Reflections on Researching Africa in the 21st Century.
Researching Africa in the twenty-first century is shaping up to be very different from previous times. First of all, the increasing scope of Africa not only as a place subject to its history, poverty, and corruption, but also as a viable socio-economic player in the international game. The new ways of re
Crisis thinking – In theory and Practice.
Disaster, Catastrophe, Emergency. Crisis. The world is full of them. Be this in the form of natural disasters, catastrophic wars, or climate emergencies; crisis is painted as the umbrella term for these events. It triggers acute responses by individuals, governments, organisations, and so on. A sc
Decolonising the mind? – Where to look.
The ongoing debate of current African studies as well as the wider world is the concept of decolonising the mind. While for many Westerners the idea that African states gained independence decades ago and that was the end of it, the truth is evident across an array of social levels. Three personal and tw
Researching Gender-Based Violence in South Africa in the 21st Century
This essay will combine several insights from the course Researching Africa in the 21st Century with preliminary ideas I have about my own research and fieldwork in South Africa, where I will be dealing with the topic of gender-based violence. Firstly, I will write about gender-based violence within the framewo
Crisis Thinking: A video of Save the Children
In this mini documentary, Hilde and I (Evelien) had a closer look at a video published by Save the Children to ask for donations for fighting malnutrition in Somalia. We discuss crisis thinking, harmful discourses, a white saviour complex, and commodification of the black body. Our question remains: How ethica