Lectures/Seminars

The Lectures/Seminars are the most common form of teaching, and are done by researchers and teachers. They should complement and deepen perspectives, questions and themes that are presented in the literature. Hence, the Lectures/Seminars do not summarize the course literature - you read the course literature yourself.

It is not allowed to record the lectures without the teacher's explicit permission. If so, you can only use the recording for your own study purpose and not for spreading the lectures, power-points or other course material to other persons.

While the schedule is available here and you can download it here (please note that it may have been modified).

This section contains the most up-to-date information.

The PowerPoint presentations for each session will be added at the bottom of the page.

Week 1, 2025

Monday 24 February, 08:15-10:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Jennifer Lorin

Jennifer Lorin: Introduction to the course : Circulations

Tuesday 25 February, 11:15-13:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Sten

Sten Hagberg: Democracy, popular struggle, and the combat of women in politics

Literature:

Bauer, G. and Burnet J.E. 2013. Gender quotas, democracy, and women’s representation in Africa: Some insights from democratic Botswana and autocratic Rwanda. Women’s Studies International Forum, 41: 103-112. Online
Hagberg, S. et al. 2018. “Nothing will be as before”: Anthropological perspectives on political practice and democratic culture in “a new Burkina Faso”. Uppsala Papers in Africa Studies 3. Uppsala: Uppsala University. Online
Honwana, A.M. 2019. Youth Struggles: From the Arab Spring to the Black Lives Matter & Beyond. African Studies Review 62(1), 2019: 8-21. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/720383
West, H.G. "“Govern Yourselves!”: Democracy and Carnage in Northern Mozambique". In R.R. Grinker., S.C. Lubkemann & C. Steiner (eds.), Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell: 644-659.

Week 2, 2025:

Tuesday 4 March, 9:15-11:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Jennifer Lorin: Restitution. Track objects

Literature:

Cousin, Saskia, Doquet, Anne, and Galitzine-Loumpet, Alexandra. 2023. "Restitution from the Perspective of Return. Multisituated Epistemologies". Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines, N°251-252 : 431-456. Online
Hahn, Peter Hans & Weiss, Hadas. 2013. "Introduction: Biographies, travels and itineraries of things". In Hahn, Peter Hans & Weiss, Hadas, Mobility, Meaning & Transformations of Things shifting contexts of material culture through time and space. Oxbow: 1-14. Online.
Kopytoff, Igor. 1986. "The cultural biography of things. Commoditization in process". In Arjun Appadurai, The social life of things. Commodities in cultural perspective, Cambridge University Press: 64-91. Online.
Girard-Musscagorry, Alexandre & Nur Goni, Marian. 2022. "Introduction to the topic. African heritage: Denaturalizing objects, untangling the political". Politique africaine, T.1 N°165: 5-30. Online.

Others sources:

Owoo, Nii Kwate. 1970. You Hide Me. Arsenal - Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V., 16'.
Nur Goni, Marian, Owoo, Nii Kwate. 2023. "You Can’t Hide Me : An interview with filmmaker Nii Kwate Owoo". Trouble dans les collections, N°4 : Onligne.

The film is interesting to watch; however, it can only be accessed with credit card registration for a seven-day trial. Remember to cancel the subscription before the trial period ends.

Digital Benin : The project traces the royal objects looted from the Kingdom of Benin, providing an overview of their history, significance, and global dispersion. Originally used in royal representation, communication, and rituals, these objects are now documented alongside oral histories, provenance data, an Edo language catalog, and a map of museum collections worldwide. The platform connects data on 5,285 objects from 136 institutions in 20 countries, focusing on those taken by British forces in 1897. It also includes select contextual pieces, such as Bini-Portuguese ivories and works from neighboring regions or by artists after 1930.

Exploring the site offers insight into ongoing research based on objects dispersed worldwide after their looting.

Questions:

How does the biography of an object, according to Kopytoff, differ from a simple historical narrative?
How do Hahn and Weiss's views on the mobility and transformation of objects complement or challenge Kopytoff's concept of object biographies? What role do the shifting contexts of material culture play in the object’s transformation according to their perspective?
What do Girard-Musscagorry & Nur Goni propose when they suggest adopting a denaturalised perspective on objects from the continent? More broadly, which epistemologies do they seek to overturn, and how does this resonate – or not – with the texts of Kopytoff, Cousin, Doquet & Galitzine-Loumpet, Hahn & Weiss?
How have museification and patrimonialisation affected, and how can they affect, objects? Support your answer using the texts by Kopytoff, Girard-Musscagorry & Nur Goni, Cousin, Doquet & Galitzine-Loumpet.

Thursday 6 March, 9:15-11:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Jennifer Lorin: “Traditional” religions? : Tradition is no longer what it used to be. The case of vodun (Benin, Nigeria)

Literature:

Follow the cola to Gorovodun, the vodun of the cola.

- Not compulsory, simply fly over: Lovejoy, Paul E. 1980. "Kola in the History of West Africa", Cahiers d’Etudes Africaine, N°77-78: 97-134. Online.
- Brivio, Alessandra. 2018. "Gorovodu: The Genesis of a "Hausa Vodun". Journal of West African History, vol. 4, N°1: 1-26. Online.
- Capone, Stefania. 2022. “The Orisha Religion in a Transnational Perspective”. Social Compass, N°69 (2): 135-152. Online.
- Forte, Jung Ran. 2010. “Black Gods, White Bodies: Westerners’ Initiations to vodun in Contemporary Benin”. Transforming Anthropology, vol. 18, N°2: 129-145. Online.
- Hobsbawm, Eric. 1983. "Introduction: Inventing Traditions". In Hobsbawm, Eric & Ranger, Terence, The Invention of Tradition, Cambridge University Press: 1-14. Online.

Questions:

How is the concept of the "invention of tradition" defined in Hobsbawm's introduction? What critiques can be made of Hobsbawm's The Invention of Tradition? Support your argument with an example of your choice (not necessarily from the African continent).
How do Brivio and Capone analyse religious change in the traditions they study? To what extent do their approaches reflect or challenge Hobsbawm’s concept of the "invention of tradition," and what alternative theoretical frameworks or methodologies do they employ in interpreting these religious transformations?
How does Forte’s analysis of Western initiations into Vodun challenge or reinforce Hobsbawm’s concept of the "invention of tradition"? How do the power dynamics and cultural negotiations between Westerners and local practitioners shape the construction of tradition in this context?
Drawing on the contributions and limitations of the four authors, how do the concepts of tradition, modernity, and in/authenticity enrich African studies and the social sciences in general? In your view, what do these concepts offer, or fail to offer? Justify your answer.

Friday 7 March, 9:15-11:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Sten & Paolo

Sten Hagberg & Paulo Mahumane: Decentralization in Practice: On diaspora involvement in Mali, and on mining industry in Mozambique

Literature:

Hagberg, S. and B. Koné 2019. "Diaspora-Driven Development and Dispute: Home-Area Associations and Municipal Politics in Mali". kritisk etnografi: Swedish Journal of Anthropology, 2(1-2): 81-93. Online
Wiegink, N. 2022. “Dislocation of the dead: land, burial and resettlement around coalmines in Mozambique”. In: Transformations of Rural Spaces in Mozambique (eds) C. Navarra and C. Udelsmann Rodrigues. London: Zed-Books in collaboration with the Nordic Africa Institute. Online

Week 3, 2025:

Tuesday 11 March, 11:15-13:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Teppo

Annika Björnsdotter Teppo: Post-Apartheid Society and White Privilege

Literature: Ideally, read it in full, otherwise read chapter 5: "Madams and masters of magic"

Björnsdotter Teppo, Annika. 2022. Afrikaners and the Boundaries of Faith in Post-Apartheid South Africa. London, Routledge: 1-194. Online.

Thursday 13 March, 11:15-13:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Jennifer Lorin: Masculinities

Literature:

Ammann, Carolle & Staudacher, Sandra. 2021. "Masculinities in Africa beyond crisis: complexity, fluidity, and intersectionality", Gender, Place & Culture, 28:6: 759-768. Online.
Grinker, R.R., Lubkemann, S.C. & Steiner, C. (eds.). "Sex and Gender Studies in Africa: Economy and Society, Part VIII :Introduction". In Grinker, R.R., Lubkemann, S.C. & Steiner, C. (eds.) 2010. Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell: 381-387 (For those of you who were there at the introduction, you know how to find this source; for others, ask your colleagues.)
Ouzgane, L., & Morrell, R. "Introduction". In Ouzgane, L., & Morrell, R. 2005, African masculinities : men in Africa from the late nineteenth century to the present, Palgrave/MacMillan : 1-20. Online.

Smith, D. J. 2017, "“Money Problem”: Work, Class, Consumption, and Men’s Social Status". In Smith, To Be a Man Is Not a One-day Job: masculinity, money, and intimacy in Nigeria, Chicago IL and London: University of Chicago Press : 86-120.

Questions :

To what extent is the invisibilisation of scholars from the Global South, and more broadly from the African continent, comparable—or not—to that of gender studies in academia? Support your argument with concrete examples or academic sources.
How does an intersectional analysis of masculinities in Africa move beyond a crisis framework to highlight the fluidity and complexity of gender relations?
How do economic structures, social class, and consumption shape gender relations in Africa? Discuss with reference to Smith’s analysis of men’s social status in Nigeria and the broader discussions of sex and gender studies in Africa by Grinker, Lubkemann, and Steiner.
How do African masculinities, as discussed by Ouzgane and Morrell, evolve in response to historical, social, and political transformations from the late 19th century to the present

Friday 14 March, 15h: Submit the paper for the “This Month in Africa” seminar in Assignment: This Month in Africa

Monday 17 March, 9:15-11h00, Online

Jennifer Lorin & Sten Hagberg: This month in Africa seminar

Online : https://uu-se.zoom.us/j/66324182167.

To prepare, students read about Africa in the media and present news in relation to the course themes - see details in Assignment : This Month in Africa.

Week 4, 2024

Tuesday 18 March , 9:15-11:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Sverke

Sverker Finnström: ”The International Criminal Court and Africa in the 2000s: The Case of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda”

This talk will unpack some of the historical, ethnographic, and political complexities of the very first case of the International Criminal Court, namely against the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels in Northern Uganda.

Literature:

Finnström, Sverker. 2010. Reconciliation grown bitter? War, retribution, and ritual action in northern Uganda, pp. 135-156. In Localizing Transitional Justice: Interventions and Priorities after Mass Violence, ed. Rosalind Shaw and Lars Waldorf, with Pierre Hazan. Stanford: Stanford University Press/Stanford Studies in Human Rights. Online
Ranger, Terence. 2010. "The Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africa" pp. 450-461. In R.R. Grinker, S.C. Lubkemann & C. Steiner (eds.), Perspectives on Africa: A Reader in Culture, History and Representation. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Not mandatory : Thiong’o, Ngũgĩ wa. 2009. “The Myth of Tribe in African Politics.” Transition, n°101: 16–23. https://doi.org/10.2979/trs.2009.-.101.16

Thursday 20 March 10:15-12:00 Engelska Parken, room 7-0042 : Public lecture (mandatory)

Delphine Manetta (IFRA Nigeria): Elections in Africa: Lessons learned from Burkina Faso

Brossier, Marie, 2019. “Imaginaries and Practices of the Family and Politics in Africa: Breaking Away from a Neopatrimonialist Approach through an “Undisciplined” Dialog”, Cahiers d’études africaines, 234/2: 323-357.Online.
Meyer Brigitte, 1998. “The Power of Money: Politics, Occult Forces, and Pentecostalism in Ghana”, African Studies Review, 41/3: 15-37. Online.
Smedt, Johannes de, 2009. “‘No Raila, no Peace!’ Big man Politics and Election Violence at the Kibera Grassroots”, African Affairs, 108:433: 581-598. Online.

Friday 21 March 9:15-11:00, Engelska Parken, room 3-2028

Jennifer Lorin: Concluding remarks on the study of Africa in the 2000s.

Literature:

Apard, É. & Maingraud-Martinaud, C. 2021. "Introduction: Studying Violence in Africa: Contributions from Sources, Fieldwork Challenges and Ethical Considerations", Sources. Material & Fieldwork
in African Studies : 25-42. Online.
Finn, B. R. & Brandful Cobbinah, B. 2025. "Lubumbashi and cobalt: African city at the crossroads of global decarbonization and neocolonialism", Cities, Vol. 156 : 10p. Online.

Cooper, F. 2001. "What is the concept of globalization good for? An African historian's perspective", African Affairs, n°100: 189-213. Online.
+ Dr. Delphine Manetta Lecture

Questions:

How does Frederick Cooper challenge the use of the term 'globalization' in contemporary discourse, and what alternatives does he propose for understanding historical processes of global integration? Please illustrate your response with examples from Stefania Capone's text.
Apard and Maingraud-Martinaud criticize the historical tendency in African studies to focus on violence. What are their critiques of this tendency, and what dynamics, ethical issues, and epistemological problems does this raise concerning African studies in a Western context?
How do Finn and Brandful Cobbinah explore the intersection of global decarbonization efforts and neocolonial dynamics in Lubumbashi, and what insights do they offer regarding the impact of these global processes on local African economies and societies? How does their analysis contribute to the broader conversation on postcolonial critique in African urban studies?

Friday 21 March, 15h

Home Exam published at Studium.

Week 5, 2024: Course Exam

Friday 28 March

Upload Home Exam at Studium, deadline 17:00.

Powerpoint of sessions

Afro 2 - S1 - Introduction.pptx

Afro 2 - S2 - Democracy, popular struggle, and the combat of women in politics

Afro 2 - S3 - Objects.pptx

Afro 2 - S4 - Religion.pptx

Afro 2 - S5 - Decentralization in Practice in Mali and Mozambique

Afro 2 - S7 Masculinités -1.pptx

Afro 2 - S8 - Post-apartheid.pdf

Afro 2 - S9 - the International Criminal Court.pdf