Joachim Knab, Alice Mitchell, Sabrina Msangi and Thomas Widlok Edit NJAS Special Issue on Framing Difference in Age and Generation in Africa

Future Rural Africa Supproject C05 Framing Futures aims to understand how concepts of age and generation shape temporal frames of reference in future-making and compare temporal frames of reference used by different CRC projects.

WEB P1360992
The workshop “Beconing (un)equal in Age” took place in Arusha in September 2023.

Project members Joachim Knab, Alice Mitchell, Sabrina Msangi and Thomas Widlok recently edited a special issue of the Nordic Journal of African Studies (NJAS) on “Framing Difference in Age and Generation in Africa”. The foundation for the special issue was laid during a workshop titled “Becoming (un)equal in Age”, organized by the project in September 2023 in Arusha, Tanzania.

The special issue features several contributions by fellow Future Rural Africa Researchers:


Framing Difference in Age and Generation in Africa: Introduction to the Special Issue

Joachim Knab, Alice Mitchell Sabrina Msangi, and Thomas Widlok (Project C05 Framing Futures)

Greyness Is Aged, Bearded Is Adult: Yoruba Age and Seniority

Augustine Agwuele

Linguistic Manifestations of Age-Grade Status in Iraqw Address Term Practices

Chrispina Alphonce

Seniority in Midwifery in Tanzania: Medical Local Practices Between Colonial Medicine and Postcolonial Modernization

Veronica Kimani and Ulrike Lindner (Project C07 Creating Health Futures)

What Is ‘Old’ in Old Age? An Inquiry into Swahili Paremia

Ahmad Kipacha

Power and Age: The Case of the Pastoral Maasai Age Class System

Sam Maghimbi

“This Child Is This Small Only on His Age”: Negotiating Age and Authority in Everyday Interactions in Ngəmba, Western Cameroon

Solange Mekamgoum

“I’m Bigger!”: Size Terms and Seniority in Datooga Children’s Interaction

Alice Mitchell (Project C05 Framing Futures)

Augmented Authority: How ‘Simplicating’ Medicine Hurt Sukuma Elderhood

Koen Stroeken

Doing Being Senior/Junior: Reconsidering Naming and Kinship Relationships Among the !Xun of North-Central Namibia

Akira Takada

Differences of Age Without Distinctions of Authority: Marking Juniority and Seniority in a Khoisan Language

Thomas Widlok (Project C05 Framing Futures)

Training as a Rite of Passage: Kenyan Geothermal Professionals Gaining Seniority in Iceland

Julia Wummel (Project C02 Energy Futures)


Reference

Knab, J., Mitchell, A., Msangi, S., & Widlok, T. (eds.) 2024. NJAS Special Issue: Framing Difference in Age and Generation in Africa, Nordic Journal of African Studies, 33(4), 2024. DOI

More CRC News

image of an african savannah

New Publication: How Land-Use Change Shapes Carbon Storage in African Savannas

In this article, Liana Kindermann, Alexandra Sandhage-Hofmann, Wulf Amelung, Jan Börner, J., Ezequiel Fabiano, Maximilian Meyer and Anja Linstädter (Project A01 Future Carbon Storage) and ...
Read More »
photo of a train station in kenya

New Publication: Kenya’s SGR Fuels Land Inequality. How Different Land Tenure Systems Offer Varying Degrees of Protection and Vulnerability

Kennedy Mkutu, Evelyn Owino and Conrad Schetter from sub-project B03 Violent Futures and Tessa Mkutu examine how Kenya’s Nairobi–Mombasa Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has affected ...
Read More »
poster for a public lecture with kai koddenbrock

CRC-TRR Public Lecture: Kai Koddenbrock

Mon | May 5th, 2025 | 16:00 – 17:30  (CEST) Earnest Struggles for Structural Transformation in West Africa: Governing the Disarticulated Economy Since Independence Prof. ...
Read More »
peter dannenberg presenting the SPP during a project meeting

Peter Dannenberg Awarded Funding for Priority Programme Investigating the Sustainable and Crisis-Resilient Design of Supply Chains

Peter Dannenberg (Project C01 Future in Chains) will lead a new Priority Programme at the University of Cologne, funded by the German Research Fundation (DFG). ...
Read More »
picture taken at a workshop

Exploring Platformization in Africa: Insights from a Workshop on Digital Transformation

By Victoria Luxen (Project C01 Future in Chains). From February 24 to 27, 2025, I participated in the workshop “Writing about Platformization from Africa” at ...
Read More »
Scroll to Top