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Time zone: Europe/Berlin
ECAS9 was officially opened by:
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Axel Freimuth (Rector of the University of Cologne)
Prof. Amanda Hammar (President of the Africa-Europe Group of Interdisciplinery Studies (AEGIS))
Prof. Dr. Michael Bollig (Speaker of the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) and the local organising committee for ECAS9)
This was followed by the opening roundtable.
Is there a Future for African Studies in Europe?
It seems contradictory, certainly at first sight. Can a European Conference on African Studies wiggle itself loose from the colonial past? Can one claim to offer spaces for encounters, knowledge transfer and an open exchange of ideas among scholars –from all parts of the world– in a context stained by growing bigotry and racism, by new walls being erected and visas denied? Did we enter a new era of epistemological nationalism? What does this mean for the future of such forms of academic exchange as ours? What is the consequence of the ongoing political and social change in the environment of scientific and scholarly work in a world that we would all like to see as being decolonized, but which isn’t?
This roundtable addresses the possibility and opportunities for the future of hosting African-European collaborations by taking serious the voices of young, rising African scholarly talent. Among the questions it addresses: how can we –given the current political context– create a more hospitable environment for scholars and early stage researchers from the Global South? Is there still a place for African Studies in Europe? How truthful are the academy’s claims towards decolonizing in a context that seems geared towards turning back the clock?
Moderator:
ShaNon Bobinger
ShaNon Bobinger is a media presenter and systemic life and business coach. the focus of her presenting is on social change, with the aim of using inclusive, multi-perspective and diverse communication to promote interactive dialogue and exchange. As a speaker, ShaNon accompanies teams in companies in their process development towards anti-racist organizations (like Amnesty International, the German Federal Police, GIZ).
Her work as a life coach follows a systemic approach, focusing on personal development in an intercultural context.
Speakers:
Dr. Charleston Thomas
Dr. Thomas is a linguist, writer and musician from Trinidad and Tobago, whose work continues the tradition of intellectual labour from Tobago, by bringing together research, storytelling, music-making/performing as a pedagogical practice in the dailiness of careful (or carefree) living. Dr Thomas premises his work on the orality of the Caribbean, as well as on (Afro)Caribbean spiritual practices from which he acquired early insights about how to make sense of the world. Dr Thomas thus utilizes the raw materials from his Caribbean yard to inform what he writes, how he writes, what he plays, and how he sings.
Dr. Divine Fuh
Divine Fuh is Director of HUMA - Institute for Humanities at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, where he is also associate professor of anthropology. His work examines the politics of suffering and smiling amongst urban African youth; the politics of African knowledge production, particularly publishing; and the ethics of Artificial Intelligence in African contexts. He has done work in Cameroon, Botswana, South Africa, and Senegal.
Dr. Faisal Muhammed
Faisal Garba Muhammed is a Senior Lecturer of Sociology at the University of Cape Town (UCT) where he leads the Migration and Mobility research cluster and convenes the Global Studies Programme (GSP). He works on social theory and knowledge production, migration and mobility, labour studies and social movements and working-class forms of organising.
Ndapewa Fenny Nakanyete
Ndapewa Fenny Nakanyete is a geography lecturer and a doctoral candidate at the University of Namibia (UNAM) and the University of Cologne. She holds an MA in Culture and Environment in Africa from the University of Cologne, a Master's degree in Geographic Information Technologies from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and a BA in Geography and Sociology from UNAM. Her current main research interests are sustainable livelihoods, indigenous peoples, decolonising traditional knowledge, global and regional value chains, and rural development. She loves traveling and has so far consciously visited 23 countries in Africa.
Dr. Jonathan Ngeh
Jonathan Ngeh is a Postdoctoral Researcher and a Principal Investigator at the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) Cologne. He received his PhD in sociology from the University of Umeå, Sweden, with a dissertation on the everyday experiences of African migrants in the Swedish city of Malmö. He is engaged in research on Human Trafficking within the context of migration from Africa to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states. Before moving to the GSSC in 2019, he taught Development Theory and Policy courses at the University of Bamenda, Cameroon.
Stha Yeni
Stha is a PhD candidate at the Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape (South Africa). She holds a Masters in Development Studies from the International institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University (Netherlands). Her research areas include feminist organizing, land reform, small-scale agriculture, environmental justice and nature conservation. She has over 15 years of work experience in civil society on land and agrarian transformation in South Africa. She was the national coordinator for Tshintsha Amakhaya (TA), a network of 10 civil society organizations working on land, water and food justice in South Africa. Her work at TA centred around building critical consciousness of rural activists, policy advocacy and campaigns. Prior to that, she worked as a rural transformation programme manager at Oxfam South Africa strengthening the capacity of civil society on land and agrarian struggles and at the Land and Accountability Research Centre (LARC) at the University of Cape Town as a researcher. During her time at LARC she was a lead researcher and narrator in This Land, a documentary which highlights land rights violations by chiefs and capital and resistance by the villagers. She is the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Fellow (2021-2022) and the Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity (2018).
We cannot talk about African Futures if we do not speak about the African past and the achievements of those who came before us and set a footprint. When we include the narratives and stories of African scholars within German Academia, we are not only in the process of decolonizing this university but also producing relevant knowledge. By making these narratives visible we are rewriting these African scholars back to the academy making these hidden histories visible. I chose to speak about Prof. Joseph Major Nyasani because I know many of us have not heard this name in this university before and the question is why? Prof. Nyasani was the first African student to write his Ph.D. thesis in Latin at the University of Cologne and broke a 300/100-year-old record in 1969. ( Dr. Rahab Njeri Uni Köln)
After the lecture, we would like to engage in a discussion with you on central issues and questions that came up in the talk, relating to structural inequalities, language politics, the colonial history of science and its present.
Organized by: Forum Decolonizing Academia, Department Gender & Diversity Management University of Cologne, Autonomous BIPoC Department of the University of Cologne, Kölner Universitätsstiftung, Global South Studies Center (GSSC)
“Humans, not places, make memories”. Ama Ata Aidoo
Dress Cultures in Zambia: Interwoven Histories, Global Exchanges, and Everyday LifeKaren Tranberg Hansen
Philosophikum, S67 (This is a change of room from earlier)
Drawing on half-a-century of research in Zambia and regional scholarship, Karen
Tranberg Hansen offers a vibrant history of changing dress practices from the latecolonial
period to the present day. Exploring how the dressed body serves as the
point of contact between personal, local, and global experiences, she argues that
dress is just as central to political power as it is to personal style. Questioning the
idea that the West led fashion trends elsewhere, Hansen demonstrates how local
dress conventions appropriated western dress influences as Zambian and shows
how Zambia contributed to global fashions, such as the colourful Chitenge fabric
that spread across colonial trading networks. Brought to life with colour
illustrations and personal anecdotes, this book spotlights dress not only as an
important medium through which Zambian identities are negotiated, but also as a
key reflector and driver of history.
Exploring Economic Reintegration in Namibia. Individual Trajectories of PLAN Ex-Fighters and SWAPO Exiles, 1989–2018
Tichaona Mazarire
Philosophikum, S57
Exploring Economic Reintegration in Namibia: Individual Trajectories of PLAN Ex-Fighters and SWAPO Exiles, 1989–2018 draws from life histories to present constraints and possibilities that have shaped former SWAPO exiles’ economic reintegration in post-colonial Namibia from 1989 through 2018. The book advances three arguments, each of which pushes beyond existing scholarship on Namibia and/or economic reintegration broadly. Collectively, these arguments challenge dominant narratives that have generalized former SWAPO exiles’ economic reintegration experiences, highlighting that there is no single narrative that can describe their unique life stories of reintegration in the post-colony.
Tichaona Mazarire obtained his PhD in Africa Studies (trans-disciplinary doctorate degree) from the University of the Free State (2020). He is currently a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the School of Government Studies at North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, South Africa. His research interests include African politics, public policy and socio-economic inequalities. This book is based on his doctoral thesis.
Contact Languages and Music
Andrea Hollington, Joseph T. Farquharson, Byron M. Jones Jr
Philosophikum, S58
Language and music are connected in many ways. As social and cultural practices, they have been intertwined in multiple ways. Musical and linguistic practices are often intertwined to express distinct and complex identities, attitudes, ideologies, social roles and political views. Spaces characterized by migration, contact, multilingualism, and colonial inequalities, are particularly interesting for the study of the intersections between language and music.
This volume is the first book-length account of contact languages and music. It offers a stimulating collection of contributions on different territories, multiple musical genres and topics, and various methodological approaches. The chapters address myriad topics such as nationality, ethnicity, identity, gender, migration and diaspora.
Cosmopolitan Refugees. Somali Migrant Women in Nairobi and Johannesburg
Nereida Ripero-Muñiz
In conversation with Loren Landau and Sahra Ahmed Koshin
Philosophikum, S63
Exploring the dynamics of identity formation processes in diasporic spaces, this book analyses how gender, cultural and religious practices are renegotiated in a situation of displacement. The author presents the comparative case study of Somali migrant women in Nairobi and Johannesburg: two cosmopolitan urban hubs in the global South. The book is based on and includes ethnographic observations in Nairobi and Johannesburg, first-person accounts of migration journeys across the African continent and women’s reflections on what it means to be a Somali woman today.
This land is not for sale: Trust and transition in northern Uganda
Lotte Meinert, Susan Reynolds Whyte, Julaina Obika
Philosophikum, S65
Although violent conflict has declined in northern Uganda, tensions and mistrust concerning land have increased. Residents try to deal with acquisitions by investors and exclusions from forests and wildlife reserves. Land wrangles among neighbours and relatives are widespread. The growing commodification of land challenges ideals of entrustment for future generations. Using extended case studies, collaborating researchers analyze the principles and practices that shape access to land. Contributors examine the multiplicity of land claims, the nature of transactions and the management of conflicts. They show how access to land is governed through intimate relations of gender, generation and belonging.
Rebellious Riots
Sam Kniknie, Karen Büscher
Philosophikum, S78
Is violent conflict in Africa urbanizing? How do urban protests and civil war intersect? How do narratives, mechanisms and identities of contention move between urban and rural arenas? These questions constitute the basis of investigation and analysis of this unique cross-disciplinary volume. Applying diverging perspectives and methods from political science, anthropology and urban African studies, the book carefully constructs the relational and entangled nature of contemporary forms of contentious politics in Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Ethiopia.
Zimbos Never Die?
Ushehwedu Kufakurinani, Eric Kushinga Makombe, Nathaniel Chimhete, and Pius Nyambara
Philosophikum, S82
This book seeks to explore how the Zimbabwean society and its institutions have survived if not succumbed to continuous economic crises in the country. From the 1990s Zimbabwe experienced a sustained economic decline challenged by both internal and external strains. Coupled with internal mis-governance and corruption, the nation plunged into a political and economic crisis which culminated in the second highest world inflation rate for an economy that is not at war. In the face of the harsh and continuously deteriorating economic environments, Zimbabweans as individuals as well as part of institutions adopted various strategies to negotiate and survive the economic scourge.
Concrete City: Material Flows and Urbanization in West Africa
Armelle Choplin in conversation with Garth Myers
Seminargebaude, Seminarraum 14 (This is a change of room from earlier)
Concrete City: Material Flows and Urbanization in West Africa delivers a theoretically informed,
ethnographic exploration of the African urban world through the life of concrete. Emblematic
of frenetic urban and capitalistic development, this material is pervasive, shaping contemporary
urban landscapes and societies and their links to the global world. It stands and circulates at
the heart of major financial investments, political forces and environmental debates. At the
same time, it epitomises values of modernity and success, redefining social practices, forms of
dwelling and living, and popular imaginaries.
It was our great pleasure to invite you to celebrate the opening of ECAS 9 “African Futures” at the “Depot| Schauspiel Köln”.
The event simultaneously serves as the opening of ECAS 2023 as well as the “AfriCologne” Theatre festival taking place in Cologne from 1 to 11 June. Both events are collaborators under the umbrella of the “African Futures – all around” program, initiated by the city of Cologne and the Global South Studies Centre (GSSC, University of Cologne) in collaboration with Afro-Diasporic and other civil society initiatives as well as cultural platforms in and around Cologne and North Rhine-Westphalia against the backdrop of the ECAS conference and aims to transport the topics, themes and discussions of the ECAS conference into the wider public sphere.
We would like to extend a special welcome to the mayor of Cologne Henriette Reker and the rector of the University of Cologne Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Axel Freimuth who will commence the evening with their welcoming words followed by a performance by representatives of local African communities. In addition, we are excited to welcome Yvonne Adhiambo Owour (with the kind support of the Jutta Vogel Foundation) as our keynote speaker. With her keynote entitled “Inscribing African Futures - from the Continent to the Galaxies” she will set the tone for the conference days to come. The evening culminates with the premiere of the theatre play "Samson", which kicks off the “AfriCologne” theatre festival.
The event location, the “Carlswerk” in Cologne is a former factory turned into a cultural institution and site. The adjacent “Carls Garten” is the perfect place to enjoy sun and greenery before and after the performances. The surrounding neighbourhood of Cologne Mülheim offers a variety of culinary treats, most notably along Keupstraße which is almost entirely made up of Turkish and Kurdish shops and restaurants and is known throughout Germany as a vibrant centre of multicultural business activity.
All registered ECAS participants will receive a complementary welcome drink (all other drinks, food and theatre ticket are at own expenses). We wish you a pleasant and unforgettable time in Cologne and we are confident that these events will inspire us and offer new perspectives on the conference and festival themes.
SCHAUSPIEL KÖLN/Depot 1, Schanzenstr. 6-20, 51063 Köln
https://www.africologne-festival.de/en/program/samson
SAMSON uproots the popular biblical myth from its religious context, and transplants it into a dystopian contemporary landscape of unbridled capitalism, human displacement, xenophobia and violence. It reflects on the historical injustices and repressed rage that so often underlie the ruthless acts of terror committed by marginalized, alienated men.
Brett Bailey’s SAMSON is a hard-edged, ritualized music-theatre production, set to a rousing live electronic score composed by one of South Africa’s foremost musicians, Shane Cooper. The work features opera, choral vocals, tight ensemble work and sweeping video scenography.
Making African Futures: Taming copyright
Copyright continues to gain ground, even beyond Europe, its birthplace. From a matter for connoisseurs, originally focused on the publication and distribution of written works, this legal concept extends to the oral domain, and is becoming a subject of economic development more or less imposed by international organisations and by the ex-colonies, which are adopting them. The hunt for 'pirates' is on. Despite the criticism of specialists, the voices of ordinary users, especially from sub-Saharan Africa, are rather rare. The following lines consider the considerable negative impact that copyright law, as a modern institution par excellence, is likely to have on those directly concerned.
Mamadou Diawara is research professor of anthropology at Goethe University; director of Point Sud, The Center for Research on Local Knowledge, Bamako; and deputy director of the Frobenius Institut. He is Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy; Fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin; of The Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Study; John G. Diefenbaker Fellow, Canada; and member of the Council of the International African Institute
Power/Knowledge/Land: Contested Ontologies of Land and its Governance in AfricaLaura A. German
Philosophikum, S67 (This is a room change)
The 2008 outcry over the “global land grab” made headlines around the world, leading to a sustained interest in the dynamics and fate of customary land among both academics and development practitioners. In Power/Knowledge/Land, author Laura German profiles the consolidation of a global knowledge regime surrounding land and its governance within international development circles in the decade following this outcry, and the growing enrollment of previously antagonistic actors within it. Drawing theoretical insights on the inseparability of power and knowledge, German reveals the dynamics of knowledge practices that have enabled the longstanding project of commodifying customary land – and the more contemporary interests in acquiring and financializing it – to be advanced and legitimated by capturing the energies of socially progressive forces. By bringing theories of change from the emergent land governance orthodoxy into dialogue with the ethnographic evidence from across the African continent and beyond, concepts masquerading as universal and self-evident truths are provincialized, and their role in commodifying customary land and entrenching colonial futurities put on display. In doing so, the volume brings wider academic debates surrounding productive forms of power into the heart of the land grab debate, while enhancing their accessibility to a wider audience.
Gendered Dichotomies in African Youth Language and Language Practices
Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju
Co-convenor: Prof. Dr. Uta Reuster-Jahn
Philosophikum, S57
The gender perspective has not received the
deserved focus in youth language studies in Africa. This is partly due to the
general perception that youth languages and classic youth language practices,
such as slang and anti-language, are male-oriented. This new pathbreaking
book explores gendered representations from several youth languages across the
continent, covering Sheng (Kenya) Tsotsitaal (South Africa), Camfranglais
(Cameroon), Lugha ya Mitaani (Tanzania), Luyaaye (Uganda), S’ncamtho (Zimbabwe).
Beyond classic topics of African Youth language studies, the contributors
examine gendered hustle language in Kenya, orgasmic discourses, anti-languages,
pidginization, and queer/straight discourse dichotomies in Nigeria, as well as fluid
gender identity doing by women in the African Diaspora in New Zealand. With a
foreword by Mokaya Bosire and afterword by Fiona Mc Laughlin, the book engages debates
relating to gender binaries and gender multiplicities in relation to African
youth languages and youth practices.
Religiosity on University Campuses in Africa: Trends and Experiences
Abdoulaye Sounaye, Frederick Madore
Philosophikum, S58
This volume
examines religiosity on university campuses in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Focusing on both individuals and organized groups, the contributions
open a window onto how religion becomes
a factor, affects social interactions, is experienced and mobilized by
various actors. It brings together case studies from various
disciplinary backgrounds (anthropology, sociology, history, religious
studies) and theoretical orientations to illustrate the
significance of religiosity in recent developments on university
campuses. It pays a particular attention to religion-informed activism
and contributes a fresh analysis of processes that are shaping both the
experience of being student and the university campus
as a moral space. Finally, it sheds light onto the ways in which the
campus becomes a site of a reformulation of both religiosity and
sociality.
Learning Morality, Inequalities, and Faith: Christian and Muslim Schools in Tanzania
Hansjörg Dilger
Words of welcome by Adeline Masquelier (Tulane University, Co-editor of the International
African Library monograph series), with responses by Mara Leichtman (Michigan State University) and Insa Nolte (University of Birmingham, currently Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin).
Philosophikum, S63
Christian and Muslim schools have become important target points in families and pupils’ quests for new study opportunities and securing a ‘good life’ in Tanzania. This book explores the emerging entanglements of faith, morality, and the educational market in Dar es Salaam, thereby shedding light on processes of religious institutionalisation and their individual and collective embodiment. By contextualising these dynamics through analysis of the politics of Christian-Muslim relations in postcolonial Tanzania, Dilger shows how the field of education has shaped the positions of these highly diverse religious communities in diverging ways. In doing so, he suggests that students and teachers’ religious experience and practice in faith-oriented schools are shaped by the search for socio-moral belonging as well as by the power relations and inequalities of an interconnected world. More info.
Politics and the Urban Frontier: Transformation and Divergence in Late Urbanizing East Africa
Tom Goodfellow
Philosophikum, S65
Despite the rise of global technocratic ideals of city-making, cities around the world are not merging into indistinguishable duplicates of one another. In fact, as the world urbanizes, urban formations remain diverse in their socioeconomic and spatial characteristics, with varying potential to foster economic development and social justice. In this book, Tom Goodfellow argues that these differences are primarily rooted in politics, and if we continue to view cities as economic and technological projects to be managed rather than terrains of political bargaining and contestation, the quest for better urban futures is doomed to fail. Dominant critical approaches to urban development tend to explain difference with reference to the variegated impacts of neoliberal regulatory institutions. This, however, neglects the multiple ways in which the wider politics of capital accumulation and distribution drive divergent forms of transformation in different urban places.
In order to unpack the politics that shapes differential urban development, this book focuses on East Africa as the global urban frontier: the least urbanized but fastest urbanizing region in the world. Drawing on a decade of research spanning three case study countries (Ethiopia, Rwanda, and Uganda), Politics and the Urban Frontier provides the first sustained, book-length comparative analysis of urban development trajectories in Eastern Africa and the political dynamics that underpin them. Through a focus on infrastructure investment, urban propertyscapes, street-level trading economies, and urban political protest, it offers a multi-scalar, historically-grounded, and interdisciplinary analysis of the urban transformations unfolding in the world's most dynamic crucible of urban change.
Conflict Minerals, Inc. War, Profit and White Saviourism in Eastern Congo
Christoph N. Vogel
Philosophikum, S76
In the twenty-first century, the relationship between violent conflict and natural resources has become a matter of intense public and academic debate. As a result of fervent activism and international campaigning, the flagship case of ‘conflict minerals’ has captured global attention. This term groups together the artisanal tin, tantalum (coltan), tungsten and gold originating from war zones in Central Africa.
Known as ‘digital minerals’ for their use in high-end technology, their exploitation and trade has been singled out in numerous media and United Nations reports as a key driver of violence, provoking an unprecedented popular outcry and prompting transnational efforts to promote ‘conflict-free’, ethical mining. Focusing on the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Conflict Minerals, Inc. is the first comprehensive analysis of this phenomenon.
Based on meticulous investigation and long-term fieldwork, this book analyses why the campaign against ‘unethical’ mining went awry, and radically disrupted eastern Congo’s political economy. It dissects the evolution of the conflict minerals paradigm, the policy responses it triggered and their impact on artisanal miners. Vogel demonstrates how Western advocacy and policy have relied on colonial frames to drive change, and how White Saviourism perpetuates structural violence and inequality across global supply and value chains.
Keynote: Unterstanding the past and searching for a future identity: perspectives from Egypt
Introduced by Prof. Anne Storch (African Studies, University of Cologne)
Reem Bassiouney is an Egyptian professor of sociolinguistics and Chair of the Department of Applied Linguistics at The American University in Cairo. She is the editor of the Routledge Series of Language and Identity. Bassiouney is also an award-winning novelist.
African Futures: Let’s Celebrate!
The ECAS 9 farewell party is the perfect way to wrap up a week of insightful discussions and thought-provoking panels, presentations and more. We invite you to join us in the serene surroundings of Stadtgarten Cologne. As a registered ECAS participant, you will be treated to a complementary welcome drink at the Stadtgarten’s prestine outdoor hang-out area, the “Green Room” where you can mingle and connect with fellow researchers and “African Futures - all around attendees. Please note: in order to receive your free welcome drink, please make sure to register at the little information stall at the entrance where ECAS volunteers will provide you with a special voucher.
For the latter part of the evening, we invite you to the Stadtgarten’s on site club “Yaki” to close out the evening. Here you can expect modern dance music brought to you by DJs including DJane Filar, DJ Doritos and DJ Freegah. This part of the evening will be a collaboration with Club Yaki’s “Tom Tom” series and open to the general public as well. In the earlier hours of the evening (starting at 8 pm), and simultaneously to the ECAS farewell party, the Oluzayo Music Festival, featuring some of the best African music and dance performances from across the continent, will host a concert at the Stadtgarten featuring Victor Gama & Salmoé Pais Motas "tectonik: Tombwa", thus underlining the synergies of the various pillars of the “African Futures – all around”.
We hope you'll join us for this special occasion, as we bid farewell to the ECAS 9 conference and look forward to the future of African scholarship and research. Mark your calendars for an evening of fun and camaraderie at the ECAS farewell party!
