Abstract: Cities and urban life have become more and more important on the African continent. Between 1995 and 2015, Africa`s urban growth rate has been the highest in the world, over ten times faster than in Europe. With an average annual 3.4% population growth between 1995 and 2015, African cities had the highest urbanization growth rate worldwide (UNHABITAT 2016: 7). While being aware of the significance of changing urban environments, policy and development paths, the contributions of this volume focus on different aspects. Instead of examining structural transformations, the authors examine what it means to live in a city and how it is possible to study these experiences. It is necessary to keep in mind that neither numbers on urban development rates nor data on the rising average income of city dwellers can describe the meaningfulness of life in African cities. But what is the relation of "The Metropolis and Mental Life" (Simmel 1971 [1903]) and can we find a special way of "Urbanism as a way of life" (Wirth 1938) in 21st century African settings? If we can answer these questions positively, how can we understand the specific qualities of life in African cities? To answer these and more questions, the proposed volume aims to examine aspects of living in African cities from an interdisciplinary point of view with a focus on qualitative approaches. By considering the hows and whys in several settings - Nairobi, Khartoum, Addis Ababa and Dar es Salaam - the texts collected here want to give a more precise description by qualitative account and not by quantitative research: The contributions study social groups, actors including practices and influences such as politics that shape contemporary African cities and urban spaces. They also raise methodological questions regarding research on living in African cities. The different approaches to practices, politics, city dwellers and their cities complement each other and open new analytical perspectives to study the dynamics and the fluid processes of living in urban Africa. This reciprocal relationship of cities and their residents in the African context also discloses differentiations in power relations, lifestyles and milieus, which influence mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion in the everyday life of urban spaces.

Abstract: As an Islamic charitable endeavor, it was expected that waqfs would be administered according to the Sharica by Muslim institutions of the mutawalli (custodian) with the kadhis (Muslim judges) and culama (clerics) not only interpreting the requisite normative precepts under which it subsists, but also settling matters arising there from. This not being the absolute case, the scenario puts the institution of waqf in Kenya under constant negotiations between the Muslims and the secular state on the one side, and among diverse socio-ethnic groups of Muslims on the other. This study was, therefore, undertaken to achieve four significant objectives: To explore the historical development of the institution of waqf from the British colonial period (1900) to independent times (2010); examine secular state policies and civil courts` rulings that influenced waqfs; interrogate Muslims` response vis-à-vis the secular state and civil courts` constructs in the practices of waqfs; and establish how Muslims use waqfs in their contribution to socio-cultural development of the society. To realize the set objectives, this study adopted a multi-disciplinary approach. Bourdieu`s theory of practice (1977), particularly the concepts of field, capital (symbolic, cultural, social, and political), and symbolic violence, aptly explained the negotiations among various state and non-state actors and agents in the control of resources including waqfs in the community.Abstract auf deutsch: Die Institution des islamischen Stiftungswesens (waqf) reicht bis in das 7. Jahrhundert zurück und steht für ein reiches sozio-kulturelles Erbe. Die vornehmlichen Aufgaben des islamischen Stiftungswesens waren finanzielle Mittel zu generieren, die als Ausdruck von Frömmigkeit (taqwa) Nähe zu Gott (qurba) bezwecken sollten. Zudem diente es dazu sowohl die Nachkommenschaft als auch die Gemeinschaft gesellschaftlich und wirtschaftlich abzusichern. Als ein islamisch-wohltätiges Unternehmen unterliegt das islamische Stiftungswesen einer durch das islamische Recht (Scharia) legitimierten Verwaltung, die dem Verwalter (mutawalli), der durch Kadis und islamische Gelehrte (culama) angeleitet wird, unterstellt ist. Seine Aufgabe ist nicht nur auf die Interpretation normativer Vorschriften, durch die die Existenz der Stiftung sichergestellt werden, beschränkt, sondern auch auf potentielle Konflikte, die daraus entstehen können, zu regeln. Ferner bedingt diese islamische Institution im Kontext von Kenia auch einen ständigen Aushandlungsprozess gegenüber dem säkularen Staat einerseits und gegenüber den unterschiedlichen sozialen und ethnischen Gruppen der Muslime Kenias andererseits. Diese Studie hat folgende Hauptforschungsziele: Die Darstellung der historischen Entwicklung der Institution des waqf vom britischen Kolonialismus (1900) bis in die Gegenwart (2010). Die Analyse der Einflüsse eines säkularen Staatswesens und zivilrechtlicher Regularien auf das islamische Stiftungswesen sowie die muslimischen Reaktionen auf diese Rahmenbedingungen. Schließlich untersucht die Studie die Nutzbarmachung islamischer Stiftungen für die gesellschaftliche und kulturelle Entwicklung der Gemeinschaft durch die Muslime. Zur Umsetzung dieser Forschungsziele, bedient sich diese Studie eines multidisziplinären Ansatzes. Bourdieus Theorie der Praxis (1977) erhellt die Aushandlungsprozesse zwischen den unterschiedlichen staatlichen und nicht-staatlichen Vertretern und Akteuren in Bezug auf die Kontrolle über die Ressourcen - einschließlich des islamischen Stiftungswesens - der muslimischen Gemeinschaft. Insbesondere Bourdieus Konzepte zum sozialen Feld, Kapital (symbolisch, kulturell, sozial und politisch) und symbolischer Gewalt bieten vielversprechende Erklärungsansätze.(Waqf; Awqaf; Islamic Economy; Charity; Social welfare; social protection; Islam in Kenya; Socio-ethnicity; Resistance; Economic control; Kenya; Africa)

Abstract: Mitarbeiter*innen des Forschungsprojektes "Mittelschichten im Aufbruch" und des Lehrstuhls für Sozialanthropologie stellen ihre Arbeiten zur sozialen Differenzierung zur Diskussion. Sie kritisieren die gängige Definition der "middle class" und präsentieren empirische Befunde und neue Forschungsfragen. Die Diskussion thematisiert schichtspezifische Abgrenzungen, soziale Mobilität und die Beziehung der Mittelschicht zu Staat, Religion und Bildung.

Abstract: The thrust of this issue of BIGSASWorks! is to reflect on some of the stories of translations that come from Africa and point up what they say about existing theories of translation. Contributions include reflections on the cultural and linguistic questions arising from the translations of Senegalese (Wolof) literature in French (back-) translated into Wolof, as well as those translated into German. Other contributions include studies of implicitation in the translation of Hemingway`s "Hills like white elephant" into Lubukusu, a Kenyan language, and a sociological study of religious translations between English and Igbo, spoken in Nigeria. These essays not only explore translations into African and European languages of African literature in European languages, they also focus on less studied languages like Lubukusu, thereby fronting what contributions these stories make to the narratives at the center. What is more, the bi-lingual (English and German) nature of the essays and the different African countries covered further make them appealing to a wider audience.

Abstract: Nairobi is one of the most prominent examples of a "heavily compartmentalised" 1 and "fragmented city", 2 drawn up by colonial urban planners to mirror the idea of a racially segregated society. However, religious affiliation has been equally important in the categorization of people living in Nairobi and its surrounding areas during the colonial period. Members of the colonial troops, being mostly of African Muslim origin, were classified as `detribalized` natives, assumingly having lost their connection to the native reserve. They were therefore settled in the urban surroundings of Nairobi, on a military ground called `Kibera`. To date, Kibera has grown into a multi-ethnic, multi-religious informal settlement. The paper examines how ethnicity, religion and space are ordering principles and building blocks of identity and belonging in Kibera, now allegedly turned Africa`s biggest slum. The example at hand is the Nubian community, descendants of black African Muslim colonial soldiers, who call this settlement their `ancestral home`. 3 On the basis of empirical findings on Nubian wedding festivities and negotiations around the Muslim cemetery in Kibera, the paper aims to show the production and intertwining of gendered, sacred, secular, public and private space as well as the performance of identity and belonging among the Nubian community in Kibera, Kenya.

Abstract: This fifth edition of BIGSASworks! presents studies on institutions and social change processes from political science, sociology and anthropology perspectives. The authors highlight the various ways in which institutions create opportunities for change but at the same time resist change by acting as structures of stability. The papers show that the notion of institution within the development debate should be understood from a broader perspective beyond the narrow confines of state bureaucracies to a wider conception that includes the family, marriage and indigenous institutional arrangements through which individuals organize their daily activities.

Abstract: In the public political debate the existence of an African civil society is usually taken for granted. The great number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is regarded as evidence. While the first civil society organizations emerged during colonial times, the growing number of NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) today is mainly a result of the high level of support given to these organizations in global development politics since the 1980s. Other types of organization, such as trade unions, also emerged with the support of their globally acting partners. Nevertheless these organizations form the nucleus of an African civil society, with varying degrees of relevance and influence in different African countries. Aside from the organizations that match European patterns, there is a realm of societal self-organization which cannot be captured adequately with the concept of civil society. This includes local forms of political organization such as chiefs, councils of elders, local defence units, militia groups, militant social movements, or violence entrepreneurs, which are part of newly negotiated political arrangements. They are not simply relics of former traditions but local responses to globalized modernity. The concept of civil society with its strict normative standards is too narrow to cover all these complex African socio-political structures.