Wednesday, February 17, 2021 12pm to 1:30pm
About this Event
Respatializing Federalism in the Ethiopian Borderlands:
From Contraband Control to Transnational Governmentality
Daniel Thompson
Assistant Professor, UC Merced
Wednesday, February 17, 2021 | 12–1:30PM
Amidst the global War on Terror, Western states’ security projects have extended controls over migration beyond territorial borders. Borders have proliferated and shifted as “border externalization” initiatives that stop migrants before they reach the borders of wealthier countries or divert them into third countries on the peripheries of Europe or North America. Euro-American security measures have impacted Africans’ international mobility, reproducing what some analysts describe as a “global apartheid.” In this talk I will suggest that, from the vantage point of eastern Africa’s borderlands, these narratives focused on Western security and migration restrictions only tell part of the story. New dynamics of border securitization have in some cases facilitated African politicians’ efforts to “externalize” borders in the opposite direction as they seek to control US- and Europe-based diaspora populations in new ways. Authorities in Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State (SRS) have instrumentalized the decentralization of border security to address two longstanding regional security problems: the persistence of “contraband” cross-border trade and political opposition among diaspora Somalis. Drawing on fieldwork in the Ethiopia-Somalia borderlands and the US, I show how crackdowns on contraband trade formed part of a broader reconfiguration of governance that involved efforts to “governmentalize” diaspora Somalis and attract them to invest in Ethiopia. The talk offers a transnational perspective on the intertwined issues of political decentralization and border regulation in the Horn of Africa, and connects “local” borderlands changes to the transnational landscape of Somali diaspora lives and livelihoods.
For more information contact Professor Christina Torres-Rouff, ctorres-rouff@ucmerced.edu
0 people are interested in this event
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ucmerced.zoom.us/j/81169771788
Meeting ID: 811 6977 1788
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,81169771788# US (San Jose)
+12532158782,,81169771788# US (Tacoma)
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Washington D.C)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 876 9923 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 811 6977 1788
Find your local number: https://ucmerced.zoom.us/u/kcKIC4vTq8
Join by SIP
81169771788@zoomcrc.com
Join by H.323
162.255.37.11 (US West)
162.255.36.11 (US East)
115.114.131.7 (India Mumbai)
115.114.115.7 (India Hyderabad)
213.19.144.110 (Amsterdam Netherlands)
213.244.140.110 (Germany)
103.122.166.55 (Australia)
149.137.40.110 (Singapore)
64.211.144.160 (Brazil)
69.174.57.160 (Canada)
207.226.132.110 (Japan)
Meeting ID: 811 6977 1788
User Activity
No recent activity