Ubuntu and Migration

Reflections from African Perspectives

Abstract

In recent times, some African countries have responded to calls to dismantle the world of visible and invisible borders, exclusion, insider versus outsider division, strangeness, xenophobia and Afrophobia. While these calls have not been really effective, especially due to the inability of African leaders to systematically resolve or minimise the consequences of the quilt work of colonialism/neo-colonialism and its effects in post-colonial African societies, the understanding of borders in African societies require a new appraisal that challenges the rubric, foundations and intended goals of the lines that divide and the walls that exclude. This special issue features theoretical and multidisciplinary interventions in the discourse of migration from African perspectives. It also explores how various philosophical and related frameworks shed light on migration in ways that reveal past and present forms of violent exclusion and marginalisation. Ultimately, the goal of the five articles in this special issue is to add and hopefully augment existing debates, concerns and challenges on migration in Africa, and how these bear on the increasing exclusionary measures currently being implemented in global anti-immigration policies.