Meera Venkatachalam
@meerakat.bsky.social
670 followers 320 following 17 posts
South-South relations; Mobilities; Afro-Asia; India in Africa; Africans in India; West Africa; Voodoo/Vodun. Third Worlder. Cat person.
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meerakat.bsky.social
A short piece on a ongoing project which seeks to understand trajectories of recent African migration to Mumbai, and the contributions of Africans to the city's economic + cultural landscapes. Thanks to @iias.bsky.social + @miasa-ug.bsky.social for support
humanitiesacrossborders.org/blogs/africa...
meerakat.bsky.social
A short piece on a ongoing project which seeks to understand trajectories of recent African migration to Mumbai, and the contributions of Africans to the city's economic + cultural landscapes. Thanks to @iias.bsky.social + @miasa-ug.bsky.social for support
humanitiesacrossborders.org/blogs/africa...
Reposted by Meera Venkatachalam
drlandislife.bsky.social
Trailer of the3rd African feminist film and research (CINEFEMFEST) festival taking place 5-9 November 2025 in Senegal on Ecology, Democracy & Artivism

Bande-annonce du festival africain du film et de la recherche féministe qui se tiendra du 5 au 9 novembre 2025 au Sénégal. youtu.be/AcS6l391f6g?...
Bande-annonce: Festival CINEFEMFEST 2025 sur “Écologie, Démocratie et Artivisme”
YouTube video by CINEFEMFEST: Festival Africain du Film Féministe
youtu.be
Reposted by Meera Venkatachalam
ascleiden.bsky.social
🎉Congratulations to Mayke Kaag! We celebrated her inaugural lecture as Professor of the Anthropology of Politics and Governance in Africa at Leiden University, titled 'Reflections on power, knowledge, and trust. Political dynamics in Africa and beyond'. www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/news/2025...
Reposted by Meera Venkatachalam
gezmccann.bsky.social
Brand new here and pleased to share news of the publication of our new @degruyterbrill.bsky.social book “Beyond Federation: Ideas and Practices of East African Regionalism in a National and Global Age, 1950–1975". Available for free: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...
Reposted by Meera Venkatachalam
Reposted by Meera Venkatachalam
africamultiple.bsky.social
🎙Hot Off the Mic: Don't Miss Our Latest Episode of Cluster Conversations! In this edition, fellow Dr. Renu Modi talks with her host Prof. Dr. Clarissa Vierke about her recent fellowship with the Cluster of Excellence in Bayreuth. www.africamultiple.uni-bayreuth.de/en/1_4-Publi...
Reposted by Meera Venkatachalam
alvinahoffmann.bsky.social
On 9 July, the US imposed sanctions on special rapporteur Francesca Albanese. Below I provide a brief context of this unprecedented attack against this body of experts.
meerakat.bsky.social
My article which examines India's positionality and relations w/Africa in the Third World turned Global South is now open access. Co-authored w/ @danbanik.bsky.social and published by Third World Quarterly
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
www.tandfonline.com
Reposted by Meera Venkatachalam
unrwa.org
UNRWA @unrwa.org · Jul 21
We are receiving desperate messages of starvation from #Gaza, including from our colleagues.

Food prices have increased 40 fold.

UNRWA has enough food for the entire population for over three months, stockpiled just outside Gaza.

Lift the siege and let aid in safely and at scale.
Reposted by Meera Venkatachalam
cobbo3.bsky.social
Bubaraye Dakolo, an influential traditional chief and the traditional ruler of Ekpetiama Kingdom in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta, has demanded that Shell pay $12 billion to address environmental damage caused by decades of oil pollution before divesting its onshore assets in the region - AFP /1
Reposted by Meera Venkatachalam
folukeifejola.bsky.social
#Oldpost. The fiction of an "international community" involves a relationship in which the 'Global North' ignores the African subject in favour of the ‘African project’. This makes it easy for some to take decisions that inevitably result in death for many.

folukeafrica.com/for-africa-t...
For Africa, the International Community is a Dangerous Myth
International law ignores the African subject in favour of the ‘African project’
folukeafrica.com
Reposted by Meera Venkatachalam
miasa-ug.bsky.social
Invitation to upcoming #MIASA Public lecture by Dr. Stephanie Lämmert on "(Un)silencing #women in the colonial #archive" on 27 May 2025 at 3:00 pm (UTC) at the Univ. of Ghana.
Zoom link via: miasa.ug.edu.gh/event/public...
Reposted by Meera Venkatachalam
eosnos.bsky.social
Around D.C., the new going rate is well-known: $5 million for a one-on-one dinner with Trump, but gov-affairs execs have “no clue where the money is eventually going,” one said. Another told me it’s “outer-borough Mafia sh*t.” My new piece is out @newyorker.com www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Donald Trump’s Politics of Plunder
The greed of the new Administration has galvanized America’s aspiring oligarchs—and their opponents.
www.newyorker.com
meerakat.bsky.social
Further, the financial and operational modalities of India's SSC does not differ radically from development cooperation initiated by Africa's other partners.
meerakat.bsky.social
Against this backdrop, India's involvement in south-south cooperation (SSC), which was meant to be an exercise that challenged northern hegemony, has been transformed over the last three decades from a critical counter hegemonic project to functionalist-instrumentalist problem-solving exercise
meerakat.bsky.social
Indians have articulated their role in Africa in terms of a mixture of paternalism and benevolence, informed by a long history of racialized ideas of development and progress which developed during the colonial era
meerakat.bsky.social
it also celebrates its neoliberal success, and techno-economic achievements, upholding a distinctive 'Indian model of development' as worthy of replication in the Global South
meerakat.bsky.social
We argue that India's relationship with Africa has shifted from a sense of Third Worldist solidarity to hierarchy, informed by the idea of exceptionalism. India understands its exceptionalism not just in cultural-civilizational terms, but