African Thought Series - Migration & Xenophobia

On the 4th of August 2022, the Inclusive Society Institute (ISI), in partnership with the Centre for Leadership Ethics in Africa (CLEA), hosted a virtual workshop. ISI and CLEA host the African Thought Series which organises workshops, guest lectures, conferences, amongst others.

In the first instalment of the African Thought Series, we hosted virtual workshop on Migration and Xenophobia in South Africa. The workshop was composed of two components. The first component involved a book review. Dr. Shepherd Mpofu, an Associate professor from the University of Limpopo, promoted a recent book ‘Mediating Xenophobia in Africa - Unpacking Discourses of Migration, Belonging and Othering’ (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-61236-8).

This is a co-edited volume by Drs. Moyo and Mpofu that brings together a variety of scholars from different disciplinary perspectives to reflect on the problem of Xenophobia in Africa. In promoting the book, he gave the major highlights of the book.

The second component focused on the keynote lecture. Dr. William Mpofu, from Centre for Critical Diversity Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, delivered the keynote lecture on the theme. The lecture contextualised the debate around Xenophobia on a broad decolonial perspective. He argued that what we might be dealing with in South Africa may not necessarily be xenophobia but a class struggle for survival among the black-bodied vulnerable poor from South Africa and non-South Africans.