Panel Organisers: Katharina Schramm / Kristine Krause

This panel seeks to explore new forms of political subjectivity in Africa and her diasporas. Here, we have at least three forms of diaspora in mind: the African diaspora that emerged out of the violent dispersal of the transatlantic slave trade; the ‘new’ African diasporas that have developed out of more recent migrations; as well as various movements to and within Africa.
All these cross-cutting mobilities defy the notion of Africa as a bounded entity and call for a conceptualization of deterritorialized political subjectivities, which are nevertheless profoundly shaped by historical, juridical and socio-political forces and institutions impeding the very idea of mobility. This tension is expressed most vividly in conflicts over citizenship, autochthony, and other claims to rights and belonging, as they come to the fore between states, local authorities and diasporic groups.
Our panel attempts bringing together studies on national and transnational forms of citizenship, diaspora-politics as well as more localized networks and institutions that produce non-state-bound ways of belonging. We therefore invite contributions which address, among others, the following themes:

• New immigration policies of African states and their differentiation along ethnic, national and racial lines;
• Shifting notions of autochthony and politics of inclusion/exclusion;
• The transnationalization of non-state authorities in overlapping diasporic constellations (e.g. chieftaincy, religious networks);
• Various forms of citizenship (e.g. therapeutic citizenship) and claim-staking (e.g. dual citizenship) and the politics of recognition associated with them.