Repair across Africa

Nyhet

Mending, Making and Material Care

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

AvCharline Kopf,Paul Wenzel Geissler,Aissatou Mbodj-Pouye,Lotte Meinert

849 kr

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An exploration of the multifaceted practices of repair across the African continent. Moving beyond a simple understanding of repair as fixing broken objects, this volume explores the cultural, social, and economic dimensions of mending and material care. It considers repair as a relational act that bridges past and future, blending tradition with innovation.The collection spans diverse African contexts, from urban centres to rural areas, showcasing how repair intersects with labour, urban life, natural and spiritual environments, and historical memory. Essays explore themes such as the role of repair in mitigating the wear and tear of time, addressing environmental disasters, examining colonial and postcolonial histories and their implications for urban transformation, and highlighting the artisanal skill and ingenuity behind these practices.Contributors draw on anthropology, architecture, history, and critical urban studies to illuminate how repair can be a form of resistance, care, and adaptation in a rapidly changing world. Richly illustrated and methodologically innovative, Repair across Africa highlights Africa's global relevance by situating its practices within broader critiques of late capitalism and the Anthropocene.Illuminates the connection between symbolic and material repair, particularly in light of the ongoing debates about colonial legacies and reparations owed to African societies for the harms done by colonialism. Essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in material culture, urban studies, and the politics of sustainability.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-06-22
Mått170 x 244 x undefined mm
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor328
FörlagIntellect
ISBN9781835952566

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Landskapsarkitektur inom Kultur
Sociologi och antropologi inom Samhälle och politik

Charline Kopf is a postdoctoral fellow in Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Her research focuses on West Africa, with particular attention to infrastructures, mobilities, and labor dynamics in the region. Her current project examines the intersections of particles, pollution, protest, and industrial history in Senegal, with a focus on dust.Wenzel Geissler teaches at the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. He mainly works in Eastern Africa. He is interested in the physical remains of modernity, research and scientific knowledge, and health and livelihood in East Africa's rapidly changing social and natural landscapes.Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye is an anthropologist at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique in France, with fieldwork sites in West Africa and France. Her current project examines how mobility is conceptualized in the region of Kayes, Mali, through a study of a radio station and its sound archives.Lotte Meinert works at the Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University. Her research centers on Uganda and issues of health, land, post-conflict, gender, generations and time.

Introduction:Living Repair: Mending and Material Care in Contemporary AfricaCharline Kopf, Wenzel Geissler, Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye, Lotte Meinert 1. Kobeta Toles:Re-pairing Mobility on Congo’s Inland WaterwaysPeter Lambertz2. Cobbling Together a Life of Repair:Deciding How to Deal with Loss at a Burkina Faso MarketSarah-Jane Phelan 3. A Car on the Street Named Desire:The Significance of Material Breakdown and Repair for Brokering Change in South AfricaEvelien Storme 4. Pulled Lines and People’s Connections:Infrastructural Extension as Layered Repair in Cape TownAngela Storey 5. Below the Infrastructural Breakdown:Electric Repair Work as Skilled Improvisation and Its Moral Entanglements in Northern UgandaKirsten Nielsen 6. Repairs Under Tension:Negotiating Risks and Connectivity in Mobile Phone Repair in BamakoIssa Fofana and Issa Togola 7. Turn of the Screw:Unhinging Power Relations Through ‘Unauthorized Repair’ in Lomé’s Mobile Phone ‘Black Market’ DékonJanine Patricia Santos 8. Hacking to Repair?:Smartphone Repair in the Kariakoo Market, Dar es SalaamChristian Medaas 9. Timbila:Tracing Mozambican history through a musical artefact, its repair and reinventionSara Morais and Gianira Ferrara 10. La Casa Verde:Heritage, Colonialism, and (Un)Repairing in Equatorial GuineaAlba Valenciano Mañé and Laida Memba Ikuga 11. Under Repair:Undoing Colonial Fascist Legacies in Addis Ababa Through Critical Architectural PreservationEmilio Distretti and Abel Assefa12. In the Absence of Repair:Architectural Métissage and Forced Labour in Colonial CongoSimon De Nys-Ketels and Robby Fivez 13. Maxaquene Khovo Students House in Maputo:On Social Repair and Material DecaySilvia Balzan 14. Narratives of Mending, Repair and Transformation in West Africa: Encountering Freedom Park LagosOla Uduku 15. Repair and Relief:'Building Back Better’ in Post-Cyclone Idai MalawiTanja Hendriks16. The Time of Being in Between:Mending, Repair, and Social Change in Turkana, Northern KenyaSam Derbyshire 17. Dogon Objects:To Throw Away, to Repair ... or to CollectEric Jolly 18. Adobe Walls and Leaking Pasts:Vital Ecologies of Mending and Repair in NigerAdeline MasquelierAfterword:Breaking Down RepairBrenda Chalfin Notes on Contributors