
Interdisciplinary Areas Studies and Transdisciplinary Research
Research Network Africa
Basel has become a centre for Africa-related research. This development is rooted in a long research tradition at various institutions in the region and has been fostered by the University of Basel's strong commitment to research on, in, with and for Africa. Our Centre acts as an interface for exchange between disciplines, faculties and institutions outside the University.
Six key areas of activities (KAAs) have been defined on the basis of the competence and fields of research at the University of Basel and its partner institutions. In addition, each affiliated subject area, department and institution has its own research profile.
Research in the five key areas will help to close important gaps in our understanding of the processes of rapid change in Africa, provide opportunities to tackle conceptual and methodological challenges in interdisciplinary and disciplinary research, and contribute to social development on the continent.
Departments and partner organisations
The Research Network Africa is based on the competences and activities of different research groups, subject areas and departments at the University of Basel and at various partner organisations. They all contribute to research on, in, with and for Africa, as well as to teaching and training at ZASB.
News

/ Research
Newsletter of the Swiss Society for African Studies
Pandemic, Corona virus, lockdown, home office, economic and social crisis - unsurprisingly, these keywords of the year 2020 also echo in the latest newsletter of the Swiss Society for African Studies.![[Translate to English:] Stephen Kapinde](/fileadmin/_processed_/5/8/csm_PB020579_kapinde_c5fa64cadf.jpg?1606745992)
/ Research, Doctorate/PhD, People
Faculty of Theology prize for Stephen Kapinde
We congratulate Stephen Kapinde who was honored by the Faculty of Theology for his doctoral thesis. In his research he describes the development of the relationship between the Anglican church and the state using post-colonial Kenya as a...
/ Research, Events
Call for papers: 6th African History Day - Reflecting on African History Produced in Switzerland
The 6th African History Day will take place in Zurich and/or via Zoom on 11 March 2021. The focus is on collaborations with African partners. The event is an opportunity for historians working on Africa in Basel, Zurich and beyond to...Alter | Balz Andrea | Back from greener pastures |
Altrogge | Judith | Context and Agency in Assisted Return Migration to the Gambia. Migration regimes and the political effect of return |
Amadou | Mamane Tassiou | Youth and public sphere in Niger: dynamics of the ‘fadas’ of Zinder |
Arowosegbe | Olalekan Oluwaseyi | Constructing surface level particulate matter concentration statistical models and investigating the association between particulate matter air pollution and adverse health outcomes in South Africa |
Bachmann | Samuel | The Future of African Heritage in Switzerland |
Badoux | Miriam | Corruption, Conflict and Cities in East and West Africa |
Bishop | Stephanie | Zambian Water Diaries: Technology in Practice |
Brunner | Nina | The impact of scaling up rectal artesunate on severe malaria case management practices in three Sub-Saharan Africa countries |
Buhl-Colmsee | Andrea Christina | Images of Palliative Care in Tanzania – A Hospital-Ethnography in a Cancer Clinic in Dar es Salaam |
Daoua | Raja | Emerging Trends, Developments and Opportunities of Islamic Finance: The Moroccan Case |
Dietler | Dominik | Associations between natural resource extraction projects and environmental determinants of health in Africa |
Dugsiye | Sharmarke Jama | Pastoral Conflict Management and the Role of Indigenous Knowledge in Managing Pastoral Conflicts, Somali Region, Ethiopia |
Geuder | Jacob | Images of Movements – YouTube and the Right to the City |
Giroux | Jennifer | Violence Next to Peace: Toggling between social spaces in the Niger Delta |
Gonsalves | Lianne | Understanding the appeal of pharmacies as points of contraceptive access for young people in Kenya |
Graf | Andrea | Out of Sight? Bilharzia in Madagascar as a Global History of ‘Neglected Tropical Diseases’, 1950 to the present |
Herzog | Kai Florian | Violent Encounters: Practices and Perceptions of Violence in Southern Namibia and the Northern Cape, c. 1880-1910 |
Ilesanmi | Tolulope Esther | Engendering the Colony: Maternal Health, Indigenous Knowledge and European Medicine in Southwest Nigeria, 1925-1960 |
Jenni | Franziska | Art/articulations: Art and the formation of Social Space in African Cities |
Kanyimba | Tebuho Winnie | |
Karim | Aliya | A Systems-Wide Analysis of the RAcE Programme: A Multi-Case Health System Study of an Integrated Community Case Management Program in Five African Countries |
Kifyasi | Andrea Azizi | Diplomatic History of China Medical Assistance to Africa, a Case study of Tanzania, 1960s to 2015 |
Kocher | Eva | The formation of the Sub-Saharan insurance industry in the second half of the 20th century |
Larsen | Maren | Camp Space and Urbanity in Goma, Eastern DR Congo |
Leuenberger | Andrea | Associations between natural resource extraction projects and social determinants of health in Africa |
Lühe | Ulrike | Knowledge production and transitional justice in Mozambique |
Lyonga | Frida | Homosexuality and the African: Change and Persistence of Homophobic Attitudes among African Migrants in Switzerland |
Matowo | Nancy | Entomological and molecular characterization, insecticide resistance testing and screening for arboviruses, filarial worm and malaria parasites in culicine species in Ulanga and Kilombero districts, south-eastern Tanzania |
Maurer Rueda | Matthias | |
McBride | Sindi-Leigh | Political settlements and public spheres: comparative analysis of economic sophistication in South Africa and Nigeria |
Mhlanga | Shakuntala | Associations of pesticide exposure and media use on the neurobehavior of children in the Western Cape, South Africa |
Michel | Janet | Towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) policy-roll out experience in South Africa. Lessons learned and recommendations aimed at reducing policy and practice gaps in UHC policy implemetation |
Müller | Barbara | The Student Movement and the Matabeleland Conflict in Zimbabwe |
Mussie | Kirubel | Ethical issues in the care of older people in Ethiopia |
N'Dri | Bédjou Prisca | Malaria in Elibou region, south of Côte d’Ivoire: transmission and insecticide resistance |
Ngwenya | Brian | Order, Politics and Memory: African Police and State-Making in Zimbabwe, c1960-90 |
Nielsen | Lotte | Making the City: The Politics and Potentiality of Urban Uncertainty in Johannesburg, South Africa |
Nimako | Belinda | Linkages between Natural Resource Extraction Projects and the Health System for Sustainable Development |
Pring | Jamie | The role of African mediators in promoting inclusivity in international peace mediation |
Rensing | Julia | Namibia-Germany: A Post-Colonial Heterotopia? Narratives and Negotiations of Colonial Legacies in Namibia and Germany |
Rudnicka | Marta | Tastescapes in Ghana. Eating, tasting and culinary praxis in northern Ghana |
Rutishauser | Melina | Participation in Social Health Protection: Women’s Engagement in Tanzania |
Sampayo Vidal | Melanie | Violences et Résistances dans le théâtre postcolonial au Mali |
Sarr | Khadeeja "Haddy" | Narratives of Identity, Multi-Sited Biographies, and Transnational Life-Modes of Highly Qualified Migrants. Senegambia Migrants in Switzerland and Swiss Migrants in Senegambia |
Scotto | Giulia | Oil Infrastructure and decolonization: ENI’s “African Scheme” |
Sewordor | Ernest | British Imperial Imagination, Colonial Infrastructure, and the Cape-to-Cairo Road, c.1890-1960 |
Shayo | Kuwawenaruwa August Joachim | Effects of the regional complementary pharmaceutical supply system on improving access to medicines in Dodoma and Morogoro regions, Tanzania |
Shrikhande | Shreya | Effects of climate change on cardiovascular diseases in South Africa |
Tanner | Mathias | Interfaith Peacebuilding. Examining the Impact of Interfaith Peacebuilding Initiatives in a Violent Political Conflict with an Ethno-Religious Dimension in Jos, Nigeria |
Tepebas | Ufuk | The role of Turkey’s development assistance policy in its foreign trade with East Africa |
Unseld | Frederik | Art and the formation of Social Space in African Cities Third-party funded project |
Vögele | Pius Jonas | Afrofuturism Echoes Back – Hip Hop’s Sonic Fictions from Black Atlantis |
Wetterich | Cita | Violence against male Refugees – Patterns, Factors and Consequences for Individuals and Communities |
Wüthrich Grossenbacher | Ursula |
Admasie | Samuel Andreas | 2018 | Dynamics of Assertive Unionism in Ethiopia |
Aeby | Michael | 2016 | Zimbabwe's Gruelling Transition: Interim power-sharing and conflict management in Southern Africa |
Akawa | Martha | 2010 | The Gender Politics of the Namibian Liberation Struggle |
Alba | Sandra | 2010 | An Evaluation of Integrated Interventions to Improve Access to Malaria Treatment in Tanzania (ACCESS PROGRAMME) |
Ammann | Carole | 2017 | The Work of State Imageries: Women and the Imageries of the State in Guinea |
Barratt | Christopher | 2017 | Using Next Generation Sequencing data to estimate the Biodiversity value of the Coastal Forests of East Africa |
Bekele | Demissie Ferdissa | 2014 | Ethnic Decentralization and Negotiating Statehood in Urban Ethiopia: A Case Study of Adama and Hawassa Cities |
Bobie | Owusuaa Adwoa | 2020 | Rebranding African, Reclothing Africa: The influence of Emerging Designers in the Production of Aesthetic Cosmopolitanism in Nigerian Fashion Industry |
Boehi | Melanie | 2018 | A South African social garden: people, plants and multispecies histories in the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden |
Büchele | Julia | 2017 | Expat Spouses in Kampala, Uganda: An Ethnography of Migration from the Global North |
Bueno Bittencourt Silva | Gabriela | 2017 | Lacuna Mozambique : adding an important piece to the African jigsaw puzzle |
Bwong | Beryl Akoth | 2017 | At the crossroads of two biodiversity hotspots : the biogeographic patterns of Shimba Hills, Kenya |
Ding | Jin | 2020 | Mutual expectations and impact of Chinese corperations operating in Africa on African communities and societies |
Dongus | Stefan | 2009 | Urban agriculture and operational mosquito larvae control: mitigating malaria risk in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
Dreier | Marcel | 2015 | Health Care, Welfare, and Development in Rural Africa: Catholic health services in Ifakara/Tanzania in the 20th century |
Dumbaugh | Mari | 2017 | Influencing Factors on the Utilization of Maternal Health Services and Uptake of Family Planning in the Context of Conditional Cash Transrers, South Kivu, DRC |
Egloff | René | 2012 | Fotografie in Bamenda: Eine ethnographische Untersuchung in einer kamerunischen Stadt |
Engeler | Michelle | 2013 | Youth and the State in Guinea: Meandering Lives |
Erismann | Séverine | 2017 | Children’s intestinal parasite and nutritional patterns in face of integrated school garden, nutrition, water, sanitation and hygiene interventions in central Burkina Faso |
Frei | Bettina | 2012 | Sociality Revisited? The Use of the Internet and Mobile Phones in Urban Cameroon. |
Fuh | Divine | 2009 | Youth Masculinities and Prestige in Bamenda, Cameroon |
Fürst | Thomas | 2015 | Assessing morbidity and burden due to neglected tropical diseases at different geographical scales |
Gehler Mariacher | Gabriele M. | 2008 | Drug donations in Tanzania. Stakeholders' perception and knowledge |
Geissbühler | Yvonne | 2008 | Ecology and epidemiology of integrated malaria vector management in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
Gerold | Jana | 2013 | Full of Life: old age and care in urban Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
Giustizieri-Haberstroh | Christine | 2014 | Writing the City. Narratives of Johannesburg’s Urban Space in Contemporary South African Literature |
Granado | Stefanie | 2007 | "C'est le palu qui me fatigue" : une étude en l'anthropologie de la santé sur les conceptions et les pratiques locales face au paludisme à Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire |
Grolimund | Andrea | 2018 | Ageing, Agency and Health in Dar es Salaam |
Gross | Karin | 2012 | Access to malaria prophylaxis and antenatal care in south-eastern Tanzania The role of institutions and livelihoods |
Guyer | Nanina | 2015 | Picturing Secrecy - A History of the Visualization of "Secret Societies" in Historical Photographs from West Africa |
Hammel | Tanja | 2018 | Shaping Science and Society at the Cape – A Relational History of Mary Elizabeth Barber |
Heer | Barbara | 2015 | Spaces of Encounter and Unequal Neighbourhoods. A Comparative Ethnography of Agency, Space and Difference in Maputo and Johannesburg |
Heitz Tokpa | Katharina Elisabeth | 2013 | Trust and Distrust in Rebel-Held Côte d’Ivoire |
Hella | Jerry | 2020 | Tuberculosis transmission in rural and urban Tanzania: A modelling approach using shared re-breathed air in estimating airborne disease transmission |
Hellmüller | Sara Anna | 2014 | Bridging the Gap – Examining Local Dimensions of International Peacebuilding in the DR Congo |
Hürlimann | Eveline | 2014 | Effects of parasitic infections on clinical outcomes, self-rated quality of life and physical fitness in Côte d’Ivoire |
Indermaur | Adrian | 2016 | Comparative ecology and phylogeography in east African cichild fishes |
JeanRichard-dit-Bressel | Verena | 2013 | Crowding at Lake Chad: An Integrated Approach to Demographic and Health Surveillance of Mobile Pastoralists and Their Animals |
Jimu | Ignasio Malizani | 2011 | Peri-urban Land Transactions: Everyday Practices and Relations in Peri-urban Blantyre, Malawi |
Kapinde | Stephen Asol | 2020 | Political Sermons in Kenyas Quest for Democratic Governance between 1986 and 2010: A case Study of the selected sermons from the three Anglican Clergy |
Kaufmann | Andrea | 2013 | Spaces of Imagination Associational Life and the State in Post-War, Urban Liberia |
Keitel | Kristina | 2017 | e-POCT: Improving health outcomes of febrile childresn in Tanzania through innovative point-of-care technologies at the primary care level |
Kesselring | Rita | 2013 | Bodies of Truth. Law, Memory, and Emancipation in Post-Apartheid South Africa |
Koechlin Jappert | Lucy | 2010 | Corruption as an Empty Signifier: Politics and Political Order in Africa |
Krenz | Juliane | 2019 | Land degradation and Carbon erosion in Southern Africa |
Kusmierz | Katrin Dorothea | 2010 | Theology in Transition. Public Theologies in Post-Apartheid South Africa |
Laube | Anne | 2018 | The Organisation of Violence in the Actions of the Lord’s Resistance Army |
Liedtke | Hans Christoph | 2014 | The Evolution of Terrestrial Breeding in African Amphibians |
Ludwig | Susann | 2018 | La chance: En Ethnography. University Graduates making Sense of Uncertainty in Bamako, Mali |
Luthra Sinha | Bobby | 2016 | A Comparative Interpretation of Peoples’ Movements: Actors, Evolving Consciousness and Democratic Imagination in India and South Africa |
Massue | Dennis | 2019 | Long-Lasting Insecticide Treated Bed Net (LLINs) for malaria control in Tanzania: Barriers to physical and chemical protection |
Matthys | Barbara | 2007 | The effect of irrigated urban agriculture on malaria, schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis in different settings of Côte d'Ivoire |
Mbilo | Céline | 2020 | Rabies Epidemiology in DR Congo and Chad |
Meier | Lukas | 2012 | Swiss Science, African Decolonization and the Rise of Global Health, 1940-2010 |
Mengistu | Abebe Ameha | 2012 | Amphibian diversity, distribution and conservation in the Ethiopian highlands : morphological, molecular and biogeographic investigation on Leptopelis and Ptychadena (Anura) |
Merron | James | 2017 | Travelling technologies of the environment: Knowledges of water management and the transformation of land in South Africa |
Mhalu | Grace | 2019 | Identifying community determinants of health seeking behaviour and the contribution of socio-cultural and gender aspects to improve tuberculosis case detection in Tanzania |
Miescher | Giorgio | 2009 | Die Rote Linie. Die Geschichte der Veterinär– und Siedlungsgrenze in Namibia (1890er –1960er Jahre) |
Mlotshwa | Langelihle | 2019 | Exploring incident HIV in Pregnant Women and Sexual Risk Behaviours and Practices in Soweto, South Africa |
Moreillon | Olivier | 2017 | Reading the Post-Apartheid City. Urbanite and Capetonian Literary Topographies in Selected Texts Beyond 2000 |
Mulugeta Abebe | Allemmaya | 2008 | The potential of local institutions on conflict transformation among pastoralists: Case study in upper and middle Awash Valley of Ethiopia |
Nambuusi | Betty Bukenya | 2019 | Assessing the effects of interventions on child and maternal health-related outcomes in Uganda |
Oderinde | Peter Ayoola | 2020 | The role of Internet in migrants’ Christianity: A case study of Nigerian Pentecostal churches in Switzerland |
Osei-Bonsu | Victoria Amma Agyeiwaah | 2018 | Representations of the African Other in Selected Works of Joseph Conrad |
Owusu | Henry Frimpong | 2016 | Insecticide Resistance Monitoring – a review of current methodology |
Philipps | Joschka | 2016 | Crystallizing Contention. A cumulative dissertation on youth, politics, and urban violence in Conakry, Kampala, and beyond |
Posluschny-Treuner | Myra | 2017 | Land grabbing or an essential move towards development? A case study of Ethiopia |
Renggli | Sabine | 2017 | Promoting Universal Health Coverage in Tanzania: An Evaluation of the Initiative to Strengthen Affordability and Quality of Health Care (ISAQH) |
Righetti | Aurélie A. | 2014 | Aetiology of anaemia and public health implications in the Taabo health demographic surveillance system, south-central Côte d’Ivoire |
Rizzo | Lorena | 2010 | Gender and Colonialism. A History of Kaoko (north-western Namibia) between the 1870s and the 1950s |
Rubli | Sandra | 2014 | Transitional Justice and State-Formation in Burundi |
Sambaiga | Richard Faustine | 2013 | Sexual inter-subjectivity and the quest for social well-being : an ethnographic inquiry of adolescent sexuality in urban Southern Tanzania |
Sankieme Lusanga | Ange | 2011 | Ethique de la migration. La valeur de la justice comme base pour une migration dans l’Union Européenne et la Suisse |
Sanogo | Aïdas | 2019 | Corruption, conflict and cities in West and East Africa |
Schätti Zundel | Christian | 2012 | Social and cultural features of vaccine acceptance and cost-effectiveness of an oral cholera mass vaccination campaign in Zanzibar |
Schicketanz | Nicolas | 2015 | A History of Teacher Training Colleges in South Africa and the Effects of Teacher Training on Identity Formation |
Schmid | Pascal | 2013 | Medicine, Faith and Politics in Agogo. A history of health care delivery in rural Ghana, ca 1925 to 1980 |
Schneider | Jürg | 2011 | Exploring the Atlantic Visualscape. Eine Geschichte der Fotografie in West und Zentralafrika, 1840-1890 |
Schultz | Sabine | 2017 | The Game of Personal Politics or How to Rule a Kingdom. The State of Affairs in Rey Bouba/North-East Cameroon. |
Schwarz | Joëlle | 2020 | Youth sexuality education and utilisation of reproductive health services in the African Great Lakes region |
Schwärzler | Patricia | 2014 | “ De nos jours, chacun fait ce qu’il veut ” ? Dynamiques des relations sociales et pratiques sexuelles dans le contexte du VIH/sida à Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso |
Siegenthaler | Fiona | 2012 | Imageries of Johannesburg. Visual Arts and Spatial Practices in a Transforming City |
Sill | Ulrike | 2007 | Encounters in Quest of Christian Womanhood. The Basel Mission in Pre- and Early Colonial Ghana |
Silvani | Roman | 2011 | The Political Body and the Body Politic in J. M. Coetzee's Novels |
Simon | Vendelin Tarmo | 2012 | Ageing, Health and Care in Rural Tanzania |
Ssempira | Julius | 2018 | Bayesian spatial-temporal modeling of malaria risk in Uganda during 2009-2016, and the effect of control interventions and health system strengthening |
Staudacher | Sandra | 2019 | Cosmopolitan Aging in Urban Zanzibar: Elderhood, Health and Transnational Care Spaces Related to Oman |
Steuer | Noemi | 2011 | Krankheit und Ehre. Über HIV und soziale Anerkennung in Mali |
Sutherland | Claudette Simone | 2016 | An elimination investment case (EIC) for human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) Trypanosoma brucei (T.b.) gambiense (“sleeping sickness”) |
Tarr | Natalie | 2020 | Interpreting the Administration: Burkina Faso's Courts in Translation |
Thiam | Sokhna | 2017 | Spatial analysis of diarrhoea and environmental risk factors in an urban context in Senegal, West Africa |
Tibaijuka | Albert | 2016 | Multinational Mines and Communities of Place: Revisiting the Stakeholder Dialogue Discourse from Geita, Tanzania |
Tschumi | Regula | 2012 | The Figurative Palanquins and Coffins of the Ga of Southern Ghana |
Wingate | Vladimir | 2017 | Terrestrial ecosystem change monitoring: Satellite remote sensing the Namibian savannah biomes in the context of the global carbon cycle and local livelihoods |
Yéré | Henri Michel | 2010 | Citizenship, Nationality and History in Côte d’Ivoire, 1929-1999 |