BIGSASworks! Editing a Working Paper Series

The idea

BIGSASworks! is a working papers subseries which highlights the academic contributions of BIGSAS junior fellows. BIGSASworks! not only opens up the opportunity to publish current research, but also the chance to gain experience as an editor. PhD students work as editorial teams. In 2022, we, Usman Ahmad and Monika Christine Rohmer, became the new editorial team. And we decided to change the series significantly.

Since 2011, BIGSASworks! was run in form of topical special issue. Exciting topics were discussed such as Fieldwork Experiences and Practices in Africa in 2021, Gender and Social Encounters in 2019, and Living in African Cities in 2018. However, there were a few drawbacks that prevented us from continuing the same format. A special issue comprising several working papers is not a common academic format. Therefore, it is not an ideal format for young researchers. Furthermore, the topical issues only allowed some junior fellows to publish, while others did not fit the series’ scope. This makes it difficult to present the wealth of academic contributions gathered in BIGSAS.

We decided to change the format. We met with experienced researchers, BIGSAS leadership and coordination, the IAS coordinator and IAS director. We thank all of them for their advice that encouraged us to think beyond the existing formats.

Finally, we decided to turn BIGSASworks! into individual working papers. These cover the broader topic of African Studies to reflect the heterogenity of BIGSAS research. They stand on equal footing with the other papers of the University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers. This allows for visibility of the individual researcher but also BIGSAS as an institution. It is a flexible format which can accommodate the diverging time schedules and topical interests of the junior fellows. The working papers give scholars the space to present empirical studies, theoretical reflections, and report preliminary findings, ongoing projects, and current research. Nonetheless, it is a renowned format that has its value in international academia.

Our aim is to reflect language diversity with BIGSASworks! and allow publications in various languages. As a sign for the multilingual approach, we decided to have abstracts in at least one other language than English.

For us editors, BIGSASworks! was a learning experience. It was exciting to read the other junior fellows’ research and look beyond one’s discipline. We further got in touch with BIGSAS alumni and scholars from the African Cluster Centres. We aquired a look ‘behind the scenes’: about the multiple actors involved in publication.

Ten papers were published of which we want to give a brief summary here. The disciplines range from media studies over translation studies to religious studies. The authors cover different places on the African continent and its diaspora. We highly recommend reading all of them!

The working papers

Diana Kisakye highlights the potential of the informal dimension of fieldwork – ‘hanging out’ – in traversing some of the limits of researching legal and judicial elites. Through ‘hanging out’ at relevant court events, strategically positioning oneself in social events and informally building rapport, the author gained access to spaces usually closed off to outsiders. By ‘hanging out’ with judges, the author challenged her perceptions of absolute judicial fidelity to the law, interrogated their professed devotion to apoliticism and the experience humanised judges and helped her deal with her own discomfort with interviewing judges.

Albert Irambeshya goes beyond the folk narrative regarding social media. The folk narrative in Rwanda considers social media usage a youth phenomenon. The author shows how social media plays a significant role in care provision during crises like the COVID-19 pandemic. Even if older people face the challenge of access to smartphones and digital literacy, the authour argues that using social media in enacting emotional care for older people proves to be indispensable in creating solid bonds, belongingness, and attachment to them.

Usman Ahmad presents early discoveries in the study of English-Hausa translations. In his working paper, he identifies the aims of the English Hausa translations, examines the texts and background of the translators, and analyses the reception of the documents by the target audience. These incidental findings include some unidentified English-Hausa paratextual translation traditions, the wide range of differences between English source texts and Hausa translations, and the profiles of the English-Hausa translation agencies.

Monika Christine Rohmer engages in an ocean-centred reading of the novels Le pagne léger and Patera by Aïssatou Diamanka-Besland and Celles qui attendent by Fatou Diome. She shows how the liminal space of the coast enables the characters to think and imagine beyond restrictions on land, but also to overcome notions of the ocean as either an adversary or a source of income. In the novels, the acknowledgment of the powerful presence of the ocean opens new paths to navigate towards self-determination and rebirth. She argues that Fatou Diome and Aïssatou Diamanka‐Besland propose to navigate with the ocean, an ally and agent in drafting a ‘blue’ ecocritcism.

Valerie V. V. Gruber and Jamile Borges da Silva provide a critical reflection on the field of African and Black Diaspora studies in Brazil as well as their historical, geopolitical, intellectual and socio-spatial embeddedness. Thereby, they point to several challenges: identifying as Afro-descendant in a country with countless descriptions of skin colour, negotiating dynamic identities in a society with pronounced levels of social and racial inequality, and engaging in controversial debates between university, civil society, political actors and Black movements in the nation with the largest Black population outside Africa. Discussing the experience of the Center of Afro-Oriental Studies (CEAO) at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) as well as its postgraduate programme POSAFRO, the authors map out how transdisciplinary knowledge is produced and contested on the Brazilian shores of the Black Atlantic. They strive to shed light on (geo)political currents and contexts that shape academic work but often remain out of sight.

Catheline Bosibori examines the experiences of Kenyan women employed in Saudi Arabia, emphasizing the severe exploitation and human rights violations they face. Drawing from firsthand accounts and various secondary sources, the study asserts that these working conditions represent significant exploitation and human rights abuses. Through the lenses of globalization theory, dependency theory, and neo-Marxist perspectives, the article argues that the kafala system and insufficient protection from both Kenyan and Saudi governments perpetuate these issues. Ineffective bilateral agreements further exacerbate the problem. The author advocates for a collaborative effort between the Kenyan government, recruitment agencies, and Gulf embassies to address and eradicate the systemic exploitation of Kenyan domestic workers in Saudi Arabia.

Shaden Kamel explores discourses on Egyptian Facebook groups for women only. The proliferation and popularity of these groups have attracted extensive mass media coverage in Egypt, particularly from talk show programs. The author uses critical discourse analysis to explore the discourses on popular women-only Facebook groups in mainstream talk show programs in Egypt. Two discourses are highlighted. The first conveys a moral panic over these Facebook groups for enabling women to discuss problems on matters of the private sphere. The second conveys an embracement of Facebook group creators’ entrepreneurial practices manifested from their Facebook group.

Ibrahim Bachir Abdoulaye analyses the influence of Turkish Islamic movements in Niger. The paper delves into the activities of the Hayrat Vakfi (Hayrat Foundation), a branch of the Nur Cemaati (Nur movement). It asserts that the presence of Turkish Islamic actors has initiated a ‘silent transformation’ within Niger’s Islamic landscape. To comprehend this phenomenon, the paper addresses three key inquiries: (a) The internal socio-political and economic dynamics of Turkey that drove Turkish Islamic movements toward internationalization, (b) the expansion strategies employed by Hayrat Vakfi for the dissemination of its Islamic teachings, and (c) the implications of its presence in the transformation of Niger's Islamic landscape.

Hamissou Rhissa Achaffert analyses the Islamic association Ihyaous Sunnah in Niger. In his research he identified yaƙin ƙwaƙwalwai [battle of brains] as key concept in projects of social transformation. This encompasses the association’s struggle against what is perceived as Western moral imperialism and Western influences in the fields of knowledge and being in Niger. The paper argues that the actions can be seen as decolonial positioning rooted in religious epistemologies, conceived as an alternative to manifestations of coloniality found in modern forms of thought, knowledge, and action.

Ibrahim Seyni Mamoudou looks at the dynamics of religious regulation in Niger. Using examples of government initiatives, it attempts to explain the transition from monistic to pluralist regulation. In Niger, this regulation has long concerned Islam, which is the majority religion. However, the challenges facing the state require a paradigm shift in the face of the rise of Islamic terrorism and the religious activism of Salafi groups. This paper reflects on the state initiatives and supports the argument that the state is attempting to make religious pluralism its new paradigm for regulating religion.