This latest episode of the Cluster Conversatioins features Prof. Dr. Ute Fendler and artist Migline Paroumanou reflecting on her work during a residency in Bayreuth, where she explores identity, memory and belonging through the historical context of La Réunion, the Indian Ocean and Africa. Drawing on colonial history, slavery and ritual practices, she describes her artistic approach as a symbolic act of repair and healing that connects past trauma with present human experience. Through ceramics, performance and collective participation, her practice invites others to engage consciously in processes of apology, care and transformation.
In the month of May 2023, the poet and musician Jean Luc Raharimanana from Madagascar was invited by the Cluster of Excellence to accompany the Cluster's events and record his observations. In this episode of the Cluster Conversations Junior Research Group Leader Dr. Cassandra Mark-Thiesen took the opportunity to talk to the malagassy artist about paralells between her work and his.
In this episode of the Cluster Conversation, Cluster fellow Dr. AbdulGafar Fahm talks with this host Prof. Dr. Britta Frede on his Cluster project, in which he investigates the transformative role of digital technology on Islamic learning within Nigerian Muslim societies, with a focus on the ethical implications that arise in the contemporary digital landscape. Digital technology, including social media platforms, online learning portals, and mobile applications, has redefined traditional methods of religious education, making Islamic teachings more accessible than ever before. However, this accessibility brings both opportunities and challenges.
In this latest episode of the Africa Multiple Cluster Dr. Anthony Diala talks with his host Prof. Dr. Thoko Kaime about his fellowship during which he worked on a book project on the theoretical framework for legal integration.
Cluster fellow Dr. Anthony Okeregbe talks with his host Dr. Serawit Debele, leader of the Cluster's Junior Research Group on Intersectionality, about his recent project entitled "The Child’s Right to ‘Sex’: Negotiating Sexuality Pedagogies in Entangled Moral Spaces".
Cluster fellow Dr. Noemi Alfieri talks with her host and Junior Research Group Leader Dr. Cassandra Mark-Thiesen about her latest research project "Mapping anti-colonial networks through literature. Transnational connections of African thinkers in the reconfiguration of space and thought (1950s - 70s)"
In this episode of the Cluster Conversations Dr. Franz Kogelmann talks with Cluster fellow Dr. Chembea Suleiman Athuman about his project "Poetry (Qasidah) and Women’s Bodies in the Creation, Dissemination of Islamic Knowledge and Cultural Identity in Zanzibar". The study examines how active involvement of women in Islamic poetry (qasidah) helps (de-)construct traditional dynamics in the production and dissemination of Islamic knowledge and creation of cultural identity(-ies) along the East African coast. While Islamic knowledge production and dissemination was largely associated with male ulama (clerical class) in textual and religious spaces, advancement of media technology has caused a shift where qasidah not only support religious themes but also provide variations in the creation and transmission of knowledge and religious community identity. This shift, though rapidly gaining currency across Muslim communities, is explored within the microcosm of Zanzibar to understand how performance of poetry presents an avenue through which Muslim women engage with religious discourses in the region.
Dr. Christabel Aba Sam is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana and currently a Cluster fellow at the University of Bayreuth. In this episode of the Cluster Conversation, she talks with her host Dr. Christine Vogt-William (Director of the Cluster of Excellence’s Gender and Diversity Office) about her work on images of masculinities in Ghanaian Afrobeats and how they reveal certain social politics of contemporary Ghanaian society.
In this episode of the Cluster Conversations, host Dr. Christine Vogt-William sits down with the Cluster's artist fellows Dr. Epifania Amoo-Adare and Ann-Marie Ellmann for a thought-provoking exchange on knowledge-making, creative research practices, and navigating the spaces between disciplines. Together, they explore how intellectual curiosity, personal experience, and collaborative inquiry shape their work within the Cluster – and beyond. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that blends reflection, insight, and a touch of scholarly playfulness.
In this episode, Cluster fellow Prof. Dr. Don Edward Walicek (University of Puerto Rico) talks with his host Prof. Dr. Susanne Mühleisen (University of Bayreuth) about Walicek's research project “Language Ideologies and Social Contact Involving West Africans and the English on the Gold Coast.” In this project, Walicek examines dynamics of linguistic contact among Europeans and West Africans who were involved in or otherwise impacted by the Atlantic slave trade. Focusing on language ideologies, it pays special attention to the English presence on the Gold Coast during the 16th and 17th centuries (1553-1700) given that the region was a major source of people sold into slavery as well as a point from which many departed for the Caribbean. The analyzed materials consist of documents that have not been fully examined by linguists, such as local correspondence of the Royal African Company of England.
In this latest episode of Cluster Conversations, Associate Professor Dr. Eric Anchimbe sits down with Dr. Feyi Ademola-Adeoye, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Lagos and a 2025 fellow at the Bayreuth Academy. Together, they delve into the evolving world of Nigerian proverbs and explore how younger generations are remixing and reinterpreting these age-old sayings to reflect today’s social realities.
From the streets to social media, from tradition to satire, this conversation examines how language evolves with culture. Ademola-Adeoye unpacks the creative ways Gen Z is turning conventional wisdom on its head – sometimes humorously, sometimes critically – to challenge inherited norms and speak to current struggles. But why are today’s youth giving grandma’s proverbs a modern twist? What does it say about shifting values, hardship, and identity in contemporary Nigeria? And can a proverb still guide us if it’s been reimagined on Instagram?
Tune in for a lively and insightful exchange, including a few post-proverbials you won’t forget.
In this latest episode of the Cluster Conversations Prof. Dr. Sabelo Ndlovu Gatsheni talks with associated fellow Dr. Halil Ibrahim Arpa about his research project entitled “Decolonial Hi/stories: Literary Subversion of Colonial and Post-colonial Historiographies”. In this project, Arpa scrutinizes the coloniality of knowledge against Black and Islamic communities in the Global North and alternative epistemologies to the crisis of modernity in the Global South. Arpa joins the Cluster on a scholarship funded by TÜBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye).
In this episode, Cluster fellow Dr. Josph Kasule talks with his host Junior Research Group Leader Dr. Joschka Philipps about Kasule’s research in general and the latest book project “Intimate colonialities, public intellectualism and political revolution in Uganda” that he has been working on during his fellowship in Bayreuth.
In this episode, Cluster fellow Dr. Maja Figge talks with her host Prof. Dr. Christine Hanke about her research that focusing on the notion of circulation. During her fellowship, Figge scrutinized the transtemporal bonds between militant African cinemas and Afro-diasporic post-cinemas, a research that contributed to her recent book project, a collection of essays entitled “Black (Post-)Cinemas: Genealogies, Practices, Aesthetics”.
Neelima Jeychandran is an Assistant Professor of African Visual Culture in the Department of Art History at Virginia Commonwealth University, Qatar. In this episode, she talks with her host Clarissa Vierke (Professor of Literatures in African Languages at the University of Bayreuth) about Jeychandran's work on oceanic crossovers and material histories of West and East Africa and western India. She is an ethnographer, editor, scholar, and was a fellow at the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence from May until July 2024.
In this episode of the Cluster Conversations, fellow Dr. Nyindem Nancy Sirih-Nagang talks with her host Dr. Eric Anchimbe about her research on the linguistic dynamics in the ongoing violent crisis in Cameroon. It exposes the creation of new lexemes and describes the linguistics and non-linguistic techniques employed in communicating through the labelling of concepts, individuals, or situations by the ruling government and the secessionist fighters or activists of the two Anglophone regions in Cameroon.
Dr. Pingdewindé Issiaka Tiendrébéogo is a lecturer and researcher in theatre studies at the Joseph KI-ZERBO University in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. In May 2024 he was guest of the Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence for an event with Umar Timol from Mauritius. In this interview, he talks with Prof. Dr. Ute Fendler about theatre in Burkina Faso and his own work.
In this latest episode of the Cluster Conversations, fellow Dr. Renu Modi talks with her host Prof. Dr. Clarissa Vierke about her recent fellowship with the Cluster of Excellence in Bayreuth. Modi also reflects on three decades of India-Africa relations, highlighting how economic cooperation and cultural exchange have reshaped the landscape of South-South collaboration. From her stay in Bayreuth, she contrasts African Studies in India and Germany, uncovering unique differences in focus – from pragmatic development to rich cultural and religious studies. The fellow-host-duo also talk about textile trade and "counter-archives," where oral histories, attic finds, and Indian Ocean connections reveal untold stories between the continents. A must-listen for anyone curious about global interconnections, hidden histories, and the evolving meaning of solidarity.
Cluster fellow Dr. Thokozani Mhlambi talks with his host Dr. Katharina Fink about his life, his love for music, his artist fellowship in the Cluster and his latest project - a music-based story set in the ancient Zulu capital of Umgungundlovu.
During this episode Cluster fellow Valerie Nur talks with her fellowship host Prof. Dr. Joël Glasman (Chair of African History at the University of Bayreuth) about her research on the topic of artisanal knowledge and skills from a mobility perspective. Artisans in Niger often offer their services on the road and, in doing so, rely on a broad kinship network during their travels, within which knowledge, practices, and materials are exchanged, modified, and enhanced. By looking beyond single workshops and individual skills, she understands artisanal skill as a shared dynamic practice and places and routes of learning and exchange as hubs of technology and knowledge transfer over long distances. During her research, Nur aims to conceptualize craft as an epistemology of an exclusive professional community.
In this latest episode of the Cluster Conversations Cluster fellow Dr. Wandia Njoya talks with Prof. Dr. Carlos Kölbl about her research project in which she researches new ways of conceiving and engaging with experiences of education in Kenya and other comparable contexts.
