DFG-Program Point Sud 2009 / 2010

"Processes of Negotiation: Theory and Practice"

Point Sud, Bamako: December 5–12, 2009

Coordinating scholars:

Prof. Dr. Mamadou Diawara (Anthropology, Goethe-University Frankfurt)

Prof. Dr. Ute Fendler (Romance Literatures and Comparative Studies, University Bayreuth)

Prof. Dr. Stefan Kadelbach (Law, Goethe-University Frankfurt)

PD Dr. Ute Röschenthaler (Anthropology, Goethe-University Frankfurt)

 

The event is a combination of a workshop and a field school. It explores diverging African and Western cultural concepts and discourses, and their negotiation by specific institutions of mediation in Bamako. These concepts and discourses are often based on differential norms and ideas of order. The specific sites and arenas of their negotiation are, among others, the development organisations, institutions of law, mass media and religion. We are particularly interested in the dynamics of the processes of negotiation and transformation which are often proposed and implemented from abroad by the north. We will not only discuss this topic in the theoretical section of the workshop but also with representatives of the respective institutions in their local offices and sites of action in Bamako.

We have selected four institutional domains for the field school part of the workshop:

• a European Union supported development project and a local project in the domain of decentralisation,

• two media stations, the Radio Bamakan and the Office Radio Télévision du Mali (ORTM),

•  two institutions in the domain of law and culture: the patent office – Organisation africaine de la propriété intellectuelle (OAPI) and the UNESCO,

•  two religious institutions: the Association Malienne pour l’Unité et le Progrès de l’Islam (AMUPI) and a Christian church.

The doctoral students will form four African-German teams or work groups who will visit two institutions each for an intensive discussion with individuals who are involved in the generation and the implementation of norms. They will discuss with them their experiences during their work and the daily problems and challenges which arise in their field of action, and how they manage to communicate with and conciliate the different institutions and parts of society. The objective of these discussions is to find out the important contentious points of negotiation and how change is brought on its way. Finally, the findings and reflections will be presented and analysed in the workshop plenary. The findings and results are supposed to help us – beyond disciplinary boundaries – establish first building blocks for a methodology to investigate the convergence of different norms, the negotiation of change, and the formation of new orders.

 

"Urban Health in Sub-Saharan Africa"

Point Sud, Bamako: January 13–16, 2010

Organized by:

Prof. Hansjörg Dilger, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin

Dr. Viola Hörbst, Centre for African Studies (CEA), Lisbon University Institute

 

More than 50% of the populations in sub-Saharan Africa live in urban settings. Life in the rapidly growing African cities has been associated, on the one hand, with a range of social, economic and health problems, e.g. the presence of poverty and slums in high-density population areas as well as the spread of epidemic diseases such as cholera, typhoid and HIV/AIDS due to urban lifestyles and vulnerabilities. On the other hand, urban infrastructure has also created favourable conditions for the health status of populations, e.g. the access to healthcare which comprises more specialized care and treatment such as the access to antiretroviral therapy and infertility treatment. Furthermore, in the context of globalization the flourishing health sectors of urban settings have created new opportunities for private medical practitioners, traditional healers, NGOs and religious groups to cater to the health needs of the growing, and comparatively wealthy middle classes of societies in Africa.

This international workshop focuses on the multiple ways in which urban health in sub-Saharan Africa has been – and is continuously being – produced, maintained and regulated in the context of processes of modernization and globalization. From an interdisciplinary and historically-informed perspective, it explores how a wide range of actors and dynamics have shaped responses to health and illness under shifting historical conditions (i.e., colonial and postcolonial politics as well as recent neoliberal reforms) – and how health risks and vulnerabilities themselves have been produced by social, political and economic forces and processes over a longer period of time.

Paper submissions from different academic disciplines (anthropology, sociology, history, political science, and public health) address these issues on the basis of sound empirical research as well as with regard to the wider theoretical and methodological implications of urban health research.

The following topical areas are addressed in the workshop:

• De/Reregulation of the health sector: The ways processes of decentralization and privatization the 1980s onwards; and how policies and politics of deregulation have correlated with the dynamics of intra- and transnational mobility, as well as with processes of social, economic and gender-specific differentiation.

• Religious and traditional healing in urban centres: The (re-)positioning of religious organizations and traditional healers in the context of an increasingly diverse healthcare system which is shaped not only by processes of commercialization but also by the internationally induced politics of “scientific evidence.”

• Mobility and translocality in health-related practice: The ways in which urban populations themselves have responded to health- and illness-related challenges and how healthrelated decisions and actions are embedded in people’s social, economic and family networks that often transcend the geographical boundaries of urban centres.

Workshop discussants:

Prof. Brigit Obrist (University of Basle, Anthropology)

Prof. Guéladio Cissé (Director of the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, Abidjan)

 

"Pluridisciplinary Research on Language Contact in West Africa"

Point Sud, Bamako: February 13–21, 2010

Organized by:

Dr. Klaus Beyer (Linguistics), Humboldt-University Berlin

Dr. Friederike Lüpke (Linguistics), SOAS, London

 

Subject:

West Africa is a multilingual region that defies essentialist views of language and identity and calls global narratives on multilingualism and language endangerment into question. The goal of the workshop is to set the agenda for an emerging pluri disciplinary  field: the description and documentation of languages together with their contact situation, its linguistic consequences and the social outcomes for the speakers. The workshop explicitly integrates researchers from the South and North and will eventually become the nucleus of an international research network on West Africa as a contact area. A better understanding of the scope and patterns of West African multilingualism is of prime relevance for the fields of descriptive linguistics, contact linguistics and multi-lingualism studies, sociolinguistics, anthropology of identity, migration and urbanisation, oral history, ethnobiology and the preservation of traditional ecological knowledge as well as educational, literacy and language management research. Therefore, the workshop will link researchers of traditionally separate fields, disciplines, continents and working languages. It is meant to be an eye-opening event where researchers from different perspectives can mutually educate each other about the topics and methods of their fields and work jointly on the elaboration of a research agenda for research in this area.

The Programme Point Sud is extremely well suited to host this kind of workshop. The Institute is located in the geographical heart of our area of interest – Bamako. The multilingual capital of Mali, one of the West African countries addressing multilingualism by introducing a number of national languages into primary education offers ideal opportunities to connect local researchers and language planners with the workshop theme and to benefit from their experience.

Format:

The workshop will run over seven days. It will consist of a mix of talks, tutorials and project development sessions. The workshop days will start with talks covering central topics of multilingualism and language contact studies from different disciplinary perspectives taking up the mornings. They will be complemented by tutorials outlining the approaches and methods of different disciplines to aspects of the topic so that a common ground for researchers from different national and disciplinary traditions can be created. Fundamental tenets of the respective fields will be explained in clear and accessible language to enable non-specialists to grasp basic concepts. Methods of data collection and analysis will be introduced. The tutorials, some of which will collect mini data sets on multilingual langauge use in Bamako, will lead into hands-on project development sessions during which a research agenda and follow-up research (individual or joint projects) and dissemination activities (e.g. a summer school) will be sketched by the participants. The project development sessions will also provide a platform for advice on existing research plans to maximise exchange and crossfertilisation of ideas.

 

"Urbanity and Belonging in West Africa: Bobo-Dioulasso in the Regional Context"

Point Sud, Bamako: March 4–7, 2010

Convenor:

PD Dr. Katja Werthmann (Anthropology), University of Mainz

Bobo-Dioulasso was a trade settlement in the pre-colonial era. The history of the city is closely related with other West African centres for trade and Islamic learning such as Djenné, Kong, or Sikasso. Today, Bobo-Dioulasso is Burkina Faso’s second-largest city. Its population of c. 500,000 is predominantly Muslim. Culturally, Bobo-Dioulasso has more in common with other Mande-speaking regions in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Mali than with the Mossi areas which constitute much of present-day Burkina Faso. The dominant language is Jula. Many inhabitants of Bobo have kinship ties in neighbouring countries, and many “Bobolais” have migrated to Abidjan or Bamako. Through trade networks and social relations, fashion, music and festivities reach the city such as the Djandjoba from Mali that accompanies wedding celebrations or naming ceremonies. Still, local traditions such as masking cults are an important part of the city’s everyday life and the construction of collective identities. The co-existence of different ethnicities, social milieus and life-styles has up to now been relatively balanced. Identity and  difference are emphasised in joking relationships, interethnic marriages or political debates. In other situations, cross-cutting ties of profession, religion and status group, or more inclusive ways of belonging such as “Bobolais” or “Burkinabé” are more relevant.

The central question of the workshop is thus: What is the relation between constructions of belonging and access to urban  resources such as work, housing and political participation? In which situations do people stress a common origin or cultural heritage, and in which situations are these irrelevant?

Is there something characteristic in handling differences that distinguishes Bobo-Dioulasso from other West African cities?

The aim of this workshop is to bring together anthropologists, economists, geographers, historians, linguists and sociologists who have been conducting fieldwork in Bobo-Dioulasso and neighbouring West African cities in order to stimulate a discussion that places the city in the wider framework of studies on urbanity in West Africa.