes studies that utilize different methodological approaches (case studies or comparative designs, different types of qualitative and quantitative data and methods) and innovative theoretical/analytical frameworks to advance discussions on political representation in Africa.

Environmentalism and ecocriticism stand out among the most current developments in contemporary literary studies, especially in the field of comparative literature, postcolonial studies and the debate on world literature. However, these are critical and analytical perspectives that are still underdeveloped in the field of African literary studies, especially with regard to the literatures of Portuguese-speaking African countries. Environmentalism, to be understood as the relationship between nature, culture and society and which, in theory, guides the formation of the modern and contemporary African novel, is rarely (re)known as a theme – a content or an aesthetic – in the field of African literary studies, reproducing the logic of inequality which, according to R. Guha, among others, guides the discourses on ecology and environmentalism in the field of social and political sciences.Guha, among others, guides the discourses on ecology and environmentalism in the field of social and political sciences, where the hegemony of Western and especially North American perspectives silences what is defined as “the environmentalism of the poor” (Martinez-Alier, 2003). Based on these premises, the panel aims to bring together works that are situated within the environmental humanities, focusing on critical reflections on environmentalism in the field of African studies on the one hand and, on the other, analyses and (re)readings of literary works that problematize environmentalist themes in various geographical and linguistic contexts on the African continent. The main objective of the panel is to map, in an exploratory and cartographic sense, the environmental debates in Africa and the “literary environmentalism” that guides African literatures and especially the literatures of Portuguese-speaking African countries.

Some Sahelian states have experienced a series of military coups, plunging the entire region into an unprecedented security and institutional crisis. The intervention of the army in the political game in Burkina Faso, Guinea-Conakry, Mali and Niger has sparked much debate in academic circles, raising questions not only about the trajectory of these states, but also about democratic transitions in Africa. While crises in the Sahel are linked to the terrorist threat, several reasons, such as political and institutional instability, are cited to explain the recurrence of military coups. This panel analyzes the dynamics and stakes of the army’s intervention in the political game in the Sahel.

The African continent poses itself as a laboratory for the inclusivity of sexual minorities. The colonial legacy of the sodomy laws, which were domesticated and Africanised, still shaped the law and the politics in several African societies. These are sensitive topics, with some legislative movements threatening to undermine inclusion and diversity in society by imposing normative notions of family, sexuality, and behaviour. Nigeria, The Gambia and recently Uganda are among those who adopted restrictive Anti-Homosexuality legislation. Many more have known a growing State-homophobia (for example, Ghana). The same pattern is found in regional human rights mechanisms that faced backlash after some timid positive steps since 2011. Against this backdrop, this panel aims to address the following questions: What is the place of queer people in African societies? How can the law be leveraged to promote inclusivity for queer people? And, how can social movements use law and politics to facilitate dialogue and safeguard diversity, respect, and dignity? This panel welcomes contributions, across all fields of knowledge, that critically examine the queer experience in African societies, the challenges posed by rampant homophobia, and the responses and strategies necessary to combat conservative movements.

Control over nature and the exploitation of natural resources is at the heart of urbanization and globalization. The relationship between a city and its rivers (and the environment) is a political construction with severe social implications. Throughout human history, rivers have been of fundamental importance and a key element in the success of civilizations. Although the place of water in the city has been a constant concern, rivers do not feature prominently. For the sake of rapid flow and to create urbanizable spaces, many rivers were straightened, channelized and covered, and riparian vegetation replaced by concrete and roads, gradually disappearing from the urban landscape. Unsustainable and less resilient urbanization has led to the degradation of rivers, which have become a permanent threat and are now one of the most threatened ecosystems on the planet. This degradation has resulted in recurring problems such as flooding, erosion and landslides, occupation of unhealthy areas, pollution, garbage, disease, etc. Rivers are often only remembered for their negative impacts. On the other hand, there is growing concern about the regeneration of rivers and the recovery of ecosystems. While in industrialized countries there are already many examples of the re(naturalization) of rivers, in Africa the cases are rare and little studied. Rapid urbanization, combined with limited resources, often prevents the effective restoration of urban rivers. Challenges such as the lack of waste management systems and pollution from human waste contribute to the degradation of water quality and habitats.

Literature, in all its tones, suggests that we have entered urban civilization. We’re all city dwellers, embedded in urban communities in crisis. The book is a fertile mediator between our dreams and our hauntings, between our imagination and reality, between what is and what will be. Frank Lanot, « La ville et la littérature » in Thierry Paquot, Michel Lussault (dir.), Dictionnaire de la géographie et de l’espace des sociétés, Paris, Editions Belin (2013), p. 336. The city has always been a favorite subject of inspiration for writers, who have sought to depict its dynamism, diversity, beauty or ugliness. The city is a place where the forces of modernity are concentrated, where cultures meet and where individual and collective identities are constructed. The city is the result of a set of representations in constant, uninterrupted interaction (Molina, 2007: 290). Issuing such a mandate implies agreement on a very broad definition of the concept of “representation”. Thus, far from the artificially simplistic divide between the ideal and the material, it is advisable to use it in a constructivist posture, to consider that representations organize our relationship to the world and indeed to urban space. Our aim in this international, interdisciplinary panel is to give an account of this wealth of discourse, whose media and versions intertwine in what can currently be termed urban thinking and writing.

North-South relations are historically marked by stark power disparities and imbalances. Development-oriented cooperation projects are criticized for being donor-centred—from agenda-setting to the choice of thematic areas, from funding structures to project design—and for following Northern institutions’ interests rather than Southern priorities. Such structural hierarchies have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, resulting in calls to rethink North-South cooperation, whether framed as ‘development’ or fundamentally critical thereof.
These conversations are notable in university-facilitated cooperation between Northern and Southern higher education institutions. Even though university development cooperation remains little explored as a modality for aid and as an object of academic research, its potential for rethinking partnerships has been highlighted by Northern and Southern actors alike, in theory, through policy agendas, and in practice. Building on the growing calls for more equal and meaningful North-South relations, and focusing on Euro-African ties, this panel will explore lessons learned, challenges, and tentative solutions for improving North-South university-facilitated international development cooperation. It will welcome lessons drawn from both traditional and innovative collaboration formats and grounded in both short-term and long-term partnerships. Both case studies and conceptual presentations will be welcome from across the social sciences and from scholars engaged in applied research. Submissions involving Iberian universities and their African counterparts will be especially welcome.

This panel aims to bring together papers with a critical view of the implementation of SDGs 4 and 5 on the ground. We intend to frame reflections on how these goals materialize in concrete educational policies and contribute to free, equitable and quality access to primary and secondary education, and the mitigation of all forms of discrimination against women and girls. Which actors are involved in the different contexts? What challenges and contradictions are there? What strategies are most effective? How do practices clash with program designs?

In various African contexts, decolonization processes have paved the way for transforming education into an instrument of emancipation. This panel, dedicated to narratives of Education Histories in the Global South, has a twofold objective: to bring together experiences of education in contexts often classified as peripheral, looking at the African context, deconstructing this notion of subalternity, thus helping to strengthen a comparative perspective, and to create a broad research network, going beyond the hegemonic vision of the Euro-Western world. The panel also seeks to debate the results of local, regional, national and transnational research, with the aim of highlighting the interconnectedness of the histories of education in the contemporary world. As such, the panel aims to broaden the analysis of education pathways, going beyond a simplified understanding of colonialism, the nation-state and the responses of local communities, institutions and individuals. The panel is structured around 4 objectives: 1) Historical reflections, seeking to analyze colonial and national discourses and policies on education, bringing examples from the field; 2) Encounters with education, with a focus on intercultural transfers in the context of formal and informal colonial education; 3) Education and Resistance, focusing on the study of education for Africans and the experiences of educational resistance; and 4) The role of education and women’s forms of expression, with special attention to narratives, language and literature, which mark the history of women’s education in African contexts. Panel open to communications in Portuguese and Spanish.

In the African colonial context, modern European law and the state were used to impose on the enslaved and the colonized a legal and political monism aimed at concealing and subordinating the plurality of legal, political, cultural, religious and economic orders that they brought to the islands. Being at the basis of slave society, this hegemonic law and state, on the one hand, contributed to the removal of contact with other forms of legal and political organization on the continent and, on the other hand, to the resistance and recreation of Afro-Black heritage in surreptitious forms of management and resolution of political-legal conflicts in the localities. This panel aims to analyze and challenge the colonial and Eurocentric continuities in African law and justice after independence in a context marked by numerous security challenges, as well as to discuss alternative legal, social and political proposals based on theoretically and/or empirically supported work. In addition to the counter-colonial approach and counter-coloniality, legal, sociological, anthropological and criminological visions are presented that rethink traditional approaches and methodologies in order to broaden the horizon of legal and political constellations, such as in the fields of community justice, collaborative justice, restorative justice and other unrecognized latitudes of African legal and political plurality.

Using documentary analysis and observation, this study intends to bring in evidence the contribution of African feminists voices in constructing African feminisms knowledge and experiences in contrast with global western feminism. Feminism is a concept that instills suspicion in most African cultures, as it is perceived to evoke hatred towards men and, consequently, to be against motherhood and other family-related values. However, experience shows that feminists and feminist ideals existed in African contexts even before the emergence of Western feminism. Additionally, politically active women have left their mark on the entire history of Africa, from the precolonial period to anticolonial struggles, independence movements, and the expansion of Pan-Africanism. On the one hand, the study argues that feminist ideology in the African context is sometimes subject to contentious and poor misunderstandings. On the other hand, the study establishes that feminisms exist in Africa and they reflect the diversity of African contexts. The study shows that in postcolonial and decolonial Africa eras, feminisms in Africa face challenges that are rooted in local and global contexts. For this reason, African feminisms are not constructed in a vacuum; instead, they are embedded in other existing feminisms across the globe, including Western feminism, Black and South feminisms, Pan-African feminisms, and popular feminisms. In conclusion, the study emphasizes that feminisms in Africa can be compared with Western feminism but should not be evaluated solely through its lens.
Key concepts: African Feminisms, Black Feminism, identity, Popular Feminism, Western Feminism

In this panel we discuss African sound archives produced as part of various scientific and cultural expeditions/missions to rural territories in Africa during European colonial occupation and in the period following African independence. Considering that these sound archives are still largely unknown to academia and the wider public and, above all, to the African nations and communities that have been the target of these initiatives, we intend to make these archives and the knowledge that has been produced about Africa visible and understandable. Approaching these archives as social and political practices, what stories do these collections reveal, hide or omit? How can we get to know and understand these archives from Africa? Favoring interdisciplinary approaches between anthropology, ethnomusicology, history and postcolonial/decolonial studies, we call for interventions that critically discuss these sound archives from different experiences and contexts. For example: think about the dilemmas and challenges posed by research in these archives; study the provenance of these collections and archives; understand practices of colonial oppression and violence, processes of agency and African resistance; inquire into colonial legacies, continuities and discontinuities; demonstrate the importance of participatory and collaborative methodologies with ex-colonized African communities, or their descendants and representatives; interpret processes and policies of preservation and patrimonialization of African expressive cultures, and their relationship with national, ethnic and cultural identities; reflect on the possibilities of decolonization of historical sound archives and on processes of historical reparation.

The theme of death has been exhaustively worked on and discussed by countless philosophers and poets from all nations and all times; however, Portuguese-speaking African poets also awaken us to the reflection that – from the silence that words erect in the patrimony of being, as a litany that listens to instincts, when mining life, does the word remain on the inexorable journey of the end? From the internal, real or symbolic dynamics of death, the poets caulk the voids, the instincts of loss, the absence that becomes present in poetics dilucidated and recovered as the magna of human (re)existence. In the litany of death, in the musicality of instincts, in the funeral dirge, in the elegies of human memory, ecstasy decants the “secret journey/ of an imaginary bird/ in search of the instant/ where everything begins again” (Artur, apud Saúte, 2004, p. 553): death, as an attempt to answer the initial question. Poets plow the word into the time and space of sensibility, “because weapons made it precocious and unnatural, distancing it from the African conception of the world, according to which the dead enter another stage” (Secco, apud Dopcke, 1998, p. 219). In this panel, we accept proposals that discuss not only the African conception of death understood as a passage to another existential dimension, but also the real and symbolic “metaphor of death” in space/time, in the score/song, in the Mozambican text/context that states: “Death/A game, a pause, a note. Violence/As sensual as life” (Lemos, 2009, p. 214). Keywords: literature; Mozambique;

To respond to the challenge of decolonizing social science research, scholars have turned to creative applications of participatory audio-visual in various African contexts. Seeking to identify “new empathetic routes through which to broker everyday knowledge” (Pink 2011, 451), such methods can help to awaken otherwise hazy memories, illustrating and communicating this past to an outside observer while also connecting to the immediacy of human experience in an affective and often non-verbal manner. The realms of sound and image can enable both researcher and participants to evoke various senses, meanings, experiences and emotions. Such methods have become an important stimulus to prompt people’s own stories and indigenous perspectives. Followed responsibly, they can help participants to assume control over their narratives: expressing priorities through their own gaze and using their own voice. Oftentimes, the process of co-production is no less important and edifying as the final products, both for the communities (e.g., by honing skills and opening new avenues of co-creation) and for the researcher (e.g., by informing them about social power dynamics and priorities).

This panel explores the intersection between audiovisual qualitative methods, participatory research approaches, and the study of the tangible and intangible in postcolonial Africa. Presenters are welcome to share their experiences—regardless of discipline—employing established and exploratory creative methods: participatory photography and videography, graphic anthropology and mental mapping, audio walks and other movement-oriented audiovisual methods, amongst others. We encourage discussions on practical considerations, e.g. equipment, participant selection, training sessions, ethical dilemmas, and cascading effects of co-production.

This panel will address, from critical theoretical and epistemological perspectives from the field of Social Sciences and Humanities, social and political practices concerning the plural forms of being and being in Morocco, with special attention (but not only) to the events of the recent past and the present in the Rif territory. We are particularly interested in proposals that reflect innovative working perspectives that allow us to go beyond hegemonic colonial and postcolonial approaches, and proposals that propose critical revisions and revisitations of what has been researched and sustained to date. Papers may belong to the field (among others) of feminist and gender studies, studies on colonialism and decoloniality, studies on linguistic diversity, studies on human-non-human relations…

This panel proposes a discussion on the role of structural transformations in Africa, their feasibility, processes and actors. It raises the question of whether they are desirable given the configuration of global capitalism, and, if so, which directions and forms are the most promising. This panel proposes papers documenting various forms of structural economic transformation, such as industrialization (green or not), expansion of formal or informal services or transformations of the agrarian productive model, among others.

This panel invites researchers with an interest in the debate on recent studies on African enslavement in the Portuguese Empire, particularly in Africa and the South Atlantic. We welcome papers that focus on the experiences, perspectives, projects and expectations of African women and men and their descendants, and the different social networks built between them and their masters, former masters, enslaved, freed, free, black, mixed-race and white people in their various reorganization strategies in slave and post-abolition societies in the Portuguese Empire between the 18th and 20th centuries. In this sense, themes around: ethnic and trans-ethnic identities, free and compulsory labor, slave resistance, emancipation, the black family, crony relations, religious practices, cultural systematizations in colonial and post-colonial perspectives are of great value. The new methodological concepts, especially those guided by the tools of microanalysis, which focus on the daily arrangements of the “anonymous”, have contributed significantly to the renewal of studies on African trafficking and slavery. It is worth noting that, since the 1970s and 80s, issues related to the daily lives and forms of social reorganization of Africans and their descendants have become the object of research by historians of slavery and post-emancipation (COOPER, HOLT, SCOTT, 2005). However, there is still little knowledge about the experiences of people of African origin and their descendants in the Atlantic World, particularly in the Portuguese Empire.

The purpose of the panel is to discuss how a network of religious expressions was built in Brazil from the trafficking of blacks from African countries subjected to the tragic centuries of enslavement that marked Brazil’s history. The diaspora made it possible for Bantu, Haussá, Yoruba and indigenous beliefs and customs to mix, giving rise to religious strands such as Candomblé, Umbanda, Pajelança, Tambor de Mina, Ifá, Batuque, Jurema, Terecô, Xangô from the northeast and others. These mixtures result in the incorporation of various elements of African religious traditions with indigenous practices, as well as the influence of Catholicism and Islam. It is important to understand that this process of mestizaje does not imply the simple overlapping of cultures, but rather the creation of new practices, beliefs and cultural expressions which, in addition to reflecting the diversity and creativity resulting from the engendering and resistance between different peoples, implies their understanding of the cult of nature and the communion of various entities that inhabit these places, such as original ancestors, inkisses, voduns, orixás, enchanted ones, divine ancestors of a religious tradition founded on the diaspora. The ethnic identities forged in Brazil will become Candomblé nations, permeating the idea of the nation-city within the terreiros, shaping alliances between peoples, preserving and updating identity rites. Thus, in addition to differentiating ritual modes and styles, nation indicates, above all, peoples of origin who have perpetuated themselves in Brazil. In this mestizaje, however, the Brazilian – and therefore Afro-Amerindian – character of Afro-Brazilian religiosity stands out.

History, the construction of nation-states and globalization, as well as new technologies and geopolitics, have changed the (socio)linguistic landscape of African countries. Faced with the challenge of multilingualism, governments have adopted language policies. Language policy is a set of measures adopted by a state with regard to one or more languages spoken within its sovereign territory, with the aim of modifying the corpus or status of the language, generally to reinforce its use, and sometimes to limit its expansion. It can involve developing the corpus of a language by standardizing spelling and lexicon, or by encouraging the creation of terminology. It can also be summed up as changing the status of a language by declaring it official. Finally, language policy can recreate a language whose use has been lost. However, a distinction needs to be made between the languages actually spoken in a country and their official management. For African governments, resolving the language issue is crucial to the implementation of national and development policies. In which language(s) should education, administration or justice be provided? Which languages should be used in economic exchanges and international relations, or in the fields of science and technology? This panel aims to analyze the socio(linguistic) situations of African countries. It also examines language coexistence and usage. He also studies language practices, ideologies and linguistic representations.

This panel aims to bring together studies of African languages and languages of African descent situated in the current and effervescent scenario of decoloniality. In this context, we hope to foster the meeting, knowledge and debate between studies of continental and insular African languages, as well as studies of Afro-descendant languages, Creole and semi-Creole languages, spread across African and Latin American countries that have socio-historical links with countries of the Iberian Peninsula, especially Portugal, Spain and France. The aim is to make known the features and manifest profile of decoloniality in these studies: the dilemmas, debates, dialogues, proposals and answers that emerge from the questionings, discoveries, proposals and theoretical applications coming from the areas of the humanities, such as Linguistics, Literature, Education and Anthropology.

The African continent is in the geopolitical spotlight, with active competition between the great powers, but also a diversity of state and non-state actors, both local and external. The aim of this panel is to bring together papers on current or past African geopolitical issues, elucidating the actions and objectives of its geopolitical actors, against the backdrop of the relationship between geography, politics and power.

The anthropology of infrastructures and mobility models highlights how transport systems and forms of urban travel are not simple equipment, but also the result of complex social dynamics and imaginaries, which give them more meaning and value beyond its technical functionality. All within the framework of what is recognized as the (new) paradigm of mobilities, which allows us to locate specific infrastructures, institutions and planning, and the material and social relationships they entail, connecting them with different areas and scales, without leaving aside the way in which plans, projects, infrastructures and mobility equipment are often overwhelmed by unforeseen uses, needs, appropriations and alternatives. In this panel we propose to apply this perspective to the African continent in order to identify and analyze various processes that have infrastructures and mobility models at the center. We want to do this by contrasting the logistical dynamics of implementing new urban mobilities in the global South based on several cases of African cities of various sizes and profiles. We intend to apply a perspective that invites us to analyze them as multiple and different processes of neoliberalization, subjected to the complexity of institutional, political, economic, urban and public service dynamics, while paying attention to their complexity and the way they are embodied in everyday forms of travel.

Metropolises, cities and public spaces are not neutral, people experience them, feel them and appropriate them in different ways. To understand cities from the point of view of complexity, it is necessary to incorporate the perspective of gender and diversity when understanding everyday life, care (Pérez, 2014), power relations, discrimination and the forms of resistance that arise. Urban mobilities are not exempt from these dynamics. As happens in other areas, everyday mobility is a particularly relevant area when it comes to understanding how relationships and forms of domination materialize that pivot on the gender axis. Women’s daily mobilities (Jirón, 2010) take on specific forms and are often not taken into account in urban planning and governance, which affects women’s access to certain urban services and, thus, the exercise of rights such as education, health, political and civic participation, or at work. A key element in relation to mobilities is the perception of insecurity (Soto, 2012) and violence against women in public spaces and transport. Despite everything, women incorporate multiple strategies of resistance.