FACULTY OF CULTURE AND SOCIETY | Lecture
Migration seminar: Motherhood, Loss, and Mobility: Senegalese Women's Activism in Response to Border Deaths

Motherhood, Loss, and Mobility: Senegalese Women's Activism in Response to Border Deaths

Profile:
Agnese Pacciardi, Doctoral student, Department of Political Science, Lund University

Abstract:

This chapter examines the experiences of two Senegalese women, Yayi Bayam and Aminata Mboye, who share the tragic loss of their sons during their attempts to migrate to Europe. In response to their loss, both women founded collectives to unite families—primarily mothers—who have suffered similar tragedies. These collectives exemplify how private grief catalyzes public action, demonstrating a distinctly gendered form of political engagement rooted in the figure of motherhood.

Through an analysis of these collectives grounded in ethnographic fieldwork in Senegal, the chapter explores how the loss of loved ones at sea transforms mobility into both an embodied and political practice. The suffering and resilience of these women underscore how gender, emotion, and domesticity intersect with im/mobility. By leveraging their roles as mothers, the women navigate the public/private divide, reconfiguring traditional gender roles and creating spaces of solidarity and activism. Their practices disrupt the dominant narrative of male-centered migration activism, showcasing how women, even those who do not physically migrate, engage with and influence mobility dynamics.

The chapter is structured into three sections: (1) an overview of the collectives and their socio-political context; (2) an exploration of motherhood as an embodied and political response to loss; and (3) a detailed analysis of the collectives' strategies, which use the figure of the mother to reclaim agency and visibility in the face of restrictive border policies. By mobilizing im/mobility as a continuum, this chapter highlights how these women transform the constraints of their traditional roles into opportunities for agency and collective action, challenging colonial and patriarchal power structures. Ultimately, the chapter argues that these mothers, far from being passive victims, exemplify a nuanced form of agency that emerges from their embodied experiences of loss. Their practices challenge the binaries of mobility/immobility and victim/heroine, offering a complex and intersectional understanding of gender, migration, and political mobilization.

Short bio:

Agnese Pacciardi, PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Lund, Sweden. Her research focuses on border externalization policies in North and West Africa, with a particular emphasis on local responses to these policies in Senegal. Through decolonial and feminist perspectives, her PhD project examines how communities impacted by border externalization navigate, challenge, and re-appropriate mobility through diverse practices. She explores how individuals and collectives in Senegal actively shape and resist mobility restrictions, contributing to a deeper understanding of the intersection between borders, power, and agency.

Attendance:

This is a hybrid seminar, you are welcome to connect via Zoom or join us at MIM seminar room, floor 9, Niagara, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1. To attend on campus, please gather by the reception area at 13.05.
If you have any questions, send an email mim@mau.se

Zoom

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