Ethnography, History, and the Politics of Knowledge in Africa. Essays in Honour of Jon Abbink

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, and methodological and philosophical topics in anthropology. Contributions from colleagues in Leiden, Ethiopia and beyond deal with political analysis concerning a variety of African countries, and historical, methodological and philosophical issues. Also, a chapter is included with personal observations and twelve points of attention derived from Jon Abbink’s writing that may inspire for future research. The book ends with a bibliography of Jon Abbink’s publications. 
 
Jon Abbink is Emeritus Professor of Governance and Politics in Africa at Leiden University.
 
Editors: André van Dokkum, Alexander Meckelburg, and Shauna LaTosky
Contributors: Lidewyde Berckmoes, Wouter E.A. van Beek, Jan Záhořík & Ameyu Godesso Roro, Inge Ruigrok, Asnake Kefale, Lucie Buffavand, Éloi Ficquet, André van Dokkum, Ahmed Hassen Omer, Alexander Meckelburg, Shauna LaTosky, Günther Schlee, Jan-Bart Gewald & Rijk van Dijk, and Ivo Strecker.

This book has been published in the ASCL Occasional Publications series, volume 51.

Read the book, Open Access (pdf, pending repository inclusion).

Author(s) / editor(s)

André van Dokkum, Alexander Meckelburg, Shauna LaTosky

About the author(s) / editor(s)

André van Dokkum has been at the African Studies Centre Leiden (2007-2008, 2018) and the University of Macau (2015-), at the latter teaching at the Departments of Sociology and Economics. His  doctorandus research on labour migration in eastern Gambia was completed at Leiden University in 1992 under the supervision of Gerti Hesseling. His PhD research on politics in Barue, Mozambique, was completed at VU University Amsterdam in 2015 under the supervision of Jan Abbink and Maria Paula Meneses. Current research interests include comparative anthropology in general and comparative political anthropology in Africa in particular.
 
Alexander Meckelburg is a historical anthropologist and a post-doctoral fellow with the Department of History at University College London. He is actively involved in the ERC-funded project ‘African  Abolitionism: The Rise and Transformations of Anti-Slavery in Africa (AFRAB)’. Previously, he served as an editorial assistant with the Encyclopaedia Aethiopica and was a research fellow at the Hiob Ludolf Centre for Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies at the University of Hamburg. Alexander has also been a visiting researcher at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi and the Institute of  Ethiopian Studies at Addis Ababa University, where he was affiliated with the ERC-funded project ‘SLAFNET: Slavery in Africa, a Dialogue between Europe and Africa’. 
 
Shauna LaTosky is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Northern British Columbia, with an interest in material culture, women and pastoralism, ethnobotany, and social justice issues related to food security. She completed her doctoral studies at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, under the supervision of Ivo Strecker, Jon Abbink, and Thomas Bierschenk on Predicaments of Mursi Women in Ethiopia’s Changing World. She has worked with indigenous agro-pastoralists in Southern Ethiopia for the last two decades, especially with the Mursi (Mun).

How to order

Order this book in the ASCL Bookshop (€ 20,00).

Posted on 19 May 2026, last modified on 21 May 2026