Some of the most recent articles from open access anthropology journals (beta)
Northwestern Bantu (NWB) languages differ from Eastern/Southwestern Bantu languages in that their verb forms are more often analytic, with pre-stem inflectional material appearing in a complex that may be unbound from the main verb. This has…
This study focuses on the syntactic and pragmatic functions of the isiXhosa auxiliary verbs za ‘come’ and ya ‘go’ when followed by subjunctive or past consecutive lexical verbs. Analysis of the auxiliaries’ occurrence in a 60,000-word databa…
Kihehe (G62) has a rich inventory of auxiliary constructions (> 120) grounded in different forms of be: copula -li and -ʋa ‘be’. This paper addresses those constructions in which the auxiliary is marked for one of three pasts – hodiernal,…
Gĩkũyũ (E.51) exhibits several verbs that can be used both as lexical verbs and as auxiliary verbs. We compare the lexical and auxiliary usages of four verbs and show that all auxiliary verb usages display uniform restrictions concerning val…
This paper studies the grammaticalization of possessive predicates into negative auxiliaries expressing main clause negation in the Bantu languages of the Middle and Lower Zambezi River region. Drawing on a convenience sample of languages fr…
This article discusses the subclass of Tswana auxiliaries that cannot be analysed as resulting from the grammaticalization of regular forms of verbs also used predicatively in the present state of the language. It describes the general chara…
The Kagulu auxiliary verb ng’hali appears in a variety of auxiliary verb constructions and has several phonological realizations (ng’hali, kali, and ng’hati). Unlike other auxiliary verbs in the language, ng’hali occurs with limited morpholo…
Auxiliary constructions in Southern Bantu exhibit a feature in which two or more auxiliaries appear alongside a single lexical verb. We term this construction ‘auxiliary stacking’. The goal of the paper is to outline the phenomenon of auxili…
Southern Bantu languages have extensive auxiliary inventories with functions that sometimes go beyond typical tense/aspect/mood/polarity meanings. This article examines areal semantic patterns of auxiliaries in 16 Southern Bantu varieties, i…
Bantu languages are notoriously “verby” (Nurse 2008, 21), referring to the highly agglutinative nature of the inflected verb, whose complexities have sparked extensive research. Now that Bantu verbal morphology is much better understood, the…
This study explores how lexical tone interacts with intonation in Akan, focusing on pitch reset as a prosodic cue in complex declaratives. Pitch reset – an upward shift in fundamental frequency (f0) following declination – has been documente…
This article examines the historical trajectory of Denkyira, a once-dominant Akan kingdom in Ghana. It challenges the prevailing narrative that the legacy of Denkyira ended with its defeat by Asante in 1701. Despite its significance as a pre…
Communitarian socio-cultural practices ‘from below’ that involve the sharing of material and non-material items play a vital role in the lives of refugees. However, these support practices are rarely discussed, documented, or acknowledged fo…
In Silozi, High tones are subject to a number of different processes including shift, doubling and deletion. After establishing these on the basis of isolation forms and two-word phrases, this paper examines a range of complex phrases which …
This study critically examines (post)colonial ideologies within the Nollywood epic Jagun Jagun (2023), directed by Adebayo Tijjani and Tope Adebayo and produced by Femi Adebayo. Through a colonial reading, the film emerges as a narrative tha…
In September 2020, a video circulating on social media plunged he country of Mozambique into a deep moral crisis. The video showed five young men, dressed in the uniform of the Mozambican army, cruelly whipping a naked woman along a road and…
This article explores how the popular Icelandic Nordic Noir series, Trapped Season 2, provides a nuanced perspective on the deeply rooted concepts of Icelandic and Nordic exceptionalism and homonationalism in popular culture. It offers a com…
Consent forms are crucial in the approval of research projects by ethics committees within and outside Africa. However, the current formalization and standardization of consent inadvertently limits the ability of researchers and participants…
This article reflects on the unforeseen dynamics revealed as we presented written consent forms to be signed by our interlocutors during fieldwork in Djibouti and Namibia. Throughout the article we analyse how the consent form (in its legali…
Studying gender in African Union and national politics, I came across a scenario in which my interview requests were ignored until someone from the donor community vouched for me. As field-based researchers, we often rely on our networks to …
Informed consent has been increasingly equated with standardized models and legal jargon. At Scandinavian universities, researchers are expected to adhere to European standardized models and institutional forms, necessitating documentable (p…
Ethical review boards in social science research require researchers to solicit informed and voluntary consent from their research participants. However, how is consent negotiated in the field when working with research participants who have…
Conducting fieldwork in collaboration with NGOs is becoming increasingly common. However, the process and difficulties of obtaining organizational access are rarely outlined in ethnographic literature. This article unravels the author’s expe…
Based on my professional journey in the Danish Africanist landscape, I analyse the history of Denmark’s Africa-related knowledge production and capacity building. Throughout the article, I highlight major changes in the Danish approach to Af…
The main aim of this paper is to explore the sociolinguistic significance of cloth names among the Ewe people. Additionally, the study investigates whether the use of cloth names as communicative modes is still a vital linguistic form in thi…