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Migrations Forum: From Mbas Mi to Mbëkk Mi: Covid-Induced Migration and Social Movement Advocacy in Senegal

Friday, February 25, 2022 at 11:00am

Virtual Event

The global COVID-19 pandemic weakened Senegal’s already-precarious economy, causing a resurgence of pirogue migration from coastal towns to the Canary Islands and resulting in hundreds of fatalities. Faced with what they see as an inadequate governmental response, the civil society has been leading an online and on-the-ground campaign of denunciation. This study examines how COVID-19 restrictions have exacerbated economic conditions in Senegal and occasioned a resurgence of the “Barca wala barsax” phenomenon, a form of “illegal” migration in which candidates (generally from fishing communities) use fragile embarkations to cross the Atlantic in search of a better life. It also looks at the profile migrants as well as the modus operandi of migrant traffickers.

Bamba Ndiaye is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University’s Society for the Humanities. He earned a PhD in Comparative Humanities at the University of Louisville. His research interests are the intersection of Black Atlantic social movements, critical race theory, Black Atlantic popular cultures, mobility and Pan-Africanism. He is the author of several peer-reviewed publications in leading interdisciplinary journals including “Social Movements and the Challenges of Resources Mobilization in the Digital Era” (in Africa Today), “Mbas Mi”: Fighting COVID-19 Through Music in Senegal” (in African Studies Review) and “African American Evangelic Missions and Social Reforms in the Congo” in Reflections of Leadership and Institution in Africa (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020). He is currently working on his book manuscript entitled Black Social Movements in the Digital Era. Bamba is the creator and host of The Africanist Podcast.

Margaret Rowley (she/her/hers) is a PhD candidate at Boston University where her work focuses on Islamic sound practices of the Layeen Sufi community in the Senegalese capital of Dakar. She is interested in interpretations of human and non-human sound, gender, and religion in everyday life, particularly the community's relationship with the ocean. Margaret holds master’s degrees in ethnomusicology and flute performance from Michigan State University, where her thesis examined women DJs in Chicago’s house music scene. Her previous work has focused on sonic torture in Guantanamo, and Islam and the secular state in France.

Dial-In Information

Register here: https://cornell.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMkde2vpjMiGNS8aVrFT5E9JDX7qE8TdSor 

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