Publikationen

The Africa Yearbook covers major domestic political developments, the foreign policy and socio-economic trends in sub-Sahara Africa – all related to developments in one calendar year. The Yearbook contains articles on all sub-Saharan states, each of the four sub-regions (West, Central, Eastern, Southern Africa) focusing on major cross-border developments and sub-regional organizations as well as one article on continental developments and one on African-European relations.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected refugees and their protection? To respond to this question, we conducted a study using a qualitative questionnaire in six countries in East Africa, Southern Africa and West Africa, namely Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In this paper, we explore the information provided by the 90 respondents and focus on three main areas. We first address vulnerable groups and the new, additional and prolonged challenges, as well as potential tensions among refugees and between refugees and host communities due to the pandemic.

Die Restitutionsdebatte gewinnt an Brisanz. Berlin, die alte Kolonialmetropole, und „ihr“ Humboldt-Forum ziehen viel Aufmerksamkeit auf sich. Einer der Gründe für diese Anziehungskraft ist die in Gang gekommene Beschäftigung mit den Verbrechen der Kolonialmacht Deutschland. Ursprünglich sollte mit dem Haus lediglich die Berliner Museumslandschaft der „Weltkulturen“ ergänzt, die über Jahrhunderte gesammelten Schätze im Besitz der Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz im Herzen Berlins ausgestellt werden. Aber das erscheint vielen nicht mehr als legitim.

Landesspezifische Informationen mit Fokus auf Migration.

Nach dem Tod des langjährigen Herrschers Idriss Déby Itno hat im Tschad ein Militärrat die Macht übernommen und die Verfassung ausgesetzt – gegen die Hoffnung der Jugend des Landes und mit der Unterstützung Europas, das sich wenig für dessen Demokratie interessiert.

The death of Chadian president Idriss Déby Itno from injuries sustained on the battlefield just days before he was to start his sixth term in office has been met with shock and incredulity. The Chadian military announced immediately that it would form a transition government headed by Déby’s 37-year-old son, Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, for the next 18 months. Like his father, Mahamat is highly ranked in the military. He is a decorated general.

The Kenyan Ministry of Interior recently urged international agencies to close down the Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps in Kenya, once again. This comes at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has already placed great burdens on the lives and livelihoods of refugees and intensified uncertainties. To better understand how the pandemic has affected refugees in Kenya, this paper discusses results from a recent qualitative questionnaire on refugee protection in light of COVID-19. We find that the pandemic has exacerbated existing challenges, and partly created new ones.

Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno, who has ruled since 1990, is gearing up to take on his sixth mandate as head of state. Elections are scheduled for 11 April 2021. And the country’s 2018 constitution allows him to stay in office, if elected, until 2033.

Helga Dickow schreibt in den Blättern für deutsche und internationale Politik über die Situation im Tschad, die gekennzeichnet ist durch demokratisch fragwürdige Ereignisse vor den Präsidentschaftswahlen und durch einen militärischen Kampf gegen den islamistischen Terrorismus gemeinsam mit Frankreich, der zu scheitern droht.

Though the UNHCR in South Africa go to great efforts to be neutral and provide the best possible assistance to those seeking refuge, by design they have to work together with the Home Affairs department. In practice this means that asylum seekers and refugees will often see them as co-responsible for the government (in-)actions. This piece looks at UNHCR and their roles in humanitarian relief, refugee protests and potential encampment policies, to reflect on their relationship to the South African government as well as refugees in the country.

Darstellung des Oeuvres von Rainer Tetzlaff und seines Lehrbuchs Afrika - Eine Einführung in Geschichte, Politik und Gesellschaft.

Over the past decade several governments in Africa have experimented with diverse forms of “political dialogue” to address a variety of domestic political crises, ranging from political or constitutional turmoil to armed conflict. On the face of it most dialogues are not very successful or consequential as regards their results and impact. And yet, in political, symbolical and communicative terms they occupy a central, if seemingly short-lived place in national politics. They also absorb the attention of foreign diplomats who pin their hopes on dialogue as offering a solution to crisis.

This comprehensive Handbook analyses the political parties and party systems across the Middle East and North Africa. Providing an in-depth, empirically grounded and novel study of political parties, the volume focuses on a region where they have been traditionally and often erroneously dismissed.

Rangeland, forests and riverine landscapes of pastoral communities in Eastern Africa are increasingly under threat. Abetted by states who think that outsiders can better use the lands than the people who have lived there for centuries, outside commercial interests have displaced indigenous dwellers from pastoral territories.

During the presentation of the masterplan for Anaklia City, a planned smart city and logistics hub at the border between Georgia and the de facto state of Abkhazia, the project CEO, Keti Bochorishvili, highlighted her commitment to the elimination of all barriers that inhibit the smooth flow of investments and commodities and the free movement of those engaged in trading.

Die Beiträge des Bandes untersuchen die unterschiedlichen Dimensionen der lateinamerikanischen Sozialstruktur seit der Jahrtausendwende. Klassische Fragestellungen der Sozialstrukturanalyse finden ebenso Beachtung wie jüngere Forschungsfelder. Der vorliegende Sammelband vereint innovative Beiträge lateinamerikanischer und weiterer Forscher*innen zu den bedeutendsten Dimensionen der gegenwärtigen Sozialstrukturen. Damit liegt erstmalig in deutscher Sprache eine umfassende Zusammenschau der wichtigsten sozialstrukturellen Entwicklungen in Lateinamerika der letzten 20 Jahre vor.

This contribution draws on rhythmanalysis and the political economy of assemblage to provide a framework for understanding the productive spatio‐temporal effects of physical violence on urban rhythms. The paper explores how Buenaventura, Colombia's biggest port city, is transformed both by the growth in container turnover, and through recurring, spatial and temporal practices of violence. What role does violence play in the relation between trade‐driven acceleration through the port, and the aquatic, tidal rhythm that historically shaped the city?

Transformations towards “ecological” infrastructures are often highly contested and reproduce social conflict. To enrich the debate on such contested infrastructure expansions, I combine po-litical economy and political ecology approaches with literature on the “politics of operation” and logistics. This paper analyses renewable energy infrastructures within the Mesoamerican Project, which foments the production of transnational territories and implies a growing role of global corporations in local social struggles.