Inhaltspezifische Aktionen

GGS-Impulsworkshop: "Migration, Identity, Postcolonialism"

Wann

11.11.2026 von 10:00 bis 12:00 (Europe/Berlin / UTC100)

Wo

Seminar room 315, Ludwigstraße 23, 35390 Giessen

Name des Kontakts

Telefon des Kontakts

0641 99 2137 2

Teilnehmer

PhD Candidates, Postdocs, and other interested researchers

Termin zum Kalender hinzufügen

iCal

Lecturer:   Dr. Lesiba Tumishang Ledwaba
Date:   November 11, 2026, 10 am - 12 noon
Max. participants:   12
Registration deadline:
   November 10, 2026

The inception of democracy in South Africa enabled the out-migration of people from racially segregated townships known as Group Areas during the apartheid era. Beyond racial segregation, townships served a capitalist purpose, providing much-needed accommodation for labour, particularly during periods of economic growth. The monotonous, uninspiring houses in Group Areas functioned to rejuvenate labour, essential to maximising profit. Human agency, however, reshaped/decolonised the monotony and oppressive purpose of Group Areas through practices that asserted homeliness in unhomely environments, belonging during moments of unbelonging, and placemaking within apartheid housing and its streets. Sharpeville, a township marked by the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, is the contextual focus of this impulse talk and therefore fits within this framework. Established in the 1940s on the outskirts of Johannesburg after forced removals from Top Location, Sharpeville was revered as a model location, with a local council that provided services to its residents. After 1994, the township, despite its revered social delivery excellence, saw immense outward movement of people to neighbouring former white suburbs in the Vanderbijlpark region. Against this backdrop, this talk/lesson uses oral history with locals as a methodological framework and belonging theory as a conceptual navigation system to deepen the discourse on why people leave apartheid constructs such as townships like Sharpeville, and how they experience identity contestations in placemaking and belonging in formerly white-only suburbs. This talk interrogates the prevailing perception that new identities, cultures, and human agency through migration, amid government inadequacies, contribute to unhomeliness, unbelonging, and loss of neighbourhood that contribute to outward migration.

If you would like to participate in this workshop, please send an email to info.