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Accepted Paper:

Recursive histories of Africa: uncovering colonial entanglements through the lens of the long durée  
Thandeka Cochrane (King's College London)

Paper short abstract:

Based on a project combining archival and ethnographic fieldwork this contribution argues that we need to look towards history to be able to uncover the colonial entanglements that shape African realities today.

Paper long abstract:

This contribution draws on the experience of over three years work on a mixed methods project at the intersection of history, anthropology and sociology. The project, ‘Cartographies of Cancer: epidemiologists and malignancy in sub-Saharan Africa’, offers a long durée analysis of the creation and production of cancer research and cancer data in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on archival work in over 12 archives in the UK, US, France, Kenya, South Africa, Ivory Coast and Uganda, the project shows the historical and colonial roots of the emergence of cancer research on the continent. This is coupled with ethnographic fieldwork at cancer registries in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ivory Coast and Zimbabwe which unpack the current practice of cancer data production. This mixed methods approach shows the importance of combining history and anthropology in order to show the recursive histories (Ann Stoler) that shape and form contemporary African realities. With this contribution I would discuss both the difficulties of undertaking such a mixed methods approach, as well as the importance of doing anthropology with history in order to engage in decolonial practices.

Panel R01
Anthropology and history: productive tensions between archives and ethnography