Abstract
The panel explores the intersections of transformation, time, subjectivities and moralities. Following the basic idea of the Cluster’s RSs Moralities, the panel considers ethics / morals not as discrete themes that can be isolated from political, social, religious or cultural issues, but studies them as products of social life and interaction. Instead of studying changes in ethic codes and moral rules when interested in transformations, we rather look at how emerging moralities actively shape and are shaped by societal change. We ask how moralities, time and change are brought and thought together and how different agencies involved are asserted and/or contested in these processes. Which temporalities are referred to in the moral making of change / another world (e.g. a golden past: a glorious future; a miserable present; rupture; revolution or fulfilment)? Who or what is the object and the subject of moral world makings (the individual, the community, the youth, the state, the political, the religious)? Which moral criteria, ethical lenses and affects are referred to, or emerge, and how are (their) temporalities experienced and evaluated? How do affects like hope, guilt, anger or apathy form moral judgements? The papers of the panel look at interconnections of change, subject formation and moralities, highlighting different aspects of youth and the re/making of their worlds. They show that a separation of personal and socio-political moralities is not easily possible, and that making and changing worlds is always also a form of ‘doing ethics’, i.e. a process of ethical engagement and negotiations. Discussant: Eunice Kamaara (Moi University)
Presentations
Akinmayowa Akin-Otiko
University of Lagos (Nigeria)
We hear you, but we see it differently: Moralities in waiting among young Africans
This paper examines the temporalities of waiting and ‘waithood’ among youths in Africa with reference to freedom and choices. The focus is on the right of young people to make choices about their person, their bodies, and what they do within a certain age limit. In the global North, 16th years is a defining age, whereas, in Africa, youth freedom is determined by the length of time an individual stays under the ‘roof’ of his/her parents. This paper will discuss the morality behind the quest and the denial of right and freedom of youths as long as they remain under the ‘roof’ of their parents and what that temporal space portends for the individual.
Yacouba Banhoro
University Ki-Zerbo, Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso)
In order to stay with the theme of this panel, which underlines how moralities are located at different levels of our worldviews and worldmaking, I would like to trace – from different periods in the history of Burkina Faso – the constant but changing patterns of moralities in health-related discourses, which are mostly directed at the youth. In doing so, I will show how scientific discourses could sometimes take over. The argument will be based on health- and disease-related studies in which moral discourses were not the primary focus, but were present and not subsequently taken into account.
Serawit Debele
University of Bayreuth (Germany)
Temporalities of Discourses on Sexual Intimacy among Christian Ethiopians
In this presentation, I want to examine temporalities of sexual moralities in urban Ethiopia by zeroing in on how religious leaders’ articulation of what they consider “healthy sex” evolved across time. I begin with the 1990s, a decade when the country experienced an explosion of discourses on the erotic owing to the introduction of press freedom. In paying attention to change and continuity in sexual moralities across time, I explore what the engagement with the subject of sex tells us about religious renewal.
AbdulGafar Fahm
University of Bayreuth (Germany), University of Ilorin (Nigeria)
Navigating Ethical Waithood: African Youth, Moral Conflict, and Social Transformation
The paper examines how African youth navigate and shape social transformations through ethical practices amid complex forces such as migration and socio-economic exclusion. I propose a focus on "ethical waithood" and the impact of moral conflicts between local and global values, drawing on examples such as the negotiation of digital work ethics among Nigerian gig workers and the moral dilemmas faced by Nigerian youth balancing traditional family expectations with aspirations for migration.
Isabella Villanova
University of Bayreuth (Germany), University of Vienna (Austria)
The African Bildungsroman: Growth, Change, and Affective Temporalities
My presentation is about the African Bildungsroman – an inherently temporal literary genre that realistically describes the moral, social, and emotional Bildung of a subject (from childhood to maturity) living in an African urban context (e.g. Harare, Johannesburg, Lagos). I use the African Bildungsroman as a critical site to engage in broader conversations about affect, temporality, and intersectionality beyond a pure literary examination. The paper discusses the growth and change of subjects living in African urban contexts and focuses on how their growth process is shaped by affective temporalities.