International Conference -The Berbera Corridor

Porto, FLUP, 24th-25th November

Sala de Reuniões 1

To see the program click here.

 The world market always demands faster and cheaper ways for the circulation of commodities. When it comes to landlocked territories and bulk goods, road and railway corridors to the sea are crucial for lowering costs, if not for allowing the possibility of exports at all.

Trade in the Horn of Africa depend on two seaside ports. Somaliland relies exclusively on the Berbera port. Ethiopia, cut from the sea since the Eritrea independence in 1993, relies so far mainly on the Djibouti connection. Still, the Ethiopian booming industry – much of it in partnership with foreign capital - needs to lessen its dependence on a sole way out (in 2016 more than 95% of Ethiopia’s external trade was through Djibouti). Addis Ababa wants to increase the use of the Berbera Corridor, a 937 kilometres asphalt road up to this deep-water port, in which Ethiopia is considered to hold 19% of the joint venture stock company operating the hub.

But these two ports tale is far from being a local issue. Berbera is a Dubai Ports World concession (in which the UK development finance agency CDC Group plagued $320M investment in Berbera), China has been investing heavily in Ethiopia and the major powers still consider the Red Sea as their “vital” interests. As usual, flags follow the trade: U.S., Chinese, Turkish and even UAE military bases are installed in the region. If there were doubts on the increasing importance of the Indian Ocean in the coming imperialist struggles, the political puzzle of the Berbera Corridor would certainly remove them.

The Conference wants to debate the geopolitical and historical issues of this key Red Sea gate. It is an open call to all contributors aiming to critically discuss what was and is at stake in this part of the world:  the role of foreign powers and the trends of political and economic paths developing in the region.

A publication will come out of this Seminar: a special file of Africana Studia on the Berbera Corridor. This will include part of the contributions presented at the Conference and possibly others not presented as papers.

A second output of the Conference will be – so it is our wish– the establishment of a research network on the Red Sea area. This will be an even more thrilling defy if we manage to connect European and African scientific institutions, including the Red Sea area colleagues, part of them already present in the Organizing Board of this Seminar.

 

 

ORGANISATION and SCHEDULES OF THE CONFERENCE:

  • Call for paper proposals – from 26th April to 26th June 2022
  • Validation and notification of acceptance of the proposals – up to 15th July 2022

 

Guideline for proposals

  • Paper proposals in English must be sent to the following e-mail address Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo.
  • Papers proposals should have a maximum 300 words.

  

WORKING LANGUAGES OF THE PAPERS AT THE CONFERENCE

English, French and Portuguese

 

Registration fees:

  • No registration fee.

 

Organization Board

Abdifatah Mohamed

Carla Delgado

Isabel Lourenço

Jorge Teixeira

Tirsit Yetbarek

 

 

Scientific Board:

Bruno Sousa

Jama Musse Jama

Maciel Santos

Michael Walls

Mohamed Abdillahi Bahdon

Mourad Aty

 

CEAUP Contacts:

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Tel: +351 22 607 71 41

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Contactos

Centro de Estudos Africanos da Universidade do Porto
Via panorâmica, s/n
4150-564 Porto
Portugal

+351 22 607 71 41
ceaup@letras.up.pt