This year, the Summer University of the German Historical Institute is focussing on the possibilities and challenges of the “Mobility Turn” in African history. We will analyse different forms of mobility and their spatial, political, social, cultural and ecological consequences. Connections between social, cultural, technological and environmental history will be worked out and the spatial order of Africa and its constant change through African mobilities will be scrutinised from a historical perspective.

Argument

This year, the Summer University of the German Historical Institute is focussing on the possibilities and challenges of the “Mobility Turn” in African history. We will analyse different forms of mobility and their spatial, political, social, cultural and ecological consequences. Connections between social, cultural, technological and environmental history will be worked out and the spatial order of Africa and its constant change through African mobilities will be scrutinised from a historical perspective.

What forms of mobility can be distinguished historically in Africa? Mobility is thought of in terms of spaces - within cities, between nations, globally, etc. - how do these spaces change as a result of the “Mobility Turn” approach? Who are the protagonists of a history of mobility in Africa? How do they establish forms of mobility in dialogue with their environment and with each other? Are there specifically African cultures of mobility? How do intersectional inequalities and discrimination (class, race, gender) affect mobilities?

Programme

Tuesday, 4 June 2024

• 14.00 Word of welcome, Klaus Oschema (DHIP)Introduction, Susann Baller (CMB), Robert Heinze (DHIP), Didier Nativel (CESSMA)
• 14.45 Keynote: Sidy Cissokho (Univ. of Lille), Mobility in the History of Africa. New Perspectives on the »Mobility Turn«

16.00 Coffee break

16.30 Panel 1: Urban Mobilities

• Adesoji Adedipe (Univ. of Kansas), Infrastructure of Mobility and Alterity in Africa. Urban Motor Public Transport in Lagos and Durban in Comparative Perspective
• Sarah Fathalla Gaara (Ain Shams Univ., Kairo), Cairo and its Suburbs. A History of Mobility, Urban and Heritage
• Commentary: Sidy Cissokho (Univ. Lille)

18.30 Dinner

Wednesday, 5 June 2024

9.00 Panel 2: Mobility and the Nation

• Mathias Hack (Univ. of Leipzig), The Other Side of Tourism. The Mobility of Tourist Workers in Kenya
• Kai Herzog (Bundeswehr Univ. Hamburg), Making a Nation. The Safari Rally and Kenya’s Transition from Colonial Rule to Independence, 1953–2002
• Commentary: Miriam Musonye (Univ. of Nairobi)

10.30 Coffee Break

• 11.00 Interactive workshop 1: Stone Karim Mohamad, Poetography – Poetry with Pictures. Reflecting about Experiences of Mobility, Travel and Borders

12.30 Lunch break

14.00 Panel 3: Mobile Labour

• Clara Torrão Busin (EHESS), Memories of Cross-border Labor Migration. The Makonde Diaspora in Mbagala (Dar es Salaam)
• Simon Werner (EUI Florence), Labor Migration and Colonial Social Science in the 1930s. A Conceptual History
• Commentary: Laurence Marfaing (GIGA Hamburg)

15.30 Coffee break

16.00 Roundtable 1: Continuités des mobilités africaines?

• Discussants: Laurence Marfaing (GIGA Hamburg), Idrissa Ba (Univ. Cheikh-Anta-Diop, Dakar), Didier Nativel (CESSMA)

18.30 Dinner

Thursday, 6 June 2024

9.00 Panel 4: West African Long Distance Connections

• Paul Sprute (IRS Erkner), The West African Coastal Highway between Liberia and Côte d‘Ivoire
• Claude Patrick Fabien Sery (Univ. Félix Houphouët Boigny, Abidjan), Les implications et dynamiques socio-économiques de la mobilité fluviale de type occidental sur l‘axe Sénégal-Niger au xix^e siècle
• Commentary: Idrissa Ba (Univ. Cheikh-Anta-Diop, Dakar)

10.30 Coffee break

11.00 Interactive workshop 2: Stone Karim Mohamad, Poetography – Poetry with Pictures. Reflecting about Experiences of Mobility, Travel and Borders

12.30 Coffee break

14.00 Panel 5: Border Mobilities

• Conrad John Masabo (Univ. of Dar es Salaam), End of an Era? Contesting »Sino-Scripts« in Tanzania-China Transport Infrastructure Development
• Caroline King (Univ. of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg), Ghana‘s Identification System throughout Time
• Commentary: Baz Lecocq (Humboldt Univ., Berlin)

15.30 Coffee break

16.00 Roundtable 2: Mobility as an Approach. The »Mobility Turn« – Problems and Opportunities

• Discussants: Sarah Fila-Bakabadio (EHESS), Baz Lecocq (Humboldt University, Berlin), Miriam Musonye (Univ. of Nairobi)

Friday, 7 June 2024

10.00 Panel 6: Mobilities in Education

• Derya Bozat (Univ. of Berne), Nigerians On the Move. Educational Mobility to the Soviet Union during the Cold War (1960–1991)
• Coline Perron (Univ. of Strasbourg), Les mobilités des étudiants en art éthiopiens et mozambicains en République démocratique allemande (1975–1990). Une approche décentrée de la Guerre froide
• Wanrui Chen (Free University Berlin), Negotiating the Federal Republic of Germany. African Educational Mobilities in the 1960s

Commentary: Sarah Fila-Bakabadio (EHESS)

12.00 Lunch break

• 13.00 Closing Keynote: Baz Lecocq (Humboldt University, Berlin)

Final Discussion

Registration

Listeners are welcome to attend all lectures on-site.

Three events of the summer university are also accessible online.

Registration for on-site participation: event@dhi-paris.fr

Registration for online participation:

• Zoomlink for the keynote lecture, 4 June, 14.45
• Zoomlink for the panel discussion, 5 June, 16.00
• Zoomlink for the panel discussion, 6 June, 16.00