Death and Responsibility in the Mediterranean

How African Philosophers challenge Norwegian and Western Perspectives

Abstract

Every year, thousands of refugees drown in the Mediterranean, not far from popular Norwegian holiday destinations on the Spanish coast and the Greek islands. Norwegian aid workers and refugee activists describe European border policies and their own material abundance as shameful and immoral, yet they possess limited political influence and confidence in the possibility of a more just world with radical freedom of movement. This article explores how two prominent African philosophers – Kwame Anthony Appiah and Achille Mbembe – challenge Norwegian and broader western perspectives on global inequality and the mass drownings in the Mediterranean. It begins by examining the growing normalisation of refugee deaths at Europe’s borders, which I argue is closely tied to normative hierarchies and dominant representations of non-western migration as abnormal and undesirable. The article then shows how Norwegian refugee activists' moral and political reflections and resistance are both shaped by and constrained by the “sentimental education” of influential western liberal philosophers such as Peter Singer and John Rawls. The final part introduces alternative arguments from Appiah and Mbembe, who in different ways challenge Norwegian and western perspectives. I conclude by engaging with Mbembe's call to «think planetarily» and imagine a borderless world.