Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Institut für Europäische Ethnologie

An introductory lecture by Francis Nyamnjoh, Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town

Time: 7th October | 16:00 – 18:00 SAST/CEST

Location: Online

Registration: Please send an e-mail to bettina.schoen@hu-berlin.de to receive the link to the lecture

Responses by

• Naika Foroutan Professor of Integration Research and Social Policy, Institute for Social Sciences, Humboldt University Berlin
• Regina Römhild Professor of Postcolonial Anthropology of Europe, Institute for European Ethnology, Humboldt University Berlin
• Federico Settler Professor of Sociology of African Religions, School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics, University of Kwazulu-Natal

From a pan-African, historically situated perspective, "incompleteness" can be postulated as a principle based on openness to the permanent becoming of social relations and interdependencies. To what extent are the current postcolonial border regimes the product of an irredeemable desire for completeness – while cross-border mobilities and relationalities are perceived as a threat of incompleteness? Discussing Nyamnjoh's thought will cast a new critical light on the current trends of vehemently denying and fighting the (post)migrant realities of a world in motion.

Francis Nyamnjoh has been a professor of social anthropology at the University of Cape Town since 2009. Previously, he headed the publications department of the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). He has received numerous awards for his work and is a Fellow of the Cameroon Academy of Sciences, the African Academy of Sciences, the Academy of Science of South Africa the College of Fellows of the University of Cape Town, and International Fellow of the British Academy. Since 2019, he has chaired the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS). His latest writing – on which also this panel discussion builds – comprises: Incompleteness, Mobility and Conviviality. Bamenda, Cameroon: Langaa Research & Publishing 2023.

This event is is organised in the context of Transformative Religion. Religion as Situated Knowledge in Processes of Social Transformation, an International Research Training Group, funded by the National Research Foundation of South Africa and the German Research Foundation, a transcontinental cooperation between Humboldt University Berlin, Stellenbosch University, University of Kwazulu-Natal and University of the Western Cape.