New publications

In this vivid ethnography, Tanja Hendriks details the decisions and dilemmas of Malawian civil servants in disaster response efforts after cyclone Idai (2019). Hendriks reveals how the aid-dependent Malawian state remains crucial to disaster governance despite chronic resource scarcity and limited capacity.

What is it like to live with the pollution from mining and oil day in day out? Through photography and poetry, this volume portrays scenes from everyday life in the Niger Delta, the Zambian Copperbelt, and Johannesburg. While the book features oil spills, sinkholes, and toxic wastelands, it also foregrounds how people have caringly made these places their home.

Between 1822 and 1847, some 4,500 American ex-slaves and free-born Blacks, unwanted and ill-treated in the country of their birth, sailed to West Africa to settle in an unknown territory. While researching the history of Liberia’s origins, author Fred van der Kraaij made a remarkable discovery. 

A new paper in Frontiers by Jeleel Abiola Balyaminu examines how artisanal cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo exploits workers, harms communities, weakens democratic institutions, and damages the environment. 

On the occasion of Jon Abbink's emeritus status, the volume Ethnography, History, and the Politics of Knowledge in Africa has been created in his honour. It is a Festschrift to celebrate Abbink's wide-ranging career covering culture and politics in Ethiopia and Africa in general.