How Can Literary Works Help Us to Understand the Politics of Migration?

Rémi Armand Tchokothe

The island of Mayotte forms part of the Comoros archipelago in the Indian Ocean. While Mayotte is part of France and the EU, other islands of the archipelago like Grande Comore and Anjouan are not. In this video, REMI TCHOKOTHE analyzes the tensions that this situation has caused, focusing on how they have been expressed in literary works. Employing close readings of writings by Nassur Attoumani and Soeuf Elbadawi alongside critical geography and field observation, Tchokothe notes that, for these authors, historically established patterns of internal movement between the islands cannot constitute illegal migration. Noting how both authors employ the French language as a tool of resistance, Tchokothe highlights the vital, ongoing role that literature can play in the process of decolonization.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21036/LTPUB10756

Researcher

Dr. Rémi Tchokothe is an Assistant Professor in African Studies at the University of Bayreuth. He has ongoing affiliations with Rhodes University (South Africa), the University of Sousse (Tunisia) and the Centre Universitaire de Mayotte. Tchokothe’s research interests include African urban youth languages, the production and reception of literature in African languages and the literature of the Comoros archipelago. An editor of several collected volumes, Tchokothe has published two monographs: Stylistic Features in Balisidya’s Short Stories (2010) and Transgression in Swahili Narrative Fiction and its Reception (2014).

University of Bayreuth (Universität Bayreuth)

The University of Bayreuth is a medium-sized campus university which is committed to the highest academic standards. As one of Germany’s youngest universities, it operates in an unbiased, self-confident spirit of academic freedom, scientific progress, and social responsibility. Top priorities are individual supervision, maintaining high academic standards, and creating programmes of study that take current research into account. The innovative collaboration between many of disciplines on the on the ‘Green Campus’ are key features of Bayreuth’s research culture. The University of Bayreuth is dedicated to interdisciplinary research. Its research facilities and infrastructure provide an ideal setting for scientific work. Focus areas – e.g. African studies, Polymer and Colloid Sciences, High Pressure and High Temperature Research, Ecology and the Environmental Sciences – combine the strengths of individual subject areas to address strategically chosen, cross-disciplinary research priorities. Foreign scholars rate Bayreuth as one of the most attractive universities in Germany, consistently placing it among the top institutions in the Humboldt Rankings.