Abstract

Drawing on work that speaks to the ‘coloniality of migration’ (Rodríguez’ 2018, Turner/ Mayblin 2020) as well as my own reflections on the locus of enunciation in settler-colonial societies (Deumert 2018, 2019), I argue that understanding colonial histories is central to migration studies. Focusing on South Africa and Namibia I explore the historical entanglements between settler colonialism, enslavement (17^th/18^th centuries) and labour migration (19^th/20^th centuries, ongoing). Settler colonialism can be conceptualized as a form of exploitative migration. Driven by a politics of dispossession and racial capitalism, settler colonialism constituted not only one the largest movement of people across the world, but also set into motion – forcefully and violently – migration movements of those populations it wished to eliminate, yet who were needed as labour on the plantations and mines. I argue that the locus of settler-colonial enunciation is not only found in the world’s setter colonies (from the United States to South Africa), but equally in the colonial metropoles where contemporary processes of migration link directly to these colonial histories. My talk seeks to close the gap between migration studies and current work on empire-coloniality-racism, exploring its sociolinguistic implications.

Short Bio

Ana Deumert is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Cape Town. Her research is located within the broad field of sociolinguistics and has a strong transdisciplinary focus. Her current work explores the use of language and art in global political movements as well as the contributions decolonial thought can make to sociolinguistic theory. She is a recipient of the Neville Alexander Award for the Promotion of Multilingualism (2014) and the Humboldt Research Award (2016).