Some of the most recent articles from open access anthropology journals (beta)
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…
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 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 …
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…
Nordic Journal of African Studies
In this paper, I argue that Amatoritsero Ede uses the long poem to negotiate the idea of home in an African diasporic context. As a form that carries the implications of length, time, and space, the long poem has been used by poets to interr…
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…
This article explores diasporic cultural texts that document suffering in homeland contexts. Analysing contemporary visual art produced by Nigerian artists based in Canada and Belgium, and engaging with canonical scholarship on witnessing, s…
This contribution to the special issue develops an argument about time and gender in African history in relation to historical sound recordings. Revisiting a case study from the Namibian sound archive I demonstrate innovative methodological …
Book Review
Book Review