Episode 2: Pan Africanism & Intra-African Migration
In this episode, policy experts Achieng Akena and Ibrahima Kane provide a panoramic perspective on the way in which Pan Africanism solidarities and ideas have the potential to shape new approaches to mobility within Africa and beyond.
Speaker Bio
Achieng Akena is Executive Director of the International Refugee Rights Initiative in May 2019, bringing with her a wealth of experience and knowledge in strategic leadership, institutional resource management and advocacy networks in the UN and
AU. A passionate and committed human rights and democracy advocate, Achieng has over 22 years’ experience in the promotion and protection of human rights of marginalised people and democratic governance across Africa. Prior to joining IRRI, she was Executive Director of the Centre for Citizens Participation in the African Union (CCPAU)/The Pan African Citizens Network (PACIN).
Ibrahima Kane heads the Africa Union Advocacy Program of the Open Society’s Africa Regional Office and is qualified as a lawyer in Senegal and France. Prior to joining the Open Society Initiative for Eastern Africa in 2007, he was a senior lawyer in charge of the Africa program at INTERIGHTS for 10 years. As a founding member of RADDHO, a Senegalese human rights organization, Kane directed a program that focused on public education and women’s human rights in five West African countries—Cape Verde, the Republic of Guinea, the Republic of Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, and Senegal—for six years. Ibrahima has particular interest in economic, social, and cultural rights; women’s rights; and the pursuit of justice through regional and international mechanisms.
Further Reading
Achieng Akena and Rosette Nyirinkindi Katungye (2022) “Pan-Africanism, regional integration and migration”, Chapter 8 of the Africa Migration Report: Challenging the Narrative, IOM. LINK: https://au.int/en/documents/20201015/africa-migration-report
Amanda Bisong (2022) “Labour mobility as a key element of the AfCFTA: What role for the AU’s free movement protocol?”. LINK: https://ecdpm.org/work/labour-mobility-key-element-afcfta-role-au-free-movement-protocol
Exploring the Politics of Migration through Ideas is a podcast series that examines the past, present, and possible futures of migration within and from the African continent. It seeks to forge a new discussion around African migration in Europe and the West, but also within Africa itself: one that foregrounds African knowledge, lived experience, and political thought towards a humane and socially just order of mobility. Hosted by African Arguments and the Heinrich Boll Foundation’s African Migration Hub.