University of Basel

Centre for
African Studies

Publications

The pages of the key areas of activities provide an overview of recent publications. More comprehenisve lists of publications by our members are avaialable via the research database and the edoc repository of the University of Basel and, respectively, the websites of the partner institutions. 

Latest publications

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/ Research

Publication: "African History between Ghana and Switzerland. Essays Honouring Paul Jenkins"

This collection edited by Ernest Sewordor and Anne Beutter retraces the academic path of the British historian-cum-archivist Paul Jenkins. The essays celebrate, engage, interrogate, and push beyond Jenkins' numerous publications and ongoing…
Magical Math Hand-Waving

/ Research

Publication: "Magical math hand-waving"

Jon Schubert’s article examines the knowledge protocols of commercial risk forecasting to show how, despite strenuous efforts to render risk forecasts neutral and actionable, analysts construct risk in African countries in line with…
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/ Research

Publication: "Elsewheres of the Unbuilt: The Global Effects of Transnational Energy Infrastructure Projects"

The article co-authored by Maren Larsen and Kenny Cupers argues that understanding the effects of infrastructural expansion in the global South requires accounting for the ways in which projects are financed, planned, contested, contracted,…
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/ Research

Publication: "High expectations: Civil society participation in conflict early warning and response systems of the AU, ECOWAS and IGAD"

Michael Aeby's article examines how civil society organisations contributed to data collection, analyses, early warning and responses of conflict early warning and response systems in different contexts, and assesses their participation…
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/ Research

Publication: "Navigating the political context: Practice insights and adaptive strategies to strengthen the anti-corruption and asset recovery justice chain"

Saba Kassa's new Working Paper discusses the political and governance factors that affect the performance of the justice system in relation to anti-corruption and asset recovery, and offers provides a novel Assessment and Monitoring…
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/ Research

Publication: "A processual perspective on utopia as a lived social project: the case of a Ghanaian ‘Christian Town’"

Drawing on historical and ethnographic data, the article co-authored by Ernest Sewordor demonstrates how the utopian religious ideal can function as a powerful symbol for the self-identification of a religious group in practice. The authors…
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/ Research

Publication: "Burden of chronic pain among adult pastoralists in Ethiopia: a cross-sectional household survey"

An article co-auhtored by Piet van Eeuwijk and Jakob Zinsstag provides insights into the burden of chronic pain among Somali pastoralists and reveals associated risk factors. The results of the study support the planning of locally adapted…
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/ Research

Publication: "Building Trust, Situating Repair: An Ecology of Action in a South African Nature Reserve"

Structured around an encounter between white commercial farmers, scientists and government and NGO experts working in a South African nature reserve, James Merron's book analyzes the negotiation between different orientations to ecological…
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/ Research

Publication: "Human-animal entanglements in bushmeat trading in Sierra Leone: An ethnographic assessment of a potential zoonotic interface"

This article co-authored by Wahab Lawundeh provides an in-depth ethnographic account of two bushmeat markets in Bo, Sierra Leone. The authors found that inadequate infrastructure and sanitation facilities created risks of zoonotic disease…
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/ Research

Publication: "Maintaining a city against nature: climate adaptation in Beira"

In this article, Jon Schubert analyzes the case of Beira, a port city on Mozambique’s Indian Ocean coast, which was devastated by Tropical Cyclone Idai in March 2019. Ever since, a host of unequal international and national actors have been…
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/ Research

Publication: "Operational Differences between Product Development Partnership, Pharmaceutical Industry, and Investigator Initiated Clinical Trials"

This article in the open access journal Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, co-authored by ZASB members Piet van Eeuwijk and Jürg Utzinger, compares the operational differences between pharmaceutical industry sponsored trials, product…
Cover of the Book The Reports of Theophilus Opoku

/ Research

Publication: "The Reports of Theophilus Opoku: A 19th-Century Gold Coast Pastor"

Over 50 years Michelle Gilbert and Paul Jenkins have engaged with the reports of Revd Theophilus Opoku - a prolific writer and careful observer in the kingdom of Akuapem. This volume published in the Fontes Historiae Africanae series of the…
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/ Research

Publication: "CEWARN’s Strategy Framework and Civil Society Partnership: Lessons for early-warning and response systems"

The mandate of the Conflict Early Warning and Response Network (CEWARN) is to detect and respond timeously to the potential escalation of violent conflicts in the member states of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in…
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/ Research, Doctorate/PhD

Publication: "Spiritual and religious aspects influence mental health and viral load: a quantitative study among young people living with HIV in Zimbabwe"

This paper co-authored by Ursula Wüthrich-Grossenbacher and Sonja Merten examines the influence of religion and spirituality on the health outcomes of young people living with HIV in Zimbabwe. It finds that religious coping significantly…
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/ Research

Publication: "'I could not bear it': Perceptions of chronic pain among Somali pastoralists in Ethiopia. A qualitative study"

Jakob Zinsstag and Peter van Eeuwijk are co-authors of an article in the journal PLoS ONE which explores perceptions and notions of chronic pain among Somali pastoralists in Ethiopia.
Sexes 2023 4(4) p. 569

/ Research

Publication: "Researching Homosexuality in Difficult Contexts"

In her article in the journal Sexes, Frida Lyonga explores the challenges of conducting empirical research on homosexuality in Africa via an autoethnographic account of her experiences as a researcher investigating attitudes towards…
Titelseite

/ Research, Doctorate/PhD

Publication: "Embodied Climate Knowledge in African Cli-Fi: Alistair Mackay's 'It Doesn't Have to Be This Way' (2022) and Nnedi Okorafor's 'Noor' (2021)"

In her article in the journal ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Sindi-Leigh McBride examines how embodied knowledge depicted in climate fiction novels by African authors offers insights into marginalized…
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/ Research

Publication: "Opportunities and challenges for decentralised clinical trials in sub-Saharan Africa: a qualitative study"

This article in the BMJ Open Journal, co-authored by ZASB members Piet van Eeuwijk and Jürg Utzinger, assesses the opportunities and challenges of a digital transformation in clinical research in sub-Saharan Africa from different…
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/ Research

Publication: "Architecture as Technical Governance at the African Union"

Funded, designed, and built by Chinese agencies, the African Union Conference Center and Office Complex (AUCC) in Addis Ababa sits at the center of a shifting set of international relations. This article co-authored by Kenny Cupers analyzes…
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/ Research

Publication: "It is difficult for us to treat their pain". Health professionals' perceptions of Somali pastoralists in the context of pain management: a conceptual model"

Peter van Eeuwijk and Jakob Zinsstag are co-authors of an article which seeks to understand health professionals’ perceptions of Somali pastoralists in the context of pain management in Eastern Ethiopia.
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/ Research

Publication: "Waiting Out the Rush: On the Durability of Wealth in Kenya’s Coastal Sex Economies"

In this book chapter, George Paul Meiu examines what waiting practices reveal about the production of value in Mtwapa, a coastal town known as Kenya’s “Sin City”, that has witnessed a rush of investments, commodification, and people. He…
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/ Research

Publication: "De Aar: Lines of Architecture in the Making of a South African Town (1902–1977)"

Giorgio Miescher reconstructs in this book the history of a former railway town, known as an early example of modern urban planning, located in the Northern Cape province of South Africa.
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/ Research

Publication: "The Lower !Garib – Orange River Pasts and Presents of a Southern African Border Region"

Giorgio Miescher and Luregn Lenggenhager are co-editors of a volume that examines the social history, geography, and economy of a hardly researched border region between Namibia and South Africa. The publication results from the Swiss South…
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/ Research

Publication: " Development trajectories of mediation support structures in the AU, ECOWAS, IGAD and SADC"

This article by Michael Aeby and Jamie Pring examines the capabilities, utilisation and sustainability of the mediation support structures (MSS) in the framework of the the African Peace and Security Architecture.
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/ Research, Info

Publication: "Material Culture in Transit. Theory and Practice"

Zainabu Jallo is the editor of the first in the Book Series, Routledge Studies in Anthropology and Museums. The collection of essays critically addresses the multivalent ways in which mobility reshapes the characteristics of artefacts,…
Cover of book Lost libraries, burnt archives

/ Research, Doctorate/PhD

Publication: "Lost Libraries, Burnt Archives"

In their edited volume of short stories, artworks, poems, essays by 22 contributors Sindi-Leigh McBride and Julia Rensing engage with the tragic destruction of the African Studies Library at the University of Cape Town, which occured in…
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/ Research, People

Publication: "Marcel Tanner, Parasitologist Extraordinaire"

Articles in this special issue of the journal Diseases, edited by Lukas Meier and Robert Bergquist, honor Marcel Tanner, Director emeritus of the Swiss TPH and Professor of Epidemiology and Medical Parasitology at the University of Basel.…
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/ Research

Publication: "'A Vision For the Future': Professional Ethos as Boundary Work in Mozambique’s Public Sector"

In this article, Jon Schubert looks at ideals of professionalism amongst public functionaries in Mozambique’s Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, and how these resonate across three distinct temporalities (colonial, socialist,…
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/ Research, Doctorate/PhD

Publication: "The Ascension of the Astro-Goth – Yugen Blakrok’s Otherworldly Hip-Hop Poetics"

In his article, Pius Vögele explores the work of South African hip-hop artist Yugen Blakrok from an Afrofuturist perspective and, drawing on Rammellzee’s concept of Gothic Futurism, designates her unique approach as Astro-Gothic Futurism.
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/ Research

Publication: "Industrial mining and HIV risk: evidence from 39 mine openings across 16 countries in sub-Saharan Africa"

In this study, researchers of the Swiss TPH assess the impact of natural resource extraction projects on HIV transmission risks in local communities in sub-Saharan Africa. The findings suggest that in the sample of households surrounding…
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