Indaba—Fieldwork, Jive and Phenomenology

When on my first fieldwork trip in north-western Namibia, the music by the Soul Brothers (a South African jive band) confronted me with my own naivety and estrangement. But it also introduced me to phenomenology, and continues to warn against an all too intellectualist understanding of social and cultural realitie

The Aftermath - what future for African Studies (in Europe?) A view from behind the scenes of ECAS9

In the spring of 2023, the ninth European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) took place in Cologne. Though not unexpected (or unusual) this event sparked critical comments and questions. As the organisers, we understand and appreciate this criticism. We, therefore, felt the need to respond to at least some of them, partly because we also asked ourselves many of these questions before, during, and after the conference. At the same time, we want to call for a certain degree of pragmatism when it comes to organising an event this size by providing a look behind the scenes

The socio-cultural-symbolic nexus in the perpetuation of female genital cutting: a critical review of existing discourses

Female Genital Cutting (FGC), also known as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Female Circumcision (FC), continues to be a prevalent practice in many parts of the world and especially in Africa. This is somewhat perplexing given the concerted efforts aimed at eradicating this practice. This article argues that the perpetuation of FGC is due to the unintended effects of marginalization experienced by individuals and groups of women as a result of the approach of some of the anti-FGC global discourses and policies put forward to eradicate the practice. This, we argue, happens when the social structure that provides such groups and individuals with a sense of identity and belonging breaks down. Therefore, the attack on what practicing communities consider to be of crucial cultural value causes a re-focus on the practice resulting in a re-formulation and re-invention of these practices in a bid to counter the feelings of alienation. FGC is thus reframed and reconstructed as a reaction against these campaigns. This article intends to investigate the socio-cultural-symbolic nexus surrounding the practice of FGC, its meaning and implications with respect to its continued existence. It draws examples mainly from communities in Kenya that practice FGM as a rite of passage into adulthood. Herein, perhaps, lies the driving force behind the practice in this contemporary age: it carries a lot of significance with respect to transformational processes, and it is seen as crucial in the representation of the body, identity and belonging. The aim of this article is not to defend FGC’s continuation, but rather to explore the interplay between its changing socio-cultural dimensions as a counter-reaction to the eradication discourse and policies. In this way we will try to explore some of the factors that lay behind its perpetuation. Key words: body practices, female genital cutting, female circumcision, femininity, cultural identit

Revisionen des Porträts. Jenseits von Mimesis und Repräsentation

Noch immer wird das Phänomen ›Porträt‹ im kunsthistorischen Diskurs zumeist unter Begrifflichkeiten wie Identität, Individualität, Repräsentation oder Ähnlichkeit diskutiert. Zeitgenössische amimetische, konzeptuelle und performative Porträtformen werden mit solchen Konzepten jedoch nicht mehr vollständig eingeholt. Der Band befragt deshalb einerseits kritisch diese traditionellen, mimetischen Begriffe anhand von Fallstudien. Andererseits werden ihnen dynamische und offene Konzepte (teils aus Nachbardisziplinen) wie Spur, Berührung, Fraktalität, Defazialisierung oder Dividualität an die Seite gestellt, um den kunsthistorischen Porträt-Begriff in einem fachübergreifenden Diskurs aufzufächern, der auch die Digitalisierung umfasst. ›Porträt‹ wird somit explizit als Konstruktion, self-fashioning und konzeptuelle Praxis des Performativen betrachtet

Cattle works: livestock policy, apartheid and development in Northwest Namibia, c. 1920-1980

Reading between the lines of the colonial archive on the northern Kunene Region, Namibia, this article documents the uncertainty of colonial rule in this arid and mountainous borderland. So doing, it advocates a phenomenological approach of the state. Indirect rule and apartheid were primarily experienced in terms of its livestock policy. Livestock also was the principal stake of the intended development of the region. For the colonial regime this material development (a technical, a-political government intervention) needed to be preceded by an administrative development (the division of the region into different “Homelands” and the establishment of an elaborate apparatus of discipline and control). The local population, however, perceived vaccination and branding campaigns, export permits, water holes and the like as part of a more encompassing politics of identity. So rather than talking politics, the members of the Tribal Council talked development in order to resist apartheid and segregation. In this, they were relatively successful too: the administrative development of the northern Kunene Region was held back for many years and only gained impetus together with the increasing militarization of the region in the course of the 1970s. The author argues that even apartheid and segregation needed to be negotiated. Thus he places development in a multifaceted, albeit violent and oppressive encounter. Perhaps the main reason for the initial failure of segregated development was that a modernist regime such as the South African one was unwilling to recognize the particularity and negotiated character of the colonial encounter, and unable to acknowledge the uncertainty of its outcome.status: publishe

Masking and the Dividual: a graphic example

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Love, Play and Sex: Polyamory and the Hidden Pleasures of Everyday Life in Kaoko, Northwest Namibia

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Africa-Centred Knowledges: Crossing Fields and Worlds

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De strijd om de waterpomp : Interview met Steven Van Wolputte door Ingrid Van Daele

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