Many vital critiques of, but also from, African Studies (and area studies more broadly) have given important impulses to debates about the conditions of knowledge production from and on the continent. How can education systems and knowledge regimes often still burdened with legacies of inequality be rethought and decolonised? How can African Studies contribute to the development of innovative, critical and transformative approaches towards global transformations?  

Keywords: Postcolonial/decolonial knowledge production, theory and methods in African Studies, African epistemologies, area studies (interdisciplinarity/relationality), reciprocity in knowledge production. 

Mobility and migration attract a great deal of attention, and have become, often framed in reductionist terms, tools of choice in the contest for political power across Euro-America. At the same time, movements of people, goods and ideas in and from Africa are changing cultural, material, and religious practices throughout the continent and across the globe. This stream invites scholars to enliven these conversations by highlighting the complex dynamics of multiple, situated African identities across time and place.

Keywords: Mobility, migration, ‘Africanness’, beliefs, identities.

The end of the Cold War was greeted with a wave of democratization across the African continent, but the initial hopes in these changes have often been thwarted. Forty years later, popular contestations, again, are challenging authoritarian reconversions across the continent, reshaping state-citizen relationships and understandings of political processes and institutions. This stream is an opportunity to account for how ideas of sociopolitical organization have been transformed, renewed and spread under the specific historical conditions of their evolution on the African continent.

Keywords: Political culture, the role of the state, democracy, citizenship, bureaucracy, accountability and integrity, rule of law, religion and politics, civil society.

The end of the unipolar world order has opened up new spaces for global hegemony. Be they as partners, clients, power brokers or allies, African countries have helped usher in changing global power relations. Claims for ‘sovereignty’ from neo-colonial ties, such as most recently in West Africa, stand in conjunction with the forging of new, South-South circuits of diplomacy, security, and extractivism. How are geostrategic realignments transforming domestic and regional political and economic relations?

Keywords: International relations, peace and security, geopolitical changes, formal decolonization, emerging powers, international legal and regulatory arenas, regional integration, South-South relations.

In recent years, the notion of “planetary health” has come into prominence, drawing attention to the interdependence of human health with the well-being of ecological systems. Against the background of the climate crisis, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, encroachment processes under the guise of conservation, rapid urbanization, and increasingly urgent calls for climate justice, the concept invites us to think beyond the biological condition that only takes into account the human body and the physical environment. In this stream, planetary health serves as a relational and multi-factorial approach to engage with both health and ecologies in Africa and on a planetary level.

Keywords: Health, global health, (political) ecology, African ecologies, biodiversity, extractivism, urbanization, climate change, climate justice.

Africa is a laboratory for new forms of technology and connectivity, especially with regard to platform economies and notions of technological leapfrogging. These open up new possibilities for innovation and transformation, but also exploitation. What planetary futures do these visions draw up, and how do African actors intervene decisively in these arenas?

Keywords: digitalization, science and technology, artificial intelligence.

Worlds of work, learning and leisure, occupational and consumption patterns, religion and beliefs, and the social relations between different social groups and classes are altered as Africa’s populations are changing, through both population growth and ageing. How are everyday lives and futures being reforged by transforming social dynamics?

Keywords: Youth and ageing, labour, education, consumption, religion, cultures of leisure.

In the last decade, African artistic forms of expression have received accolades on the global stage, be it in literature, in the visual arts or in music. This level of recognition, however long overdue, does not seem to have yet transformed into a proper mainstreaming of these forms of expression in the global circulation of images and ideas. On the continent itself, the intra-African consumption of locally created images and music has created a regional market of note for local cultural entrepreneurs – as illustrated by the success of Nollywood throughout West Africa and beyond. How do these dynamics interact with one another? To what extent have the arts produced on the African continent managed to develop themes and messages that are independent from the expectations of donors and/or international art markets? How has the social critique associated with the arts on the continent found room in the midst of the recent global successes?

Keywords: Linguistics, literature, cinema, theatre, music, arts more broadly.

Since their emergence on the public debate, calls for restitution and the decolonisation of museal practice have multiplied over the past years. The desire for a renewed engagement with the past has opened up avenues for conversations over the conditions for restitution and the creation of shared memories. The ways in which Africans are to reacquaint themselves with the cultural legacy hitherto taken away from the continent and stored in museums across Euro-America is up for debate. This stream engages with urgent questions of collective memory and history, and calls for a reflected approach to notions of historiography in the diverse accounts of the relationships between Africa and the rest of the world.

Keywords: Historiography, entangled history, cultural legacy, restitution, museums.

Basel is a railway hub and offers good connections to many major European cities. The two train stations (Basel SBB and Basel Badischer Bahnhof) are conveniently located in the city (10 to 15 minutes to the city center and conference venue).

The Euroairport Basel-Mulhouse (BSL/MLH) has a convenient size and offers short check-in times. A direct bus shuttle leaving every ten minutes takes you to the city center in 20 minutes. The airport is well connected to the international hubs (Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, London, Munich, Paris, Vienna). In addition, a direct rail service (75 minutes travel time) connects Basel to Switzerlands main airport in Zürich (ZRH) every hour.