Abstract: This paper questions the “calls” and “counter-calls” for Paul Biya’s candidature as a means to participate in political life. The calls for the candidature of the incumbent President show the construction of political allegiances that underlie various clientelist negotiations initiated by political leaders to maintain their hegemonic positions. However, the counter-calls highlight how, through ... Read more

Abstract: The lecture traces how the large Education for All campaigns transformed parental responsibilities, not only in terms ofthe costs of enrolment and the maintenance of schools, but also in terms of other changes in children’s life courses, whichare related to their schooling trajectories under difficult conditions. Alongside parental responsibilities for schooling, responsibilities for marriage, ... Read more

Abstract: African writers normally romanticize the past ontologies of African women contending that they held considerable social power. This overarching narrative obscures the gender imbalances in precolonial and post-contact Africa. The nd’ishi tradition of northernmost Igbo communities–generally called Nsukka–is a paradox that all pre-contact Africa had a fair deal for women.Among them, married women that engage ... Read more

Abstract: Environmental Degradation is a global phenomenon that affects all life forms including plants, animals, humans and especially women and children. One major cause of environmental pollution and degradation is oil exploration and this has been a major problem in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. In contemporary Nigerian literature, ecological writings are dominated by ... Read more

Abstract In Goma, a provincial capital in Eastern DR Congo, the urban and the catastrophic have long been intertwined purveying analytical power to punchlines as indicative of everyday absurdity. Based on ethnographic fieldwork and social media analysis, this lecture reveals the 'Power of Laughter' by illustrating how Goma’s comedians turn the incongruity of expectation and ... Read more

Abstract This presentation is a field report on my ongoing research about the deity Akonedi and her shrines in the Akuapem town Larteh. Doing ethnographic fieldwork at her shrines, I trace the multiple ways in which Akonedi is present in people’s lives in Ghana. Based on my findings, I tell a history of thisdeity. I ... Read more

Abstract n Africa more generally, funerals have been shown to bring together members of the extended family to renew and reaffirm their individual membership within the larger family and to also compete for social prestige. In Northern Ghana, the past few decades have witnessed dramatic changes in funerary and mortuary institutions because of changing political ... Read more

Abstract:From China to Africa, passing through Europe... are we not all wise? do we not all dance and sing? do we, indisputably, take care of ourselves, then? Taking up this simple common sense, I draw the two objectives that I intend to achieve in this presentation. Firstly, to draw a critical and epistemological reflection on the possible meaning, possibilities and virtues of the academy's knowledge in the context of African realities. Secondly, and consequently, to ... Read more

Abstract: This study conducted in the Western region of Ghana, specifically Ellembelle District which is a hub of Ghana’s oil and gas activities and industries, critically looked at the gaps and overlaps in the land transfer deal from the communities to the oil companies in terms of the level of participatory land administration used for ... Read more