Seminar

When the Compound Was the Classroom: Parenthood Without a Template in Nigeria's Middle Belt Presenter: Adetola Oyenubi (PhD Candidate, African Centre for Migration & Society, Wits University) Date: Wednesday, 07 October 2026 Time: 12:30 – 13:30 (GMT+2) Venue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163), Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor), East Campus, Wits University (directions) and Online (Meeting ID: 96263184553. Password: *4ovg2LyFs) Abstract: In December 2023, coordinated attacks across Bokkos, Plateau State, killed hundreds and displaced thousands, leaving many caregivers to rebuild family life without the people who once taught them how. This presentation introduces the concept of "transmission breach" to highlight how displacement severs the everyday apprenticeship through which caregiving knowledge passes between generations. Drawing on fieldwork with twenty-five caregivers in Bokkos and one father's account of losing his wife and returning alone to an unrecognisable village, the study uses situated learning theory and feminist care theory to examine this rupture, alongside the anthropology of African childhood to consider what is lost when the relationships through which children learn to care are broken. Bio: Adetola Oyenubi is a PhD candidate at the African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS), University of the Witwatersrand. Her doctoral research examines how caregiving is reconfigured and […]

Musina in Motion: Mapping Mobility, Settlement and Everyday Life in a South African Border Town Presenters: Dr. Kabiri Bule (Wits), Dr. Sostina Matina (Wits), and Isabella Mockridge (MA Candidate, Barcelona School of Economics) Date: Wednesday, 21 October 2026 Time: 12:30 – 13:30 (GMT+2) Venue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163), Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd floor), East Campus, Wits University (directions) and Online (Meeting ID: 98754671628. Password: tqeo*x86sG) Musina is often understood as a border town, a point of entry into South Africa and a place through which migrants pass. Musina in Motion offers a different spatial reading. Drawing on the GEMMS survey, sampling coordinates, and mapping layers, the presentation examines the town as part of a Southern African system of migration, circulation, settlement, and cross-border connection. It brings together birthplace, most recent migration origin, frequency of cross-border movement, settlement histories, and neighbourhood location to show how mobility is organised across Musina. Rather than treating people as migrant or settled residents, the analysis reveals overlapping forms of residence, repeated movement, regional connection, and local attachment. It asks what becomes visible when migration data are put back into space, and what spatial analysis adds to understanding border-town life. About the Presenters: Dr. Kabiri Bule […]