In this series, we invite anthropologists to share stories of growth, change, and discovery throughout their careers. By reflecting on the life choices that shaped them, the unexpected moments in the field that shifted their…
3 CommentsCategory: Regio Afrika
by Freek Colombijn and Marjo de Theije – Renowned anthropologist James (Jim) Ferguson passed away on 14 February 2025 at 65. He obtained his PhD in Social Anthropology at Harvard University, worked for the University…
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by Yatou Sallah I have long been intrigued by the anthropological framing of Africans in the context of postcolonialism. As scholars and theorists in the field attempt to uncover the remnants of the horrendous control…
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By Marina de Regt While we were all busy watching the US elections in the first week of November, an armed conflict broke out on the other side of the world, in the already turbulent and instable Horn of Africa. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 for his efforts to bring about peace between the almost 20-year stalemate between Ethiopia and Eritrea, ordered a military offensive in response to an attack launched by the TPLF (the Tigray People’s Liberation Front) on the national defence force. It resulted in hundreds of deaths amongst whom many civilians and thousands of refugees fleeing their homes in the northern part of Ethiopia crossing the border to Sudan. Last week, when the results of the US elections were finally clear, the conflict has caught the attention of the Western media. Within a very short time Abiy Ahmed’s image as a peacemaker is receding in the eyes of the international community, and he is being pressured to stop the military attacks. But what is really going on in Ethiopia, and how can we explain the fact that this young and promising Prime Minister felt forced to use violence?
1 CommentBy Liza Koch
This photo essay is about the process of making Nsima flour, the most important food people eat every day in Malawi.
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Malawi
The process starts...
Working on the Fields
End of the Season
Waiting for the Harvest
Preparing the Maize
At the Mill:
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Malawi
Most of the houses in the rural areas of Malawi disappear between the maize fields. -
The process starts...
Maize is planted in the fields and around the houses. -
Working on the Fields
Both men and women work on the fields, one of the daily activities during the rainy season. -
End of the Season
At the end of the rainy season people have to wait until the crops are dried. Slowly, the green colour of the fields turn to brown. -
Waiting for the Harvest
A woman walks in between the maize fields, which are almost ready to harvest. -
Preparing the Maize
The maize is peeled and dried, now it is time to go to the mill. -
At the Mill:
The mill grinds the maize into flour. This flour can be stored and used the whole year until the next rainy season when the process starts again.
By Esther Platteeuw
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Quote on a classroom wall
Shop in Jinja Town
Focus group in Jinja Town
Boy preparing 'rolex'
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Quote on a classroom wall
Quote on a classroom wall in Wairaka – From January to March 2017 I conducted my fieldwork in Uganda to examine the dynamics of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) education on sexual practices and strategies in everyday lives of youth in Jinja District, eastern Uganda. In the beginning of my stay, I contextualized the field youth live in and what stand different actors take with respect to relationships and sex before marriage. This photo summarizes what youth told me about what school teachers advise them: “pre-marital sex is risky” and “choose to abstain”. The latter is in accordance with the ‘ABC’-campaign of the government in fight against HIV/AIDS. The ‘A’ stands for ‘abstinence’, ‘B’ for ‘be faithful’, and ‘C’ for ‘condom use’, whereby schools emphasize abstinence. -
Shop in Jinja Town
Shop with office stationaries in Jinja Town – Besides the dislike of schools towards relationships and sex before marriage, also religious leaders from churches and mosques preach “no sex before marriage”, and, moreover, parents too are against it because they tell youth “not to spoil their future”. The latter refers to parents’ fear for school drop-out of their son or, in particular, their daughter when she gets pregnant. -
Focus group in Jinja Town
After a focus group discussion with youth of Jinja Town – Youth told me that, against the norms of school, religious leaders, and their parents, they have relationships, in most cases more than one at the same moment, and practice sex, whether or not in secret. -
Boy preparing 'rolex'
A boy preparing a ‘rolex’ (rolled eggs), which are two baked eggs with some cabbage and onion rolled into a ‘chapati’ (i.e. flat pancake). – In regard to gender relations, both boys and girls told me that it is the boy who approaches a girl, expresses his love for her, and is the one who initiates a relationship or sex. Nowadays, sometimes a girl takes over this role, however, in most cases she would be seen as a prostitute or someone who has many boyfriends. Which is happening, according to girls, but which is not accepted by society.
By Vera van Rijn Although the media frequently reports on African children dying from malaria or HIV, it is actually pneumonia that is the biggest killer in children under five. With nearly 1 million annual deaths, pneumonia kills more children than HIV, diarrhea and malaria combined. Pneumonia is called ‘the silent killer’ because even today little attention is paid to this disease. In 2015 I joined a research team in the slums of Kampala, Uganda, in search of a way to stop children from dying of this disease.
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Door W.I. Smouter Afgelopen jaar kreeg ik de kans om een half jaar te studeren in Johannesburg, Zuid-Afrika, waar ik als antropologe in de dop enorm veel waardevolle ervaringen heb kunnen opdoen. Want wat wist ik nou echt over het land voor ik ging? Ik kende de verhalen over Apartheid, extreme ongelijkheid en de hoop op een ‘Rainbow-nation’, waar ieder-een gelijk zou zijn. Maar de realiteit leerde me meer, en bracht antropologische begrippen als ‘The Other’, ook wel de ‘De Ander’ in een nieuw daglicht. Als antropoloog heb ik een verlangen om ‘De Ander’ te kunnen begrijpen, dit is een rode draad geweest in mijn studie, maar ik begreep pas echt wat het begrip omhelst, toen ik in Johannesburg aan den lijve ondervond hoe het is om ‘De Ander’ te zijn.
Door Esther Platteeuw Op een warme dag in maart loop ik in de straten van Jinja Town op weg naar het internetcafé ‘The Source’. Met Oegandese radiomuziek in mijn oren zonder ik me af van de blikken, handgebaren en het ‘Mzungu’ geroep waar je als blanke veel mee geconfronteerd wordt in deze Afrikaanse stad. Ik ben net een straat overgestoken waarna mijn aandacht van een Oegandees popliedje naar de realiteit op straat wordt getrokken, ‘Esther’, ‘Esther’ hoor ik opeens. Automatisch draai ik mijn hoofd om en zie daar de stralende lach van een Ugandese meid van ongeveer dezelfde leeftijd als ik. Een gevoel van schaamte komt op omdat ik haar niet meteen herken, terwijl zij mijn naam wel kent. Na een paar tellen van onbegrip en vliegensvlug nadenken, besef ik dat een vriendin voor me staat. “Oh, it’s you, Fatima!”, zeg ik enigszins opgelucht. “Yeah, it’s me”, reageert ze, “I changed my hair, haha”.
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