Centre for European and International Studies Research (CEISR)

Profile

My current project focuses on forced labour as a European heritage in different colonial systems and different countries in sub-Saharan Africa (mainly West, West Central, and South Central Africa). Francophone Africa is represented through various regional case studies (Gabon, Cameroun, Senegal), which connects to CEISR interest in studies of decolonization and the late colonial state.

Other research interests are chieftaincy as flexible phenomenon, ethno-cultural solidarities and their development over time, and comparative views on processes of European decolonization.

Qualifications

• DPhil. (Freiburg, Germany), Habilitation (Berne, Switzerland)

Research Clusters

• Francophone Group

Discipline Areas

• History

Research CV

Current Research Projects

• The group project ‘Forced labour: an Afro-European heritage in sub-Saharan Africa (1930-1975)?’ (short name: ForcedLabourAfrica) is financed by ERC Starting Grant 240898 under the Framework Programme 7 of the European Community.

Authored Books

• Living with Ambiguity. Integrating an African elite in French and Portuguese Africa, 1930-1961 (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2007).

Edited Books

• Ethnicity and the long-term perspective: the African experience (Berne et al.: Peter Lang, 2010).
• (with Mark Häberlein), Sprachgrenzen, Sprachkontakte und kulturelle Vermittler in der Geschichte der europäisch-überseeischen Beziehungen [Language boundaries – Linguistic Contacts – Cultural Brokers: Communication between Europeans and Non-Europeans, 16th to 20th century] (Stuttgart: Steiner, 2010).

Journal Articles

• (with Isabel dos Santos Lourenço) ‘Die blockierte Erinnerung. Portugals koloniales Gedächtnis und das Ausbleiben kritischer Diskurse, 1974–2010’ [Blocked remembrance: Portugal’s colonial memory and the absence of a critical discourse, 1974 – 2010], Geschichte & Gesellschaft 37, 2011, p. 220-243.
• ‘Understanding colonial chieftaincy from its final phase: responses to the crisis of an institution in French-ruled West Africa and beyond, 1944–1960’, Africana Studia 15, 2010, p. 17-27.
• ‘Building a new image of Africa: ‘Dissident states’ and the emergence of French neo-colonialism in the aftermath of decolonisation’, Cahiers d’Etudes Africaines 191, 2008, p. 513-530.
• ‘A Culture of Panic: ‘Communist’ Scapegoats and Decolonization in French West Africa and French Polynesia, 1945-1957’, French Colonial History 9, 2008, p. 131-145.
• 'Intermediaries of mobilisation? The role of Cape Verdean administrators and settlers in war mobilisation and war prevention in Portugal’s African Empire, 1955-1965’, International Journal of African Historical Studies 40(3), 2007, p. 497-510.
• ‘First lessons in neo-colonialism: the personalisation of relations between African politicians and French officials in sub-Saharan Africa, 1956-1966’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth Studies 35(4), 2007, p. 593-613.
• ‘Wie Ethnien entstehen. Konflikt, Manipulation und Ethnogenese im früh- und hochkolonialen Westafrika und der Karibik, 1750-1950’ [How ethnic groups emerge. Conflict, manipulation, and ethnogenesis in early and high colonial West Africa and the Caribbean, 1750-1950], Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 53(7), 2005, p. 581-598.
• ‘Colons français, politiciens africains, et marchands libanais au Sénégal colonial (1945-1958)’, Africa (Rome) 60(2), 2005, p. 201-220.
• 'Le nationalisme libérateur en Afrique noire française et portugaise? Relecture critique d’un concept classique (1945-1961)’, Canadian Review of Studies in Nationalism 32, 2005, p. 65-76.
• ‘Dos abusos às revoltas? Trabalho forçado, reformas portuguesas, política “tradicional” e religião na Baixa de Cassange e no Distrito do Congo (Angola), 1957-1961’ [From abuses to revolt? Forced labour, Portuguese reforms, ‘traditional policy’ and religion in the Baixa de Cassange and in Congo District (Angola), 1957-1961] , Africana Studia 7, 2004, p. 247-276.
• ‘L’évolution du ‘leader indigène’ aux yeux des administrateurs français: Léon M’Ba et le changement des modalités de participation au pouvoir local au Gabon, 1922-1967’, Afrique & Histoire (Paris) 2, 2004, p. 131-160.
• ‘‘Proteger os pretos’. Havia uma tendência reformista na administracão portuguesa de África Tropical, 1926-1961?’ [Did a reformist tendency exist in Portuguese administration in Tropical Africa, 1926-1961?], Africana Studia (Porto) 6, 2003, p. 97-125.
• ‘‘Quelques satisfactions d’amour-propre’: African elite integration, the Loi-cadre, and involuntary decolonisation of French Tropical Africa’, Itinerario (Leiden) 26(1), 2003, p. 33-57.

Book Chapters

• ‘‘Poser au village’: Un régime de travail en transition, relations de pouvoir, et la fin des prestations forcées au Moyen-Congo français, 1935-1958’, in Centro de Estudos da Universidade do Porto (ed), Trabalho forçado africano: Experiências coloniais comparadas (Porto: Campo das Letras, 2006), p. 349-366.

Grants Received

• The research project ‘State structures and ethnic solidarity’ profited, carried out between 2005 and 2009, from generous support by the Deutscher Akademischer Auslandsdienst (DAAD), by the German Historical Institutes in London and Paris, by the Swiss National Fund, by the West African Research Centre (WARC-CRAO) in Dakar, and by the University of Berne, Switzerland. Its finishing stage is supported through a likewise generous grant by the Holcim Foundation, Holderbank, Switzerland.
• The project ForcedLabourAfrica received a Marie Curie Grant from the European Commission (2009/10) and an ERC Starting Grant from the European Commission (from 2010), both under the Framework Programme 7 of the European Community.