Serawit Debele: A tribute to collective mothering as an everyday practice of freedom

HUMA African Epistemologies Advanced Seminar Series

Speaker: Serawit Debele (University of Bayreuth, Germany)

Introduction: In this discussion, I deliberate on collective mothering as I know it growing up where women raise children together. I foreground collective mothering as a repertoire of shared wisdom that opens up imaginations for emancipatory politics. I consider this talk as a tribute to everyday-thinking women's theorising and praxis. The talk is in conversation with the works of African female intellectuals that have shaped my articulations. Eight women will keep me grounded in my musings: four of my mothers, namely Fantaye Weldemichael, Atsedewoin Hailesilassie, Bizunesh Mamo and Asegedech Gudeta, and four intellectuals, namely Nkiru Nzegwu, Oyèrónké Oyěwùmí, Ifi Amadiume and Martha Kuwe Kumsa.

About the speaker: Serawit Debele is a Junior Research Group Leader at the "Africa Multiple" Cluster of Excellence, at the University of Bayreuth, Germany, where she leads the project Sexualities, Political Orders and Revolutions in Africa: into the heart of Tunisia, Ethiopia and Sudan. She received her PhD in 2015 in Religious Studies from the University of Bayreuth. She is the author of the book Locating Politics in Ethiopia's Irreecha Ritual (Brill, 2019).