The essays in this collection are written to make readers (re)consider what is possible in Africa. The essays shake the tree of received wisdom and received categories, and hone in on the complexities of life under ecological and economic constraints. Yet, throughout this volume, people do not emerge as victims, but rather as inventors, engineers, scientists, planners, writers, artists, and activists, or as children, mothers, fathers, friends, or lovers – all as future-makers. It is precisely through agents such as these that Africa is futuring: rethinking, living, confronting, imagining, and relating in the light of its many emerging tomorrows.
Clemens Greiner, Ph.D (2008), is a social and cultural anthropologist and the academic coordinator of the Global South Studies Center (GSSC) at the University of Cologne. His research focuses on rural change, political ecology, translocality, and (energy) infrastructures.
Steven Van Wolputte, Ph.D (1998), is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Institute for Anthropological research in Africa (IARA) at the KU Leuven. His main interests are in the fields of political anthropology, material and urban popular culture and anthropology of the body.
Michael Bollig, Ph.D (1991), is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Cologne. His research projects focus on the social-ecological dynamics connected to large-scale conservation projects, the commodification of nature and the political ecology of pastoralism.
This book is of interest for institutes and libraries engaged in studies of Africa (particularly Anthropology, History, Geography, African Studies), and may be of particular interest to (under-)graduate students.