Guest Lecture: Breaking Bureaucracy: Fraud and Forgery in the “postcolonial neo-colonised world”; Speaker: Yusuf Serunkuma

Abstract:

This seminar discusses forgery and fraud as a counterpublic – an alternative, almost subversive authentication of claims (identity, knowledge and ownership) towards mobility and survival. The project examines how counterfeit and forgery – often perceived negatively through the lens of law and morality – can be understood as forms of resistance and survival strategies where colonial/modern bureaucracy is not only disconnected from the lived realities of ordinary people, but also often privileges those in power. Focusing on the manufacture of documents in Eastern Africa, this seminar on the one hand, argues for the liberational, emancipatory and decolonial possibilities of fraud and forgery in postcolonial Africa,” and on the other, how ordinary individuals negotiate their dreams, interests and livelihoods in a system often designed to keep them outside.

Yusuf Serunkuma is a postdoctoral fellow at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, at KU Leuven in Belgium. He is a cultural studies major, who focuses on nationalist sentiments and new colonialism. He has researched and taught courses in decolonial studies, literature and political economy. He is also a columnist in Ugandan newspapers, The Observer and a playwright. He is the author of the play, The Snake Farmers, a recommended reading for high schools in Rwanda and Ugandan. The Meat Festivals by Fountain Publishers is his latest play and is also recommended for high school curricula in Uganda. Dr Serunkuma writes regularly for ROAPE, The Elephant in Kenya and the Pan-African Review in Rwanda. His latest book is titled Surrounded: Democracy, Free Markets and Other Entrapments of New Colonialism (Kampala: Editor House Facility, 2025).
 
This lecture is open to the public.

For virtual participation via Zoom, please use the following link:

https://uni-freiburg.zoom-x.de/j/66636490039?pwd=vQQ29FRhlEvdJOoqn95efb9rWa388d.1

Meeting-ID: 666 3649 0039
Kenncode: Q6p2VgaFv