Years of Independence in Africa

Roughly five decades ago, the majority of francophone and anglophone African states gained political independence from their former colonial administrators. This volume, edited by German social anthropologists Bierschenk and Spies, aims to take stock of this period in African history from a holistic, differentiated, and analytical perspective. The 23 contributions by respected (primarily German) Africanist scholars from anthropology and various other social science disciplines cover topics organized into five sections: societal trends; nation and nation-building; political economy; media, art and popular culture; and future perspectives and challenges. The chapters in these sections provide a good mix of both much-debated and well-researched ‘conventional’ themes in Africanist scholarship, like political and economic developments (Meys, Asche, Schäfer), nationalism (Lentz, Fricke, Nugent), religion (Langewiesche, Loimeier), kinship and gender (Alber/Häberlein/Martin and Ruppert/Rompel), media (Grätz), and less frequently discussed topics such as the development of schooling (Bierschenk), urban languages (Beck), African literature (Oed), music (Dorsch), and film (Kilian). In their respective fields of study, the various authors seek to identify continuities and ruptures in order to periodize African historical experiences, well aware that such periodization is – always and inevitably – relative and subjective.

Ancient history · Colonialism · German · Independence (probability theory) · Nationalism · Periodization · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · African history and culture studies · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Law