This multidisciplinary panel discusses the uses of African knowledge tradition, addressing the validity of such knowledge regarding contemporary issues. Contributions feature young protagonists on the move and in contexts of political transformation.
Abstract
This panel echoes Taïwo’s call on “taking African agency seriously”, as many authors suggested before him. This call invites scholars to break out the logic of victimization to lay the foundations for a reflexive critique of “Africa in the time of the world”. In line with this call, our panel discusses the place, uses, and validity of ancestral knowledge to address contemporary challenges, particularly concerning youth (im)mobility and agency. The panel focuses on how young African people summon and reappropriate such knowledge to apprehend the present and envision the future. Contributions will discuss how these people involved in societal transformation, whether living on the African continent or on the move, mobilize African knowledge tradition to make the issues raised by political regime change intelligible. The panel includes five presentations.
Moderation: Ibrahim Seyni Mamoudou and Kingsley Celestine Jima, University of Bayreuth (Germany)
Discussant: Ibrahim Bachir Abdoulaye, University of Bayreuth (Germany)
Presentations
Saïkou Oumar Sagnane
University of Bayreuth (Germany)
Applying Knowledge Tradition in Africa on Contemporary Issues: Temporal, Epistemological, and Methodological Implications
This essay critically examines the temporal, epistemological, and methodological implications of speaking about “knowledge tradition” instead of “traditional knowledge” in Africa. It first poses the temporal debate between the terms “traditional” and “tradition” regarding knowledge in Africa. Then, it emphasizes the epistemological delinking, the intellectual de/recentering, and the scholarly dialogue resulting from using knowledge traditions in Africa. Finally, it addresses the methodological implication of applying knowledge tradition in Africa to contemporary concerns. It reflects on the validity of such a method and knowledge out of any hegemonic frame, being aware of the postcolonial paradox and the highly political demand (Poyner, 2009) of reconfiguring African studies. While engaging with the decolonial agency (Moyo, 2024), the essay draws on empirical information from Guinea. Observations are based on young Guinean executives' mobility in the context of the coup since September 2021.
Ibrahima Sene
University of Bayreuth (Germany)
Re-interpreting crisis: Transformative Functions from a Literary Perspective in African Societies
The concept of ‘crisis’ has been widely examined in African literary and political discourse, often emphasizing its disruptive effects on societies and identities (Chabal & Daloz 1999; Adebajo 2002; Bayart 2009; Hibou 2004). While existing scholarship frequently interprets crisis as a moment of rupture and instability in African literature (Bazié et al. 2011) and political thought (Mazrui 1995; Yagboyaju & Adeoye 2019), less attention has been given to its transformative potential—how crisis generates new forms of knowledge, adaptation, and resilience. This communication explores three interrelated dimensions of crisis—social, identitarian, and urban—through a literary perspective (Sow Fall 2001; Nyantakyi 1998; Nganang 2001), demonstrating how these crises act as catalysts for change rather than mere disruptions experienced by young people and African states. It argues that African knowledge systems, grounded in interdependence and adaptability, offer critical insights into contemporary challenges. Methodologically, this study employs literary and discourse analysis, drawing from postcolonial and decolonial approaches to examine crisis as a site of knowledge production and transformation.
Asma Ben Hadj Hassen
BIGSAS University of Bayreuth (Germany)
Migration as a Rite of Passage: The Quest for Success and Self-Realization among Ivorian Women
Youth migration in Africa can be categorized into various types and models, often based on the reasons that motivate it. Traditionally, factors such as conflict, underdevelopment, and poor governance have been used to explain internal and transborder migrations in Africa. However, this approach, focused on the economic paradigm, has often portrayed the African migrant in a miserable and utilitarian light. Based on a multi-site feminist ethnography conducted with young Ivorian migrant women in Abidjan, Tunis, and Marseille, this presentation focuses on the subjective experiences of these women during their migratory journey. Through an analysis of the emic concept of "adventure," it argues that their migration reflects an aspiration for success and self-fulfillment. For these women, departure becomes an act of "self-search," embodying a deep desire to discover alternative horizons and to experience unlimited mobility in an increasingly constrained world. After exploring how migration transforms the social status of migrants, and how they are represented in migration literature, this presentation highlights the various subjectivities they evoke to make sense of their migratory experiences and aspirations for a different life elsewhere. It also examines the migratory adventure as a rite of passage that marks the transition from one status to another, emphasizing the personal and social transformations at the heart of the migration process.
Adama Drabo
University of Bayreuth (Germany)
Reinventing Senankuya: Ivorian youth humorists and the discursive reappropriation of ancestral knowledge
This presentation explores how young Ivorian humorists reappropriate Senankuya (joking kinship), an ancestral African knowledge tradition, as a tool for social cohesion and conflict mediation. Traditionally based on playful and satirical exchanges between specific ethnic groups or lineages, Senankuya has long functioned as a mechanism for diffusing tensions and reinforcing solidarity. Today, in a context of recurring socio-political crises in Côte d’Ivoire, young comedians are transforming and revitalizing this practice in contemporary media spaces, particularly through digital platforms. Anchored in the pragmatics of humor and discourse analysis, this study draws on concepts such as irony (Kerbrat-Orecchioni, 1980), dialogism (Bakhtin, 1984), and the pragmatics of laughter (Charaudeau, 2006). It explore how humor functions as a discursive strategy in this process of reappropriation.Through a qualitative approach combining discourse analysis of stand-up performances, semi-structured interviews with humorists, and ethnolinguistic observation, we analyze the rhetorical and discursive mechanisms — irony, sarcasm, wordplay — used to navigate social and political tensions. This contribution fits within the panel’s broader discussion on the (dis)continuity of African knowledge traditions and youth agency. It highlights how humor serves as a site of critical engagement, where young Ivorians actively reinterpret cultural heritage to address contemporary challenges. By transforming Senankuya into a modern discursive practice, these comedians assert agency in shaping new narratives of peacebuilding, interethnic relations, and social resilience.
Patricia Ndlovu
University of Bayreuth (Germany)
Making sense of ritual (influenced) violence in the minibus taxi industry in South Africa
The question of violence in the minibus taxi industry in South Africa is perennial. Violence in the minibus taxi industry cannot be understood in a vacuum. Rather it has to be studied within the broader South African context. South Africa is said to be one of the most violent countries in the world. This has to do with its history and legacies of apartheid colonialism. Therefore, this paper seeks to understand the emergence of minibus taxi industry within violent colonial and apartheid histories in general and to explain the phenomenon of ritual violence in particular. The phenomenon of ritual violence has not received scholarly attention as there is overemphasis on the overt taxi wars. The paper draws on oral interviews conducted in the Gauteng province in South Africa at the beginning of 2023. The paper posits that ritual violence has its logics that needs to be understood from a cosmological, cultural and spiritual context. The vivid example include poor young men who are recruited into the industry as inkabi (assailants/hitmen) where the contract killings cannot resume without ritual cleansing and fortification.