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Call for Workshop Applicants

Migration, urbanisation and health

 in southern Africa:

interdisciplinary conversations

July 27^th – 29^th, Johannesburg, South Africa

Wits vice–chancellor Prof Adam Habib has released a statement on behalf of the university, condemning the xenophobic attacks that have taken place across South Africa in recent weeks.

Dear Members of the Wits Community

Wits University strongly condemns all forms of xenophobia and the brutal acts of violence taking place throughout our country. These acts are unacceptable, inhumane and a clear violation of basic human rights.

Danai Pechedu, a pupil at Sacred Heart College in Johannesburg:

My name is Danai Pachedu and I am 11 years old. For the past two weeks my life has changed. I have been scared to go to the shops because people may recognize me. I have stopped speaking Shona in public or too loudly at home because I might be recognized and our house identified. I don’t go to the park to play anymore because I might not come back if someone recognizes me.  I spend most of my time inside our yard or at my private school because I am afraid to go anywhere and be recognized.

Achille Mbembe responds to mounting xenophobia in South Africa.

Former WiSER Writing Fellow and current associate researcher Khadija Patel has collaborated on a major new project for Al Jazeera. No Place Like Home tells the stories of migrants and xenophobia in South Africa.

An online exhibition accompanies our conference 'Forensic Infrastructure: Building the Global South' (31 March-1 April). The exhibition brings together a small body of contemporary art by young southern African artists, presenting aesthetic responses to, and explorations of, ‘the postcolonial city’.

The next meeting of the history of sexuality reading group will be on Thursday, 23 April at 3pm in the WiSER seminar room (6th floor, Richard Ward Building, East Campus). We'll be focussing on the work of Caroline Bynum, specifically:

Neo Muyanga, our composer-in-residence, has been invited by the Goethe Institut, Brazil, to curate an intervention on protest music in the Global South. He travelled recently to Brazil and Uruguay and has begun work on a collaborative project titled 'massa revoltante' ('a revolting mass').

He also took part in Cape Town's Infecting the City arts festival, performing 'madness - a preliminary sketch' to packed audiences.