Research Visit of Malian Anthropologist

In June-July 2025, long-term research partner of Uppsala University, Malian Anthropologist Professor Yaouaga Félix Koné, Institut des Sciences Humaines, visited the Forum for Africa Studies for a series of joint ventures.

First, Prof. Koné was scheduled for a lecture at the Africa Days of Uppsala University, 9-10 June, but unfortunately due to the delayed visa process he only arrived from Bamako to Uppsala one week later, on 14 June.

Second, on Monday 16 June, Yaouaga Koné - together with Sten Hagberg, and Bintou Koné - presented the newly published edited volume Résistance, alternance, souveraineté: une recherche engagée sur la crise et la transition au Mali (eds. S. Hagberg, B. Coulibaly, Y.F. Koné, and N. Traoré) at the Forum for Africa Studies. The book analyzes the crisis and transition in Mali since 2020, and focuses on citizen mobilizations against the Keïta regime, his fall, and the negotiations that led to two political transitions (Sept. 2020-May 2021; May 2021-). It offers a contemporary political ethnography of Mali.

Third, on Monday 23 June, Yaouaga Félix Koné, and Sten Hagberg gave a joint seminar at Bayreuth University, Germany, entitled Une anthropologie des transformations sociales et politiques au Mali : ethnographie, encadrement et engagement. Based on collaborative work over the past fifteen years, Koné and Hagberg interrogated the roles of ethnography, training, and supervision in engaged research. This seminar explored, in the form of dialogue, the possibilities, and limits of an anthropology of social and political transformations in present-day Mali. The seminar took place in the new Research Centre for African Studies at Bayreruth University (see below).

Fourth, between 25 and 28 June, Koné, and Hagberg participated in a panel, Tracing Afropolitianism in West Africa, at the European Conference on African Studies (ECAS2025) in Prague. In his paper, Koné discussed modern voluntary associations in Mali, as the secular face profane of the age-class system. Hagberg in turn focused on the decoloniality of research methodologies. ECAS2025 offered ample opportunities for networking with scholars working in West Africa.

Finally, during the research visit, Koné and Hagberg had the occasion to discuss the final editing of the coming book on Malian women's political participation Comment briser le plafond de verre: Une recherche engagée sur la participation politiques des femmes maliennes, Uppsala Papers in Africa Studies 10. A joint paper on collaborative ethnography, supervision, and enagement is also in the pipeline.

Professor Koné's research visit was made possible by generous support from the Royal Society for the Humanities in Uppsala (Kungl. Humanistiska Vetenskaps-Samfundet i Uppsala).