Boat people: Senegalese women against illegal migration to Europe
Lecture by Emmanuelle Bouilly (Sorbonne University) and screening of the documentary movie Seb Senta
Date: Monday 25 November, 2013
Time: 10.00 to 12.30
Place: ROSKILDE UNIVERSITY, Building 25, lokale 25.2 (EDB-lokale)
The lecture by Emmanuelle Bouilly will address gender dynamics in both migration processes and collective actions against it. In 2006, more than 30.000 sub-Saharans tried to reach Spain by boat. In the suburbs of Dakar, 350 mothers mobilized against their sons' emigration, though some had earlier encouraged and financed this activity. Her research aims to show (1) how do the sexual division of labor and the contemporary transformations of the organization of Senegalese families encourage young men to emigrate; (2) how do gendered attributions and roles, specifically motherhood, spur women to participate in the movement; (3) how do gendered identities contribute to frame their protest against a variety of issues.
As a starter, a documentary movie Seb Septa (47 minutes) directed by Lobo & Pinho will be screened.The movie deals with African migrants’ attempts to reach Europe in a context of increasing poverty in West Africa. The film won the Esperánce Marseille Award. In October of that same year BAB SEPTA wins Best Portuguese Documentary at DocLisboa 2008. In 2009 the film continued to travel through festivals where it won Best Film Award at Doc BH, Brazil.
Dr Emmanuelle Bouilly is PhD student in political science at Sorbonne University (Paris 1) in the Centre Européen de Sociologie et de Science Politique (CESSP). Her thesis is entitled "Doing couscous and meetings or how mobilizing without protesting. A political sociology of feminine organizational and contentious repertoire in Senegal". She published a number of articles on illegal migrations in the Canadian Journal of African Studies and Politique Africaine.
Chair: Eric Hahonou
Discussants: Ebbe Prag and Helle Stenum (RUC)