Section: African Studies

Wolfgang Zeller

Name
Mr Wolfgang Zeller
Title
Co-ordinator - African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE)
Organisation
African Studies, School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh
Address
5.03 Chrystal Macmillan Building 15a George Square Edinburgh UK EH8 9LD
Telephone
+44 (0)131 651 3134
E-Mail
URL
http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/staff/african_studies/wolfgang_zeller
picture

Research interest:

Political anthropology, geography and history of African borderlands and boundaries

Policing, vigilantism and smuggling

Border boom towns

Cross-border trade in zones of protracted conflict

Extraction and transnational trade of mineral resources  

Transport corridors and bridges

“Traditional” authority and politics

Namibia (Caprivi); Zambia (Western Province); Lozi kingdom; borderland of Uganda, DR Congo and Sudan

Outline Biography

After completing my B.A. degree in Geography at the Westfälische wilhelms Universität in Münster I left my native Germany in 1994 on a one-year ERASMUS scholarship at the geography department of the University of Helsinki, Finland. I completed my M.A. degree and wrote my thesis on traditional authority and resource management in Namibia’s Caprivi Region in 1999. I worked at the Embassy of Finland in Windhoek as a research trainee in 1999/2000 and returned to Finland to teach various University courses and chop a lot of firewood. In 2002 I embarked on my doctoral dissertation project on Everyday State Formation in the Borderland of Naminbia and Zambia, with financing from the Finnish Academy, the Nordic Africa Institute (Uppsala) and the Finnish Graduate School for Development Studies. In 2006 I was a guest PhD researcher at Roskilde University’s Department for International Development Studies. In 2007 I was a founding member of the African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE). The network was awarded 5-year financing from the European Science Foundation’s Research Networking Programme, and in 2009 I relocated to Scotland to take up my position as ABORNE’s co-ordinator.

Teaching

I have developed and taught undergraduate courses and lectures on Development & Security, Mineral Extraction and Colonial Legacies in post-colonial Africa in the Universities of Helsinki and Edinburgh.

Publications

forthcoming 2010: Neither Arbitrary nor Artificial: Lozi Chiefs and the Making of the Namibia-Zambia Borderland. Journal of Borderland Studies.

2010: ‘Illicit Resource Flows in Sugango – Making War and Profit in the Border Triangle of Sudan, Uganda and Congo-DRC’, In Henni Alava (ed), Exploring the Security-Development Nexus. Perspectives from Nepal, Northern Uganda and 'Sugango'. 111-130. Helsinki: Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

2009: Danger and Opportunity in Katima Mulilo: A Namibian Border Boomtown at Transnational Crossroads. Journal of Southern African Studies 35(1). 133-154.

2007: W.Z. and Bennett Kangumu Kangumu: ’Caprivi Under Old and New Indirect Rule: Falling off the Map or a 19th Century Dream Come True?’, In H. Melber (ed), Transitions in Namibia – Which Changes for Whom? 190-208. Uppsala: Nordic Africa Institute.

2007: Chiefs, Policing and Vigilantes: “Cleaning Up” the Caprivi Borderland of Namibia. In L. Buur and H. M. Kyed (eds), State Recognition and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: A New Dawn for Traditional Authorities? 79-104. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

2007: ”Now we are a Town”: Chiefs, Investors, and the State in Zambia's Western Province. In L. Buur and H. M. Kyed (eds), State Recognition and Democratization in Sub-Saharan Africa: A New Dawn for Traditional Authorities? 209-231. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

2000: Interests and socio-economic development in the Caprivi Region - from a historical perspective. Namibia Economic Policy Research Unit Occassional paper 19. Windhoek: NEPRU.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This page was published on 12 March 2010


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