Seminar og lancering af ny bog om børn og migration i Vestafrika

Time: Monday 9 May at 15 – 17 hours

Venue: Centre of African Studies, Købmagergade 46, 4th, Copenhagen

Time: Monday 9 May at 15 – 17 hours

Venue: Centre of African Studies, Købmagergade 46, 4th, Copenhagen

Migration – or leaving home – is not a rite of passage per se for young male migrants from rural Burkina Faso. Seeking independence, they usually join a network of relatives of different proximity, in which many people take upon themselves to steer the boys onto life paths that are considered successful in the wider society.

The presentation is based on ethnographic research produced in a period of twelve months between 2005 and 2008 and draws on a small number of detailed case studies from Ouagadougou and Abidjan.

It forms part of the book Child Migration in Africa and in particular the chapters in the book dealing with the migrants’ introductions to new social worlds and the processes of constructing identities. It examines the
dynamics between young migrants who digress from the dominant views of how they should behave. This is necessary in order to grasp the social pressures and constraints to which children and young people are subject and how they resist them.’

What emerges is a picture of how children and young people navigate their social and economic context through moving in and out of childhood in different times and places of their lives. Moreover, it becomes clear that social pressures are intermeshed with mechanisms of protection and prospects for future jobs and resources.

SPEAKERS
* Dorte Thorsen – teaching fellow at the Department of Geography and Environ-
mental Science, University of Reading, England.
* Discussant: Simon Turner – senior researcher at the Danish Institute of International Studies, Copenhagen.

Moderator: Stig Jensen, Centre of African Studies

The seminar will be followed by launch of the book: Child Migration in Africa by Iman Hashim & Dorte Thorsen.
Zed Press and the Nordic Africa Institute, London 2011.

Organisers:
The Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala and Centre of African Studies, Copenhagen

For more information, contact: Susanne Linderos, The Nordic Africa Institute, tel +46 18 56 22 06, e-mail: [email protected]