Periodic Reporting for period 4 - MMPPF (Modern Marronage? The Pursuit and Practice of Freedom in the Contemporary World)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-04-01 al 2024-09-30
Over the past two decades, NGO, political and media talk of ‘trafficking as modern slavery’ has made it possible for governments to present increasingly harsh measures suppress irregular migration as a form of humanitarian action to end 'slavery'. Yet the comparison between contemporary irregular movement and the transatlantic slave trade is poor. Unlike African victims of the slave trade, people today described as victims of trafficking want to move, and do so in the hope of securing greater rights and freedoms. They have more in common with enslaved people who sought to emancipate themselves from slavery in the Atlantic World through flight and marronage than with victims of the slave trade. Our project therefore asked what can be learned about the experience of those whose freedoms are heavily restricted in the contemporary world from more careful engagement with Atlantic World histories of enslaved people’s efforts to extricate themselves from slavery and achieve a condition they themselves recognized as freedom.
Four field studies across three points of the Atlantic World triangle (Brazil; Ghana; and Europe) explored different aspects of the perception, pursuit and practice of freedom by contemporary highly precarious and socially marginalized groups that appear, in antislavery discourse, as victims of, or vulnerable to, ‘modern slavery’. We used histories of marronage, fugitivity, and also of top-down efforts to mould the formerly enslaved into 'fitting' subjects of freedom to inform the design of fieldwork on: 1) irregular migrants and refugees' journeys to Europe and Brazil; 2) antislavery NGOs interventions to prevent child labour in contemporary fishing and artisanal mining communities in Ghana, and community responses to them; 3) Brazilian women’s strategic use of migration, sexuality and intimate relationships to move closer to freedom; 4) efforts to use legal routes to freedom on the part of Africans seeking asylum in the UK and Brazil today. We also worked with research participants to co-produce counter-narratives to conventional antislavery stories of ‘modern slavery’. By communicating them through performance and film as well as text, we sought to encourage more nuanced popular and political debate on the contemporary meaning and practice of freedom
Four field studies across three points of the Atlantic World triangle (Brazil; Ghana; and Europe) explored different aspects of the perception, pursuit and practice of freedom by contemporary highly precarious and socially marginalized groups that appear, in antislavery discourse, as victims of, or vulnerable to, ‘modern slavery’. We used histories of marronage, fugitivity, and also of top-down efforts to mould the formerly enslaved into 'fitting' subjects of freedom to inform the design of fieldwork on: 1) irregular migrants and refugees' journeys to Europe and Brazil; 2) antislavery NGOs interventions to prevent child labour in contemporary fishing and artisanal mining communities in Ghana, and community responses to them; 3) Brazilian women’s strategic use of migration, sexuality and intimate relationships to move closer to freedom; 4) efforts to use legal routes to freedom on the part of Africans seeking asylum in the UK and Brazil today. We also worked with research participants to co-produce counter-narratives to conventional antislavery stories of ‘modern slavery’. By communicating them through performance and film as well as text, we sought to encourage more nuanced popular and political debate on the contemporary meaning and practice of freedom
1) Primary and secondary historical sources on fugitive slaves and on post-emancipation efforts to create subjects of ‘freedom’ in Anglophone Americas (in English) and on marronage and fugitivity in Brazil (in Portuguese) were gathered and analysed, and the review used to inform the design of field research for all four studies.
2) Field research was delayed by the covid pandemic but we were granted a one year no cost extension and it was completed, and the project has generated a substantial and unique bank of data on migrant and other subaltern populations, including more than 150 biographical narratives that illuminate the ambiguities and paradoxes of ‘freedom’ as an ideal and a lived experience.
3) We worked with research participants to co-produce counter-narratives to conventional antislavery stories of ‘modern slavery’, and communicate them through performance/film. In Brazil, we worked with Mirian Alves Souza of Fluminense Federal University, who developed a Theatre of the Oppressed production based on data from fieldwork for Study 4. The performance was filmed, and the film is available on the project website. In the UK, we worked with a community filmmaker and a group of young refugees and asylum seekers, to coproduce a film about their lived experience. The young refugees and asylum seekers have been given training in filmmaking and are full and equal participants in the process. For ethical reasons and taking their wishes into account, the film has not been made publicly available, but it has been screened to audiences of civil society actors, academics, students and policy makers in 6 UK cities, with the consent and participation of our refugee filmmaker participants. In Ghana, we worked with members of Volta Lake island communities to co-create a film that counters dominant discourse on children's participation in fishing as a form of 'modern slavery' and highlights the restrictions on rights and freedoms that all members of the community face in a context of extreme socio-economic deprivation.
4) A project website in English and Portuguese was established. Eleven peer-reviewed journal articles presenting research findings have been published to date. We have also published multiple blog posts and have organised or participated in more than 30 international events that included workshops for ECRs, roundtable, academic conferences, film screenings, a photo exhibition, a book launch, invited keynote lectures, online interviews and lectures with partners in Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, Canada, Belgium, and the UK.
2) Field research was delayed by the covid pandemic but we were granted a one year no cost extension and it was completed, and the project has generated a substantial and unique bank of data on migrant and other subaltern populations, including more than 150 biographical narratives that illuminate the ambiguities and paradoxes of ‘freedom’ as an ideal and a lived experience.
3) We worked with research participants to co-produce counter-narratives to conventional antislavery stories of ‘modern slavery’, and communicate them through performance/film. In Brazil, we worked with Mirian Alves Souza of Fluminense Federal University, who developed a Theatre of the Oppressed production based on data from fieldwork for Study 4. The performance was filmed, and the film is available on the project website. In the UK, we worked with a community filmmaker and a group of young refugees and asylum seekers, to coproduce a film about their lived experience. The young refugees and asylum seekers have been given training in filmmaking and are full and equal participants in the process. For ethical reasons and taking their wishes into account, the film has not been made publicly available, but it has been screened to audiences of civil society actors, academics, students and policy makers in 6 UK cities, with the consent and participation of our refugee filmmaker participants. In Ghana, we worked with members of Volta Lake island communities to co-create a film that counters dominant discourse on children's participation in fishing as a form of 'modern slavery' and highlights the restrictions on rights and freedoms that all members of the community face in a context of extreme socio-economic deprivation.
4) A project website in English and Portuguese was established. Eleven peer-reviewed journal articles presenting research findings have been published to date. We have also published multiple blog posts and have organised or participated in more than 30 international events that included workshops for ECRs, roundtable, academic conferences, film screenings, a photo exhibition, a book launch, invited keynote lectures, online interviews and lectures with partners in Brazil, Ghana, South Africa, Canada, Belgium, and the UK.
The project trialled a new method of narrative elicitation, and successfully experimented with arts and film based methods, to generate data that sheds fresh light on theoretical debates on freedom. This has allowed us to make novel interventions into debates about ‘trafficking as modern slavery’ in sociology and migration studies. Our study of contestations around child labour and 'modern slavery' in Ghana inspired a BBC Africa documentary that constitutes an advancement in the field of child trafficking, humanitarianism, freedom and rights beyond the state of the art.