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: Social network analysis applied to illegal wildlife trade between East Africa and Southeast Asia

In this working paper, Jacopo Costa sheds new light on the dark networks of wildlife traffickers that operate mainly between East Africa and Southeast Asia but have tentacles reaching around the world. 
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/ Research

A short history of the KFPE. 1994-2019

In this report, Alexandra Hofmänner examines the Swiss North-South relations in historical perspective based on the example of the Commission for Research Partnerships with Developing Countries (KFPE).
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/ Research

Publication: Speaking Through Houses: Interweaving Biography, Property and Personhood in Urban Zimbabwe

In her JJ Bachofen Lecture in 2019, Amanda Hammar looked at houses from an anthropological point of view. Hammar further builds upon theories of houses as constituants of people's biographies and "how they embody interconnections between…
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Publication: Existential Transformations. Life in the West African Savannah since the 1970s

Till Förster's paper asks how existential transformations are experienced, lived, remembered and conceived by the people, but also by ethnographers. Förster aims at capturing "la longue durée" of his fieldwork among the Senufo in…
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Publication: Anneliese and Ernst Rudolf Scherz’s ‘Ethnographic Object Collection’ from Namibia and Southern Africa

In this BAB working paper series, Lisa Roulet and Dag Henrichsen provide an introduction to the object collection of the Scherz archive at the Basler Afrika Bibliographien and document each object with regard to available historical context…
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Publication: Association of activities related to pesticide exposure on headache severity and neurodevelopment of school-children in the rural agricultural farmlands of the Western Cape of South Africa

In a study published in Environment International by Swiss TPH and partners at the University of Cape Town, researchers found that children in South Africa who engage in pesticide-related farm activities often have more headaches and…
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Publication: Growing Wild. The Correspondence of a Pioneering Woman Naturalist from the Cape

Tanja Hammel and Jasmin Rindlisbacher coedited the publication of Mary Elizabeth Barber's scientific correspondence. Barber was the first woman ornithologist in South Africa, an early archaeologist, keen botanist and interested…
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/ News, Research

Publication: Women and Photography in Africa: Creative Practices and Feminist Challenges

The collection "Women and Photography in Africa" edited by Lorena Rizzo, Darren Newbury and Kylie Thomas draws on recent conceptual and methodological developments in photographic scholarship.
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/ News, Research, Doctorate/PhD

Publication: The cosmic submarine—Yugen Blakrok’s sonar echoes

This article by Pius Jonas Vögele explores South African hip-hop artist Yugen Blakrok, applying Afrofuturism as a conceptual framework.
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Publication: A worm's-eye view of wildlife trafficking in Uganda – the path of least resistance

The working paper by the Basel Institute on Governance's Public Governance team digs deep into the dynamics feeding a multi-billion-dollar global illicit trade in wildlife and wildlife products. It tackles a simple two-part question: why…
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/ News, Research

Publication: Colonial Resonances

In this essay Jon Schubert charts the resonance of colonial urbanism in contemporary urban renewal projects in the Angolan port city of Lobito.
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Publication: Infectious Images: Viral Internet Content in the Democratic Republic of Congo

This article co-authored by Lesley Braun explores how and why digital content is shared and moved into circulation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. It describes how visual genres such as print cartoons and popular painting now overlap…
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Publication: African languages and Spanish among Equatoguineans in Madrid

Sandra Schlumpf-Thurnherr's article is based on semi-directed, sociolinguistic interviews with Equatoguineans of two ethnic groups: Bubi and Fang. The results show the importance of relating data to the contemporary as well as historical…
Cover of the book Science and Technology Studies Elsewhere

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Publication: Science & Technology Studies Elsewhere. A Postcolonial Programme

In her book, Alexandra Hofmännner argues that new concepts and analytical approaches are necessary to investigate current global dynamics in science, technology and society, so as to deliver insights that the recent expansion of STS…
Cover of the thesis Multinational mines and communities of place

/ Research, Doctorate/PhD

Publication: Multinational Mines and Communities of Place: Revisiting the Stakeholder Dialogue Discourse in Geita, Tanzania

In his PhD thesis, Albert Tibaijuka demonstrates that analysis of the antagonistic relationship between multinational mines and communities, offers a productive way through which deeper understanding of corporate–community relations,…
Flood Levels and Borderlines

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Publication: Flood Levels and Borderlines – Livestock Farming and Evictions Resistance at the !Garib/Orange River in Southern Africa

In their contribution, Luregn Lenggenhager (ZASB) and Andrea Rosengarten (Northwestern University) analyse the relation between flood levels, borderlines and resistance to forced removals and evictions at the Orange River in South Africa.
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Publication: Petty corruption in the public sector: A comparative study of three East African countries through a behavioural lens

This article makes a novel contribution to understanding petty corruption in East Africa. By providing evidence of behavioural drivers of petty corruption in Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda, the research could help in designing more effective…
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Publication: The Moving Parts in Michèle Magema's Body of Work

Lesley Nicole Braun discusses the fragmented images of women in Michèle Magema's work. The article considers the artist's practice and her explorations of local understandings of circulating femininity, power, and leadership.
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Publication: ‘Murdered Mozarts.’ Narrative of a Previous Malian Student Generation in the Era of the Crumbling State

In her article, Noemi Steuer examines the life histories of former Malian students who were actively involved in the protest movement of 1980.
Heuser & Koehrsen, 2020. Does Religion make a Difference

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Publication: Does Religion Make a Difference? Religious NGOs in International Development Collaboration

This volume co-edited by Andreas Heuser examines different religions and their different religions and their collaborative development work in various regions of the world.
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Publication: Transfigurations of Aging: Everyday Self-Care in a Civil Servant Milieu of Dar es Salaam

Andrea Kaiser-Grollimund examines health-promoting self-care practices of older urban dwellers and transfigurations of the social imaginary of aging in Dar es Salaam’s middle class.
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Publication: Decolonising the Academy: A Case for Convivial Scholarship (Carl Schlettwein Lecture 2019)

Francis B. Nyamnjoh's Carl Schlettwein Lecture makes a plea for not just conversations across disciplines but also the integration of popular epistemologies into scholarship. The lecture was held in the frame of the conference "Africa and …
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Publication: Women and Migration

In her contribution to the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History, Lesley Nicole Braun explores African women’s experiences of migration and transregional movements during the colonial period.
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/ Research, Doctorate/PhD

Publication: Becoming/Being Gã, Straddling ‘Spaces,’ and Negotiating Boundaries in the Gold Coast Christian ‘Model Town’ (Abokobi), ca. 1860–1980

This article by Ernest Sewordor analyses the model town Abokobi established by the Basel Mission completely outside the sociopolitical ambit of an existing Accra polity.
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Publication: Rethinking White Societies in Southern Africa, 1930-1990s

This book co-edited by Danelle van Zyl-Hermann showcases new research by emerging and established scholars on white workers and the white poor in Southern Africa.
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Publication: Medical Anthropology in, of, for and with Africa: Three Hotspots

This review article by Brigit Obrist and Piet van Eeuwijk revisit three much debated issues in medical anthropology: making African global health, framing traditional medicine, and tackling culturalism.
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Publication: Ethnographic Vignettes - Social Change and Social Encounters in Solwezi, Northwestern Zambia

In the latest double issue of the Basel Papers on Political Transformations, master students in Social Anthropology and African Studies engage with the question of how to present social change with the help of vignettes.
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Publication: Photography and History in Colonial Southern Africa: Shades of Empire

Lorena Rizzo's book examines the relationship between photography and colonial history in Southern Africa.
Youth and the State in Guinea

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Publication: Youth and the State in Guinea: Meandering Lives

By combining an ethnographic study of youth with an analysis of the local state in the making, this research monograph introduces the perspective of »meandering lives« to grasp being young and growing up in the Guéckédou borderland, a…
Digitalization and the Field of African Studies

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Publication: Digitalization and the Field of African Studies

In the Carl Schlettwein Lecture 2017, Mirjam de Bruijn reflects on two decades of research experience in West and Central Africa and discusses how, for her, the field has changed.
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