I’m not a fruit which fell from a tree : migrants’ discourses of resistance in the context of dehumanization and economic exploitation in Southern Africa

dc.contributor.authorMpofu, Buhle
dc.contributor.emailbuhle.mpofu@up.ac.zaen_US
dc.date.accessioned2022-10-20T07:31:04Z
dc.date.available2022-10-20T07:31:04Z
dc.date.issued2021
dc.descriptionThis article uses the research available in Buhle Mpofu, When the People Move, the Church Moves: A Critical Exploration of the Interface Between Migration and Theology Through a Missiological Study of Selected Congregations Within the Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa in Johannesburg. PhD Thesis, University of KwaZulu-Natal S.A., 2015.en_US
dc.description.abstractThis discussion highlights how some African foreign migrants living in South Africa articulate resistance to exploitative and corrupt tendencies in what emerges as life affirming and death denying developmental discourses. This article triangulated data collected from a Module PRT112 – an Introduction to Missiology – with data which emerged from a study designed to interrogate the lived experiences of foreign migrants in Johannesburg South Africa. Framed within the postcolonial paradigm, the contribution is premised on the idea that the discourses of African migrants are a viable hermeneutical optic for a theological and developmental agenda which legitimises marginal voices of the poor. At the heart of this critical discussion is a statement; ‘I am not a fruit which fell from a tree,’ which emerged as a response to ward off and rebuke corrupt public officials who often demand bribes from foreign migrants as a way to keep them intimidated and confined to liminal working conditions in the informal South African economic sector. By interrogating the radical response ‘I am not a fruit’ alongside data which reflect hostility towards migrants, the study highlights religious resistance to economic exploitation and life denying practices. These articulations are located within the postcolonial resistance discourses which counter neoliberal and dehumanizing tendencies and the study concludes by drawing on Bosnian and Rwandan examples to caution against dehumanization of migrants as it sets parameters for catastrophic genocide and other forms of violence perpetrated in the past.en_US
dc.description.departmentPractical Theologyen_US
dc.description.librarianam2022en_US
dc.description.urihttps://revistatransilvania.roen_US
dc.identifier.citationMpofu, Buhle. “I’m Not a Fruit which Fell from a Tree: Migrants’ Discourses of Resistance in the Context of Dehumanization and Economic Exploitation in Southern Africa.“ Revista Transilvania, no. 10 (2021): 42-49. https://DOI.org/ 10.51391/trva.2021.10.07.en_US
dc.identifier.issn0255-539X
dc.identifier.other10.51391/trva.2021.10.07
dc.identifier.urihttps://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/87819
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherComplexul National Muzeal Astra Sibiuen_US
dc.rightsArticle is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.en_US
dc.subjectReligionen_US
dc.subjectDevelopmenten_US
dc.subjectExploitationen_US
dc.subjectMigrationen_US
dc.subjectDehumanizationen_US
dc.subjectPostcolonialen_US
dc.subjectSouth Africaen_US
dc.titleI’m not a fruit which fell from a tree : migrants’ discourses of resistance in the context of dehumanization and economic exploitation in Southern Africaen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

Files

Original bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Mpofu_Not_2021.pdf
Size:
218.92 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Article

License bundle

Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.75 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description: