The African Cluster Centres
Websites of the ACCs
- Moi University, Eldoret
- Rhodes University, Makhanda
- Université Ki-Zerbo, Ouagadougou
- University of Lagos | UNILAG ACC Annual Report 2022 | Documentary: Lagos Ownership and Identities documentary
For more information:
Current Research Projects
Affiliations
- Multiplicity in Decision-Making of Africa’s Interacting Markets: The Functioning of Community Law, the Role of Market Participants and the Power of Regional Judges - David Stadelmann (Bayreuth), Alexander Stroh-Steckelberg (Bayreuth), Volker Wiese (Hannover) (07/2019 - 12/2022)
- Human Rights, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Interacting Markets in Africa - Jörg Gundel (Bayreuth), Bernd Kannowski (Bayreuth), Robert Omondi Owino (Nairobi), Daniel Shayo (Dar-es-Salaam), Ulrike Wanitzek (Bayreuth) (07/2019 – 06/ 2023)
- Intra-Africa Migration and Xenophobia: The Imperatives for African Integration. Franca Attoh (Lagos), Kayode Eesuola (Lagos), Ayo Yusuff (Lagos) (09/2020-02/2022)
- Intractable Human Rights Issues - Chair of African Legal Studies (Uni-Bayreuth)
Arts & Aesthetics
- "Artivism, Social Justice and Epistemic Revolution" - Ruth Simbao (Rhodes University)
- "Sounding Africa on the Indian Ocean" - Lee Watkins (Rhodes University)
- "East African Asian Writing and the Emergence of a Diasporic Subjectivity" - Peter Simatei (Moi University)
- "Rethinking the 'Informal' and Mainstreaming African Popular Arts and Entertainment" - Patrick Oloko (English Department, University of Lagos)
- "Rethinking the Artistic Trajectory of African Women Artists" - Adepeju Layiwola (Art Historian, Visual Artist; University of Lagos), Gladys Kalichini (Visual Artist, Rhodes University)
Knowledges
- Colonial letters and the contact of knowledges - Anchimbe
- Travelling Knowledge and Trans*textuality. African Sources in Shakespearean Drama - Arndt, Steppat
- Colonial Body Archives – A Media Studies Approach - Hanke
- Karakul Circulations: Colonial Economies and the Un_Making of Disciplinary Knowledges in Germany and Namibia - Schramm, Biwa
- "Politics and Societies of the Marginalised" - Enocent Msindo (Rhodes University)
- "Mediated and Mediatization of Islamic Knowledge in Kenya: Educational Institutions, Media Technologies and Performative Aesthetics" - Hassan Ndzovu (Religious Studies, Moi University)
- "Women as Sages: Exploring the nature and value of Feminine Wisdom" - Muyiwa Falaiye (African Socio-political philosophy, University of Lagos), Anthony Okeregbe (Philosophy, University of Lagos)
- African urban complexities and the governance challenges of urban rivers – a systemic-relational inquiry - Oghenekaro Odume Nelson (Rhodes University) (03/2021 - 01/2023)
- "Rethinking the Artistic Trajectory of African Women Artists" - Adepeju Layiwola (Art Historian, Visual Artist; University of Lagos), Gladys Kalichini (Visual Artist, Rhodes University)
Learning
- Making a Living: Learning trajectories towards the ability to earn a livelihood - Alber, Clemens
- Learning beyond the classroom: Coping with illiteracy in urban literate environments in Bolivia and Benin - Alber, Kölbl
- Advice as practical epistemology in multilingual Africa - an analysis of expert /user and user/ user contexts in Cameroon - Mühleisen
- Toward an Islamic Cultural Archive (ICA): Building a Collaborative Database of Islamic Learning in Africa - Seesemann, Kogelmann, Rebstock
- "Mediated and Mediatization of Islamic Knowledge in Kenya: Educational Institutions, Media Technologies and Performative Aesthetics" - Hassan Ndzovu (Religious Studies, Moi University)
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Regenerating Non-Formal Learning in Africa: Digitizing Folktales for Animation and Value Education - Ayodele Yusuff, Abisoye Eleshin, (University of Lagos) (09/2020-02/2022)
Mobilities
- Planned obsolescence, circular economies and ecologies of electronic devices in transdisciplinary perspective - Beisel
- Oil movements: the production and government of petro-(im)mobilities in East Africa - Doevenspeck
- Africa in the global history of refugee camps (1940s to 1950s) - Glasman, Lingelbach
- Uhamaji wa wanyerwanda: migration and conflict in Ituri, DR Congo - Doevenspeck, Morisho, Tegere
- Migration control, forced immobility and violent mobilization in the border triangle of Burkina Faso, Benin and Niger - Beisel, Doevenspeck, Donko, Imorou, Traoré
- "Politics and Societies of the Marginalised" - Enocent Msindo (Rhodes University)
- "Framing Identities from Human Agency Mobility on the Kenya-Uganda Highway" - Omar Egesah (Anthropology; Moi University)
- Intra-Africa Migration and Xenophobia: The Imperatives for African Integratio - Attoh, Eesuola, Yusuff - Lagos University
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Spatio-temporal variability in the environment and mobility characterizes socio-ecological systems in large regions of tropical Africa, especially in savanna ecosystems - Higgins, Samimi, Li, Doevenspeck, Ouma, Gambiza, Twine, Vogel, Lotz-Sisitka
Moralities
- Health discourses as moral communication? Linguistic case studies from Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon - Drescher, Boukari, Tsofack
- Religious engineering – the making of moralities, development and religion in Niger - Spies, Schrode, Tidjani Alou
- Moral Geographies of Re-Existence - Rothfuß, Sansone, Gruber
- "Globalization and health policy in West Africa" - Yacouba Banhoro (History, University Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Burkina Faso), Illy Ousseni (Law, University Ouaga 2, Burkina Faso)
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“Changing Life Projects: African Identities, Moralities and Wellbeing” – now branded the African Identities, Moralities & wellbeing Project (AIM Well) PI – Eunice Kamaara (Ethics) , CoPI- Eric Masese, (Sociology) from Moi University
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Judicial Institutions and Teenagers/Young people in Burkina Faso: «Life outside, inside and outside prison". A construction of the social trajectories of teenagers and young people incarcerated and released from detention centres in Burkina Faso Bationo. Bouma Fernand
Activities
Workshop: "Security Challenges in West Africa: Multiforms & Perspectives"
ACC Lagos: lecture by Dr. Obadele Kambon - 17.03.2021
ASCL Seminar: Religious engineering - a practice approach to (religious) projects of social transformation - 25.02.2021
- Reclaiming the self through a re-reading of African Human Relationship - 17.02.2021
Research agenda discussion by principal investigators - 10.12.2020 - 11.12.2020
LAGOS: Ownership and Identities (Intellectual debates and one month photography exhibition) - 02.11.2020
Cluster intensifies research related cooperation with its international network partners - 27.04.2020
Reconfiguring African Studies Workshop at Kenyan Moi University - 19.02.2020 - 21.02.2020
Official signing of agreements with ACC – 29.10.2019
African Cluster Centres visit University of Bayreuth to define cooperation goals - 02.08.2019
Partners At a Glance
Below you find PDFs offering short overviews of the African Cluster Centers:
Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya
University of Lagos, Nigeria
Rhodes University, Makhanda, South Africa
Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
“Africa Multiple” Cluster of Excellence welcomes new partners
After one year of preparations and deliberations, the “Africa Multiple” Cluster of Excellence has announced the partner institutions that will have the status of African Cluster Centres (ACC). The new ACCs serve as nodes for joint research initiatives and networks within the cluster. To a first call for expressions of interest in May 2018, 55 African universities and research institutes responded by sending letters of intent and first sketches of ideas for future collaboration. An independent selection committee later chose ten institutions that were invited to submit full applications. After visits to these ten institutions in February 2019, the selection committee convened once again to choose those whose research foci and African Studies agenda provided the best matches for the objectives of the new research network. Based on the recommendations of the committee, the cluster’s Academic Committee selected the University of Lagos (Nigeria), Moi University (Eldoret, Kenya), Université Ouaga 1 Professeur Joseph Ki-Zerbo (Ougadougou, Burkina Faso), and Rhodes University (Makhanda/Grahamstown, South Africa).
While the four ACCs are the main partners in the cluster’s endeavor of reconfiguring African Studies, many of the proposals submitted suggest further avenues for collaboration and network building in the field of African Studies. Professor Ute Fendler, the cluster’s Vice Dean of Internationalisation & Public Engagement, therefore not only congratulated the successful institutions on their nomination, but also thanked all applicant institutions for their willingness to enter into academic exchange with the Africa Multiple cluster. The cluster will seek to create possibilities for other institutions to join the regional research networks in Africa. The four ACCs are equipped with the financial means for own research, thus enabling them to make their own contributions to the cluster’s agenda. They serve as the cluster’s on-site research partners in Africa, facilitating the exchange of ideas; the mobility of researchers; the collection of and access to data; and above all offering a platform for reflexive research on the continent itself. The ACCs’ responsibilities include initiating and conducting research projects linked to the cluster; connecting its members to the large cluster network in Africa and beyond; organising and hosting international conferences; and providing a platform for academic exchange at doctoral and postdoctoral levels. The overall aim is to promote a generation of young academics whose objective, like that of the cluster, is to reconfigure African studies through transdisciplinary approaches that create new insights into the multiplicity of Africa and its diasporas.
University of Lagos
The Lagos African Cluster Center (Lagos ACC) is an autonomous centre within the Institute of African and Diaspora Studies, University of Lagos. It is led by Prof. Dr. Muyiwa Falaiye, a Professor of African Philosophy/Studies. The Academic Coordinator is Dr. Ayo Yusuff, an Associate Professor of Linguistics and Language Engineering. Some of the principal investigators are Prof. Dr. Ademola Omojola , Professor of Geography and Remote Sensing; Prof. Dr. Peju Layiwola , a Professor of Visual Arts and Art History; Dr. Taibat Lawanson, an Associate Professor whose specialization is African Urbanization; Dr. Franca Attoh, an Associate Professor of African Culture and Social Change; and Dr. Kayode Eesuola, a Senior Research fellow whose areas of expertise are African Politics and Political Behavior.
The centre is poised to contribute to the Knowledge Lab of the Africa Multiple (Centre of Excellence in African Studies) especially in achieving the goal of reconfiguring African Studies. Equipped with its full complement of competent staff, the centre is prepared with the right atmosphere to galvanize collaborative and interdisciplinary research among African scholars as well as develop and implement formats for the training of early career scholars, especially at the PhD level.
For further information, kindly follow this link.
Find LAGOS African Cluster Centre Organisational Chart here.
Meet the research team here.
Moi University
The Moi University African Cluster Centre (Moi–ACC) is housed in the Moi University School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS) whose overriding objectives are to offer interdisciplinary teaching and research in the broad field of African studies and to act as the center where all other Africa–focused scholarship in Moi University coalesce. Within the context of these objectives, and building on the very strong tradition of exploring and interrogating diverse ways of knowing Africa that has developed in SASS in the three and a half decades of its existence, the Moi–ACC is envisioned as a hub of outstanding inter–, multi– and transdiciplinary research and conversations that will contribute to the greater understanding of Africa in ways that enable the addressing of significant issues affecting the continent.
The centre director is Prof. Peter Simatei (African Diasporas), assisted by the Academic Coordinator Prof. Tom Mboya, an Associate Professor of Literature. Some of the principal investigators are Prof. Eunice Kamaara (Africam Religion and Ethics) Dr. Hassan Nzovu (Islamic studies), Prof. CJ Odhiambo, (Intervention Drama), Prof. Omar Egesah, (Social Anthropology) and Prof. Ann Nangulu (African History) Others include Dr. Justin Sikuku (Linguistics), Dan Omanga (Media), Dr. Henry Ligulu (Law) and Prof. Paul Omondi (Geography).
For further information, kindly follow this link.
"Moi University wins to become an Academic Centre of Excellence in African Studies", read more here.
University Joseph Ki-Zerbo of Ouagadougou
The "African Cluster Center" (ACC) of University Joseph KI-ZERBO of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso was created in the framework of the “Africa Multiple – Cluster of Excellence” initiated by the University of Bayreuth in 2019. The ACC aims at coordinating research projects of its members from different African research institutions and facilitating the movement of researchers from West African countries within the scope of their missions in the Center. Developing a solid and reliable database is also part of its objectives. Hence, it will be linked to the Knowledge Lab of African Multiple and as such, will be interconnected to the database network of other centers and thus promote the co-construction of a digital research environment.
For further information, kindly follow this link.
The Rhodes University
Rhodes University’s African Cluster Centre (ACC) is located in the Faculty of Humanities, Rhodes University. It works with a network of scholars to promote research and teaching on African studies within an interdisciplinary framework. The Centre is established and recognised institutionally according to the Rhodes University Scholarly Entities Framework and is externally funded by the Germany Research Foundation via the University of Bayreuth’s African Cluster Centres of Excellence Strategy. The Rhodes ACC will develop into a fully-fledged African Studies Centre. For this reason, we seek to maintain enduring partnerships with other Cluster Centres and entities of similar intent in our vision of reimagining, repositioning and revitalising African Studies.
The centre has a team of scholars with diverse expertise ranging from social and political history of Africa; gender studies; language and language policy; water, climatic change and environmental learning; African politics; African literary studies; African art and aesthetics as well as African musicology. The Centre currently has as its members, three South African National Research Foundation Chairs, in addition to a number of rated researchers and established scholars. The founding Director is Professor Enocent Msindo, an African historian and former President of the Southern African Historical Society. Its members include: Professor Sally Matthews (African politics); Drs. Lynda Spencer, Aretha Phiri and Thando Njovane (English Literary Studies); Drs. Lee Watkins and Boudina McConnachie (The International Library of African Music, Rhodes - African musicology); Prof. Russell Kaschula (NRF Chair, African Languages); Prof. Patrice Mwepu (Francophone Africa studies); Dr. Nelson Odume (Water Research); Prof. James Gambiza (environment and climatic change), and Prof. Heila Lotz-Sisitka (NRF Chair on Environmental education).
For further information, kindly follow this link.