ZEF Public Lecture: The Human Trafficking Campaign in Cameroon: Alliances Divisions & Implications
April 4, 2024 | 13:30 h - 14:30 h
We'd like to invite you to our upcoming Public Lecture!
Topic: The Human Trafficking Campaign in Cameroon: Alliances Divisions & Implications
Speaker: Dr. Jonathan Ngeh, Post-doctoral Researcher and Principal Investigator at the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) in Cologne
The lecture will be held in hybrid mode (zoom and in-person at ZEF).
You can join us in-person at ZEF, ground floor, conference room, Genscherallee 3, 53113 Bonn,
or online via Zoom: https://uni-bonn.zoom-x.de/meeting/register/u5ckc-Cgrz4iH9VGzzJ566by8Cuh6tQTCNtk
Abstract: Trafficking in persons, unlike other challenges of our time, is widely recognised as a devastating human tragedy. States, civil society, countries in the North and South, prominent international organisations, local NGOs, and individuals with opposing political or ideological views agree as they condemn or mobilise against this practice. Our starting point is that despite the universal condemnation of Human Trafficking and the commitment to stop it, the different actors at the forefront of the global campaign against it are not exactly on the same page. This presentation aims to understand how Human Trafficking, as a legal framework established by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of the U.S. and the U.N. Palermo Protocol, has found resonance in Cameroon. Furthermore, we aim to examine how civil society actors in Cameroon interpret, negotiate, and adapt the tools and framework suggested by international and national actors. We explore how they contest and transform the original Human Trafficking framework. To achieve this, we draw on the conceptual framework of travelling models (Behrends et al., 2014) and Foucault's (1977) concept of power and utilise data from ethnographic fieldwork undertaken in Cameroon (2016, 2018, 2023).
Dr. Jonathan Ngeh is a Post-doctoral Researcher and Principal Investigator at the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) in Cologne. He also serves as the speaker of the Co-producing Knowledge thematic group at the GSSC. He earned his PhD in sociology from the University of Umeå, Sweden. He specialises in the study of transnational migration with a specific focus on the experiences of Africans in Northem Europe and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. Jonathan has conducted extensive fieldwork in Cameroon, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates. His research is dedicated to exploring various aspects related to the reproduction of societal inequalities, which manifest across social, economic, and epistemic spheres. These inequalities are characterised by instances of labour exploitation, unequal power relations, and social exclusions. Before joining the GSSC in 2019, he taught Development Theory and Policy courses at the University of Bamenda, Cameroon.
