Repair across Africa

An exploration of the multifaceted practices of repair across the African continent. Moving beyond a simple understanding of repair as fixing broken objects, this volume explores the cultural, social, and economic dimensions of mending and material care. It considers repair as a relational act that bridges past and future, blending tradition with innovation.

The collection spans diverse African contexts, from urban centres to rural areas, showcasing how repair intersects with labour, urban life, natural and spiritual environments, and historical memory. Essays explore themes such as the role of repair in mitigating the wear and tear of time, addressing environmental disasters, examining colonial and postcolonial histories and their implications for urban transformation, and highlighting the artisanal skill and ingenuity behind these practices.

Contributors draw on anthropology, architecture, history, and critical urban studies to illuminate how repair can be a form of resistance, care, and adaptation in a rapidly changing world. Richly illustrated and methodologically innovative, Repair across Africa highlights Africa's global relevance by situating its practices within broader critiques of late capitalism and the Anthropocene.

Illuminates the connection between symbolic and material repair, particularly in light of the ongoing debates about colonial legacies and reparations owed to African societies for the harms done by colonialism. Essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in material culture, urban studies, and the politics of sustainability.

Charline Kopf is a postdoctoral fellow in Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. Her research focuses on West Africa, with particular attention to infrastructures, mobilities, and labor dynamics in the region. Her current project examines the intersections of particles, pollution, protest, and industrial history in Senegal, with a focus on dust.

Wenzel Geissler teaches at the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. He mainly works in Eastern Africa. He is interested in the physical remains of modernity, research and scientific knowledge, and health and livelihood in East Africa's rapidly changing social and natural landscapes.

Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye is an anthropologist at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique in France, with fieldwork sites in West Africa and France. Her current project examines how mobility is conceptualized in the region of Kayes, Mali, through a study of a radio station and its sound archives.

Lotte Meinert works at the Department of Anthropology, Aarhus University. Her research centers on Uganda and issues of health, land, post-conflict, gender, generations and time.