Latest documents http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/index/index/ Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:36:49 +0200 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:36:49 +0200 http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/688 Die Arbeit befasst sich mit der pastoralen Wirtschaftsweise der Mbororo-Fulbe in Nordwestkamerun. Im Zentrum der Untersuchung stehen die geschlechtliche Arbeitsteilung sowie soziale Veränderungen als Folge der Sesshaftwerdung im Laufe des 20. Jahrhunderts. Besonderes Augenmerk wird dabei der wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Stellung der Mbororo-Frauen geschenkt. Wie die Arbeit belegt, war die Sesshaftwerdung der Mbororo in Nordwestkamerun begleitet von zunehmendem Reichtum und Hinwendung zu islamischen Werten. Als Folge davon haben sich Mbororo-Frauen grossteils von wirtschaftlichen Aktivitäten im öffentlichen Raum (z.B. Verkauf von Milchprodukten) abgewandt und sich auf Arbeiten innerhalb des Haushalts (Nahrungszubereitung, Kinderbetreeung, Pflege und Verschönerung des Wohnraums) sowie auf pastorale Aufgaben im häuslichen Umfeld (Melken, Milchverarbeitung, Betreuung der Kälber) konzentriert. Die räumliche Einschränkung des weiblichen Aufgabenbereiches wird von den meisten Mbororo-Frauen nicht als Nachteil wahrgenommen sondern als Ausdruck ihrer muslimischen Identität bzw. eines besseren Verständnisses für islamische Werte sowie als Wertschätzung ihrer häuslichen Arbeit. Durch eine detaillierte ethnographische Beschreibung der pastoralen und häuslichen Aufgabenbereiche der Mbororo-Frauen leistet die vorliegende Magisterarbeit einen Beitrag zur Wirtschaftsethnologie, insbesondere zur Ethnologie der Arbeit. Die historisch orientierte Analyse der sozialen und ökonomischen Veränderungen innerhalb der Mbororo-Gesellschaft ergänzen die Diskussion um Faktoren und Prozesse des sozialen Wandels in Afrika. Michaela Pelican masterthesis http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/688 Tue, 21 Jun 2011 11:36:49 +0200 http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/530 It seems trendy for current studies to argue that the term refugee is no more than a policy category which does not reflect the circumstances of the people that it subsumes. Such studies further argue that the circumstances of refugees are not necessarily different from those of local populations. This study argues that theoretical positions emanating from such observations do not have a universal application as illustrated in Nairobi where the term refugee is not merely a policy category or legal label but also experiential. Understanding the concept refugee is very much an outcome of empirical enterprise which locates those who bear the refugee status in specific contexts. The study draws attention to cases of targeted rape, raids, exclusionary discourses epitomised by negative stereotyping and xenophobia as well as refoulement which are specifically aimed at refugees in Nairobi. The refugee status is intertwined with other variables such as refugees´ ethnic, national and religious identities in ways that restrict inclusion of refugees into the host country. As a gendered experience, exile impacts on intra-household dynamics and transforms gender roles and relations within refugee households in ways that are simultaneously enabling and challenging for refugee women. Although local women also experience Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), for refugee women this intersects with the vulnerability that the refugee status entails resulting in refugee women being abused even by police officers and officials who are tasked to protect them thus leaving them with limited channels for recourse. SGBV thus becomes salient because of its targeted nature. Emphasised in the study is the fact that refugee women are heterogeneous such that it is more appropriate to refer to refugee women´s experiences rather than the refugee woman experience. Exile as occupation of marginal space is however not solely about constraints as it also creates opportunities and possibilities that may not have been available to the women prior to flight. Contradictory as it may seem, the refugee status is mediated by the same variables that lead to exclusion at a macro level in ways that facilitate inclusion at a micro, interpersonal level characterised by interaction between refugee women and locals as fellow congregants or as neighbours who share the same plight of poverty in Nairobi´s slums. This is coupled with refugee women´s agency by which they convert obstacles into resources and create space for themselves in a country which advocates encampment and expects refugees to reside in the designated areas. Through their own agency, refugee women are able to navigate structural barriers meant to deter integration in ways that demonstrate that the absence of an official integration policy does not necessarily deter integration; individual agency has a countervailing impact on measures instituted to deter integration. Rosemary Jaji doctoralthesis http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/530 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:22:50 +0100 http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/147 Ajibade Olusola’s thesis examines the dialectics of the localization and globalisation of the Osun cult, while appreciating its transformation into a deity of international repute. In understanding the transformation of Osun cult into a deity of national and international repute, the study investigates the roles of motifs and visual arts that were found to be crucial to the transformation process. In the analysis and interpretation of the data, the study identifies Osun as a personification of Yoruba women. This was evidenced in the materials collected, particularly the motifs and the visual arts, and equally discernible in the oral and other primary sources. Both the poetry and visual arts emerged as conceptual paradigms to project the power, prowess and image of Osun as a deity in the Yoruba pantheon of Orisa (deities). His analysis facilitates and enhances our understanding of the faith, fate, philosophy, perceptions and attitudes of the adherents of Osun cult in relation to its impact on the people locally and globally. It also reveals the intricate interplay between the verbal (word) and the visual (image) domains in Yoruba aesthetic practice. Negotiating Performance explicates the transformation of Osun cult in Osogbo from a local to an international phenomenon, principally through the slave trade of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and also through the appreciation of Osun visual art by an ever-growing international audience. George Olusola Ajibade book http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/147 Wed, 30 Nov 2005 14:47:47 +0100 http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/170 Much has been said about 9/11, but little research has been done on the impact the events had on Africa. This paper explores how Muslims in East Africa view the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Particular attention will be given to the case of Kenya. What were the effects and consequences of 9/11 for Muslim communities there? How do they perceive the "war on terrorism", how did the changing configuration of geopolitics in the aftermath of 9/11 affect their lives and attitudes? What are the future prospects of Christian- Muslim understanding in East Africa? The paper argues that the initial sentiment of sympathy with the victims has been replaced by the rise of anti-American attitudes among the East African Muslim population. Although this tendency will probably continue as long as policy makers think of anti-Americanism in terms of an "image problem", the impact of 9/11 on East Africa will in the long run not depend on global issues, but on the course of political and religious developments on the national and local levels. Rüdiger Seesemann article http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/170 Mon, 07 Nov 2005 09:04:09 +0100 http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/158 Jigal Beez book http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/158 Thu, 18 Aug 2005 12:52:59 +0200 http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/155 Typical shortages of the public debate on globalization are reflected in the academic discussion such as the distorting simplicity of catchwords like the "global village", "jihad vs. McWorld", the "new global age" or the assumption that globalization is a completely new phenomenon. However, the academic debate itself is still restricted. There are only few attempts to cover and analyze processes of globalization on a broader basis in all parts of the world: not only the "North", but also the "South". Despite the multi-centric character of the world, the analysis of processes of globalization has remained largely confined to the North, while events in Africa, for instance, are taken notice of only when they are of specific relevance to the North. This paper, which originally is the introduction to an edited book (published in German), tries to analyze these shortages and to present approaches which look at the processes of globalization from different and perhaps more "African" perspectives. However, this overview shows that it is still debated, whether established concepts of the globalization paradigm can be confirmed from an African perspective or whether they have to be revised or even rejected. Roman Loimeier; Dieter Neubert; Cordula Weißköppel bookpart http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/155 Wed, 03 Aug 2005 13:07:09 +0200 http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/152 This paper "From an Anthropology of Astonishment to a Critique of Anthropology´s Common Sense: An Exploration of the Notion of Local Vitality in Africa. In: Bayreuth African Studies Online, No. 1 (March 2005)" is the introduction to the volume "Between Resistance and Expansion. Explorations of Local Vitality in Africa" edited by Peter Probst and Gerd Spittler (Berlin, Hamburg, Münster: LIT, 2004). The volume grew from an international symposium on "Local Vitality and the Globalization of the Local" convened by the Humanities Collaborative Research Center "Local Action in Africa in the Context of Global Influences" (SFB/FK 560) at Bayreuth University in May 2002. The paper and the attached table of contents may stimulate interest in casting a look at the entire volume. Be it the vitality of African art, African popular culture or African religious ideas – invoking the notion of vitality has become a common practice in Africanist discourses. Most often, the reason for this is to emphasize the unexpected and astonishing strength of certain cultural fields of Africa. But what is really meant with the notion of local vitality beyond its metaphorical and mainly rhetorical usage, beyond the seemingly unforeseen and unexpected? The authors locate the answer to this question in a hidden, though powerful paradox. Celebrating local vitality thus means to celebrate the falsification of one of anthropology’s most cherished assumptions. When we ask about local vitality, we are asking about the vitality of weak units in the face of structurally different and more powerful ones. At the same time however, the invocation of vitality points to the problematic of such a perspective and the way how anthropology is constantly seeking to call this assumption into question. It is argued to acknowledge this paradox and move beyond established scenarios of subjugation and subjection by a critical investigation of the variations of local agency in the context of debates on identity and self-assertion, locality and appropriation, and rivalry and resistance. Peter Probst; Gerd Spittler bookpart http://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-ubbayreuth/frontdoor/index/index/docId/152 Wed, 27 Jul 2005 10:57:13 +0200