ILCAA Joint Research Project

Taking on the challenges: An anthropological study of adventurous practices in contemporary Africa (jrp000309)

Keywords

• Africa
• Anthropology
• challenges
• adventurous practices
• life stories

Areas

• Sub-Saharan Africa

Website

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About the Project

Project term: April, 2025–March, 2028

The purpose of this research project is to explore each individual’s life and daily practice in contemporary Africa from the perspective of “challenges.” It aims to elucidate the driving forces behind people’s positive thinking and actions observed in their adventurousness, as well as their ways of survival and motives for overcoming daily difficulties by their narratives, behaviors, and historical/actual contexts. It also intends to conduct anthropological analyses of human vitality focusing on individual life histories and socio-cultural contexts in the rural and urban societies of Eastern, Central, Southern, and Western (sub-Saharan) Africa.

Members

Coordinator

• Shirabe OGATA

ILCAA Staff

• Yukako YOSHIDA

Joint Researchers

• Yuka YOMOMATSU (Co-Coordinator)
• Shiori ITAKU
• Wakiko OHIRA
• Chihiro KUMASHIRO
• Hidetoshi KONDO
• Mikako TODA
• Yukie NAKAO
• Akinori HAMADA
• Kana MIYAMOTO
• Haruna YATSUKA

Outputs

Meetings

The 2nd meeting ：Report (Japanese)

• Date/Time: Sat 12 Jul 2025 15:00-17:00
• Venue: Online meeting
• Language: Japanese

• 15:00-15:20 Shirabe OGATA (ILCAA)

  An Examination of the Introduction to “Ethnographies of Uncertainty in Africa”

  15:20–16:00 All participants

  Discussion 1: Exploring anthropology of challenges and adventures

  16:00–16:20 Shiori Itaku (Tokyo Metropolitan University)

  An Examination of ‘Invisible Cities III’ in “Kinshasa”

  16:20–17:00 All participants

  Discussion 2: Exploring anthropology of challenges and adventures

The 1st meeting ：Report (Japanese)

• Date/Time: Sat 26 Apr 2025 14:00–18:00
• Venue: 301, Online meeting
• Language: Japanese

• 14:00-14:45 Shirabe OGATA (ILCAA)

  “Research proposal and the introduction to anthropology of challenges”

  14:45-16:00 Self-introduction and the prospect of the research

  1.Yuka TOMOMATSU (Hosei University) 2.Akinori HAMADA (The University of Tokyo) 3.Mikako TODA (Sophia University) 4.Shiori ITAKU (Tokyo　Metropolitan University) 5.Chihiro KUMASHIRO (TUFS) 6.Kana MIYAMOTO (TUFS) 7.Wakiko OHIRA (Sophia University) 8.Yukie NAKAO (National Museum of Ethnology) 9.Yukako YOSHIDA (ILCAA) 10.Hidetoshi KONDO (Kansai Gaidai) 11.Haruna YATSUKA (Tsuda University) 12.Shirabe OGATA (ILCAA)

  16:00-16:15 Break

  16:15-17:00 Hidetoshi KONDO (Kansai Gaidai)

  “By The Grace of God: A Provisional Thought on Challenging Lives”

  17:00-18:00

  “All joint research members "Discussions on the direction of the anthropology of challenges”

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