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African Studies
Medicine June 29, 2022

Partial Stories

Maternal Death from Six Angles

Claire L. Wendland

Hosted by Rachel Pagones
A close look at stories of maternal death in Malawi that considers their implications in the broader arena of medical knowledge. By the early twenty-first century, about one woman in …

African Studies

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Interviews with scholars of Africa about their new books.

African Studies June 21, 2022

Shari'a, Inshallah

Finding God in Somali Legal Politics

Mark Fathi Massoud

Hosted by Sara Katz
Western analysts have long denigrated Islamic states as antagonistic, even antithetical, to the rule of law. Mark Fathi Massoud tells a different story: for nearly 150 years, the Somali people …
African Studies June 21, 2022

Emirs in London

Subalteran Travel and Nigeria's Modernity

Moses E. Ochonu

Hosted by Sara Katz
Emirs in London: Subalteran Travel and Nigeria's Modernity (Indiana UP, 2022) recounts how Northern Nigerian Muslim aristocrats who traveled to Britain between 1920 and Nigerian independence in 1960 relayed that experience …
African Studies June 17, 2022

Fashioning Postfeminism

Spectacular Femininity and Transnational Culture

Simidele Dosekun

Hosted by Gummo Clare
Women in Lagos, Nigeria, practice a spectacularly feminine form of black beauty. From cascading hair extensions to immaculate makeup to high heels, their style permeates both day-to-day life and media …
Biology and Evolution June 14, 2022

Sloth Lemur's Song

Madagascar from the Deep Past to the Uncertain Present

Alison F. Richard

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
Madagascar is a place of change. A biodiversity hotspot and the fourth largest island on the planet, it has been home to a spectacular parade of animals, from giant flightless …
Environmental Studies June 10, 2022

When the Sahara Was Green

How Our Greatest Desert Came to Be

Martin Williams

Hosted by Galina Limorenko
The Sahara is the largest hot desert in the world, equal in size to China or the United States. Yet, this arid expanse was once a verdant, pleasant land, fed …
African Studies June 8, 2022

Roadblock Politics

The Origins of Violence in Central Africa

Peer Schouten

Hosted by Susan Thomson
Peer Schouten, of the Danish Institute for International Studies, has written a breathtaking book. Roadblock Politics: The Origins of Violence in Central Africa (Cambridge, 2022). Schouten mapped more than 100 …
Princeton UP Ideas Podcast June 1, 2022

Until We Have Won Our Liberty

South Africa After Apartheid

Evan Lieberman

Hosted by Mark Klobas
At a time when many democracies are under strain around the world, Until We Have Won Our Liberty: South Africa After Apartheid (Princeton UP, 2022) shines new light on the …
Islamic Studies May 27, 2022

Sorcery or Science?

Contesting Knowledge and Practice in West African Sufi Texts

Ariela Marcus-Sells

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
In Sorcery or Science? Contesting Knowledge and Practice in West African Sufi Texts (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2022) Ariela Marcus-Sells examines two Sufi Muslim theologians, known as Kunta scholars …
African Studies May 26, 2022

'Dignity of Labour' for African Leaders

The Formation of Education Policy in the British Colonial Office and Achimota School

Shoko Yamada

Hosted by Elisa Prosperetti
The Prince of Wales College, Achimota School, opened in 1927 north of Accra in the Gold Coast (Ghana). Achimota was to be a ‘model’ school—but a model of what, exactly …
Anthropology May 18, 2022

Waste Worlds

Inhabiting Kampala's Infrastructures of Disposability

Jacob Doherty

Hosted by Sneha Annavarapu
Uganda's capital, Kampala, is undergoing dramatic urban transformations as its new technocratic government seeks to clean and green the city. Waste Worlds: Inhabiting Kampala's Infrastructures of Disposability (U California Press …
African Studies May 17, 2022

My Fourth Time, We Drowned

Seeking Refuge on the World's Deadliest Migration Route

Sally Hayden

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
Late one night, journalist Sally Hayden received an urgent message on Facebook: “Sally, we need your help.” It was from a group of Eritrean refugees who had been held in …
General History May 17, 2022

Blood and Bronze

The British Empire and the Sack of Benin

Paddy Docherty

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The Benin Bronzes are among the British Museum’s most prized possessions. Celebrated for their great beauty, they embody the history, myth and artistry of the ancient Kingdom of Benin, once …
Political Science May 16, 2022

When There Was No Aid

War and Peace in Somaliland

Sarah G. Phillips

Hosted by Lamis Abdelaaty
For all of the doubts raised about the effectiveness of international aid in advancing peace and development, there are few examples of developing countries that are even relatively untouched by …
African Studies May 11, 2022

Africa’s Joola Shipwreck

Causes and Consequences of a Humanitarian Disaster

Karen Samantha Barton

Hosted by Ari Barbalat
In 2002, a government-owned Senegalese ferry named the Joola capsized in a storm off the coast of The Gambia in a tragedy that killed 1,863 people and left 64 survivors …
Indian Ocean World May 11, 2022

Dockside Reading

Hydrocolonialism and the Custom House

Isabel Hofmeyr

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
In Dockside Reading: Hydrocolonialism and the Custom House (Duke University Press, 2022), Isabel Hofmeyr traces the relationships among print culture, colonialism, and the ocean through the institution of the British …
Critical Theory May 6, 2022

Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski

The Sonic Ecologies of Black Music in the Early 21st Century

Dhanveer Singh Brar

Hosted by Gummo Clare
Teklife, Ghettoville, Eski: The Sonic Ecologies of Black Music in the Early 21st Century (Goldsmiths Press, 2021) uses three Black electronic musics – footwork, grime, and the work of the …
General History May 6, 2022

The Seventh Member State

Algeria, France, and the European Community

Megan Brown

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
In The Seventh Member State: Algeria, France, and the European Community (Harvard University Press, 2022), Dr. Megan Brown details the surprising story of how Algeria joined and then left the …
African Studies May 5, 2022

Responding to Mass Atrocities in Africa

Protection First and Justice Later

Raymond Kwun-Sun Lau

Hosted by Christopher Davey
Around the world, audiences in the mid-1990s watched the mass atrocities unfolding in Rwanda and Srebrenica in horror and disbelief. Emerging from these disasters came an international commitment to safeguard …
Sports May 4, 2022

African Football Migration

Aspirations, Experiences and Trajectories

Paul Darby, James Esson, and Christian Ungruhe

Hosted by Miranda Melcher
The global success of football icons like Samuel Eto'o, Didier Drogba and Mohamed Salah has fuelled the migratory projects of countless young men across the African continent who dream of …