Undervisningsplan

To be read before the beginning of the course: Howell, S. & Melhuus, M. (eds) (1996, 2.edition) Fjern og near. Koebenhavn: Gyldendal. Chapters on Southern, Eastern and Western Africa, pp.128-199.

Over the past 100 and more years, Africa has been constituted in the ethnographic (and popular) imagination, as an ¡®Other¡¯ in many senses: different from Europe or modernity, from Christianity and science, from government and rationality. We all know that these tropes are problematic, yet they do play a role in how we view and study Africa. Thus, some ethnographers turn to Africa, to find alternatives to their own societal order and values ¨C an Other to a ¡®western¡¯ political-economic and ethical order. Others reject such ¡®culturalist¡¯ project, and search instead for different, African ¡®modernities¡¯, focusing on social change and cultural creativity. From the oldest accounts of pre-colonial African societies to most recent analyses of African crisis and rennaissance, the relationship between Africa and its European other is central to our observations, imaginaries and narratives. And, more importantly, through a century of colonial occupation and postcoloniality, this relationship has become equally central to how Africans constitute themselves, and discuss themselves and their place in the world. This is then the aim of this course: to introduce Africanist anthropology by looking closely at the link between one and an ¡®other¡¯ that has made Africa in scholarly and popular accounts, and in our minds ¨C no matter whether we are African or European. To scrutinise this relation we will read some older, ¡®classic¡¯ texts and some very recent ethnographic works that deal with the connections between Africa and its other ¨C the west or the world.

?Session 1 (2 lectures): Introduction - themes in African ethnography (90 pages)

The first two lectures will chart the contours of Africanist anthropology and discern some of the themes that have for long shaped it, such as kinship and personhood, ritual and witchcraft. We will go through some of the ¡®classic¡¯ literature, especially on eastern and Southern Africa. The aim of the lecture is, apart from describing some main themes and ideas, to convey a sense of how Africa has served to search and find something that is conceived of as different from ¡®the West¡¯. Sometimes this ¡®other¡¯ was described as a survival of the past, sometimes as an expression of an underlying shared humanity, to which even the west might want to ¡®return, but a sense of profound difference marks all but very few ethnographies. We will read three texts which illustrate, respectively, the idea of ¡®culture contact¡¯, across great difference (Fortes 1030s), the acknowledgement of shared ¡®modernity¡¯ in urban Africa (¡­) and the search for shared, archaic human values (Turner 1960s). We hope the lecture will sharpen our attention to the theme of difference, while at the same time providing some basis for discussing contemporary Africanist anthropology:

Session 2: The present and the past (180 pages)

These two lectures will attempt to situate contemporary Africa in time. The first lecture will look at Africa¡¯s place in the global historical process: where in the present order of the world ¨C variously referred to as new world order, late capitalism, late modernity, or neoliberalism ¨C is Africa and how did it get there? The second lecture will focus on an African sense of time: how does the historical process, and the world, look like from the present African vantage point?

Lecture 3: The present moment

This lecture opens our discussion by suggesting that the present social and political-economic situation, in Africa and elsewhere, is new, in many ways different from what we have become accustomed to. On the one hand, most African societies have developed away from the western models of the nation state and modern economy; on the other hand they are in many ways more connected, culturally and political-economically with the ¡®globalised¡¯ world. Africa is drifting away from the once taken-for-granted path of modernisation; and yet, it is in new ways engaged with global processes of societal change. This new situation needs new analyses and questions. How can we define the era that Africa is going through today? What is it that holds the familiar media images of epidemic and violence, decaying government and refugee streams, as well as cultural creativity and rainbow nations, renaissances and multi-partyism together? And: how does the African present relate to our own place in the world? The African present can be defined as ¡®crisis¡¯, of modernity and modernisation, of state and citizenship, of livelihood and health; it can be defined in relation to its past, e.g. as postcolonial or neocolonial; and it can be identified in the context of the global political economy, as late capitalism or neoliberalism. Whatever definition one prefers, Africa¡¯s present cannot easily be fitted into the scheme of ¡®otherness¡¯ ¨C of being not yet, or pre-, or no longer modern ¨C that has shaped Africanist representations for long. Africa is part of the wider networks of a new, global order. Learning about Africa¡¯s present is thus a place from where to begin understanding our own.

Lecture 4: Remembering one¡¯s pasts

A characteristic feature of Africa¡¯s uneasy present is a diffuse preoccupation with the past, with memory and historical reconstruction, with nostalgia and the search for a way ¡®back¡¯ to better times. The past that is remembered and longed for is sometimes an imagined pre-colonial arcadia, a golden age, and sometimes the utopian world of 1960s post-independence developmentalism, when everything seemed to move ahead towards a modern world. Sometimes even the disciplined and repressive scientific ¡®progress¡¯ of the colonial era appears desirable from the present vantage point. Not rarely, these very different pasts overlap and mix in people¡¯s minds as well as in their everyday environments: when today¡¯s young people yearn for their ¡®grandparents¡¯ times, these grandparents are sometimes noble tribesmen and sometimes educated government employees.It is through these multiple layers of past that people make sense of their present predicament. Some dimensions of the past may be recreated, e.g. in the heritage movements or neotraditionalism, when ¡®Africanness¡¯ is called upon, other aspects of the past are fiercely rejected, for example the world of the ancestors that for the many born-again Christians in Africa is the incarnation of evil.. But what is rejected often takes on a new hidden life, as demons and witches that shape African citylife, and what is revived as ¡®African culture¡¯ often bears little resemblance to its earlier incarnation. If we want to understand African social life at present, we need to engage with these layers of temporality, memory and longing.

?Session 3: Ritual modernities and traditional science (80p)

These two lectures will discuss two complementary themes in current Africanist anthropology: on the one hand, the vitality of ¡®traditional¡¯ concepts and practices like witchcraft and ritual in modern African society; and on the other hand the ways in which science and specifically medicine work out in a contemporary African situation.

Lecture 5: Traditions and modernities

For long, Africa has been defined in relation to modernity, or, rather, through its difference from modernity. It has been called non-modern or pre-modern, not yet or no longer modern, and for long time only few anthropologists ¨C e.g. those of the British Manchester School of the 1950s ¨C and fewer western audiences, have acknowledged and explored modernity in Africa. This has changed with the recent discovery, by anthropologists, of multiple ¡®African modernities¡¯, unfamiliar to the western eye and different from older ¡®modernisation¡¯ imagery, but nonetheless somehow connected to global modernity: e.g. government witchcraft and civil wars, decaying public services and economic magic. From an African perspective, this anthropological enthusiasm for the African creative and plural modernities might seem a little problematic. If one lacks basic ¡®modern¡¯ institutions of the old-fashioned type, such as e.g. accountable politicians, social security, employment and accessible health care, one is less appreciative of the plethora of exotic ¡®African modernities¡¯ that so fascinates the visiting anthropologist. This lecture will explore the dichotomy of tradition and modernity further, showing the achievements of recognising innovative ¡®African modernities¡¯ as well as the possible shortcomings of this approach; it will critique this crucial binary trope and yet acknowledge its importance for the making of contemporary Africa, as well as our own understandings of it.

?Lecture 6: Bodies and science, and conclusion

While witchcraft, discussed in the previous lecture, has for long been regarded as the epitome of African ¡®tradition¡¯, medical science has been held up as the beacon of modernity, from the times of colonial occupation to the present day. The aim of this lecture is to explore the place of medicine and science in the less clear-cut Africa of today. If what is modern and what is traditional is no longer obvious, and if the direction of social change and progress can no longer be taken for granted, how are we to understand and study bodies and medicines in Africa at this historical juncture? Based on the work on ¡®African modernities¡¯ discussed in the previous lecture, this one will propose a slightly different focus on contemporary Africa: while studies of witchcraft etc. have shown us how seemingly ¡®traditional¡¯ forms really may be part of modern life, we want to ask how scientific technologies, expertise and modes of knowledge production are played out in Africa, gaining new shapes and shaping knowledge and everyday life in Africa today.

Session 4: Conclusion/Review/Outlook (60p)