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Newsletter 2/2015
Newsletter 2/2015
Société suisse d‘études africaines Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien
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Newsletter 2/2015
Impressum:Rédaction • Redaktion: Mohomodou Houssouba, Veit Arlt
Mise en page • Layout: Veit Arlt
Relecture • Korrekturlesen: Veit Arlt, Mohomodou Houssouba, Chrystel Jeanbourquin,
Caro van Leeuwen, Pascal Schmid, Natalie Tarr
Site web • Webseite: www.sagw.ch/africa
Abonnement List-serv • Abonnierung List-serv: [email protected]
La newsletter de la SSEA est publiée avec le concours de l’Académie suisse des
sciences humaines et sociales. Les articles et informations publiés, tout comme les
opinions qui y sont exprimées, sont sous l’entière responsabilité de leurs auteurs, et ne
sauraient être considérés comme refl étant l’opinion de la SSEA.
Der Publikationsbeitrag der Schweizerischen Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissen-
schaften sei dankend erwähnt. Die Verantwortung für die Inhalte der veröffentlichten
Beiträge und Informationen liegt bei deren Autoren. Die darin enthaltenen Standpunkte
decken sich nicht immer mit jenen der SGAS.
Société suisse d’études africaines
Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien
SSEA – SGAS ISSN 1019–9276
Cover: Islam in Africa was at the centre of interest of our conference organized jointly with the Swiss
Society Middle East and Islamic Cultures (Bern, 23-24 April 2015). This Quran was presented by
Sultan Ibrahim Njoya of the kingdom of Bamum to Basel Missionary Martin Göring before 1910. The
long-term dialogue between Sultan Njoya and the Mission is a fascinating part of the Basel Mission's
rich history. The latter celebrated its bicentenary jubilee this year. The Quran was displayed in the
exhibtion Mission Possible at the Basel Museum of Cultures this year and is part of the Basel Mission
Collection held by the Museum (image: Basel Museum of Cultures 2015).
Société suisse d‘études africaines Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien
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Newsletter 2/2015
ÉDITORIAL • EDITORIAL
COMMUNICATIONS • MITTEILUNGEN
Procès-verbal de la 41ème assemblée générale de la SSEA
Rapport annuel de la SSEA
Varia • Miscellaneous
Nouvelle maîtrise en études africaines à l'Université de Genève
Nouvelle maîtrise ès lettres avec spécialisation à l’Université de Lausanne
L’association d’études africaines de l’Université de Lausanne
Declaration of the 1st Diaspora Conference on African Migration to Europe
ÉVÉNEMENTS • VERANSTALTUNGEN • EVENTS
ANNONCES • ANKÜNDIGUNGEN • ANNOUNCEMENTS
Swiss Researching Africa Days 2016
Conference: Commons in a “Glocal World”
RAPPORTS • BERICHTE • REPORTS
2nd Basel Summer School in African Studies
Anthropology Talks with James Ferguson
SGAS-SAGUF conference “Researching African Environments”
Africa Days 2015 – 2nd Ethio-Czech conference on Africa
1st School of Languages Conference at the University of Ghana, Legon
Rencontre avec l'écrivain In Koli Jean Bofane
TABLE DES MATIÈRES • INHALTSVERZEICHNIS • TABLE OF CONTENTS
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JEUNES CHERCHEURS • NACHWUCHS • YOUNG SCHOLARS
S. Simon & Y. van den Berg: The Anthropocene in the Classroom
PUBLICATIONS • PUBLIKATIONEN
A. Mayor et al: African Memory in Danger – Mémoire africaine en péril
L. Köchlin & T. Förster: The Politics of Governance
V. Arlt, P. Schmid & S. Bishop: Explorations in African History
D. Péclard: Les incertitudes de la nation en Angola
RENCONTRES • BEGEGNUNGEN • ENCOUNTERS
Göran Hydén, University of Florida
EXHIBITIONS • AUSSTELLUNGEN
Comics aus und über Afrika in den Basler Afrika Bibliographien
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ÉDITORIAL • EDITORIAL
ANNE MAYOR, CO-PRESIDENTE
L’Afrique suscite un intérêt croissant en Suisse : il suffi t de constater le volume en
constante augmentation de notre Newsletter, sans parler de son contenu, de plus en
plus riche et diversifi é. Nul doute, ce dernier est devenu au fi l du temps un support
d’information incontournable pour les africanistes de tout le pays ; nous espérons que
vous y ferez maintes découvertes et serez incités à participer aux activités annoncées.
Cet intérêt croissant pour l’Afrique en Suisse est probablement lié à plusieurs éléments
tant externes qu’internes, autrement dit à des conjonctures tant globales que locales.
A une échelle globale, la première décennie du 21ème siècle a été clairement marquée
par un changement de paradigme concernant l’Afrique, qui est passé d’un « continent
sans espoir » à une Afrique qui se dresse (« Africa rising »), nouvelle frontière du capi-
talisme et pôle de croissance prometteur, avec une classe moyenne en devenir avide
de biens de consommation. Une conférence organisée à l’Université de Genève en
septembre 2016 interrogera d’ailleurs ce changement de paradigme de façon critique.
A une échelle plus locale, celle de la Suisse romande, l’intérêt bienvenu du rectorat
de l’Université de Genève pour une formation en études africaines ancrée au Global
Studies Institute permet enfi n de répondre aux recommandations du comité de notre
société au Conseil suisse de la science il y a vingt ans déjà (Moser, Sottas 1996), à
savoir la mise en place d’un « Curriculum d’études africaines », consistant en deux
réseaux multidisciplinaires coordonnés, l’un pour la Suisse alémanique et l’autre pour
la Suisse romande. Depuis lors, un centre et un master d’études africaines ont été
créés en 2002-2003 à l’Université de Bâle et sont pour beaucoup dans la dynamique
actuelle de la recherche et de l’enseignement sur l’Afrique en Suisse. A Genève, un
second pôle Afrique est né, des partenariats privilégiés avec cinq pays africains sont
en cours de signature, et un master d’études africaines de 120 ECTS verra le jour
dès la rentrée 2016. Ceci ne pourra que renforcer encore cette dynamique et devrait
conduire à former une nouvelle génération armée de compétences sur ce continent
en plein essor dans plusieurs disciplines, sur plusieurs thématiques et dans plusieurs
langues. Pour preuve d’un trop long manque en Suisse romande, l’Université de Lau-
sanne lance également, en parallèle, une maîtrise ès lettres avec spécialisation de 30
ECTS intitulée « textes et terrains africains », tandis qu’une association d’étudiants
UniLEA (Université de Lausanne Etudes Africaines) vient d’être créée par et pour de
jeunes chercheurs intéressés par l’Afrique et ses diasporas (voir les diverses présenta-
tions dans ce numéro).
Outre ces informations réjouissantes dans le domaine des enseignements universi-
taires (voir aussi le compte-rendu de la 2e Basel Summer School in African Studies),
plusieurs conférences à venir organisées ou co-organisées par notre société méritent
votre attention, notamment : « Commons in a ‘Glocal’ World : Global Connections and
Local Responses » (Berne, mai 2016), « Gouvernance, croissance et développement
dans l’Afrique du 21ème siècle » (Genève, septembre 2016), « SRAD 2016 » - les 4èmes
journées suisses d’études africaines (Berne, octobre 2016), et « Museumskooperatio-
nen zwischen Europa und Afrika – Chancen und Modalitäten », en coopération avec la
Société suisse d’ethnologie (Zürich, décembre 2016). Nous espérons vous y retrouver
nombreux !
Enfi n, la co-présidence vient de mettre le point fi nal à une prise de position importante
pour l’ASSH, rédigée en collaboration avec la Société suisse des américanistes et la
Société suisse Moyen Orient et civilisation islamique, portant sur la qualité de l’évalua-
tion et des performances dans les sciences humaines et sociales, et centrée sur la pro-
blématique des Area Studies. Vous trouverez le texte sur le site web de notre société.
Société suisse d‘études africaines Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien
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COMMUNICATIONS DU COMITÉ • MITTEILUNGEN DES VORSTANDS • COMMUNICATIONS
Procès-verbal de la 41ème assemblée générale de la SSEA
BERNE, UNITOBLER, 23.10.2015
PRÉSENTS :
Veit Arlt, Simplice Ayangma-Bonoho, Jacques Aymeric, Sibylle Ganz-Koechlin, Tobias
Haller, Mohomodou Houssouba, Daniel Künzler, Bobby Luthra Sinha, Elísio Macamo,
Anne Mayor, Didier Péclard, Brice Prudat, Tibor Rechsteiner, Jacques Rial, Gabriele
Slezak, Anna Sommer, Erick Sourna Loumtouang, Natalie Tarr
EXCUSÉS :
Jasmina Bonato, Julia Büchele, Rudolf Fischer, Joël Hakizimana, Eric Huysecom,
Chrystel Jeanbourquin, Katrin Kusmierz, Thomas Laely, Christine Lequellec Cottier,
Max Liniger, Elísio Macamo, Fiona Siegenthaler
1. APPROBATION DU PV 2014
Le procès-verbal de l’assemblée générale 2014 est approuvé à l’unanimité.
2. RAPPORT ANNUEL DE LA PRÉSIDENCE
Voir le rapport d’Anne Mayor publié dans ce numéro de la Newsletter.
3. RAPPORT DU TRÉSORIER
Le trésorier sortant a présenté les comptes de la société qui refl ètent sa bonne situation
fi nancière. La SSEA a investi plus de 30 000 CHF pour organiser ou supporter des
activités de recherche. Il note par ailleurs la croissance soutenue des cotisations de
membres qui indique un élargissement de la base de la communauté des africanistes
autour de la société. Le compte de dépôt se maintient de façon stable, autour de
28 000 CHF.
Capital au 31 décembre 2014 : CHF 41 332.50
Recettes : CHF 23 824.15
Dépenses : CHF 39 297.75
Solde : CHF 4 549.80
Les réviseurs Beat Sottas et Piet van Eeuwijk ont vérifi é les comptes et en ont certifi é
la bonne tenue. Ils remercient le trésorier pour sa précision dans l’enregistrement des
recettes et dépenses. L’assemblée accorde la décharge au trésorier et au comité.
4. RENOUVELLEMENT DU COMITÉ
Natalie Tarr, doctorante au Centre d’études africaines de l’Université de Bâle, rejoint le
comité exécutif de la SSEA. Sa candidature a été présentée par la co-présidence et
approuvée par l’assemblée.
5. ADMISSION DE NOUVEAUX MEMBRES
La société compte 240 membres ordinaires (+17), 69 membres correspondants (+4), 9
membres du comité exécutif (+1), 10 membres d’honneur (dont un réviseur), 1 réviseur.
Les nouveaux membres sont largement répartis à travers le pays : Genève, Bâle, Neu-
châtel, Vaud, Zurich, Valais. D’autres viennent du continent : Afrique du Sud, Répu-
blique démocratique du Congo et Cameroun (3): Simplice Ayangma-Bonoho, Jacques
Aymeric, Maike Birzle, Nelson Vera Büchel, Mariam Dembélé, Nonhlanhla Dlamini-Stoll,
Achiba Gargule, Christine Le Quellec Cottier, Nicolas Mabillard, Alexis Malefakis, Flo-
riane Morin, Raphael Schwere, Erick Sourna Loumtouang, Mathias Tanner, Miriam
Truffat Giachet, Christophe Tumba Ngalamulume, Stephen Yeboah.
Un membre (Glenn Fischer) a confi rmé sa démission, un autre n’est plus joignable
(Paulo Bessa).
Société suisse d‘études africaines Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien
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6. NOUVELLES DE L’ASSH
Annoncée à la dernière assemblée générale, la nouvelle politique de communication
de l’Académie suisse des sciences humaines et sociales se déploie sur deux axes
principaux : 1) la construction d’un portail internet pour mettre davantage en réseau les
sociétés (voir rapport annuel de la présidence) et 2) l’appui à l’organisation d’événe-
ments publics, cette fois-ci autour des thématiques «Prospérité et bien-être» et «Migra-
tion et mobilité».
7. VARIA
Lausanne : L’Université de Lausanne lance une maîtrise universitaire ès lettres avec le
programme de spécialisation « Études africaines : textes et terrains ». Plus d’informa-
tion en ligne : www. unil.ch/lettres
Bâle : La 7ème Conférence européenne sur les études africaines (ECAS 2017) est orga-
nisée par le Centre d’études africaines de l’Université de Bâle et la Société suisse
d’études africaines. Elle s’articule autour des phénomènes d’urbanisation, avec pour
thème général « Urban Africa – Urban Africans: New encounters of the urban and the
rural ». Plus d’information en ligne : www.ecas2017.ch
Genève : conférence « Dialogues culturels en contexte postcolonial », 9-10 décembre
2015.
Appel : les membres souhaitant proposer des événements sont invités à prendre
contact avec le comité de la société, en prenant en considération le fait que la planifi -
cation des activités fi nancées par l'Académie a lieu tous les deux ans.
Mohomodou Houssouba, 13.11.2015
Rapport annuel 2015 de la SSEA
ANNE MAYOR
CONFÉRENCES
L’année 2015 a été marquée par l’organisation de deux conférences, en collaboration
avec d’autres sociétés :
• « Islam in Africa : historical and contemporary processes of Islamization and
Re-islamization »
Berne, Unitobler : 23-25 avril 2015
Organisation : SSEA, en collaboration avec la SSMOCI (Société Suisse Moyen-
Orient et civilisation islamique).
Pour la SSEA : Daniel Künzler et Anne Mayor
• « Participatory and Integrative Approaches in Researching African Environments:
Opportunities, Challenges, Actualities in Natural and Social Sciences »
Berne, Unitobler : 23 octobre 2015
Organisation : SSEA, en collaboration avec la SAGUF (Société académique
suisse pour la recherche environnementale et l’écologie).
Pour la SSEA : Tobias Haller
La conférence « Africa and the Academy in the 21st Century », initialement prévue à
Bâle du 10 au 12 septembre 2015, a été reportée.
Par ailleurs, la société a décidé de soutenir fi nancièrement la conférence « Dialogues
culturels en contexte postcolonial », centrée sur les échanges et la circulation culturelle
à l’intérieur de l’espace linguistique portugais, intégrant l’Angola et le Mozambique,
après 40 ans d’indépendance. Ce colloque sera organisé à la Faculté des lettres de
Société suisse d‘études africaines Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien
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Newsletter 2/2015
l’Université de Genève les 10 et 11 décembre 2015 par Nazaré Torrão, membre de
notre société.
PUBLICATIONS
• Anne Mayor, Vincent Négri et Eric Huysecom (éds), 2015. African Memory in
Danger - Mémoire africaine en péril, Francfort : Africa Magna Verlag (Journal
of African Archaeology Monograph Series 11). ISBN : 978-3-937248-50-9. Cet
ouvrage paru en septembre 2015 fait suite à la conférence organisée par la SSEA
sur ce thème à Genève en septembre 2011.
• « Prise de position sur les Area Studies des SSEA, SSMOCI et SSA » : ce rapport
est une prise de position de trois sociétés concernées par la problématique de
l’évaluation de la qualité et de la performance en sciences humaines dans le
domaine particulier des Area Studies. Il fera l’objet d’une publication par l’Acadé-
mie suisse des sciences humaines et sociales (ASSH), conjointement avec des
autres prises de position émanant d'autres sociétés.
COLLABORATION INTERNATIONALE
Aucun fi nancement individuel n’a été demandé par les membres du comité cette année
à l’Académie, mais plusieurs d’entre eux ont assisté à la 6ème European Conference on
African Studies ECAS de l’Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies AEGIS, du
8 au 10 juillet à Paris. La prochaine édition de ce colloque, le plus important concernant
les études africaines en Europe, aura lieu à Bâle du 22 au 24 juin 2017.
COORDINATION
Le premier numéro de la Newsletter 1/2015 a paru au printemps et le second numéro
2/2015 paraîtra avant la fi n de l’année.
Au cours de l’année 2015, Anne Mayor et Veit Arlt ont pris part au groupe de travail
réuni par l’ASSH pour réfl échir à la construction d’un portail pour la section 4 de l’Aca-
démie, dans le but notamment d’accroître la visibilité des sociétés.
En février 2015, Didier Péclard a été nommé maître d’enseignement et de recherche
à l’Université de Genève pour mettre sur pied une maîtrise en études africaines, ancré
au Global Studies Institute GSI, qui doit démarrer à la rentrée 2016. Le pôle Afrique
et la maîtrise à venir feront le pendant pour la Suisse romande du centre et du master
d’études africaines de l’Université de Bâle. Deux orientations sont prévues : (A) Dyna-
miques historiques et interactions sociétés-environnement, et (B) Etats, sociétés et
développement dans l’Afrique contemporaine. Le fait que les coordinateurs de Bâle et
de Genève soient intégrés au comité de la SSEA facilite le dialogue et permettra des
synergies entre ces deux pôles de formation.
Parallèlement, à l’Université de Lausanne, une maîtrise ès lettres avec une spécia-
lisation en « Études africaines : textes et terrains » de 30 ECTS sera lancée dès le
semestre de printemps 2016. Par ailleurs, l’Association des études africaines de Lau-
sanne (UniLEA) a été lancée en octobre 2015, à l’initiative de quelques doctorants. Les
co-présidents ont participé à la conférence inaugurale en guise de soutien.
PLANIFICATION 2016
De nombreux événements sont à nouveau prévus en 2016 :
• Conférence « Commons in a “Glocal World” »
Berne, Unitobler : 10-13 mai 2016
Organisation : SSEA, en collaboration avec l’Institut d’anthropologie sociale et le
Centre pour le développement et l’environnement CDE, 3rd European Meeting of
the International Association for the Study of the Commons IASC (pour la SSEA :
Tobias Haller)
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Changement d'adresse
La nouvelle adresse de la SSEA est la suivante :
Société suisse d’études africaines
c/o Institut für Sozialanthropologie
Lerchenweg 36
Postfach 999
CH-3000 Bern 9
Publication de thèses
La série « Études africaines suisses » chez Lit-Verlag est dorénavant ouverte aux thèses
doctorales inscrites dans une université suisse et ayant reçu la mention « très bien » ou
« insigni cum laude » soit, au minimum, la note de 5.5.
Les directeurs de thèse mettent à disposition du comité le rapport des membres du
jury ou des experts, accompagné d'une déclaration écrite stipulant que l'ensemble
des modifi cations a été effectué et que le manuscrit est complet et prêt à être publié.
Il est à noter que la SSEA n'offre aucun soutien fi nancier ni service pour la publication
de thèse. En effet, la mise sur pied d'un comité de lecture, exigée pour toute évaluation
d'un manuscrit, n'est pas prévue, ni réalisable pour l'instant.
Assemblée annuelle 2016
La prochaine assemblée aura lieu le 4 novembre à Berne (voir l'Appel pour les journées
suisses d'études africaines 2016 dans ce numéro).
• Conférence « Gouvernance, croissance et développement dans l’Afrique du
21ème siècle »
Genève, Global Studies Institute : septembre 2016
Organisation : Didier Péclard, Anne Mayor
• Journées suisses d’études africaines – Swiss Researching Africa Days (SRAD 2016)
Berne, Unitobler : 4-5 novembre 2016
Organisation : Tobias Haller, Veit Arlt, Didier Péclard
• Conférence « Museumskooperationen zwischen Europa und Afrika – Chancen
und Modalitäten »
Zurich, Musée d’ethnographie de l’Université: 1-3 décembre 2016
Organisation : SSEA et SSE (pour la SSEA : Thomas Laely)
Par ailleurs, notre participation à la série « La Suisse existe, la Suisse n’existe pas –
Migration et mobilité » est encore en cours de discussion, et le report de la conférence
« Africa and the Academy in the 21st Century » est aussi prévu pour 2016.
Genève, le 19 novembre 2015
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Newsletter 2/2015
Change of address
The new address of the SSAS is as follows:
Swiss Society for African Studies
c/o Institut für Sozialanthropologie
Lerchenweg 36
Postfach 999
CH-3000 Bern 9
Publication of doctoral dissertations
The series “Schweizerische Afrikastudien / Études africaines suisses” (Lit publishers) is
now open for doctoral theses from Swiss universities that have earned the grade 5.5
(insigni cum laude) or in French “mention très bien”.
The supervisors of the thesis must submit the assessments of the examiners to the
board of the society, and provide a written declaration that all stipulated amendments
have been effected, that the text has been fully edited and that it is ready for publica-
tion.
Since the Society at this stage cannot introduce a special publication board and peer
review process it neither offers fi nancial support for the publication nor engages in edi-
torial tasks. Both are the sole responsibility of the author and supervisors.
General assembly 2016
The General Assembly will take place on 4 November 2016 in Berne (see the call for
papers for the Swiss Researching Africa Days 2016 in this newsletter).
Neue Adresse
Die neue Adresse der SGAS lautet wie folgt:
Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien
c/o Institut für Sozialanthropologie
Lerchenweg 36
Postfach 999
CH-3000 Bern 9
Publikation von Dissertationen
Die Serie „Schweizerische Afrikastudien“ beim Lit-Verlag ist ab sofort für die Publikation
von Dissertationen schweizerischer Universitäten geöffnet. Diese müssen die Mindest-
note 5.5 (insigni cum laude oder „mention très bien“) erreicht haben.
Die Betreuer der Arbeit stellen dem Vorstand die Gutachten zur Arbeit zur Verfügung
und bestätigen schriftlich, dass alle Auflagen zur Überarbeitung erfüllt wurden, das
Manuskript vollständig redigiert wurde und zur Publikation bereit ist.
Finanzierung und Realisierung der Publikation liegen in der alleinigen Verantwortung
der Autoren und Betreuer. Zum jetzigen Zeitpunkt kann und will der Vorstand keine
Publikationskommission und Prüfverfahren einführen. Die SGAS kann folglich weder
einen finanziellen Beitrag leisten, noch Redaktionsarbeiten übernehmen.
Mitgliederversammlung 2016
Die nächste Mitgliederversammlung findet am 4. November 2016 in Bern statt (siehe die
Ankündigung der Schweizerischen Tage der Afrikaforschung 2016 in diesem Newsletter).
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Newsletter 2/2015
Maîtrise en études africaines à l’Université de Genève
DIDIER PÉCLARD
Dès la rentrée universitaire 2016-2017, l’Université de Genève offrira une maîtrise inter-
disciplinaire en études africaines, renouant ainsi avec une longue tradition d’échanges
entre la ville internationale et l’Afrique, et complétant l’offre déjà existante en Suisse
(Université de Bâle depuis 2002/3) et en Europe. Cette nouvelle formation s’inscrit dans
une stratégie plus large d’intensifi cation des liens entre l’Université de Genève et le
continent africain, qui se traduit notamment par des partenariats stratégiques avec des
universités au Sénégal, en Côte d’Ivoire, au Cameroun, en Afrique du Sud et en Ethio-
pie. La nouvelle maîtrise sera basée au Global Studies Institute (www.unige.ch/gsi).
Cet institut, créé en 2013, offre non seulement un Bachelor en relations internationales,
mais également d’autres maîtrises universitaires, sur l’Union Européenne, la Russie et
l’Europe médiane, le Moyen-Orient, ainsi que sur des thématiques transversales telles
que la santé publique et, à partir de septembre 2016 également, sécurité globale et
résolution des confl its.
La maîtrise en études africaines, qui s’étalera sur quatre semestres pour 120 crédits,
proposera deux fi lières de spécialisation. L’une, basée sur l’anthropologie, l’archéo-
logie, les sciences de l’environnement et le droit, se concentrera sur les relations
homme-environnement dans une perspective de longue durée. L’autre, ancrée dans la
science politique, la sociologie, la géographie, l’économie et l’histoire, mettra l’accent
sur les relations État-sociétés dans l’Afrique contemporaine. Un tronc commun inter-
disciplinaire servira de base et des formations ponctuelles (par exemple sous forme
de summer schools) viendront compléter cette offre, notamment en médecine et en
santé publique.
L’intérêt des études africaines consiste à former des personnes capables de com-
prendre les défi s de ce continent dont on sait, en raison des prévisions en termes de
croissance économique et démographique, qu’il jouera un rôle majeur dans le monde
au cours de ce siècle. L’ancrage au GSI permettra également de replacer les études
africaines dans des problématiques plus larges et globales, grâce aux possibilités
d’échanges et aux synergies qui se créeront avec les autres formations similaires.
Un accent tout particulier sera mis sur la connaissance et la pratique du « terrain »,
et les étudiants auront la possibilité de se rendre sur le continent, soit pour y réaliser
les recherches conduisant à la rédaction de leur travail de maîtrise, pour un stage, ou
encore dans le cadre d’échanges existant avec les universités partenaires.
Consultez le site du GSI où de plus amples informations seront disponibles dès
décembre 2015 (www.unige.ch/gsi/fr/masters/). Les inscriptions seront ouvertes de
décembre 2015 à février 2016.
Pour plus d’informations concernant l’Afrique à l’Université de Genève, voir le dossier
consacré par la revue Campus dans son numéro de septembre 2015:
www.unige.ch/communication/Campus/campus122.html.
Didier Péclard est maître d’enseignement et de recherches, responsable de la maî-
trise en études africaines, Global Studies Institute, Université de Genève (didier.pe-
AUTRES COMMUNICATIONS • WEITERE MITTEILUNGEN • FURTHER COMMUNICATIONS
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« Etudes africaines: textes et terrains » — une nouvelle maî-trise ès lettres avec spécialisation à l’Université de Lausanne
CHRISTINE LE QUELLEC COTTIER
L’Université de Lausanne offre dès février 2016 un nouveau programme de maîtrise ès
lettres avec spécialisation en études africaines (30 ECTS). Le programme a pour ambi-
tion de faire connaître et comprendre des textes littéraires et des productions esthé-
tiques associés aux cultures africaines subsahariennes. Cette démarche tiendra compte
du cadre contextuel de production et de réception des œuvres. Le programme offre
aussi la possibilité de mieux saisir les enjeux politiques et historiques, dans un monde où
les interactions disciplinaires sont une constante. L’occasion donnée de lier recherche
universitaire et expérience professionnelle, grâce à des stages, est sans doute aussi un
atout à faire valoir. L’étudiant ayant suivi avec succès le programme sera apte à :
• justifi er son positionnement critique et son point de vue, en lien avec son do-
maine d’études ;
• exploiter l’hétérogénéité des supports proposés dans un contexte interdiscipli-
naire, en vue de les transmettre avec clarté et méthodologie à un public spécia-
lisé ou non spécialisé ;
• analyser et mettre en perspective des productions culturelles liées à l’Afrique ;
• expliquer les relations des Studies (Postcolonial, Gender, Cultural, …) avec le
temps et l’espace colonial, en croisant perspective diachronique et synchronique ;
• se repérer dans les débats impliquant la notion de francophonie (institutionnelle,
linguistique et littéraire) et s'interroger sur les catégories « littérature africaine » et
« Afrique » en tant que discours construits, à l’heure des nouveaux Empires et de
la globalisation;
• débattre de notions théoriques liées à des productions esthétiques ainsi qu’à
notre monde social et culturel contemporain.
CONTENU
« Études africaines : textes et terrains » est le premier programme de niveau maî-
trise universitaire offert en Suisse romande dans un champ de recherche directement
lié au continent africain et ses diasporas. Créé à partir du domaine de la littérature
francophone africaine, mais accueillant d’autres langues et disciplines, il s’intéresse à
des questions transversales qui touchent autant les représentations littéraires, histo-
riques, culturelles ou encore médiatiques. Le programme associe plusieurs universités
en Suisse et à l’étranger, ce qui permettra aux étudiants de décentrer leurs habitudes
réfl exives tout en enrichissant leur démarche critique.
PUBLIC CIBLE
Ce programme de spécialisation s’adresse aux étudiants immatriculés à l’UNIL, ayant
obtenu un baccalauréat universitaire ès lettres en français moderne, en français mé-
diéval ou en français langue étrangère. Les candidats ayant obtenu un baccalauréat
universitaire ès lettres lié à d’autres branches (de préférence en langues et littératures)
peuvent déposer leur dossier de candidature, qui sera examiné. Le programme peut
être recommandé à tout étudiant qui souhaite rédiger un mémoire de maîtrise universi-
taire en littérature francophone africaine.
ENSEIGNEMENT
La spécialisation consiste en deux modules. Le premier (Littérature et histoire, 12 cré-
dits ECTS) contient un cours et un séminaire consacrés à la littérature francophone
africaine, associés à un cours/séminaire abordant le champ de l’histoire africaine et
des études postcoloniales (offert par SSP/UNIL ou GSI/UNIGE). Le deuxième (Ensei-
gnements, stages et journée d’étude, 18 crédits ECTS) propose des enseignements et
stages optionnels. Il est partenaire d’universités en Suisse (Bâle et Genève) et à l’étran-
ger (Paris III et Paris IV, Dakar, Abidjan, Montréal, …). Les stages (maisons d’édition, as-
sociations, bibliothèques, festivals, etc…) sont réalisés en Suisse romande ou à Berne.
Si le séjour en Afrique est choisi par l’étudiant, les 15 crédits optionnels sont validés
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en une fois. La seconde partie du module (3 ECTS) consiste en la préparation d’une
journée d’études (organisation, lectures, documentation) et la journée elle-même.
RESPONSABLE DU PROGRAMME
Christine Le Quellec Cottier, [email protected].
RENSEIGNEMENTS
www.uni.ch/lettres > Master et spécialisation > Maîtrise universitaire avec spécialisation
L’association d’études africaines de l’Université de Lausanne
JUSTINE HIRSCHY, GUIVE KHAN MOHAMMAD, URSULA MEYER ET CLAIRE NICOLAS
Depuis septembre 2015, le paysage associatif de l’Université de Lausanne compte une
nouvelle association : l’UniLEA (Université de Lausanne Etudes Africaines). Cette asso-
ciation a été créée par et pour des jeunes chercheurs dont les recherches portent sur
l’Afrique ou les diasporas africaines dans le monde. Elle regroupe à ce jour une tren-
taine de doctorants et post-doctorants rattachés aux instituts des sciences sociales
(ISS), de géographie et durabilité (IGD), des sciences du sport (ISSUL) et d’études
politiques, historiques et internationales (IEPHI) de l’Université de Lausanne.
A la base du projet, la rencontre de trois doctorants de l’Unil en octobre 2014, d’abord
à Paris, à l’occasion des rencontres des Jeunes Chercheurs en Etudes Africaines
(JCEA), puis à Berne, lors des Journées suisses d’études africaines de la SSEA. En
effet, lors de ces deux colloques, Justine Hirschy (ISS), Guive Khan Mohammad (ISS)
et Ursula Meyer (IGD) se retrouvent et ont, pour la première fois, l’occasion de décou-
vrir les recherches menées sur des terrains africains par d’autres doctorants de leur
alma mater. Ils prennent ainsi la mesure d’une distance disciplinaire que ne comble
pas naturellement la proximité géographique. Réanimant le projet avorté d’un groupe
lausannois d’études africaines lancé par Guive Khan Mohammad une année plus tôt,
ils décident alors de développer ensemble un réseau visant à favoriser les échanges et
l’entraide entre jeunes chercheurs tout en promouvant la visibilité des recherches sur
l’Afrique à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur de l’Université de Lausanne. Dès le mois suivant, ils
sont déjà une demi-douzaine à se réunir autour de la présentation du projet de thèse
d’un doctorant.
Le comité de l’association d’études africaines de l’Université de Lausanne UniLEA : Guive Khan Mo-
hammad, Justine Hirschy, Claire Nicolas et Ursula Meyer (image : Dan Lopes, Rhythm & Pics, 2015).
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Mois après mois, séance après séance, le groupe prend de l’ampleur. Fort de ce suc-
cès, ses créateurs décident de procéder à sa formalisation. Lancé en début juin, ce
chantier s’achève le 14 septembre 2015 avec la première Assemblée générale. A cette
occasion, l’association se munit d’un nom et de statuts, qu’elle dépose auprès du
Secrétariat général de l’Unil. De ce fait, l’UniLEA devient, le 12 octobre 2015, une
association offi cielle de l’Université. A sa tête, un comité élu pour une année et com-
posé des trois membres fondateurs, rejoints par Claire Nicolas, doctorante à l’ISSUL.
S’appuyant sur le soutien des différents instituts dont proviennent ses membres,
l’UniLEA a pu diversifi er ses activités pour le semestre d’automne 2015. S’est ainsi
ajoutée aux rendez-vous mensuels, l’organisation de conférences publiques avec des
intervenants externes. Pour sa session inaugurale, le 19 octobre 2015, l’UniLEA a eu
l’honneur et le plaisir de recevoir le Prof. Jean-Pierre Warnier, anthropologe et ethno-
logue. Ainsi, dans la matinée, un workshop interne a été organisé, au cours duquel
l’invité a commenté différents textes soumis au préalable par certains membres de
l’association. Puis, dans la soirée, Jean-Pierre Warnier a animé une conférence intitu-
lée « ‘Penser avec ses doigts’: les cultures matérielles et motrices comme médium de
subjectivation ». Cette séance a accueilli une soixantaine de participants : étudiants,
doctorants, post-doctorants et professeurs issus de toutes les facultés de l’Unil, mais
également des universités de Genève et de Bâle, et de l’Institut des Hautes Etudes
Internationales et du Développement (IHEID).
Pour l’avenir, l’UniLEA souhaite poursuivre sur cette lancée : les séances dévolues aux
présentations des doctorants sont complètes jusqu’en juin 2016 et les discussions
vont bon train sur les prochains intervenants à inviter.
Justine Hirschy est assistante diplômée et doctorante à l’Institut des sciences so-
ciales (ISS) de l’Université de Lausanne. Sa thèse porte sur l’action publique dans le
domaine de la « bonne gouvernance » au Burundi. Contact: [email protected].
Guive Khan Mohammad est assistant diplômé et doctorant en Sciences sociales
et politiques à L’Université de Lausanne. Supervisée par le Prof. Antoine Kernen, sa
thèse porte sur les conséquences socio-politiques de l’arrivée des motos chinoises au
Burkina Faso. Contact: [email protected].
Ursula Meyer est assistante diplomée et doctorante en Géographie humaine à l'Uni-
versité de Lausanne. Sa thèse porte sur le foncier urbain et la politique locale au Niger
et est dirigée par le Prof. René Véron. Contact: [email protected].
Claire Nicolas est assistante diplomée et doctorante en Histoire du Sport à l’Uni-
versité de Lausanne. Supervisée par le Prof. Nicolas Bancel, sa thèse porte sur les
pratiques sportives et scoutes pendant la décolonisation au Ghana et en Côte d’Ivoire.
Contact: [email protected].
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Declaration of the 1st Diaspora Conference on African Mi-gration to Europe
Converged in Bern at the fi rst Diaspora Conference on African Migration to Europe on
12 September 2015 with over 100 delegates from the African Diaspora, civil society
organizations, representatives of African and Swiss Governments, international organi-
zations and Development Agencies, to refl ect over the impact of European migration
policies on African migration, the African Diaspora agreed to:
State in clear and in unequivocal terms that migration is inherent of big opportunities
but also manifests some challenges that can be transformed into success stories when
managed constructively and devoid of hypocrisy;
Reaffi rm their conviction that there is a positive synergy between migration and socio-
economic development for migrants in countries of transit and origin, as well as in host
countries and hereby restate our full commitment towards ensuring the development
of migrants’ capacity towards a successful integration and sustainable development;
Reaffi rm our resolve and commitment to shared obligations and responsibilities as
stipulated in international instruments and conventions relating to human rights, refu-
gee protection, migration and development as well as the special protection accorded
to People of African Descent by the UN General Assembly in its Resolution 68/237
of 23 December 2013 by which it proclaimed the International Decade for People of
African Descent, commencing on 1 January 2015 and ending on 31 December 2024;
Call on all UN member states to work towards the inauguration of the International
Decade for People of African Descent in their respective states as recommended by
the said UN Resolution and immediately put in place all necessary instruments towards
the full implementation of the activities recommended by the UN;
Welcome the initiation and establishment of different instruments for dialogue and mi-
gration partnership with developing countries by Swiss government, especially countries
in Africa: Nigeria, Tunisia, Guinea… aimed at enhancing development in African countries;
Welcome the mobilization of military power to protect refugees on the high sea but
cautions that such should not be transformed into a wild goose chase of smugglers
and a pretext to guard the European borders and thus prevent refugees and migrants
from entering Europe;
Condemn the continual use of the terminology “economic migrants” in Europe to de-
scribe African refugees whereas the word “refugee” is regularly used for other migrants.
Such description is in itself discriminatory and unacceptable;
Condemn the policy of abolition of asylum requests in foreign missions and embassies
which exposes the refugees and migrants more to the risk of plying the dangerous
routes to seek refuge and;
Call on all European governments to quickly reintroduce the possibility of seeking
asylum at foreign missions and embassies as well as soften the visa requirements to
promote regular migration;
Condemn in strongest terms the plan of the EU to establish marathon refugee camps
in West Africa or elsewhere on African soil for African refugees whereas refugees com-
ing from other parts of the world will continue to troop into Europe. This is not only
discriminatory and undemocratic, but a serious violation of fundamental human rights
of African refugees and migrants in their liberty of movement and choice of refuge.
It equally tends to block Africans' and Africa's access to European technology and
know- how, thereby plunging Africa further into underdevelopment and reducing it to a
mere terrain to be exploited for natural resources. Europe should take its responsibility
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for asylum seekers and not seek to shift the burden to African countries;
View with much suspicion and disdain the planned EU–AU November Summit in Val-
etta, Malta where the purported African refugee camp in Africa will be formally adopted,
albeit without much contribution from African countries given that the invitations and
process leading to the summit are marred with discrimination and the politics of divide
and rule;
Regret that the proposed sum of about 1.8 billion Euros promised by the EU to Afri-
can countries on “migration partnership” are almost entirely tied to return agreements
instead of investing such money into human development and development of Africa to
make Africa more attractive for Africans and thus encouraging South–South migration
and intra–African labor mobility;
Maintain that no migration policy tied entirely to return assistance agreements can
succeed in the long term;
Regret that while refugees and migrants continue to die on their dangerous journeys,
Europe is busy talking, discussing, trading words and shifting responsibilities and
agreeing not to agree to accommodate just 700 000 refugees and migrants, a situa-
tion which they term refugee crisis;
Regret that migration and immigrants have been scandalously instrumentalised in the
political spectrum thereby exploiting the weak situation of migrants in order to make
cheap gains and call on politicians and the mass media to accord more respect and
dignity to migrants in the socio–political discourse;
Regret that whereas there are international and UN agencies that regulate and pro-
mote free circulation of capital (IMF), mobility of goods and services (WTO), there is still
no such agency to regulate and promote human mobility of migrants among member
states within the framework of Migration and Development and hereby call for the
establishment of such an agency immediately;
Appeal to the international community to open its boarders to refugees from every
part of the world;
Recall that over 80% of the African migration is intra–African. While Ethiopia hosts over
700 000 refugees from neighboring countries, Kenya takes over 500 000 refugees,
Sudan over 200 000 refugees, Cameroon takes up to 1 million refugees including the
Internal Displaced Persons IDP. Lebanon, with a little over 4 million inhabitants, is ac-
commodating more than 1 million Syrian refugees and Turkey with a big heart is home
to over 2 million Syrian refugees. It is noteworthy to mention here that none of these
countries is known to sell and supply arms to the war and confl ict zones but are none-
theless willing and ready to take on a huge responsibility for refugees;
Demand for more investments on capacity building of the diaspora community to
enhance and foster economic integration which is a strong instrument for develop-
ment of countries of origin and a catalyst against xenophobia, racism and other related
intolerance in host countries;
Call on all United Nations member states to regularize the legal status of undocument-
ed migrants residing in their countries, accord citizenship to stateless persons, having
been established that no human being is illegal on this planet earth;
Call on the Diaspora community to tap inwards, strategize and engage constructively
in migration and development even while appreciating the impact of diaspora remit-
tances on the African economies, show more solidarity to refugees, identify with them
and guide them to a successful integration towards a more dignifi ed migration policy;
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Invite the leaders of African countries to fi ght unrelentingly and tirelessly against pov-
erty and promote good governance, solidify and equip education, healthcare and agro
institutions and facilities, invest in human and youth development as a prerequisite in
ensuring peace and security in Africa in line with Sustainable Millennium Goals SDG
post 2015 and in collaboration with the African diaspora;
Encourage the African Union AU, the Regional Economic Communities RECs and
other African institutions to strengthen their efforts towards the implementation of intra–
African migration and labor mobility, thereby making Africa more attractive.
Done today in Berne, 15 September 2015
Dozie Celeste Ugochukwu is the president of the African Diaspora Council of Swit-
zerland. Contact: [email protected].
Nabil Ait-Mokhtar is the vice–president of the African Diaspora Council of Switzer-
land. Contact: [email protected].
1ST DIASPORA CONFERENCE ON
AFRICAN MIGRATION IN EUROPE
«THE MEDITERRANEAN DRAMA AND THE IMPACT ON EUROPEAN MIGRATION POLICIES»
PANEL***DISCUSSION***REFLECTION***RECOMMENDATIONS
With H.E. Amb. Jean-Marie Ehouzou of AU, Sylvain Astier of SEM (FOM*ODM*BFM), Prof. Etienne Piguet of Uni-NE, Dr. André Loembe of ODAE, Salvatore Pittà of Watch the Med, Lamya Hennache & Mathias Ekah of ADCS
DATE : Saturday 12 September 2015 TIME: 13h 30 – 18h00
VENUE : Universal Postal Union UPU, (Weltpost), Weltpostr 4, 3015 Bern
www.africancouncil.ch
REGISTRATION: [email protected], +41 79 476 74 83, +41 76 276 58 22
Conference announcement. (African Diaspora Council of Switzerland, 2015).
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Announcement: Swiss Researching Africa Days 2016
BERNE, 04.–05.11.2016
The 4th edition of the Swiss Researching Africa Days will take place on Friday and Satur-
day November 4-5, 2016 at the Institute for Social Anthropology, University of Bern. The
Researching Africa Days are held bi-annually alternating with the international thematic
conferences of the Swiss Society for African Studies and are open to all disciplines repre-
senting African Studies. The objective of the meeting is to promote the exchange among
the community of researchers working on Africa in Switzerland. Its goals are to
• present current research projects of MA- and doctoral students, post-docs and
senior scholars;
• enhance the circulation of relevant information between these actors and the re-
spective institutions;
• offer a platform for synergies and collaboration;
• enhance the visibility of African Studies in Switzerland, the universities and re-
search institutions;
• promote the institutionalisation of African Studies.
CALL FOR PANELS
The organizers invite proposals for panels of 90 minutes’ duration. Panel proposals
should include a call for papers for the panel proposed (1/2 page), name, address and
institutional affi liation of the convenor(s). A list of possible participants may be added.
However, panels should be open to submissions of suitable papers. We encourage pan-
els organized by and composed of researchers from different Swiss universities, research
groups and stages of the academic career. Panel proposals should be submitted before
the end of February 2016 to Tobias Haller ([email protected]). The organizers of the
Swiss Researching Africa Days will inform by the end of March 2016 which panels are
accepted and then launch the call for papers.
ÉVÉNEMENTS • VERANSTALTUNGEN • EVENTS
CALL FOR POSTERS
One of our aims is to present on-going or recently fi nished PhD research on a topic
related to Africa at Swiss universities. The organizers invite researchers to submit a scien-
tifi c poster (size A0, vertical orientation) on their PhD research for the Swiss Researching
Africa Days. There will be time slots for the presentation of the posters during the confer-
ence. The posters will also be compiled as an electronic reader to be published on the
website of the Swiss Society for African Studies. Please submit proposals for posters
(pdf) to Veit Arlt ([email protected]). The deadline for submission is June 5, 2016. The
organizing committee will decide on the acceptance of submitted poster proposals and
confi rm by June 30, 2016.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SSAS/SGAS/SSEA:
The general assembly of the society will be held on Friday evening 4 November 2016.
ORGANISATION:
For the Board of the SSAS/SGAS/SSEA: Didier Péclard, Tobias Haller and Veit Arlt
For the Institute of Social Anthropology, University of Bern: Tobias Haller
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Announcement: Commons in a “Glocal” WorldGlobal Connections and Local Responses
BERNE, 10.–13.05.2016
Research on the commons deals either with the development of institutions for the
management of the commons, or with issues related to global change. While the lat-
ter mainly focusses on drivers and effects of global expansion of capitalist modes of
production, consumption, and societal reproduction, research on institutions for the
management of the commons deals with collective action and the effects and reac-
tions within local action arenas. However, the entangled institutional processes through
which global and local arenas – referred to as “glocal” – interlock are not yet addressed
in a systematic way.
Europe has been a major driver of “glocal” processes. Therefore, the 4th Regional Eu-
ropean Meeting of the IASC is devoted to global connections and local responses. It
provides a space to advance our understanding of ongoing “glocal” processes and
to analyse historically how commons in Europe have evolved and adapted to “glocal”
changes. By integrating political ecology with approaches of New Institutionalism and
Critical Theory in Anthropology, Human Geography, Political Science and History, we
propose to investigate the impact of external changes on the perception and evalua-
tion of resources by actors related to the commons. This raises the question of local
bargaining power, ideologies and discourses, and of the selection and crafting of insti-
tutional designs, which in turn affect the access to common-pool resources, as well as
the distribution of benefi ts related to the management of these resources.
Switzerland is a hub for headquarters of transnational companies involved in mining, production,
and trading of commodities, which affect the commons directly and indirectly. (Image: Mopani Cop-
per Mines, Zambia (c) Meinrad Schade).
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CONFERENCE THEME
This conference therefore aims to look at the interfaces between local and global pro-
cesses in order to bring together research arenas that have often been kept quite
separate until now. We therefore call for contributions focussing on:
• how global players such as multinational companies and organizations affect
local governance of the commons worldwide
• the role of international law and global trade in shaping the interface between
global actors and institutional processes of local commons governance
• the impacts of external economic and political changes on the perception and
evaluation of resources and areas by actors related to the commons
• local resistance and the development of political strategies countering the trans-
formation of collective into private or state-based property rights as a conse-
quence of economic and political changes
• the local crafting of institutional designs in global and local arenas, and how these
affect access to and distribution of natural resources and related benefi ts among
local to global actors using the commons
• how the encounter of global and local processes affect bargaining power, ideolo-
gies and discourses of global and local actors in governing sustainability trade-
offs.
We especially welcome contributions that aim to address the above mentioned themes
through novel forms of integrating theoretical approaches. In addition, the focus of the
conference will be on a dialogue among representatives of different academic disci-
plines (e.g. geography, social anthropology, history, development studies, economics,
political science, and law) and between academics and non-academic actors (e.g.
practitioners, business representatives, policy makers, or NGOs).
PROPOSED PANEL TOPICS AND SCOPES
We are looking for papers or poster proposals, which refer to the following topics. In
addition, we also consider other thematic issues related to the overall topic but not
mentioned below:
A) Features and effects of global (e.g. European) investments on commons in the world:
• Relevant features and effects of triple crisis (fi nancial, environmental and eco-
nomic) on the contexts and functioning of commons
• Actors, drivers and processes related to investments in land, water, biodiversity
conservation, as well as climate change mitigation and adaptation, and the im-
pact of these investments on internal and/or external dynamics of the commons
• Extractive industries, commodity trade, and their effects on the commons: Policy
coherence of co-existing corporate social responsibility and soft and hard laws at
national and international levels
• Commons, food security and the sustainability of food systems
• Trade regimes and policies and their effects on the governance and socioecologi-
cal outcomes of the commons
• Local responses (resistance, adaptation, transformation) at the interface of na-
tional and global European-based actors
B) Collective action, the commons, and sustainability: What is the role of bottom-up
participatory resource governance (‘constitutionality’) in Switzerland and in other Euro-
pean political systems in common-resource governance:
• “Nature Parks”, protected areas, UNESCO world heritage and biosphere re-
serves in Switzerland, Europe, and beyond, including a historical perspective on
the colonial past of protected areas
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• Linking the management of the commons in forests, pastures, water, and wildlife
with the state – in Switzerland, Europe, and beyond
• Institutional change and management of the commons of larger European cul-
tural landscapes (alpine and others) in the context of economic, public policy and
climate change
• Environmentality vs. constitutionality – exploring the underpinnings of European
commons
• Management of “new” resources (e.g. scenery, biodiversity, heritage, products
with Designations of Origin) through common-pool resource institutions and its
limitation
• Governing sustainability trade-offs in “glocal” processes
C) Prospects of the commons – Responses to triple crisis (fi nancial, environmental,
and socio-economic):
• Beyond (capitalist) markets and the state – the politics of commons in the search
for new forms of societal organization
• The “tragedy of private property”: are common property regimes a way out?
• Social movements, emancipation and the commons - tensions, confl icts or com-
plementarities?
• Democracy, deliberation and the multi-layered governance of commons and its
limitations
• Human rights in relation to the commons
• Implications of the global post-2015 sustainable development institutions for
governing the commons in local resource regimes
• The future of the commons in the context of international law, human rights, trade
and investment policies
We especially welcome contributions that aim to address the above mentioned themes
through novel forms of integrating theoretical approaches. In addition, the focus of the
conference will be on a dialogue among representatives of different academic disci-
plines (e.g. geography, social anthropology, history, development studies, economics,
political science, and law) and between academics and non-academic actors (e.g.
practitioners, business representatives, policy makers, or NGOs).
ORGANIZERS:
Institute of Social Anthropology, Centre for Development and Environment and Depart-
ment of Integrative Geography, in collaboration with the Institute of History and the
World Trade Institute, University of Bern.
INFO:
The call for papers will be published on 15 December 2015 via the conference website:
http://conferences.iasc-commons.org/index.php/iasc/IASC_Europe_Bern2016
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2nd Basel Summer School in African Studies: Basic and ap-plied research, conceptual and practical problems, refl exiv-ity, translation (Basel, 29.08.-05.09.2015)
JAMES MERRON
The second Basel Summer School in African Studies was attended by 7 doctoral stu-
dents from the Centre for African Studies Basel and 12 external participants mostly
from Africa. It started with an introductory session on Saturday including the presenta-
tion of posters, followed by work in groups over the Sunday (coupled with social activi-
ties), so that when the program started in earnest on Monday morning the group had
bonded and had already developed a great discussion culture resulting in an animated
exchange from the onset. Each day (Monday to Friday) would start with a keynote
address by a senior scholar (Ulf Engel, Jeremy Gould, Daniel Künzler, Elísio Macamo,
Brigit Obrist), which would refl ect the overarching theme:
• Research design: Conceptual problems vs. practical problems
• Policy design: How solutions work in the real world
• Analytical design: Formulating problems
• Practical design: Formulating solutions
• Evaluation design: Checking the relevance of research
In the afternoon the respective themes would be discussed further in workshops or-
ganized by the groups of students. The last day was devoted to Advanced Study
Skills. Originally these were supposed to introduce into negotiating and carrying out
consultancy mandates but had to be changed to poster design.
The Basel Summer School stimulated a new perspective on African Studies through
addressing the prevalent demand that knowledge produced on Africa should be practi-
cally based, solution-oriented, and relevant for development. Scholarship is committed
to ways of knowing, however research on Africa is granted by institutions committed
to the idea that proper research ought to be policy relevant. There is no doubt that
research in general ought to be relevant to ‘what is going on in the world’ by address-
ing the problems affl icting countries and peoples. However, an enduring problem in
knowledge production about Africa has been the question concerning the purposes
which should be served by such knowledge. It has generally been agreed that knowl-
edge produced on Africa has been shaped, on the one hand, by the unequal nature
of relations between Africa and the West and, on the other hand, by critical reactions
that have created room for African voices to question the legitimacy of this knowledge.
Within this historiography there is the general assumption that ‘Africa is a problem to
be solved’, a feature of the Enlightenment view which assumes that one can uncover
and produce knowledge about the world, part of which can improve human wellbeing.
Consequently research done in Africa is about solving a problem – a problem that is
The Basel Summer School had a balanced mix of participants
from Switzerland and Africa. (Image: James Merron 2015).
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often formulated prior to the research project having been carried out. The nature of
the problem is therefore known. Of course, research cannot be accomplished without
a clear understanding of a problem in the world that needs to be addressed. The
challenge however is in recognizing the distinction between conceptual problems and
practical problems. Blurring these distinctions has led in practice to placing demands
on research which cannot be met, often where the research was conceived to address
conceptual problems. Emerging from these discussions were distinctions in the levels
of research that are theoretically, conceptually and methodologically relevant to a criti-
cal refl ection on the challenge of “area studies” in formulating its object of knowledge
and its contribution to general scholarship.
Generally put, practical problems refer to the challenge of fi nding a solution to a known
problem that needs to be addressed, whereas conceptual problems refer to what we
need to know in order to understand a problem. Correlates to this are found in the
distinction between basic and applied research in that the former calls for understand-
ing whereas the latter calls for solutions. Policy recommendations can easily fl ow from
research that addresses practical problems, although it is less clear how they can be
derived from conceptual problems. Where basic research fi nds its relevance to policy
makers is through its application to debates in society, which is an issue of transla-
tion, i.e. rendering something intelligible for other people. The signifi cance of basic
research is therefore in identifying the general in the particular and then translating
from emergent properties of research done in particular areas. This step is in no way
unproblematic and not everyone speaks the same disciplinary language. Knowledge
has to be framed in a way that is understandable to all participating disciplines at one
level, and to the public on another.
Prof. Elísio Macamo, director of the Basel Summer School in African Studies, fi ghting
the assumption that ‘Africa is a problem to be solved’ and directing the participants'
attention to the importance of formulating a problem. (Image: James Merron 2015).
Rendering the world intelligible is done by applying theoretical and conceptual tools.
How do we make sense out of the world by applying the theoretical and conceptual
tools available to us? In terms of translation this is problematic in so far as the dominant
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ways of knowing the world emerged in specifi c historical, sociological, and cultural
contexts. Thus there is no basis to assume that concepts developed in South-West
Germany will, for instance, apply to Sierra Leone, or that the cause for confl ict in the
Central African Republic are the same as in Eritrea or the Balkans. Dealing with this
requires an ‘epistemologically radical social science’ that calls for understanding the
nature of one’s knowledge and the conclusions one draws from that, which may or
may not be policy relevant. Refl exivity is an epistemic space where we come to think
about our thinking. It is a space that accepts not knowing as a fundamental aspect of
humanity. In this sense, knowledge production is about knowing ourselves and know-
ing how we come to know something, an enterprise that focuses on subjectivity as
deeply implicated in producing knowledge.
In this sense there is the call to build bridges across academies to account for the
complexities in our world and the scientifi c worldview that make that world up. Also, it
is about bringing in non-scientifi c stakeholders. This means looking at the knowledge
of ordinary people and those who are dealing practically with the problems that we
address, doing this both to enlarge our understanding and to fi nd out what ‘reality’ is
going on out there in the ‘real world’. What kinds of knowledges do we need? Which
kinds of knowledges can we access? This kind of joint knowledge production has
methodological implications. There are organizations that propose their ‘logical mod-
els’ for this (i.e. The Kellogg foundation), many of these focus on changing people’s
behaviors. However this is not a logical model about what people think about health.
Research should not be dominated by a paradigm. There are thought communities out
there. Socially constructed knowledge comes out of social interaction. To refl ect on that
is the central idea of co-production.
James Merron is a PhD-student at the Centre for African Studies Basel. He earned his
MA from Rhodes University, Grahamstown. Contact: [email protected].
The Summer School was held at the premises of the Centre for African Studies
Basel, which offered a quaint and relaxed setting. (Image: James Merron, 2015).
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Give a Man a Fish. Anthropology Talks with James Fergu-son (Bern, 15.-17.09.2015)
JULIA BÜCHELE AND DENIZ SEEBACHER
The title of James Ferguson’s latest book draws from what he calls “perhaps the
world’s most widely circulated development cliché”: “Give a man a fi sh, and you feed
him for a day. Teach a man to fi sh, and you feed him for a lifetime”. However, against
a widespread assumption that the majority of the world’s (adult) population makes a
living through paid labor, Ferguson argues that full or nearly full employment has never
been the case and remains a capitalist utopia at best. This is true not only for Southern
Africa - from where he draws the empirical basis of his work - but for capitalist countries
in general. To give a man a fi shing-lesson then, will produce an unemployed fi sherman
rather than a person who is able to earn a living. Politicians and policy makers have
come to realize that providing wage labor will not solve the problem of poverty and
fi erce inequality. Thus, they recently turn to other means of inclusion and distribution,
which leads to entirely new perceptions of social categories of who should be entitled
to social welfare. This is what Ferguson terms the “New Politics of Distribution” which
fi rst and foremost decouples work from income but also lays the foundation for new
possibilities of claim making and a sense of entitlement to (national) wealth.
Conceptually, Ferguson calls for a pre-Marxist analogy. In his discussion on “Proletarian
Politics Today” held as an opening public lecture to the newly launched Anthropology
Talks at the University of Bern he argues for the understanding of the proletariat not as
the working class but rather as the class of people without possession, similar to the
political category in ancient Rome. Ferguson argues that this understanding is more
adequate to the context of contemporary South Africa where millions cannot even dare
to hope for employment and need to fi nd alternative ways to make a livelihood – a class
of people who would constitute the Lumpenproletariat in Marxist terms.
The man in the title of the book is meant
quite literally as it is the “young, abled-
bodied men” who are believed to participate
in wage labor in order to provide for them-
selves and their families. Ferguson argues
that the benefi ciaries of social welfare were
long thought to be only those who could
not participate in wage labor: the mothers
and children, the elderly and sick, or the
unemployed. However, with masses of un-
employed (young) men who form a social
underclass or “surplus labor force” and for
whom all hopes to be included in the ever
less labor demanding economy, new ways
of inclusion into national welfare systems are
being discussed and experimented with.
“Give a Man a Fish” thus suggests to look at inequality within the nation-state, but
mostly ignores the larger context of historically grown global inequalities, which allow
certain states to have stronger middle classes while other countries (or tax free zones
within countries) serve as hubs for cheap labor in the global market system. This places
the argument of the book fi rmly within a methodological nationalism and fails to address
issues of interstate redistribution and national belonging as one of the main causes of
discrimination.
Ferguson celebrates the idea of Basic Income Grants (BIG), but certain issues are left
utterly unclear. One issue is the purpose of such grants: “what a BIG should be able
to provide” he said during the afternoon workshop in Bern on September 16, “is a
question which needs to be addressed empirically”. While the book sets out to discuss
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the “possibilities and dangers” of BIG, its implications can at this point only be specula-
tive. The idea to “hand money to the poor” does not at all touch on the question of
how work is or should be distributed. How would work (productive and reproductive,
administrative and distributive) be organized within a system of unconditional mon-
etary distribution? While it is high time to point out how men have been excluded from
welfare grants up to now, it is crucial to be reminded that mostly women have been
conducting unpaid (reproductive and care) work. What implications do BIG have on a
gender-related division of labor?
Moreover, the attempt to provide a policy relevant book as well as a “diagnosis” of
current distributive policies leads to some major shortcomings in terms of its scientifi c
basis. One is the conceptual and theoretical framework as well as the methodologi-
cal approach, which for the most part remains vague and thus seems to be rather a
popular political argument. Ferguson draws from his earlier work, but gives hardly any
evidence for the fi ndings he presents in his book. The data and literature the book
draws on seem anecdotal and historical accounts remain unsystematic.
The book can be seen as a trendy example for how social scientists are concerned
with current social and political issues. From a scientifi c perspective however, Ferguson
seems to have written his book less as a scientifi c contribution but rather in an attempt
to spur a (political) discussion. Despite such good intentions, this does not exempt
scholars to bind to some fundamental standards of conceptual clarity and methodo-
logical transparency. If these standards are not provided we need to read this book as
an opinion piece - a well documented opinion piece – which might steer interesting
questions for academic and policy developers alike.
Some of these issues were addressed during the fi rst Anthropology Talks held in Bern
from 15 to 17 September 2015, which provide an annual platform for discussing the
latest work of important scholars in the fi eld of Social and Cultural Anthropology. In the
fi rst talk, James Ferguson was invited to discuss his latest book and its implications
outside Africa. As Switzerland will bring the “unconditional basic income” to the election
poles next year, the “possibilities and dangers” of “basic income grants” implemented
in South Africa, Namibia or Brazil serve as timely templates to discuss such policies
for Switzerland and other European countries to try and see what the North can learn
from the South.
FERGUSON, JAMES. GIVE A MAN A FISH. REFLECTIONS ON THE NEW POLITICS
OF DISTRIBUTION. DURHAM 2015 (DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS).
Deniz Seebacher is DOC-team fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and PhD
student at the Social & Cultural Anthropology Department at the University of Vienna.
She is working on business-society relationships, and currently conducting her PhD
research in Turkey. She is co-founder of MINDset, an NGO dedicated to promote inter-
cultural understanding. Contact: [email protected].
Julia Büchele is PhD student at the Centre for African Studies Basel. She studied
Social Anthropology and Sociology in Vienna, Basel and Lucerne and is writing her PhD
on expatriates (accompanying spouses) in Kampala, Uganda. Currently she is a visiting
scholar at the African American and African Studies Department at Harvard University.
Contact: [email protected].
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Report: Streams of Groundwater and Streams of Con-sciousness: Bridging Natural and Social Sciences.SGAS Conference “Researching African Environments” in Cooperation with SAGUF (Berne, 23.10.2015)
TIBOR RECHSTEINER
The SGAS thematic conference “Participatory and Integrative Approaches in Re-
searching African Environments – Opportunities, Challenges, Actualities in Natural and
Social Sciences” was organized in cooperation with SAGUF, the Swiss Academic So-
ciety for Environmental Research and Ecology. It provided a platform for exchanging
ideas, in which participants from both strands showed much receptiveness to the
views of the other.
The introduction by Tobias Haller (SGAS) and Claudia Zingerli (SAGUF) was followed
by a very compelling speech by Daniel Brockington, a human geographer, who recent-
ly moved from Manchester to leading his own department at the University of Sheffi eld.
Brockington scrutinized statistics and fi gures and demonstrated how absurd they
sometimes are, particularly against the background of the Sustainable Development
Goals that pose new challenges when it comes to data use. To give an example: In
a survey on paddy (wet rice) farmers conducted by the University of Wageningen in
Tanzania, only 109 out of a total of 490 paddy farmers stated that they were irrigating
their fi elds, even though paddy growth per defi nition includes fl ooding the fi eld with
water and keeping it immersed during large stages of the growing process. The survey
showed even more absurd results when farmers were asked about growing irrigated
rice paddies: only 19 agreed.
Brockington showed why the use of GDP makes little sense in many African coun-
tries, given the presence of a large informal economy. In government surveys measur-
ing economic productivity, people often indicate lower consumption rates, hoping to
receive fi nancial support. Here he referred to Morten Jerven's book Poor Numbers
(2013). Instead he pleaded for using the concept of emotional wellbeing. Improve-
ments can be made in the exploration between assets and consumption by the use of
mobile phone, social media and new panel data.
Cyrus Samini from the Climatology Department of the University of Bayreuth followed
a similar direction and presented on the opportunities and, above all, limitations of
Remote Sensing data for ecological studies. He compared the information that differ-
ent standard Geographic Information System (GIS) products offer of large areas that
sometimes are completely contradictory. For instance when calculating rainfall trends,
two different geodata sets offer diametric results. In the African context, models are
often insuffi ciently calibrated to locally collected data and hence not validated. Never-
theless such geodata is widely used for instance by Germany’s GIZ and USAID. Samini
described a “rush for new data” – in order to get published there is an urge to use the
latest geodata, even if it does not necessarily provide useful information. In response he
called for a participatory cross-checking of geodata on the ground. This participation in
data-collection was a wish shared by participants accross the disciplines.
Brice Prudat, from the University of Basel, then held a presentation about land use
change in Namibia, where land reform is seen as a solution to the overuse of pastures
and their misallocation. He tried to examine whether the narrative of “the land is full” is
an indicator of actual land scarcity or if particular interests drive it. Often land scarcity
and land right reforms are simplifi ed into a one-problem-asking-for-one-solution, with
low consideration of the needs and means of a village’s population, for which social
analysis of local narratives is necessary.
The last presentation of the morning session was held by Christian Andres developing
a holistic approach at the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture in Frick FiBL and at
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ETH Zürich to reduce the spread and impact of cocoa swollen shoot virus in Ghana.
Even though many cocoa trees have been cut down, the spread of the virus could not be
stopped so far. The aim of the project was to increase awareness amongst farmers about
how to reduce the virus. A successful method to halt the spread of the virus was to plant
citrus tree barriers, which resulted in complete reduction of the virus within 10 years. The
speaker highlighted in great detail the different variables in cocoa growth that need to be
considered when promoting such methods: For example it is important to consider that
differences in production systems that can range from agroforestry to monoculture. The
research showed that in large connected areas of plantations the virus had spread much
more easily compared to regions where cocoa growing areas are more scattered. This
proves that the spread of the virus could actually be stopped geographically separating
growth systems. However this comes at the price of losing plantation area. Nevertheless,
promising methods to stop the spread of the virus have been found.
Delwendé Kiba from ETH Zürich took the culinarily satisfi ed listeners from Ghana’s
cocoa region further to West Africas’ yam belt in Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso. Yam
is an important food crop and source of income for many smallholding farmer families.
According to Kiba, often less than 20% of possible yields are achieved, whereby the
pressure on land increases as more area is used. Unlike his colleague Andres from
FiBL, Kiba promoted the use of fertilizer in order to reduce soil erosion. The method
was tested on four different sites and used multi- and transdisciplinary approaches:
agronomists, soil scientists, sociologists and economists were involved. Remarkably,
ten master students visited the farmers and spend two weeks each on every site in or-
der to learn more about the farmers’ perspectives in an informal and unobstructive way.
A little premiere was the short skype lecture streamed directly from the University of
Nottingham, UK, featuring Mike Clifford and his colleague Charlotte Ray. Keeping the
time limit of the speech was then cared for by using equally innovative techniques
of holding a little piece of paper in front of the camera saying “2 minutes left”. Even
though improved stoves have been promoted since the 1940s, uptake rates were often
disappointing due to rather technocratic approaches of promoting the technology. The
scholars from Nottingham therefore tried to go to back to the basics and tested the
stoves themselves at the university with students. Rather wittingly, Clifford told about
how in one example a stove was not appreciated in India because of its yellow colour.
In another instance, Kenyan women suddenly stopped cooking when Clifford observed
that the stoves worked “magically.”
After attention had moved back from Nottingham to Bern, Gabriele Slezak from the
University of Vienna took the fl oor and related her experiences in a transdisciplinary
research project on fi sh as a negotiated sustainable food and water resource in Burkina
Faso. Aiming to reduce water scarcity in the 1950s, approximately 1400 reservoirs
were constructed throughout the country. These have become biotopes for fi sh but
are under threat to dry up or fi ll up with sediments. This has lead to the insight that it
is necessary to systematically analyse fi sh stock in specifi c and aquatic biospheres in
general. Gabriele Slezak strongly emphasised the importance of time in order to enable
fruitful discussions and new trains of thought. Even though this might sound simplistic,
it is all too often forgotten and it is probably good to be reminded of it from time to time.
The last lecture took a rather unexpected turn when Shuichi Oyama made people listen
up again. The Africanist from Kyoto University stopped over in Bern on his way from
Japan to Ethiopia. He promoted making use of a combination of plastic waste and ma-
nure spread around fi elds by Haussa farmers in Niger in order to reduce soil erosion and
increase fertility. He suggested an amount of 20 kg/m2, which he had proven to be rather
effective in his study. He defi nitely did break Western paradigms and took up a practice of
the Haussa farmers, whom he had regularly visited for years. The questions of what hap-
pened to Fula herder’s cattle swallowing the waste on the fi elds or whether the soil would
not be poisoned remained unanswered and hanging somewhere in the atmosphere of
the room a bit short of oxygen after a long afternoon of interesting presentations.
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In the panel discussion, it was agreed that humility is needed when exchanging with
people from different disciplines. This was certainly the case during the conference, in
which all participants were rather open to the knowledge of scientists from other disci-
plines. Equally important is enough time both for understanding complex relationships
in the fi eld and trying to understand each other’s disciplines. It was remarked that if as
a natural scientists one mixes social and natural sciences, it can be “quite hard to fi nd a
job” and that how one frames information is key in order to achieve credibility. To prick
a needle into the bubble of academic discourse, I would like to quote one conference
attendee, a former Georgian NGO-worker, who said that while she had worked in the
fi eld in Georgia, they “were never invited to think too much” and were kept out of the
planning processes of the international NGO.
The areas of overlap between natural, namely environmental, and the social sciences
continuously gains importance, not limited to, but in particular in the context of unstable
national states, fi nancial insecurity and more or less direct dependence on ecosystems
and the two essential resources soil and water for livelihoods. Environmental issues can
no longer be tackled without considering the social circumstances in which they occur
in the Age of Anthropocene, when humanity has become an environmental force. Ques-
tions of scale, whether temporal or spatial, should never be neglected in order to achieve
accuracy. A core idea that emanated from the discussions was a change in perspective
in data collection by furthering the dialogue across disciplinary borders and systemati-
cally integrating the emic view of the societies and people in the fi eld in the process.
Tibor Rechsteiner earned his BSc in International Land and Water Management at
the University of Wageningen, NL and is now enrolled in the Master programme in Afri-
can Studies at the University of Basel. Contact: [email protected].
Report: Africa Days 2015 – 2nd Ethio-Czech Conference on Africa (Pilsen, 15.-16.10.2015)
MONIKA BAUMANOVA AND JAN ZÁHOŘÍK
The conference represents an important stepping-stone in the cooperation of the
Czech Centre for African Studies based at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen,
where the conference was organized, and the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia. It
was also a continuation of a series of previous meetings and an exhibition (20th century
Revisited: Relations between former Czechoslovakia and Ethiopia) that had been on
show from October 1st to November 30th at the Ethnographic Museum of Addis Aba-
ba University, Ethiopia. Africa Days 2015 (2nd Ethio-Czech Conference on Africa) was
the fourth event of its kind organized or co-organized by the Centre of African Studies
in Pilsen since 2013. Last year, the 1st Central European African Studies Conference
was hosted in Pilsen, and later that year, the 1st Ethio-Czech Conference on Africa
was co-organized by Jimma University (Ethiopia) and the University of West Bohemia
iin Pilsen (Czech Republic).
The Africa Days have developed into an important networking opportunity for research-
ers from Africa and/or working on Africanist issues, predominantly connected to East
Africa. This year it was attended by historians, sociologists, political scientists, anthro-
pologists and archaeologists from several institutions including Kisii University, Kenya,
Addis Ababa University and Jimma University, Ethiopia, and a number of European
universities.
The meeting was opened with a keynote lecture given by Ahmed Hassen Omer, head of
the Institute of Ethiopian Studies at the Addis Ababa University on Research at the Insti-
tute of Ethiopian Studies: Experiences of six decades, 1963-2015. The presenter gave
an overview of how the Institute has evolved into its present day form of an outward
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Newsletter 2/2015
oriented centre that attracts international attention and conducts research relevant for
the future development of the Ethiopian society.
The fi rst panel incorporated three papers that considered socio-economic factors, gen-
der issues and geopolitics as the driving forces of social change in Africa, drawing on
examples from across the continent. While Judit Bagi (University of Pecs) adopted a
practical approach to gender mainstreaming strategies in Rwanda, Alemayehu Kumsa
(Charles University, Prague) explained how we could understand socio-economic fac-
tors as a driving force for the Boko Haram war against the Nigerian State. The presenta-
tion of Maurice Amutabi (Kisii University) offered a broad perspective that encompassed
globalization trends in West and East Africa and discussed Geopolitics and resource
exploitation in Africa.
The following panel targeted developments in Ethiopia. Jean-Nicolas Bach (Sciences
Po Bordeaux) refl ected on the 2015 Ethiopian election and the Ethiopian right wing,
presenting a fresh perspective on the underlying political issues now predetermining the
future of the country. Alexander Meckelburg (University of Hamburg) opened a theme
that has enjoyed a renewed attention in the recent decade, speaking on slavery and
the slave trade in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. He highlighted the fragmented nature
of research to date and the need for telling more integrative histories of slavery in this
part of Africa.
The last panel of the fi rst day of the conference brought together the underlying causali-
ties between political and social developments as they are refl ected in the practical as-
pects of state-building and power struggle in East Africa. Hohetemisrak Samuel (Addis
Ababa University) chose case studies from Kenya and Zimbabwe in his paper on power
sharing as a resolution to post-election violence. Aleksi Ylönen (University Institute of
Lisbon) refl ected on the domino effect that went hand in hand with separatism following
international recognition in the Horn of Africa. Finally, Dejene Gemechu (Jimma Univer-
sity) opened up the popular topic of gift-giving in social sciences, examining how it is
played out in the fi eld of indigenous diplomacy in Borana-Arbore in Ethiopia.
The second day of the conference was launched by a panel that discussed some of the
most pressing issues in political and social management of education, health and foreign
affairs in East and South Africa in the context of a rapidly globalizing world. Anakalo
Shitandi (Kisii University) linked research to teaching in his scrutiny of the dilemma of
young universities in Kenya. Jiří Preis (University of West Bohemia), who brought forward
examples of Uganda and Botswana, presented an overview of HIV/AIDS in Subsaharan
Audience of the introductory panel to the Africa Days 2015 (image: Monika Baumanova, 2015).
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Africa in the second decade of the 21st century. Alfred Kramer then looked at South
Africa in his paper on South-South cooperation in the post-apartheid foreign policy.
The last panel of the conference incorporated multi-disciplinary perspectives on a range
of issues relevant to present-day developments in Africa, including archaeological in-
terpretations of pre-colonial architectural heritage, historical examinations of Victorian
perspectives on Africa, as well as the long tradition and relevance of Ethiopian studies.
Monika Baumanova (Centre for African Studies Basel) and Ladislav Šmejda (University
of West Bohemia) contributed a paper on Stone mortuary architecture in Swahili towns,
highlighting the relevance of material artefacts, among which stone architecture can be
counted, for construction of identities and making claims of social power. Hanna Ru-
binkowska (University of Warsaw) presented her study on Stefan Strelcyn and the Haile
Sellasie I Prize as an example of the Emperor’s policy towards Ethiopian Studies. The
conference closed with the historical study of Professor Ivo Budil (University of West
Bohemia) on William Winwood Reade and the Victorian vision of Africa.
One of the main goals of this kind of conference is strengthening research networks
and creating new ones. Addis Ababa University and Jimma University in Ethiopia are
crucial partners for the Centre of African Studies in Pilsen. In Jimma, a joint Centre
of African Studies was opened this year (by Jimma University and the University of
West Bohemia). However, new partner institutions, such as Kisii University in Kenya
or the University of Ibadan in Nigeria represent prospective future partner institutions
for research, student and staff exchange as well as joint meetings, conferences, and
programs.
Monika Baumanova is a member of the Czech African Studies network and is cur-
rently a Marie Curie Global Individual Fellow at the Centre for African Studies Basel
and the Department of Archaeology and Ancient History at the University of Uppsala.
Monika did her undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University College Lon-
don, UK, where she specialised in African Archaeology and undertook fi eldwork in
East Africa. In 2012, she earned her PhD in Archaeology from the University of West
Bohemia, Czech Republic. From 2011 to 2014 she co-managed an international re-
search project there, during which she focused on Swahili towns. Contact: monika.
Jan Záhořík is the President of and assistant professor at the Centre of African Stud-
ies, University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic. He earned his PhD in African
Studies at the Charles University in Prague having trained in Cultural Anthropology at
the University of West Bohemia. His research focuses on socio-political development
of contemporary Ethiopia, the modern history of Ethiopia, and confl icts in Sub-Saharan
Africa. Contact: [email protected].
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Report: 1st School of Languages Conference, SOLCON 1, at the University of Ghana, Legon (Accra, 27.-29.10.2015)
NATALIE TARR
In Switzerland, no tertiary institution has systematically offered courses in African lan-
guages and linguistics since Thomas Bearth's retirement from the University of Zurich
in 2004. Courses on African literatures have been offered at Basel and Lausanne uni-
versities. The new MA specialization "Études africaines: textes et terrains" offered within
the faculty of arts at the University of Lausanne from February 2016, will at least partially
fi ll the gap. Nevertheless, academia in Switzerland continues to sadly neglect research
on African languages. As a young Swiss scholar in African Studies with a particular
interest in anthropology and language, I was thus drawn to this fi rst conference of the
School of Languages of the University of Ghana and the Central University College,
Accra, which was held at the beautiful Legon university campus.
Scholars from all over Africa as well as Europe and the United States could visit 27
different panels dedicated to linguistics, literary studies, sociolinguistics, and gender
or communication studies. The theme of the conference was “Multilingualism in the
African Context: Resource or Challenge?” – a topic of ongoing relevance also to Swiss
scholarship. Less than two weeks prior to this conference, a workshop discussing
the challenges of multilingualism in the Swiss administration had taken place at the
University of Basel. This workshop, too, could easily have been sub-titled "resource or
challenge". In Legon, the overarching topic was a resumption of the debate on insti-
tutionalizing an adequate language of education for Ghana. In Switzerland the closely
related discussion on which second language to learn fi rst is currently provoking heated
debates across linguistic borders.
MULTILINGUALISM AS RESOURCE
The opening ceremony consisted of the usual ritualized greetings, in which the organ-
izers welcomed participants warmly and which was accompanied by two shows. The
fi rst performance of Lwanga Songsore and Nana Aba Eduam, students of the Depart-
ment of Performing Arts at the University of Ghana, featured a stylized verbal debate
and was accompanied by a female drummer. In the second skit, poet Nana Asaase
relied on his voice and wit to entertain and stimulate the audience. With their thought
provoking performances the artists set the tone for Tope Omoniyi's (Roehampton Uni-
versity, UK) captivating keynote address on “Multilingual Resourcing: Enhancing the
Macro and Micro Dimensions of Africa's Multilingualism”. Omoniyi had been invited to
Legon as visiting scholar and is also Carnegie Diaspora Professor.
The conference participants. (Image: School of Languages, Universtiy of Ghana, Legon 2015).
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The audience was witness to Omoniyi's rich experience as a sociolinguist. In response
to the question contained in the conference theme, he advocated that multilingualism
be seen and treated as a resource, the challenge being what is done with this resource.
He reminded his audience of the long-term effects the so-called scramble for Africa
continues to have on language planning, policy and particularly on speakers' language
use throughout the continent. New research has produced convincing data, showing
how the arbitrary carving up of the African continent by the European powers in 1884,
has had more devastating effects in terms of ongoing or repeated confl icts and civil
wars on groups divided among different national states than on groups not distributed
over different countries.
Language planning, on the other hand, can (and should) start in the family. Omoniyi
illustrated his point with excerpts from an interview. Here, a mother explained how she
successfully managed to raise her children with three languages, combining persever-
ance with stamina in allowing her children a total immersion experience, adding French
when it became relevant for the children's schooling. This seemed almost to good to be
true and reminded me of my own research and my hard-won insight that statements ut-
tered by people need always be taken with a grain of salt. Omoniyi went on to mention
that the notion of family language planning (FLP) has now entered academic discourse,
citing publications relevant to his own research, and how we need to reengage with
mother tongues – academically, politically and personally.
This was a point taken up again in the podium discussion “Language of Education
in Ghana: Is the Mother Tongue Still Relevant?” held on the evening of the second
day. Here, experts from academia, including Tope Omoniyi and Felix Ameka (Leiden
University, Netherlands), engaged in a lively discussion with a representative from the
Ministry of Education, members of civil society and teachers. Next to Omoniyi's views,
Felix Ameka's opinion as an academic was particularly welcome since he has published
extensively on the use of African languages at home and in education. He himself would
not use the term “mother tongue”, Ameka told me, holding researchers making use of
the term responsible for putting words in the mouth of their interlocutors. Unfortunately
time always seemed too short to engage in in-depth discussions during the tightly or-
ganized conference. The concept of mother tongue has been dismantled by research-
ers in anthropology and linguistics at least since the early 2000s, leaving space for new
and more pertinent ideas, so a continued debate with Ameka could have been quite
revealing. During the colloquium on mother tongue education, Ameka also poignantly
observed that the form of a language spoken at home and the form of this language
taught in school are not the same. Reality in Ghana is, he went on, the institutionaliza-
tion of a serial monolingual policy. Overall, the panelists agreed that more collaboration
was needed between policy makers, civil society and experts on language – particularly
when designing language policies.
ENGLISH AS AN AFRICAN LANGUAGE
Another point that was brought up repeatedly in presentations and especially during
discussions throughout the conference, was the notion of English as an African lan-
guage. Omoniyi had remarked in his keynote address that the many languages present
on the African continent are a sub-regional identity marker and as such can give the
recurrent idea of pan-Africanism a new momentum/impetus through the notion of one
multilingual continent. English, in his view, is an African language – a topic, which elic-
ited highly emotional discussions among the conference participants.
The three parallel panels concluding the fi rst morning session dealt with “Language
Policy,” “Morpho-Syntax” and “Sociolinguistics,” respectively. These panels hosting
four presentations each triggered lively debates and comments.
One presenter, while not necessarily designating English as an African language, nev-
ertheless found that colonialism had furnished Africans with linguae francae. These
should now be used throughout the continent, not only to connect to an international
community, but also to help Africans overcome linguistic challenges at home, said
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Alfred B. Cudjoe (University of Ghana) in his presentation on “Adoption of European
Languages by Africans: Dealing with Challenges Involved”. In this panel on language
policy, researchers from Ghana's University of Education in Winneba, from the Nor-
wegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim and from Aston
University, Birmingham in the UK, joined their colleague from the University of Ghana
in varied discussions on fi nding an adequate language of education for Ghana. One
noteworthy remark was made during discussion time: "People tell me how good my
English is, but nobody tells me I speak good Akan" – a comment getting to the heart of
attitudes involved in the which-language-for-which-domain debate.
After a short lunch break spent eating and discussing, four panels were held, one of
which continued with presentations on language policy. Another panel, entitled “Prag-
matics/Discourse Analysis,” was host to a refreshingly professional talk on transport lit-
erature in Nigeria by Hassan Alhaji Ya'u (University of Kano, Nigeria). The study's author
described how religious messages on transport vehicles allowed drivers to construct
religious identity, seek divine protection and success. This presentation was followed
by a linguistic study, “The Pragmatics of tiri, "Head", metaphorical expressions in Akan”
by Kofi Agyekum (University of Ghana). The title might elicit the conclusion that this is a
rather dry topic, but the brilliant and entertaining presenter had his audience captivated
and laughing repeatedly, also people not close to linguistic analysis.
CODE SWITCHING
On the second day, presentations started with four parallel panels, one of which was
dedicated to code-switching. Here the contributions covered a wide range of topics
– and an equally wide range of scholarship. The passionate presentation by Omolara
Iyabode Daniel (National Open University, Nigeria and University of Ghana) on “Nige-
rians' Utilisation of Code-mixing as a Communicative Device” elicited varied opinions
on the use of language as a tool for identity construction. In his contribution to the
discussion, Tope Omoniyi, who has published on code-switching and who was in the
audience, asked participants to re-think linguistic defi nitions, methodology and theory
in the translanguaging vs. code-switching debate. One theory need not fi t all, he stated,
pleading for a renewed engagement with the concept of code-switching.
The third and last day of this well organized conference began with a plenary session
and a talk by Samuel Gyasi Obeng (Indiana University, USA) on “Grammatical Prag-
matics: On the Contributions Made by Akan to Ghanaian English Political and Social
Interaction with Particular Reference to 'Dumsor'”, an acutely relevant topic since Gha-
naian president Mahama had been nicknamed Dumsor. Dumsor stands for “light off”
(dum) – “light on” (sor) in Akan, a term coined in reaction to the continuing energy crisis
with its constant power cuts. Obeng has sighted social media for references to dumsor
and has come up with an impressive and amusing corpus of data. Serious academic
research in linguistics can be much fun!
As at any conference there are many intriguing, relevant, interesting presentations nec-
essarily left unattended because one obviously cannot attend two or three panels at the
same time. A pity, really, but the energy such events stimulate and the insights gained,
connections made and the people one meets are reason enough to attend such inter-
national gatherings time and again. The lack of conferences pertaining specifi cally to
research on African languages in Switzerland makes such academic get-togethers all
the more pertinent for us.
Natalie Tarr is currently conducting research for a PhD thesis at the Center for African
Studies, University of Basel, on the role of the court-interpreter in Burkina Faso. She
will also teach a course related to African languages during the spring semester at the
University of Basel. Contact: [email protected].
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Rencontre avec In Koli Jean Bofane – « écrivain belge aux ori-gines et à la rationalité congolaises » (Bâle, 28.-29.04.2015)
FRANZISKA BLASER
Ce printemps, lors de son passage au salon du livre à Genève, l’écrivain In Koli Jean
Bofane a été invité au Literaturhaus Basel pour une soirée de lecture dédiée à son
premier roman, « Mathématiques congolaises » (Actes Sud, 2008), animée par Regula
Renschler. Le lendemain, lors d’un atelier de travail et de traduction organisé par les
Etudes françaises et les Etudes africaines de l’Université de Bâle, Jean Bofane a retra-
cé son parcours d’écrivain avant l’intervention de sa traductrice Katja Meintel sur les
défi s que pose la traduction de « Congo Inc. » (Actes Sud, 2014). Ces manifestations
ont eu lieu dans le cadre du séminaire « Voix contemporaines de la littérature africaine
», proposé au semestre de printemps 2015 par Isabelle Chariatte, chargée de cours
de littérature francophone à l’Université de Bâle. Le compte rendu qui suit est le fruit
du travail des étudiants.
Jean Bofane est un véritable citoyen des deux mondes : né en 1954 au Congo (RDC)
à Mbandaka, là où l’équateur croise le fl euve Congo, il revendique la prise de parole
pour analyser son pays natal. L'autre monde - l'Europe et surtout la Belgique - consti-
tue un refuge lors des troubles politiques au Congo. La famille Bofane fuit le pays une
première fois dans les années 60 pour la Belgique. Après ses études de publicitaire en
Europe, Jean Bofane retourne dans les années 80 au Congo. Suite aux graves pillages
perpétrés par l'armée congolaise dans les années 90, il quitte à nouveau son pays pour
la Belgique, où il réside actuellement.
Lors de l’atelier avec les étudiants, Jean Bofane relate, avec un grand talent de conteur,
ses premiers contacts avec la littérature. Afi n de chasser, la nuit, la peur pendant les
troubles au Congo, son père lui lit les contes des Mille et une nuits. Tout comme Shé-
hérazade qui essaie d’échapper à la mort, l'enfant Bofane échappe à ses angoisses à
travers la lecture de ces contes. Dans la bibliothèque de ses parents, il découvre plus
tard les œuvres d'Emile Zola, qu’il prend pour un écrivain congolais, car aussi bien Zola
que Nana sont des noms congolais !
Le moment déclencheur qui pousse Jean Bofane à prendre la plume est le génocide au
Rwanda en 1994. Selon lui, les Africains doivent enfi n dénoncer le mal du continent. Il
suit en cela la coutume de son peuple dont la première juridiction est la parole donnée
à tout le monde. L'écriture sert d'arme contre les traumatismes. Face au mouvement
djihadiste Boko Haram au Nigéria, dont le nom signifi e « le livre interdit », Jean Bofane
rétorque à ce groupe méprisant la plume : « J'écris ».
Dans l’atelier de traduction animé par Katja Meintel, les participants sont invités à trouver
le bon mot pour la traduction en cours de « Congo Inc. ». L'allocution « Vieux », signe de
respect au Congo, constitue une pierre d'achoppement, car le terme allemand « Alter »
implique un manque de respect. Un autre exemple illustre le travail astucieux de l'auteur
sur la langue : les enfants vendant de l'eau dans les rues de Kinshasa crient « eau pure
», mais prononcent « eau pire ». Comment traduire ce jeu de mots en allemand ? Enfi n,
grâce à la présence de l'écrivain, celui-ci approuve la proposition de Meintel de traduire
« une grande part de » par « ein Löwenanteil », à forte connotation africaine.
Cet atelier a été un véritable trésor pour tous les participants, mais surtout pour les
étudiants en littérature française. En effet, les moments sont rares où le lecteur croise
l'auteur ainsi que sa complice, la traductrice. Lors de cette rencontre, les lecteurs ont
perçu ce qui se passe derrière les coulisses et les verbes « écrire » et « traduire » sont
désormais chargés d'un surplus de sens.
Franziska Blaser est étudiante BA de français à l’Université de Bâle. Contact : fran-
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Compte rendu : Mathématiques congolaises (Jean Bofane)
ISABELLE CHARIATTE
« Mathématiques congolaises » scrute les mécanismes du pouvoir en RDC en les
situant dans le microcosme trépidant de la ville de Kinshasa. In Koli Jean Bofane en
dépeint les univers les plus divers, comme la Limete, quartier huppé de la capitale
avec ses villas décorées de toiles de peintres congolais contemporains (Chéri Samba,
Moseka Yogo Ambake), comme la vie nocturne des bars où l’on danse au rythme de
la rumba congolaise, ou l’ambiance feutrée et raffi née de l’Hôtel Intercontinental où
déambulent les politiciens les plus corrompus. Aux antipodes de ce monde luxueux
et peuplé d’intérêts se dessine la hutte misérable du féticheur, tout comme le quartier
populaire de la Gombe avec ses ligablos (petits étalages de commerce, forum politique
et cabinet de psychanalyse !) ou « Le Maquis », hangar où résident, séparés par des
parois de carton, ceux qui subissent l’emprise du « python à deux têtes », métaphore
récurrente de la Faim. Sur ce tableau riche et contrasté de la capitale de la RDC, le des-
tin du génie Célio Matemona, alias « Célio Mathématik », se mêle avec celui de Gon-
zague Tshilombo, directeur général du « bureau Information et Plans » dépendant de
la présidence de la République. Indirectement, il se mêle aussi avec celui de Makanda
Rachidi du parti de l’opposition.
Orphelin de guerre, Célio garde comme seul souvenir de son père un manuel de
mathématiques. Plus qu’un souvenir, ce manuel devient sa raison de vivre, car Célio
intègre et transpose les algorithmes à la vie pour en expliquer le fonctionnement. Grâce
à sa vision du monde, Célio est recruté par Tshilombo au « bureau Information et Plans
» où son travail consiste à manipuler des informations afi n d’agir sur les événements.
Passionné par ces mécanismes, il transpose le fonctionnement d’algorithmes à la vie
Jean Bofane. (Image: PEN Vlaanderen 2013).
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politique et participe ainsi activement au dysfonctionnement du pays : manipulation de
l’opinion publique en faveur du président, mise en scène d’une opération de déstabili-
sation du pays par la France qui sert à rehausser au niveau international l’image ternie
par le manque de démocratie et qui permet d’obtenir des millions de dollars des Amé-
ricains, enfi n simulation d’un coup d’Etat fabriquée avec son et images et passée en
direct à la télévision dans le but d’anéantir l’opposition, non pour des motifs politiques,
mais de rancune personnelle !
Avec une plume trempée dans l’ironie et l’humour, In Koli Jean Bofane retrace une cri-
tique directe du dysfonctionnement politique de la RDC, sans manquer d’y incorporer
une multitude de micro-épisodes de la vie quotidienne qui dépeignent les espoirs, les
pensées, les sentiments et les frustrations de tout un chacun. Ancien enfant-soldat,
l’adjudant Bamba, au regard implacable et terrifi ant, en a assez de tuer et il consulte
le sorcier Mbuta Luidi dans le but d’obtenir un poste tranquille près de sa famille, loin
de Kinshasa, affaire qui prendra toutefois un tour inattendu. Odia Tshilombo, épouse
avide de richesses, compense les frustrations de sa vie de couple en se lançant dans le
commerce à Oman avec l’arabe Zouher que le jaloux Tshilombo trouve trop charmant.
Autour de son ligablo, Vieux Isemanga ne perd pas une occasion pour rappeler les
rapports de force entre Noirs et Blancs au moment du colonialisme. Makanda Rachidi,
celui qui se croit être un fauve, apparaît ridicule ne sachant gérer sa sexualité avec une
jeune étudiante. Les conversations avec le père Lolos font comprendre à Célio la res-
ponsabilité de chacun dans la construction de la société et, en particulier, de sa propre
responsabilité dans son travail au « bureau Information et Plans ». Après avoir compris
les intérêts sournois de Tshilombo, dont le sombre passé est lié à des meurtres de psy-
chopathe, Célio prend la décision de suivre la voix de sa conscience, quitte à renoncer
au bel emploi qui lui payait appartement de luxe et chauffeur.
Avec « Mathématiques congolaises », le lecteur européen, habitué aux seules images
de misère et de violence en RDC, est profondément sensibilisé à une réalité bien plus
complexe que celle projetée par les médias. Il en hume la fraîcheur, il comprend mieux
les mécanismes intéressés et corrompus de sa politique, mais il perçoit aussi les joies
et les déceptions de la vie de chacun – qu’il soit Kinois ou non, il suit des réfl exions
nouvelles sur le monde, portées enfi n par l’espoir d’un changement auquel tout un
chacun peut participer et se doit de le faire.
Mathématiques congolaises (prix Jean-Muno
2008, prix de la SCAM 2009, grand prix littéraire
d’Afrique noire de l’ADELF 2009) a été publié
par Actes Sud en 2008. Le roman a été tra-
duit entre autres en allemand par Katja Meintel
(Sinusbögen überm Kongo. Horlemann 2013).
Isabelle Chariatte est chargée de cours en
littérature francophone à l'Université de Bâle.
Contact : [email protected].
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Discussion avec Jean Bofane à propos de « Mathématiques congolaises »
PHILIPP HÄNGGI, TIMON JAHN
« Il faut que les Africains prennent la parole », affi rme Bofane à plusieurs reprises lors de
la discussion. Son engagement politique en tant qu’écrivain congolais se nourrit de la
volonté de donner une image authentique du fonctionnement des sociétés africaines.
Bofane affi rme, par exemple, qu’il y a en effet des manifestations étranges en Afrique
que l’on ne peut pas s’expliquer et qu’il y a beaucoup de manipulations par les sor-
ciers, notamment dans le monde politique. Selon Bofane, la tâche principale de tout
lecteur de « Mathématiques congolaises » consiste à réussir à identifi er les rapports de
forces au sein de la société congolaise afi n de les empêcher, car « la paix et le bonheur
sont fragiles ; c’est pourquoi il faut éveiller la vigilance et veiller à ce qui est important. »
Jean Bofane nie toute victimisation africaine et met l’accent sur l’authenticité de son
œuvre. Cela est illustré par la position qu’occupent les femmes dans la société congo-
laise : le revenu du père ne suffi t souvent pas à nourrir la famille. La mère fait fructifi er
cet argent en faisant de petits commerces. C’est donc grâce aux femmes que les
familles arrivent à s’en sortir, car le revenu du père ne sert que de capital initial. Dans
« Mathématiques congolaises », Bofane illustre ce rôle central des femmes à travers les
personnages de Mère Bokeke Iyofa et de Mme Odia Tshilombo.
L’authenticité de l’œuvre bofanienne est également la raison pour laquelle l’auteur ne
recule pas devant la description détaillée de la violence. Au contraire, son œuvre est
caractérisée par une ambiance de violence, car celle-ci « fait partie de la vie de la
majorité des Congolais ». A ce sujet, Bofane souligne pourtant que cette violence «
est générée par des infl uences extérieures », ce qui est dû au fait que l’Afrique détient
des matières premières et stimule ainsi l’intérêt économique des nations extérieures ;
contrairement à l’opinion répandue en Europe, la violence en RDC n’est donc pas
d’abord le résultat de confl its ethniques.
Dans ce contexte politique, Bofane plaide pour l’abandon de tout antagonisme et la
déconstruction des dichotomies. Selon lui, on ne peut pas opposer de façon nette
le modèle démocratique européen à la société congolaise, ou la « modernité » à la «
tradition ». L’appropriation du modèle occidental par le Congo ne servirait à rien si «
l’originalité africaine » n’était pas préservée. Bofane stipule qu’il faudrait plutôt renou-
veler les traditions afi n d’éviter le cynisme de la nouvelle génération. Selon lui, il est
primordial que les enfants soient informés ; c’est la raison pour laquelle il a choisi, pour
son premier texte littéraire, la forme du livre pour enfant pour retracer une parabole
du pouvoir de Mobutu ( « Pourquoi le lion n’est plus le roi des animaux ». Gallimard
Jeunesse 1996).
Cet entretien a été réalisé lors de la présentation de Jean Bofane au Literaturhaus Basel
le 28 avril 2015.
Philipp Hänggi et Timon Jahn sont des étudiants de français au niveau Bachelor à
l’Université de Bâle. Contact : [email protected], [email protected].
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Congo Inc.: Le testament de Bismarck (Jean Bofane)
NATALIE TARR
Wie in Mathématiques Congolaises, erzählen auch in Congo Inc multiple Stimmen die
Schicksale Einzelner als Teil eines undurchdringlichen Netzes an weltweiten Verbindun-
gen, Verstrickungen, Abhängigkeiten. Bofane hat spät zum Schreiben gefunden und wid-
mete sich mit ganzer Seele der Entwicklung einer eigenen Sprache, mit welcher er Unaus-
sprechliches darzustellen vermag, ohne ins Voyeuristische zu verfallen. Vor allem Frauen
sind dabei von Gewalt betroffen. In Congo Inc. werden jedoch keine Frauen vorgestellt, die
nur als Opfer der Umstände ihr Leben fristen, so wie dies im globalen Norden die Medien
oft tun. Bofane zeigt uns Frauen, die unsägliches Leid erfahren haben, sich trotz allem eine
Zukunft vorstellen, sie sich erkämpfen und aufbauen. Wie Adeïto, die Sexsklavin eines
abgehalfterten Rebellen, oder Shasha, das Strassenmädchen in Kinshasa....
Isookanga ist es leid im Dorf zu leben, auf seinen Onkel hören zu müssen, während
draussen die Welt und all ihre Möglichkeiten auf ihn wartet. Er möchte in die Stadt zie-
hen und sich durch Arbeit in diese grössere Welt einfügen – er möchte ein „Globalisa-
tor“ werden, wie er sich ausdrückt. Dank einer von China gesponserten Funkantenne,
die in Nähe seines Dorfes installiert wird, und eines geklauten Laptops erkundet Isoo-
kanga schon mal virtuell diese grosse, weite Welt. Schliesslich bricht er nach Kinshasa
auf, in die vibrierende Grossstadt mit ihren scheinbar unendlichen Möglichkeiten. Dort
freundet er sich mit einer Gruppe Strassenkinder an.
Shasha wurde durch Gewalt und Krieg dazu gezwungen ein Strassenkind zu werden.
Ihre Eltern wurden in einem der zahllosen Konfl ikte regelrecht abgeschlachtet. Scho-
nungslos schildert Bofane, wie das 12-jährige Mädchen mit seinen Geschwistern dem
Grauen den Rücken kehrt und in die grosse Stadt geht, zu Fuss und nur mit dem, was
sie gerade am Leib trugen. Ein Bruder stirbt unterwegs.
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Wir folgen auch Zhang Xias Schicksal bis nach China, nach Hause zu seiner Frau und
Sohn. Sie näht dort Plastikkaurimuscheln auf kleine Lederquadrate auf, um sich und ihr
Kind zu ernähren – Gadgets, die Touristen in Burkina Faso und Senegal erstehen. Ihr
Mann Zhang Xia wird schlussendlich zum Spielball undurchschaubarer öko-politischer
Beziehungen zwischen China und Kongo und unter einem Vorwand zurück nach China
abgeschoben und verhaftet.
Congo Inc.: Le testament de Bismarck (Grand prix du Roman Métis 2014) wird voraus-
sichtlich 2016 in der deutschen Übersetzung von Katja Meintel erscheinen. Das fran-
zösische Original erschien 2014 bei Actes Sud. Dies ist die leicht gekürzte Version einer
Rezension, die beim online Literatur-, Kunst- und Kulturforum Afri-Eurotext erschienen
ist ( http://www.afrieurotext.at/?page_id=2321).
Natalie Tarr ist Doktorandin am Zentrum für Afrikastudien der Universität Basel mit
einem Schwerpunkt in Ethnologie und Sprache. Kontakt: [email protected].
Als Isookanga seinerseits in Kinshasa ankommt, ist Shasha dort bereits seit ein paar
Jahren installiert und schlägt sich als Kinderprostituierte durchs Leben. Ihr Stammfreier
ist der Verantwortliche des UN Büros in Kinshasa, der seine Vorliebe für pubertierende
Kinder an ihr ausleben kann. Shasha drückt ihre Abscheu dem UN Mann gegenüber
aus, indem sie ihm vergiftetes Essen zubereitet, was ihm unerklärliche, unüberwindbare
Bauchschmerzen beschert. Sie schliesst Freundschaft mit Isookanga und dank seiner
kleinen Statur, die er von seiner Ekonda Mutter geerbt hat, wird Isookanga von den
Strassenkindern akzeptiert. Mit dem jungen Chinesen Zhang Xia steigt Isookanga bald
in das Geschäft als Strassenverkäufer von gekühltem Wasser ein und hat so den ersten
Schritt in Richtung seines Ziels, der Globalisierung getan.
Mit Ironie und auch zartem Zynismus portraitiert Bofane den selbsternannten Prediger
einer Pfi ngstkirche, der auf seine Garderobe achtet (Hugo Boss! J.M. Weston!) und
gerne im neuesten Geländewagen vorfährt. Mit bodenloser Skrupellosigkeit beutet der
Prediger seine Gemeinde aus, doch Bofane zeichnet dessen Erfi ndungsreichtum mit
solch eloquenter Ironie, dass LeserInnen geneigt sind, ein leises Gefühl der Bewunde-
rung für die Machenschaften des Predigers zu empfi nden. Der Mann ist sich selber treu
bis hin zur Einführung eines göttlich geführten Bankkontos, auf welches seine Schäf-
chen ihr letztes, hart erworbenes Geld einzahlen. Schonungslos auch hier Bofanes
bissiger Humor, kann doch ein Ausbeuter nur optimal funktionieren, wenn er die fi ndet,
die sich auch ausbeuten lassen.
Bofane greift in Congo Inc. Themen auf, die hochaktuell sind. Evangelikale Bewegun-
gen überschwemmen seit einiger Zeit den afrikanischen Kontinent und wachsen ra-
sant. Eine Ironie der Geschichte, war es doch die christliche Religion, die dem kolonia-
len Projekt in mehrfacher Weise zudiente und heute dem zunehmend säkularen Europa
abhanden zu kommen scheint. Jetzt migriert das Christentum in neuer, inbrünstiger
Form von Afrika nach Europa zurück.
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JEUNES CHERCHEURS • NACHWUCHS • YOUNG SCHOLARS
The Anthropocene in the Classroom
YANNICK VAN DEN BERG AND SANDRO SIMON
After phenomenology started to question a scientifi c approach that searched for ob-
jectivity by detaching itself from the matter of study, natural scientists agreed upon
human’s increasing involvement in what is called nature. Today, humanity’s infl uence on
a global scale must be seen as a determining key process in the Earth System. As a
consequence, so it is argued, we entered the geological epoch of the ‘Anthropocene’.
There, the realms of humanity and nature can no longer be perceived as being sepa-
rated. The social sciences consequently adapted the concept and integrated it into
existing post-structural approaches, infl uencing the way recent anthropological theory
handles topics that address human partaking in the environment.
In the course 'Social Anthropology and the Anthropocene: Perspectives from Latin
America and Africa' at the University of Basel, we question and explore various ways
of rethinking the dualities of culture - nature, subject - object, technology - skill or
body - mind. For this, we employ theory, case studies, exploration and creative writ-
ing. While the theory derives to a substantial part from anthropologists that draw from
their fi eldwork in the Amazon and ranges from Philippe Descola, Bruno Latour and Tim
Ingold to Donna Haraway and Michael Jackson, the case studies aim to 'provincialize'
(Dipesh Chakrabarty, Eduardo Kohn) the Anthropocene. For instance, they describe
the wandering of rooibos in South Africa and the implications on belonging, attachment
and identity for the local farmers and users (Sarah Ives).
Besides the discussions which do not restrict the use of the blackboard or other things
found in the classroom, the explorative part of the course entails the fl ying of kites. This aims
at the sensuous experience of interplay of agency between kite, gravity, wind, mind and
body or the observation of how objects turn into things through our engagement with them.
Finally, participants write short texts and, after a round of feedback from their col-
leagues, publish them on a blog. The keywords and drawings collected and trans-
ferred to the blackboard during the preceding discussions thereby serve as points of
reference. The contributions to the blog produced throughout the course fi nally center
around questions such as: How, despite different ontologies and experiences, can we
Left: The strings of two kites hanging from
a bridge. While one of them is loosely wav-
ing in the wind, the other one is pulled down
tightly by the forces of gravity. Still, both are
hold by humans trying to set the kites into
motion by moving their bodies.
Right: The blackboard at the end of a class.
From these keywords and drawings, texts
are developed. (Both images: Sandro Simon
2015).
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feel and understand ourselves as one species in order to commonly take action against
climate change? How can we imagine a future when we are already shaping it to large
parts in the present – for instance through our carbon footprint and corresponding
algorithms – or how to conceptualize 'the environment' as it reveals its affordances only
in interdependency with our individual capabilities?
The texts and the preceding discussions in class mirror and profi t, fi rst, from the in-
puts of various guests and the participants with their diverse backgrounds in African
Studies, Geology, Social Anthropology, Performing Arts, Linguistics, Sociology or His-
tory, and, second, from a didactic approach based on fl at hierarchies, self-determined
learning and creative engagement with texts and phenomena. As a result, the course
unfolds as a rich and from time to time also mind-bending experience for all involved.
To visit the course-blog, go to www.anthroclassroom.net or follow us on twitter.com/
anthroclassroom.
Yannick van den Berg is just about to fi nish his Master in Social Anthropology and
Sociology. Contact: [email protected].
Sandro Simon recently completed his MA in African Studies. Contact: sandro.simon@
stud.unibas.ch.
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The African continent has been looted for many
centuries, the nature, form and motivation varying
with conquest, colonization, independence and
globalization. Over the last decades, however, the
destruction of archaeological sites and the illicit
trade in cultural goods have reached such propor-
tions that they seriously undermine African history
and go against human rights by compromising the
development of populations. The exportation and
repatriation of human remains also raise important
ethical questions.
In response to this alarming phenomenon, laws have been passed, conventions rati-
fi ed, ethical codes proclaimed and ethics commissions established. Local initiatives
to protect heritage have been created, and the return of cultural objects and human
remains organized. Yet the hoped-for positive benefi ts do not always materialize given
that the situation is more complex than expected.
Not without reason, Switzerland is often criticized, along with other European, North
American, Asian or Near East Countries, for acting as a hub of illicit trade of cultu-
ral goods. Antique dealers specializing in the “primitive arts”, auction houses, private
museums and collectors benefi t greatly from this situation. At the same time, Swit-
zerland is very involved in the fi elds of development and respect for human rights,
and acknowledged for the growing awareness and effi ciency of its custom, police and
justice institutions.
This book, following a conference of the Swiss Society for African Studies held in Gene-
va, includes contributions by archaeologists, sociologists, museum curators and heri-
tage managers, as well as legal experts and representatives of the police, and blends
points of view from Africa, Europe and Switzerland. Apart the voice of researchers res-
ponsible for the cultural heritage of African countries that denounce alarming situations,
ethical refl ections and update of legal aspects linked to heritage questions, several
projects of international cooperation are presented, all of them trying to fi nd innovative
ways of acting in this very diffi cult context, and giving hope for the future.
ANNE MAYOR, VINCENT NÉGRI & ERIC HUYSECOM (EDS.): AFRICAN MEMORY IN
DANGER - MÉMOIRE AFRICAINE EN PÉRIL. JOURNAL OF AFRICAN ARCHAEOL-
OGY MONOGRAPH SERIES 11. FRANKFURT A.M 2015 (AFRICA MAGNA VERLAG).
PUBLICATIONS • PUBLIKATIONEN
African Memory in Danger – Mémoire africaine en danger
The hardcover publication (EUR 49.80) may be ordered directly from the editors:
http://ua.unige.ch/memoireafricaine/publication
http://www.african-archaeology.de
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TABLE OF CONTENTS - TABLE DES MATIÈRES
• Friedrich Lü th : Preface / Pré face
INTRODUCTION
• Anne Mayor: African Memory in Danger: Which Solutions? / Mémoire africaine
en pé ril: quelles solutions?
PART 1: FROM EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS…
DES TÉ MOIGNAGES DE TERRAIN…
• Abdoulaye Camara: Butins et trophé es de guerre: le tré sor de Sé gou
• Musa Oluwaseyi Hambolu: Plundering of Archaeological Sites in Nigeria: Impli-
cations and Remedies
• Oumarou Amadou Idé : Pillage et gestion du patrimoine culturel au Niger
PART 2: …TO SOCIOLOGICAL AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
…AUX RÉ FLEXIONS SOCIOLOGIQUES ET DEONTOLOGIQUES
• Cristiana Panella: Rhé torique du maté riel, corporé ité et iné galité sociale. Une
ré fl exion biopolitique sur les repré sentations du « phé nomè ne du pillage » au Mali
• Andrew B. Smith: Repatriation Begins at Home: Violence Against South Africa’s
Underclass, a Colonial Legacy that Needs Closure
• Eric Huysecom: Ethique et arché ologie africaine: quelques pistes de ré fl exion
• Eric Huysecom : La valorisation du patrimoine africain par les datations scien-
tifi ques
PART 3: LAW IN THE SERVICE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE PROTECTION
LE DROIT AU SERVICE DE LA PROTECTION DU PATRIMOINE
• Dawson Munjeri: Turning around Fortunes: Confronting Forces Plundering Afri-
ca’s Cultural Heritage
• Marc Weber: Legal Protection of Archaeological Objects
• Vincent Né gri: La conservation du patrimoine africain au pé ril du droit
• Thijs J. Maarleveld: African Waters, Treasure Trove for International Entrepreneurs
in the Antiquities Market
• Stephane Théfo: Le rô le d’INTERPOL dans la protection du patrimoine de l’Afrique
PART 4: COOPERATION PROJECTS, SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
PROJETS DE COOPÉ RATION, PISTES DE SOLUTIONS
• Pierre de Maret: Pillages et destructions — sauvetages et restitutions: leç ons du
passé et perspectives d’avenir en Afrique centrale
• Charles Bonnet: Mé moire africaine en pé ril: l’exemple de Kerma-Doukki Gel
(Soudan)
• Christoph Pelzer: Patrimoine culturel et développement local en Afrique: ten-
dances ré centes de la coopé ration culturelle exté rieure de la Commission
europé enne
• Anne Mayor, Daouda Keita et Boureima Tessougué : La banque culturelle de Dim-
bal au Mali: un exemple de gestion locale du patrimoine
• Lorenz Homberger: Coopé ration avec des musé es en Afrique: un mal ou un bien?
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Politics on Governance
How do government arrangements emerge? When
and how does individual agency turn into collective
agency? How do sensory experiences of violence,
instability, etc affect the confi guration of governance
arrangements? When, why, and how are governance
arrangements institutionalized?
This book seeks to contribute to a non-normative con-
ceptualization of the emergence and transformation of
government arrangements, and addresses the under-
theorization of actors and agency in conventional
governance theories. The editors and contributors
theorize the concept of governance more concretely
by analyzing the key actors and arrangements that defi ne states of governance across
different places and by examining its performance and development in particular set-
tings and time periods. Each contribution to the edited volume is based on a case-
study drawn from Africa, though the book argues that the core issues identifi ed remain
the same across the world, though in different empirical contexts. The contributions
also range across key disciplines, from anthropology to sociology to political science.
This ground-breaking volume addresses governance arrangements, discusses how
social actors form such arrangements, and concludes by synthesizing an actor-cen-
tered understanding of political articulation to a general theory of governance. Scholars
across disciplines such as political science, development studies, African studies, and
sociology will fi nd the book insightful.
LUCY KOECHLIN AND TILL FÖRSTER (EDS): THE POLITICS OF GOVERNANCE. AC-
TORS AND ARTICULATIONS IN AFRICA AND BEYOND. NEW YORK 2015 (ROUT-
LEDGE).
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION
• Lucy Koechlin: Introduction – The Conceptual Polysemy of Governance
PART I: SPACES AND STRUGGLES
• Michael G. Schatzberg: Transformation and Struggle: Space in Africa
• Nelson Kasfi r: Agency Across Changing Sites: The Path to Kenya's 2010 Con-
stitution
PART II: EVERYDAY PRACTICES
• Jean-Pierre Olivier de Sardan: Abandoning the Neo-Patrimonialist Paradigm: For
a Pluralist Approach to the Bureaucratic Mode of Governance in Africa
• Sarah Biecker and Klaus Schlichte: Between Governance and Domination: The
Everyday Life of Uganda's Police Forces
PART III: EMERGENCE AND TRANSFORMATION
• Alemmaya Mulugeta: The Social Agency of Informal Settlers: A Case-Study of
"Moonlight Houses" in Addis Ababa
• Steven Robins: Slow Activism and the Tactics of Legibility: A Case Study of the
2011 "Toilet Wars" and the Social Justice Coalition
PART IV: SUBJECTIVITIES AND ARTICULATIONS
• Rita Kesselring: Experiences of Violence and the Formation of the Political: Em-
bodied Memory and Victimhood in South Africa
• Aletta Norval: Imagining Otherwise: Dislocation, Subjectivity, and the Articulation
of Political Demands
PART V: CONCLUSIONS
• Till Förster: The Formation of Governance: The Politics of Governance and their
Theoretical Dimensions
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Honoring Patrick Harries
From 2001 to 2014 Professor Patrick Harries
shaped the fi eld of African History at the University of
Basel and played a crucial role in establishing the MA
programme in African Studies as well as the Centre
for African Studies Basel. This collection of essays
published by the Basler Afrika Bibliographien docu-
ments the growth of African history as a discipline
at the University of Basel since 2001. It thus pays
tribute to fourteen years of research and teaching
by Patrick Harries at the Department of History and
the Centre for African Studies Basel and honour his
scholarly work.
The contributions by former team members and students cover a broad range of topics
from mine labour to missionary endeavour and the production of knowledge, refl ecting
some of his core research interests. The contributions engage with Patrick Harries’
oeuvre with reference to the authors’ own scholarship or vice-versa. Some directly
address his publications while others take his teaching, correspondence, remarks or
intellectual life more broadly as a point of reference. They all pay tribute to a brilliant and
inspiring scholar, a great teacher and a kind person.
VEIT ARLT, STEPHANIE BISHOP AND PASCAL SCHMID (EDS): EXPLORATIONS IN
AFRICAN HISTORY: READING PATRICK HARRIES. BASEL2015 (BASLER AFRIKA
BIBLIOGRAPHIEN 2015.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
• Veit Arlt, Stephanie Bishop, and Pascal Schmid: Preface
• Eric Morier-Genoud: The Making of a Transnational Historian: Patrick Harries in
Lausanne
• Pascal Schmid: From Swiss Imperialism to Postcolonial Switzerland
• Dag Henrichsen: Hildagonda Duckitt’s (and Patrick Harries’) Contribution to Na-
mibian History
• Rita Kesselring: Cultural Reproduction and Memory: Past, Present and Future
• Jürg Schneider: Photography and the Demise of Anthropology
• Gregor Dobler: Staying for Gold or Joining the Rebellion? South West African
Migrant Workers on the Rand During War and Genocide, 1904–1905
• Cassandra Mark-Thiesen: From Mining Pit to Missionary Bungalow: Trading
Spaces in the Writing of Patrick Harries
• Ulrike Sill: Of Wives, Slaves and Commerce, or: The Price of Things
• Paul Jenkins: Notes on the Basel Mission’s Production of Knowledge in the Kan-
nada Language in Nineteenth Century South India
• Tanja Hammel: Of Birds and (Wo)Men
• Patrick Grogan: German Natural History Collectors and the Appropriation of Hu-
man Skulls and Skeletons in Early Nineteenth Century Southern Africa: Towards
a Discursive Analysis of Collecting
• Melanie Eva Boehi: Who Cut Down Margaret Thatcher’s Tree?
• Franziska Rüedi: ‘Reluctant Bonds’: On the Role of Narrative in Post-Apartheid
South Africa
• Veit Arlt: South African Jazz: The Basel Connection
• Stephanie Bishop: The Game Plan for a Successful Career
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Les incertitudes de la nation en Angola
Comment analyser le nationalisme en situation
coloniale sans céder au déterminisme du grand
récit de la Nation ? Comment rendre compte de
ses fondements culturels sans en offrir une vision
linéaire et mécanique ? L’histoire du nationalisme
en Angola est une histoire de divisions. La guerre
d’indépendance (1961-1974) n’a en effet pas seu-
lement opposé la puissance coloniale aux natio-
nalistes angolais ; elle a également conduit à une
lutte fratricide entre deux, puis trois mouvements
rivaux. Cette lutte s’est ensuite prolongée, dès
l’indépendance du pays en 1975, en une guerre
civile sanglante qui allait durer jusqu’en 2002.
Afi n de comprendre les racines de ces divisions, ce livre se penche sur l’histoire sociale
et politique du planalto central de l’Angola, la région qui a vu naître l’Union nationale
pour l’indépendance totale de l’Angola (Unita). Il offre une analyse inédite du rôle social
et politique des missions et Églises chrétiennes qui, dans le contexte du colonialisme
portugais, ont représenté l’unique voie d’ascension sociale pour la très faible proportion
d’Angolais parvenus à sortir des marges politiques, sociales et économiques dans les-
quelles le système colonial les avait confi nés. Les imaginaires négociés au sein des mis-
sions chrétiennes ont ainsi joué un rôle central dans l’histoire de l’Unita et dans les dyna-
miques historiques des divisions du nationalisme angolais comme de la guerre civile.
En interrogeant les modalités de leur « passage au politique », ce livre met également
en évidence le caractère contingent et indéterminé des liens entre un imaginaire social
et son utilisation à des fi ns de mobilisation politique. Par-delà le cas angolais, cet ou-
vrage est une contribution majeure à l’étude des nationalismes et à la réfl exion sur les
rapports entre religion, guerre et formation de l’État.
Didier Péclard est maître d’enseignement et de recherche à l’Université de Genève.
Il a été chercheur à la Fondation suisse pour la paix (swisspeace), chargé de cours en
science politique à l’Université de Bâle, et chercheur invité au Département d’études
africaines et afro-américaines de l’Université du Michigan à Ann Arbor. Il est co-rédac-
teur en chef de la revue Politique africaine depuis 2013.
DIDIER PÉCLARD : LES INCERTITUDES DE LA NATION EN ANGOLA. AUX RACINES SOCIALES DE L’UNITA. COLLECTIONS LES AFRIQUES. PARIS 2015 (KARTHALA).
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RENCONTRES • BEGEGNUNGEN • ENCOUNTERS
Göran Hydén, University of Florida
CARLOS FERNANDES
Prof Göran Hydén, distinguished professor emeritus of Political Science at the Uni-
versity of Florida, has shaped the fi eld of Political Science in Africa in a major way. In
this interview he refl ects on his own intellectual trajectory in African Studies and the
connections between African Studies and other disciplines, as well as the relevance of
academic work in Africa.
Carlos Fernandes (CF): When and where did your academic career start?
Göran Hydén (GH): I started essentially when I was an undergraduate student at the
University of Lund in Sweden where I did all my studies. During summer I used to
practice as a journalist, doing political reporting, political editorial writing, and so on. So,
during that time, in 1960-1961, virtually all news were about Africa and African coun-
tries, and when it was on the editorial page, the older generation of writers had no clue
about Africa or the “Third World”. So they asked me, the youngest person in the offi ce,
to write about Africa, to comment on what was going on in Congo and elsewhere at
that time. That is how my interest in Africa started. And when I eventually got an op-
portunity to continue with graduate work in the old department of Political Sciences at
Lund, I decided that I would write my master thesis and maybe eventually my doctoral
dissertation on Africa. This was back in the 1960s and that is where I started.
Hydén enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) when preparing his
first fieldwork since African History was not taught in Sweden at the time. The profes-
sors at UCLA advised him to conduct research in Tanzania. His arrival there in 1964
initiated a life-long engagement with that country.
CF: How did your experience in Tanzania mark your scholarship in terms of the people
you met, the theories you engaged with, and discussions you had?
GH: My main intellectual mentors and professors at that time were essentially either
American or European. I met Professor James Smoot Coleman at UCLA but also in Af-
rica during my teaching in the 1970s. Professor Colin Leys was the chair of the Political
Science department at Makerere University where I taught for the fi rst time at university
level in 1965. These people were important, but most important was my fi eldwork in
Bukoba in Northwest Tanzania, on the shores of Lake Victoria. I did my fi eldwork in
fi ve villages, interviewing about 310 heads of household. My fi rst impression from that
particular part of Tanzania is still very much with me intellectually, but also socially, be-
cause when I went there in 1964, I also met my future wife. So Bukoba became much
more important than just a site of my fi eldwork. Since then I go to Bukoba every year.
CF: How do you think Political Science evolved during the period you were in Africa?
GH: Studying African politics in the 1960s was really an exciting thing because a lot
of attention was being paid to Africa. There was also a notion in the discipline that
somehow we had discovered ways to study societies outside of mainstream. Most of
the earlier work in Political Science had been done in Europe or America. So, in a way,
there was a certain sense of pioneering. We were actually out there in the fi eld doing
work – literally. Maybe this is pretentious to say, but that is how we felt at the time.
Rightly or wrongly, we were sort of discovering new areas for the world [laughs] for the
purpose of intellectual or academic analysis.
Professor Göran Hydén lives on and continuously moves between three continents: North America
(Florida), Africa (Tanzania) and Europe (Sweden). (Image: Maria Hald 2010).
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CF: Was there a feeling of progress, that the discipline really evolved?
GH: Yes, there was a sense of the discipline taking a giant step forward, mainly through
the use of the structural-functional theory, which we were introduced to and encour-
aged to use. So, for that reason, yes, there was a sense of excitement.
CF: In the 1950s and 1960s there were also processes of integrating various disci-
plines from the social sciences to the humanities into the study of broader geographi-
cal and cultural regions such as Africa. What would be your definition of area studies?
GH: Area studies are meant to provide an understanding – not just formal knowledge,
but an understanding – which means you go deeper than you would do in terms of
simply providing knowledge that might be formalized in theory. In that sense, area
studies became a way of complementing what you might call cross-cultural or cross-
national studies that are typically based on numerical records or statistics. If you really
want to have an understanding – whether it is for academic or for policy purposes –
you really need to think about the context in which the study or comparison has been
carried out.
CF: So an area studies approach means more than just aggregating or adding disci-
plinary approaches to Africa?
GH: I think there might be an attempt to aggregate all knowledge in a new interdis-
ciplinary manner in the name of area studies, but I consider interdisciplinary studies
to be something slightly different than area studies. Area studies, to me, mean going
in-depth, interdisciplinary means going wide. Area studies are concerned with under-
standing: understanding culture, understating norms, understanding things that are
not typically covered in comparative studies, which typically work at a higher and more
abstract level.
CF: What does interdisciplinary work mean for you?
GH: I tend to work in an interdisciplinary way. I do not do it at all times, but I acknowl-
edge the importance of doing so. As a political scientist by training, I realize that many
of the issues we deal with have broader implications than can be captured by what
Political Science scholars are doing. In my work, I have often applied insights from
Anthropology, History and sometimes even from Environmental Studies.
CF: How have African studies contributed to other disciplines?
GH: Our insights whether they are theoretical or empirical tend to come from our own
experience in different cases. And I think there has been a tendency to assume that
theories have a historical origin in industrial societies; for instance, in the study of de-
mocracy there are certain concepts, certain models or theories that people take for
granted. So, when they apply them to the African situation, it becomes very often a
question of essentially applying [these theories] irrespective of what the conditions are.
So in my view, there is a mismatch between the model, on the one hand, and the
historical-social realities of Africa, on the other. When we talk about how African Stud-
ies can contribute to the discipline, we are talking about how we can fi ll in the lack of
knowledge about varieties or variations. How, for instance, does democracy take root
in African countries, or does not take root because of circumstances. So, these are
the issues that I think area studies scholars are concerned with. They are challenging
mainstream concepts in a way that I think is very healthy and also necessary.
CF: What are the most important research topics and themes in your field today?
GH: The issues about nation building and state formation continue to be relevant, I
think. There are countries that are still struggling to become a nation or to build a state
that is strong enough to control its territory. The examples of the Democratic Republic
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of Congo and Somalia show that there are issues that already existed in the 1960s and
are still relevant today. There is much more variation in Africa today in terms of where the
countries are than was the case fi fty years ago. Some countries are doing well and oth-
ers are not doing so well. So, talking about Africa today in a more general sense is more
diffi cult than it was immediately after independence, when almost every country faced
the same challenges. Now, there are countries that are doing well such as Botswana,
Ghana, and perhaps even Mozambique but face different kinds of challenges. So, when
we look at Africa today, the issues are many, and they vary from country to country.
Among those topics one should pay attention to nation-building, state formation and
also the issues of governance. How do you actually make sense of governments in a
way that is responsive to the conditions in Africa and not just the question imposing, if
I may use that word, the western liberal democratic model on Africa, as if that was the
only thing that counts.
CF: Why are issues related to state formation, nation building and governance still
important in African Studies today?
GH: There is probably a very complex answer to this question. You might say that de-
mocratization, the notion of bringing democracy to Africa (as well as to Asia and to cer-
tain parts of Europe like the Balkans) has essentially created a more competitive type of
politics that these societies have diffi culties handling. This is because they continue to
be essentially divided in terms of either religion, ethnicity or things like that. They are un-
comfortable with the democratic model as we know it in the liberal democratic sense.
That is why, I think, they foster confl icts over identity and, as a result of that, both nation
building and state formation become hot topics in the political life of these countries.
CF: During the 1980s you wrote a seminal book on peasants and underdevelopment in
Tanzania. What about the ‘uncaptured’ peasantry? Is it no longer important?
GH: I think the peasantry was probably over-dram-
atized in terms of its political infl uence. But, what I
said in the 1970s and 1980s was essentially that if
you build your state on the shoulders or backs of
the peasants, you are likely to fail in Africa because
you cannot really capture them. They will elude your
attempt. The question thus is, how does a state
capture or reach its citizens in ways that allow it to
generate revenue, enforce laws. Are there ways that
are not alienating the people or the citizens, but really
bringing them in.
CF: You observed previously that today we cannot speak about Africa in a general
sense, unlike in the period immediately after independence, when almost every country
had the same common metanarrative and faced the same challenges. Let me add a
concrete case: In Mozambique during the 1980s the Marxist Political Economy analysis
informed, hegemonically, most of the research programs at the university. What are the
dominant analytical and methodological approaches for African Studies today?
GH: I think there is much more diversity and openness today. There was a period after
independence, as you mentioned with respect to Mozambique, where there was an
attempt to impose a particular paradigm. Even the modernization paradigm was taken
for granted. It was taken as the only or dominant paradigm, as you experienced in Mo-
zambique in the 1970s and in the 1980s it was the neo-Marxist paradigm which was
essentially the only one that was used. Today you fi nd competition or rivalry between
different paradigms. But if you look at the mainstream research in Africa today, not just
in Political Science but even in neighboring disciplines such as History, Anthropology
and Economics, it has something to do with governance. Improving governance, has
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Newsletter 2/2015
become the main focus. It might constitute or become the dominant concern, but not
the dominant paradigm, because there are different ways of looking at governance.
Nonetheless, it fosters interest in that particular issue. With regard to other issues, you
have what they call ‘inclusive growth’, ‘economic growth’. That is something that es-
sentially comes out of economics but is also shared by political scientists, sociologists
and anthropologists. So, those are topics that are partly set by the policy community,
but nonetheless are also part of prominent research across disciplines.
CF: Should research today contribute to social and political development? If yes, in
what ways?
GH: It should not necessarily just support policy, it should be critical of policy to the
extent that policy issues are not necessarily implemented fully or because the policy
itself is controversial. So you need to have a chance to be part of a dialogue about
issues that are not just academic but also important politically. And I think we have a
responsibility as academics to do that.
CF: How do we do that? I mean, how to merge critical research with a broader political
engagement of the society we live in?
GH: You can do it in many different ways. A lot of us do work as consultants and it’s
not necessarily always the best way of fi nding answers to shortcomings in policy, but
it’s one way of doing it. The other one, of course, is to write articles or policy briefs or
even books, to the extent that people read them. Also, generally to engage, as public
intellectuals, in writing opinion pieces or participating by giving lectures or in seminars.
So, an academic or an area studies person can do it in many different ways. And I per-
sonally do that, not so much in these days as I perhaps used to, but I still do it a little.
CF: What is your experience in dealing with the public in terms of international and non-
governmental organizations?
GH: You need to be realistic about what you can do as a consultant or as somebody
who writes a piece assuming that people read it and take it seriously. I think we have
to be realistic about the limitations of what we can accomplish. That’s one thing. At
the same time, I think it’s also a matter of trust and competence. Frankly speaking,
the more senior you are, the more of a reputation you have, the more likely that people
might take you seriously. So in that sense, in my case, I feel sometimes that people
know that I have a credible track record as an academic. I have not made a fool of
myself in politics. I have not fallen out in the sense of being a ‘persona non grata’. I feel
that I sometimes can take on an assignment and hope that I can make a difference, or
assume that I can make a difference, because of what I’ve done in the past. But, at the
same time, I’m realistic. I am not expecting them to take a hundred percent of what I
tell them. Even if it is just crumbs from the table, I think that I have achieved something.
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Newsletter 2/2015
Carlos Fernandes (interview and transcription) was ESKAS postdoc fellow at the
Centre for African Studies Basel from 2014 to 2015. The sociologist earned his PhD
in African and Ethnic Studies from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. His doctoral
research examined the socio-political conditions of scientifi c knowledge production
in post-independence Mozambique during the "socialist transition" (1975-1990) dis-
cussing the case of the Centro de Estudos Africanos (CEA) of Eduardo Mondlane
University, Maputo. His current research project explores the connections between
social science research, intellectual biographies, colonial modernity, race, revolution
and revisionism in `post-socialist` Mozambique. Contact: [email protected].
This conversation is part of the interview series with eminent scholars in African
Studies visiting the Centre for African Studies Basel. The video of the interview will
be made available on the Centre’s website www.zasb.unibas.ch.
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Newsletter 2/2015
EXHIBITIONS • AUSSTELLUNGEN
Comics aus und über Afrika in den Basler Afrika Bibliographien
NANA BADENBERG
„Kaboom!“ – Ebenso lautstark wie lautmalerisch setzt schon der Titel der Ausstellung
in den Basler Afrika Bibliographien den Auftakt. Und in der Tat ist die von Studierenden
der Universität Basel in Kooperation mit den Basler Afrika Bibliographien erarbeitete
Ausstellung ein starkes Stück. Sie präsentiert in einem regional auf das südliche Afrika
konzentrierten Querschnitt eine breite Palette an Zeichenstilen, aber auch politischen
bzw. kulturellen Statements, und sie eröffnet damit ein hierzulande unbekanntes Ter-
rain. Denn die afrikanische Comiclandschaft scheint so vielfältig wie der Kontinent
selbst. Es gibt kulturindustrielle Mainstreamcomics ebenso wie Underground-Comics,
solche, die sich dezidiert historischen Stoffen zuwenden (immer wieder und beson-
ders die Geschichte des südafrikanischen Freiheitskampfes), welche mit Bildungs- und
Aufklärungsanspruch (z.B. bei der Storyteller Group), mit politischer Propaganda oder
einfach nur mit einer gehörigen Portion Alltag.
In einen Nebenraum verbannt sind dagegen all jene stereotypen Darstellungen, die der
Stift europäischer Zeichner hervorgebracht hat, und die einen unvoreingenommenen
Blick von aussen verstellen: vom Werbemohren über Globi bis hin zu Tintin, dessen
Kongoreise in England und den USA heute nur mit einem Warnhinweis verkauft werden
darf. Sie werden an einem Drehständer im Weltformat vorgeführt und damit genau so
plakativ, wie sie es in ihrer schwarz-weissen Symbolik sind.
So einfach, wie es die räumliche Anordnung suggeriert, ist die Aufteilung allerdings
nicht. Der erste nigerianische Superheld „Powerman“ (später dann „Powerbolt“) wurde
1975 bei den englischen Zeichnern Brian Bolland und Dave Gibbson in Auftrag gege-
ben – und die mussten die Serie auf Wunsch ihrer afrikanischen Auftraggeber simpler
gestalten als vorgesehen; die christlich gewandete Anti-SWAPO-Propaganda gehorcht
nicht nur nationalen Interessen und Einfl üssen; und die Autorin der Aya-Comics, die
mit ästhetischer Eleganz den Alltag in Côte d’Ivoire schildern, lebt seit ihrer Jugend in
Frankreich.
Der europäische Blick auf Afrika wird plakativ thematisiert. Dazu haben die Be-
sucher Gelegenheit, sich in die Comics zu vertiefen. (Bild: Antonio Uribe 2015).
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Newsletter 2/2015
Der Boden wurde in die Gestaltung einbezogen. (Bild: Antonio Uribe 2015).
Der Südafrikaner Anton Kannemeyer wiederum – aufgewachsen zur Zeit der Apartheid
und 1992 Mitbegründer des Underground-Magazins „Bitterkomix“ – macht sich ganz
bewusst den Stil der ligne claire zu eigen: Mit seiner Pappa-Figur beerbt der Nachge-
borene Hergés Figurenwelt und mischt sie mit all ihren Klischees und Blackfaces gehö-
rig auf. Kannemeyer provoziert, nimmt Sex-Tabus und Rasse-Vorurteile der Afrikaaner
aufs Korn. Doch zeichnet hier kein Schwarzer zurück – die vielfach autobiografi sch
grundierte Innensicht des Afrikaaners ist im gesellschaftlichen Wandel der letzten Jahr-
zehnte immer auch eine Gradwanderung.
Kannemeyer, von dem auch einige provokante Originallithografi en zu sehen sind, war
übrigens zur Ausstellungseröffnung in Basel und berichtete auf einem Workshop aus-
führlich von seinem Weg zum und als Comiczeichner: von der repressiv-abgeschot-
Der Südafrikaner Anton Kannemeyer (alias Joe Dog) versteht seine Comics als Art
of Outrage und will mit visueller Kunst die konservative Gesellschaft konfrontieren,
schockieren und letztlich einen gesellschaftlichen Aufschrei erzeugen. (Bild: Alpha-
bet of Democracy. In: Bitterkomix, Nr. 15. Auckland Park 2010, S. 52).
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Newsletter 2/2015
teten Jugend (in „My Nelson Mandela“ schildert er, wie er von dieser Seite des eige-
nen Landes erst während seines Studiums im Ausland hörte) über erste provokative
Ausstellungen, für die er mit Protestbriefen konfrontiert wurde, ja, einmal sogar mit
einer Sprayattacke, bis hin zu den heute zum Teil grossformatigen Darstellungen, die
in Galerien durchaus erfolgreich sind. Wie schwierig es ist, die komplexe Semiotik von
Comics adäquat zu lesen, erläuterte am besagten Workshop der aus Malmö ange-
reiste Medienwissenschaftler Jakob F. Dittmar. Neben den verschiedenen historisch
informativen Beiträgen der Studierenden ein wichtiger Input, der aber auch zeigte, wie
individuell Lektüre gerade in diesem Medium vonstatten geht.
Lesen kann man die Comics auch in der Ausstellung. Denn einiges liegt aus, so dass
man über die notgedrungen und angesichts der thematischen wie regionalen Breite
des Themas natürlich schmerzlich begrenzte Auswahl des Ausgestellten hinaus wei-
terschmökern kann. Das übrigens auch über den Zeitraum der Ausstellung hinaus,
denn die Basler Afrika Bibliographien haben im Vorfeld einen erfreulichen Bestand an
afrikanischen Comics zusammengetragen, der nun zu Lektüre und weiterer Forschung
einlädt.
Nana Badenberg, einst Studium der Lateinamerikanistik, Kunstgeschichte und Ger-
manistik, ist als freie Lektorin in Basel tätig. Kontakt: [email protected].
Die ursprüngliche Fassung dieses Beitrags erscheint im Januar 2016 in der Basler
ProgrammZeitung, die regelmässig auch über Veranstaltungen zu afrikaspezifi schen
Themen berichtet (www.programmzeitung.ch).
INFO:
„Kaboom! Afrikanische Comics im Fokus“, Basler Afrika Bibliographien, Kloster-
berg 23, 4051 Basel, 5.–19.12.2015, 5.–22.1.2016, Di–Fr, 16–19h, Sa, 14–17h,
www.baslerafrika.ch.
Begleitend zur Ausstellung erhältlich ist der Katalog „Afrikanische Comics im Fokus“,
Basel 2015 (Basler Afrika Bibliographien), 62 Seiten., brochiert, CHF 15.–.
Die Cartoonfi gur Xiconhoca wurde vom Departement für Information und Propaganda der FRE-
LIMO 1976 in der Zeitschrift Tempo vorgestellt. Sie repräsentierte alles, was der neue sozialis-
tische Staat ablehnte, unterstützte die äusseren Feinde des Landes, verkaufte Waren auf dem
Schwarzmarkt und war korrupt und faul. Ihr Gegenbild war der Homem Novo, der aufrechte und
fortschrittliche sozialistische Bürger. (Bild: FRELIMO (Hg.): Xiconhoca, o enemigo. Maputo 1979).