Overview of Research Master Theses

2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008

2024

Indy Koster: Coral reefs, the house of fish [Miamba ya matumbawe, nyumba ya samaki]: Perceptions of coral reefs In Southern Kenya.
Country focus: Kenya

Panashe Madamombe: Forged In Steel: The Origins of Japan-Rhodesia Trade and Diplomatic Relations (1924-1980).
Country focus: Zimbabwe

Isabel Remers de Mata: Nanyuki: Living in the Shadows of a British Army Base in Kenya. Centring the Host Community to Understand the Impact of a Foreign Military Base on Local Social Relations.
Country focus: Kenya

Pieter Roden: Grafting Change. Exploring the Intimacies of Plant-Human Relations at the Senegalese Urban Frontier.  
Country focus: Senegal

Aude Sathoud: b(l)ack home hole land - Afropean wo/anderings.   (under embargo until August 2025)
Country focus: Africa

2023

2022

Ryohei Shiozaki
“A vida dos Moçambicanos é a Vida de Convivência” (“The Life of Mozambicans is Life of Conviviality”) Exploring Conviviality of Afro-Mozambicans in Lisbon, Portugal
Country focus: Mozambique, Portugal

Fransje Bolwijn
Afro Dance in Paris Constructing Identity through Dance Practices
Country focus: France

2021

Tikam Liese Sall
Decolonising Opportunities and Impediments for History and Geography Teaching in Senegalese High Schools 
Country focus: Senegal

Bernardo  Tiberi Venturucci
Language and Intentionality: Exploring agency in language use as a marker of identity among Senegalese street sellers in Florence
Country focus: Senegal 

2020

Oumaima Derfouf
"Nio far, ça veut dire on est ensemble". African Identity through a Popular Culture lens: a journey into football, fashion and music from Morocco to Senegal
Country focus: Morocco, Senegal

Mariam de Haan
Employees of the Sea? Fisher Identity Formation in Mafia Island (under embargo till 2030)
Country focus: Tanzania

Felix Kram
Whatsoever Thy Hand Findeth to Do, Do It With Thy Might. S.H.A. Case and J.T. Ojukutu-Macauley and Artisan Trade Unions in Sierra Leone, 1875-1900
Country focus: Sierra Leone

Eleonora Minelli
Female Genital Cutting on Two Continents: continuity and Change of Sexual Cultures between Ethiopia and Italy (under embargo)
Country focus: Ethiopia  

Ka Hyoun Moon
'Internalising’ Development: The impact of the Korean-inspired Saemaul Model Villages (ESMV) project in Uganda on ‘local’ village identities and sense of community belonging
Country focus: Uganda, Korea

Hannah Schild
‘I am a woman. But in addition, I am a mother.’ – Women Navigating Politics, Conflict and Uncertainty in Zanzibar
Country focus: Zanzibar

Yifan (Mia) Yiang
People are each other's remedy- Chinese contractors navigating an 'unfamiliar' environment in Senegal
Country focus: Senegal

2019

Lotte Geboers
Fam dan Biz. The empowerment of women entrepreneurs in Mauritius
Country focus: Mauritius

Alberto Loda
Foreign Agricultural Investments in Tanzania. Drivers of Land Grabbing or Sustainable Development?
Country focus: Tanzania

Soumaya Sahla
In the Name of Geopolitics. The Proxy-War between Saudi-Arabia and Iran in Ghana by Means of Islamic NGOs
Country focus: Ghana

Daan Sanderse
The Ruining of an Empire. On the Causes of the Marinid Decline
Country focus: Morocco

Manon Schouten
E Pluribus Unum? The Significance of the Pre-colonial Timeframe (1840-1890) for Namibia's Past and Present
Country focus: Namibia

2018

Juul Kwaks
Living with the legacy of displacement: An exploration of non-return and the long-term effects of displacement on social life in Pabo, northern Uganda
Country focus: Uganda

Colm Wittenberg
Poison in the Rhodesian Bush War: How Guerrillas Gain Legitimacy
Country focus: Zimbabwe

Bert van Pinxteren
African identities - a new perspective
Country focus: Ghana and Southern Africa

Mahlet Ayele Beyecha
The Rastafari in Ethiopia: challenges and paradoxes of belonging
Country focus: Ethiopia

Njeri Mwaura
Identity & return migration: The Kenyan case
Country focus: Kenya

Marjolein de Leeuw
Every bird flies with its own wings - a history of professional pilots in Tanzanian aviation (1917-2017)
Country focus: Tanzania

Amelie van den Brink
Together yet fragmented: A comparative case study of the women and disability movements’ collective identity formation and maintenance in Sierra Leone
Country focus: Sierra Leone

Loes Oudenhuijsen
''You have to know how to play, otherwise they will catch you'': Young women and the navigation of same-sex intimacies in contemporary urban Senegal
Country focus: Senegal

2017

Fiona Dragstra
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose? Understanding how and why new ICTs played a role in Burkina Faso’s recent journey to socio-political change
Country focus: Burkina Faso

Isabella Vannucchi
Our Great Friend The Mountain Gorilla
Country focus: Uganda

Miriam Siun
"The Market is Free!" Understanding gender and ethnicity in the marketplace in Lagos
Country focus: Nigeria

Miriam Ocadiz Arriaga
(E)motion of Saudade: The Embodiment of Solidarity in the Cuban Medical Cooperation in Mozambique
Country focus: Mozambique

2016

Tanja Hendriks
‘Home is always home’: (Former) Street Youth in Blantyre Malawi and the Fluidity of Constructing Home
Country focus: Malawi

Tycho van der Hoog
Brewing Identity: Beer and the establishment of the Namibian nation
Country focus: Namibia

Michele Portatadino
Investigating Political Youth Leagues in Maputo City, Mozambique
Country focus: Mozambique

Iorver Ikeseh
Lines with Reason: Meanings behind Tiv Child Arts
Country focus: Nigeria

2015

David Drengk
Pushing (Social) Boundaries: Social History of Surfing and People between 1960 and 1990 at South Africa's Wild Coast
Country focus: South Africa

Affoh Guenneguez
Le processus d’appropriation symbolique d’une ancienne capitale coloniale patrimonialisée. Cas de la « Ville Historique de Grand-Bassam » en Côte d'Ivoire
Country focus: Ivory Coast

Ida Ræder Taraldsen
Who are you wearing? An exploration of expressions of identity among gay men in Cape Town, South Africa
Country focus: South Africa

Rafael Verbuyst
Claiming Cape Town. Ethnographic interpretations of Khoisan activism and land claims
Country focus: South Africa

2014

Michael Weldeghiorghis Tedla
The Eritrean Liberation Front: Social and Political factors shaping its emergence, development and demise, 1960-1981
Country focus: Eritrea

Samuel Andreas Admasie
The making and unmaking of an emerging working class : organizational expressions of class formation in Ethiopia 1960-77
Country focus: Ethiopia

Peter Tse Anwafo
Contesting Land and Identity: the case of Women Cultivators and Fulani Cattle Herders in Wum, Northwest Region of Cameroon
Country focus: Cameroon

Julia Foudraine
Mortal men : the rise of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union under the leadership of Joseph Mathunjwa and the union's move to the political left, 1998-2014
Country focus: South Africa

Maike Lolkema
Sounds of young Afrikaners, Popular music and processes of social identification in and around Pretoria, South Africa
Country focus: South Africa

2013

Thandi Soko
Distinction, Stigma & Kusalana: Moral ambiguities in responses to HIV/AIDS stigma - a case study of the Anglican Mothers’ Union in Southern Malawi
Country focus: Malawi

Jan Stockbrügger
Constructing Pirate Economies. Somali Pirates, Marine Insurance and the Politics of Transnational Ransom Industries (read the abstract (Adobe PDF))
Country focus: Somalia

Enid Guene
Copper, Borders and Nation-Building. The Katangese Factor in Zambian Political and Economic History
Country focus: Zambia

Alejandra Mahiques Nunez
The hidden history of Equatorial Guinea: Reasons behind the silence of the Spanish press around Macías Nguema's regime (1968-1979)
Country focus: Equatorial Guinea

Jonas Grunau
Exploring People's Motivation to join or not to join the Community-based Health Insurance 'Sina Passenang' in Sotouboua, Togo
Country focus: Togo

Marina Denisenko
Perceiving Epilepsy: Interpretations of Kifafa in Kigamboni, Tanzania
Country focus: Tanzania

Kelly Koutstaal
Blurred Lines. How different views on baboon agency shape the conservation policy making dialogue in Cape Town, South Africa
Country focus: South Africa

Anwar Seid Suleiman
Imagining the Nation: Assessing the Role and Functioning of the Eritrean Assembly in the Eritrean-Ethiopian Federation (1952-1962)
Country focus: Eritrea

Roeland Hemsteede
Views on the Empowerment of Farm Workers. A Case Study from the Stellenbosch Wine Industry in South Africa
Country focus: South Africa

Maurice John Hutton
A dystopian democracy: discourses on leadership failure and national transformation in Malawi's urban public sphere
Country focus: Malawi

Katja Kirchner
Conflicts and Politics in the Tana Delta, Kenya. An Analysis of the 2012-2013 Clashes and the General and Presidential Elections 2013
Country focus: Kenya

Hanna Jagtenberg
The circulation of elites and perceptions of corruption in post-apartheid South Africa. A case study of Limpopo Province
Country focus: South Africa

2012

Michael Vinson
The Struggle for Recognition. A Critical Ethnographic Study of the Zay
Country focus: Ethiopia

Carien J. Touwen
Painting Pictures of Progress. Representations of Africa's changing socio-economic realities in South Africa's print media
Country focus: South Africa
Also read an article by Carien Touwen in Rhodes Journalism Review of September 2012

Henrike Hoogenraad
Men at play: freedom and alternative ordering through (romantic) intercultural relationships at the beach in Zanzibar
Country focus: Zanzibar

Marion Desmurger
Translating the sustainability transition: the creation and implementation of a translocal environmental project, from Paris to Madagascar
Country focus: Madagascar

Catharina Wilson
The Congolese Yankee. Language and Identity among Youth in Kisangani
Country focus: Democratic Republic of Congo

2011

Inge Ligtvoet
Fear and Faith. Uncertainty, misfortune and spiritual insecurity in Calabar, Nigeria
Country focus: Nigeria

Leah Llewellyn
Juggling agendas: circus in Ethiopia
Country focus: Ethiopia

Humphrey Agyekum
Dreaming in the shadow of violence: How political insecurity and military actions affect youth's future planning in Bissau
Country focus: Guinée-Bissau

Eyob Balcha
The quest for development alternatives in Africa: questioning development assumptions of AAF-SAP and NEPAD
Country focus: Ethiopia

Pangmashi Yenkong
Prisoners In-Justice: prisoners' encounters with the criminal justice system in Cameroon
Country focus: Cameroon

Florian Schöpperle
The economics of Akie identity: adaptation and change among a hunter-gatherer people in Tanzania
Country focus: Tanzania

Merijn Offringa
Country focus: Sudan

2010

Hüncke, Anna
Treesleeper camp: impacts on community perception and on image creation of Bushmen: a study on community-based and cultural tourism in Tsintsabis, Namibia
Country focus: Namibia

Kamya, Innocent Royal
Non-traditional agricultural exports, value chains and smallholder agriculture: a case study of Kasese Smallholder Income and Investment Programme (KSIIP)
Country focus: Uganda

Lauterbach, Claire
"We're all displaced, but some of us manage": urban space and community formation among northern Ugandans in Kampala
Country focus: Uganda

Stasik, Michael
DISCOnnections: popular music audiences in Free Town, Sierra Leone
Country focus: Sierra Leone

Thiel, Alena
Fishing for forums: voluntary vocational associations and the creation of political agency in an artisanal fishing community in coastal Ghana: a topography of power and voice in Elmina
Country focus: Ghana
 
Eijk, Femke van
Delicate Matters: How Candomblé Food Habits reflect Identity Dynamics
Country focus: (African) Brazil

Wit, Sara de
Global Warning. An ethnography of the encounter of global and local climate change discourses in the Bamenda Grassfields, Cameroon
Country focus: Cameroon
 

2009

Bedert, Maarten
The minibus breakdown: exploring social dynamics in a neoliberal urban environment in Blantyre, Malawi
Country focus: Malawi

Feyder, Sophie
"Think positive, make negatives": black popular photography and urban identities in Johannesburg townships, 1920-1960
Country focus: South Africa

Hart, Corine ‘t
Nikueleze Amani. Children's understanding of peace and conflict in a Congolese refugee camp in Tanzania
Country focus: Tanzania/Congo

Kahjum, Nixon Takor
'Trading in a traffic island': the Cameroon-Nigeria 'bush trade'
Country focus: Cameroon, Nigeria

Keja, Roos
Moving in and into the urban: Mbororo generations finding and creating a place in Bamenda, Cameroon
Country focus: Cameroon

Kruis, Marieke
Islamic Pathways. Islamic youth associations and Muslim identity formation in Bamako, Mali
Country focus: Mali

Lamoureaux, Siri
'Message in a Mobile'. Mixed-messages, tales of missing, and mobile communities at the University of Khartoum
Country focus: Sudan

Niet, Anneke van der
Bodies in action: culture and body skills in post-conflict Sierra Leone
Country focus: Sierra Leone

Nyamnjoh, Henrietta
“La Pêche ne nous apporte rien”. Fishing for Boat Opportunities amongst Senegalese Fisher Migrants
Country focus: Senegal

Pesa, Iva
Cinderella's cassava: a historical study of agricultural adaptation in Mwinilunga district from precolonial times to independence
Country focus: Zambia

Starace, Martina
'She is my husband': navigating discourses on relatedness, reproduction, gender and Christianity among the Simbiti of Tanzania
Country focus: Tanzania

Wagner, Karl
Donor support of opposition parties in Namibia. How foreign support for parties effects democracy in a new democracy
Country focus: Namibia

Wal, Anne Marieke van der
South Africa The Cape Malay Choir Board & their moppies: governing a culture and community, 1939-2009
Country focus: South Africa
 

2008

Aycard, Pierre:
“Speak As You Want To Speak: Just Be Free”. A linguistic-anthropological monograph of first-language Iscamtho-speaking youth in White City, Soweto
Country focus: South Africa

Belt, Lianne
How linguistic features and social arrangements can interrelate : the position of Swahili and its speakers in Bujumbura placed in a historical context
Country focus: Burundi

Berckmoes, Lidewyde
Being and becoming in Bujumbura: war and peace through the eyes of Burundian youth
Country focus: Burundi

Both, Jonna
Navigating the urban landscapes of uncertainty and human anchorage: girl migrants in N'Djamena
Country focus: Chad

Gwanmesia, Barbara
Managing uncertainty through mobile telephony in an African town: tracing the social implications of the mobile phone in Buea
Country focus: Cameroon

Kroes, Hilde
The journey home: multi-discursive perceptions on the movement patterns of internally displaced persons, Northern Uganda
Country focus: Uganda
Read a review

Kühn, Esther
“You have to contribute”: women adjusting their savings associations in Bancoumana, Mali
Country focus: Mali

Maiyo, Joshua
East Africa, Political parties and intra-party democracy in East Africa: from representative to participatory democracy
Country focus: Kenya