A two-day workshop organized by the University of Zurich on 26–27 October 2026, bringing together scholars to explore the history of sub-Saharan Africa across the centuries through a range of interdisciplinary perspectives.
Unearthing Connected Pasts - An Interdisciplinary Meeting in African History /
Creuser des passés connectés - Une rencontre interdisciplinaire en histoire africaine
How can historical, archaeological, and literary approaches deepen our understanding of Africa’s past over the last millennium? This question is at the heart of a workshop hosted by the University of Zurich on 26–27 October 2026, bringing together scholars to explore the history of sub-Saharan Africa across the centuries through a range of interdisciplinary perspectives.
Programm
LUNDI 26 OCTOBRE / MONDAY 26 OCTOBER
10:30 Jacques AYMERIC-NSANGOU & Roberto ZAUGG (Universität Zürich): Mot de bienvenu / Welcome address
Séance 1 / Session 1
Chair: Franziska RÜEDI (Universität Zürich)
10:50 Léa ROTH (Université de Caen Normandie / Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris)
Paving the way from Ife: first steps towards a study of tropical and Sahelian architectural communities of practice
11:20 Barpougouni MARDJOUA (Institut Supérieur d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme, Conakry)
The history of caravan trade in present-day northern Benin (15th-19th Centuries): actors, caravanserais, products exchanged
11:50 Discussion
Séance 2 / Session 2
Présidence: Jacques AYMERIC-NSANGOU (Universität Zürich)
14:30 Bruce MATESO (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)
Les armes à feu au sein de Kongo dya Ntotela (royaume Kongo) : XVIe-XIXe siècle
15:00 Sofia Mateus SIMPLÍCIO D’OLIVEIRA (Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris)
Between the Living and the Dead: Tracing Decorative Traditions in Angola’s Dry-Stone Structures and Broader Regional Contexts
15:30 Discussion
Séance 3 / Session 3
Chair: Frank SCHUBERT (Universität Zürich)
16:40 Karin PALLAVER (Università di Bologna)
Making currencies from commodities: cowries and beads in nineteenth century East Africa
17.10 Lexie COOK (Northwestern University, Chicago)
The Mandinga experience: rituals of proof in the era of the slave trade
17:40 Discussion
MARDI 27 OCTOBRE / TUESDAY 27 OCTOBER
Séance 4 / Session 4
Présidence: Roberto ZAUGG (Universität Zürich)
10.15 Cheikh SENE (Université du Québec à Montréal)
Les objets de l’économie atlantique en Sénégambie et au royaume du Kongo, XVe–XIXe siècle
10.45 Yao Serge Bonaventure LOUKOU (Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar)
Creuser le passé de la moyenne vallée du fleuve Sénégal à partir des sources matérielles, écrites et orales
11.15 Discussion
Séance 5 / Session 5
Chair: Yi-Tang LIN (Universität Zürich)
13.00 Lucien LEITESS (Universität Zürich)
Searching for Amo Afer: notes from the workbench
13.30 Aminat Emma BADMUS (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia)
Decolonising English literary studies through corpus stylistics: localised knowledge systems in Nigerian and Jamaican literature
14.00 Discussion
Séance 6 / Session 6
Chair: Alice HERTZOG (Universität Zürich)
15.10 Dominik KALT (Universität Zürich)
“You cannot send over too much of it”: Atlantic networks and beeswax extraction along the Gambia River
15.40 Kerem DUYMUŞ (Universität Leipzig)
Reassessing the nineteenth-century West African world: new archival evidence of Ottoman–Sahelian relations
16.10 Discussion
17.30 Visite de l’exposition permanente consacrée à l’histoire suisse au Musée National Suisse / Visit of the permanent exhibition on Swiss history at the Swiss National Museum
Kontakt
Dominik Kalt: dominik.kalt@uzh.ch