Francistown, Botswana: Research into traditional religion, housing, urban culture and globalisation (1988-2005) /

Francistown, Botswana: Onderzoek naar traditionele religie, huisvesting, stedelijke cultuur en globalisering (1998-2005)

Wim van Binsbergen

 

This webpage under construction (established April, 2010) brings together a number of Wim van Binsbergen's articles springing from his research from 1988 onwards. The texts listed below have already been made available here in hyperlinked form (the order is chronological; papers listed against an orange background are in Dutch, the rest in English):

Deze pagina onder constructie (ingericht april 2010) brengt een aantal van Wim van Binsbergens artikelen samen zoals voortgekomen uit zijn onderzoek vanaf 1988. De teksten in onderstaande lijst worden hier al beschikbaar gesteld in de vorm van aanklikbare hyperlinks (de volgorde van de lijst is chronologisch; de titels tegen een oranje achtergrond zijn in het Nederlands, de overige in Engels):

all texts (c) copyright 2010 Wim M.J. van Binsbergen, Haarlem, the Netherlands

proceed to the Shikanda portal in order to access all other websites by Wim van Binsbergen: general (intercultural philosophy, African Studies); ethnicity-identity-politics; Afrocentricity and the Black Athena debate; Ancient Models of Thought in Africa, the Ancient Near East, and prehistory; sangoma consultation; literary work
ga verder naar het Shikanda portal voor alle andere webpagina's van Wim van Binsbergen (interculturele filosofie, Afrika-onderzoek; ethniciteit-identiteit-politiek; Afrocentrisme en het Black Athena debat; Oude Denkmodellen in Afrika, het Oude Nabije Oosten, en de prehistory; sangoma consulten; literair werk

keer terug naar / return to: full, hyperlinked list of publications Wim van Binsbergen | Shikanda portal | topicalities page |

Zoekmachine voor de gehele Shikanda website / Internal Search Facility for the Shikanda site

 
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no. full bibiographical description, and link remarks etc.
1 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1988 ,‘Stedelijke Cultuur in Francistown, Noordoost-District, Botswana: Voorstel voor een exploratief onderzoek', Leiden: African Studies Centre, 32 pp. in Dutch
2 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1989, Provisional bibliography of the Kalanga and North East Botswana (draft), ARU/ASC Progress Report no. 2, Research project: 'The growth of urban society in Francistown', Francistown: African Studies Centre University of Leiden / Applied Research Unit Ministry of Local Government and Lands Republic of Botswana
3 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1989 (b), (with the assistance of E. Krijnen) ‘A preliminary quantitative analysis of plot ‘‘owners’’ in the PWD squatter area, Francistown, 1989’, Francistown: Applied Research Unit Ministry of Local Government and Lands, Republic of Botswana/ African Studies Centre, Leiden, 90 pp.
4 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1989, ‘Housing procedures and urban social patterns: A preliminary statistical analysis of applications for site-&-service (SHHA) plots in Francistown in the years 1984-1988,’ Francistown: Applied Research Unit Ministry of Local Government and Lands, Republic of Botswana/ African Studies Centre, Leiden, 75 pp.
5 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1990, 'Church, cult, and lodge: In quest of therapeutic meaning in Francistown, Botswana', paper presented at the 6th Satterthwaite Colloquium on African Religion and Ritual, Cumbria (U.K.), April 21-24, 1990; at: http://www.shikanda.net/francistown.htm  
6 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1990, ‘Een maaltijd op het land: Religieus veldwerk in Botswana, 1990’, in D. Foeken & K. van der Meulen, Eten met Gerrit: Een bloemlezing van eet- en drinkervaringen van Nederlandse afrikanisten, gegarneerd met toepasselijke recepten; samengesteld ter gelegenheid van het afscheid van Gerrit Grootenhuis als algemeen secretaris van het Afrika-Studiecentrum, Leiden: African Studies Centre, 1990, pp. 112-122. in Dutch
7 van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1991, ‘De chaos getemd? Samenwonen en zingeving in modern Afrika’, in: H.J.M. Claessen red., De chaos getemd?, Leiden: Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen, Rijksuniversiteit Leiden, 1991, pp. 31-47; also as fulltext at: http://shikanda.net/publications/ASC-1239806-047.pdf in Dutch
8 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1991, ‘Becoming a sangoma: Religious anthropological field-work in Francistown, Botswana’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 21, 4: 309-344. reprinted in: van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2003, Intercultural encounters: African and anthropological towards a philosophy of interculturality, Berlin / Boston / Muenster: LIT; also as webpage at my site on African religion
9 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1993, ‘Making sense of urban space in Francistown, Botswana’, in: P.J.M. Nas, ed., Urban symbolism, Leiden: Brill, Studies in Human Societies, volume 8, pp. 184-228.  
10 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1993, ‘African Independent churches and the state in Botswana’, in M. Bax & A. de Koster, eds., Power and prayer: Essays on Religion and politics, CentREPOL-VU Studies 2, Amsterdam: VU University Press, pp. 24-56.  
11 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1994, ‘Minority language, ethnicity and the state in two African situations: the Nkoya of Zambia and the Kalanga of Botswana’, in: Fardon, R. & Furniss, G., red., African languages, development and the state, Londen etc.: Routledge, pp. 142-188.  
12 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1994, ‘Proposed research programme: Traditional healing in Botswana today’, Leiden: African Studies Centre, memorandum to the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Health, Republic of Botswana, 9 pp  
13 van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 1994, ‘Statement of intent: Proposed joint research on ethnicity in Botswana: A programme to be undertaken by the National Institute of Development Research and Documentation, University of Botswana, and the African Studies Centre, Leiden University, The Netherlands’, research proposal, WOTRO programme on globalization and the construction of communal identities, 14 pp.  
14 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1995, ‘Four-tablet divination as trans-regional medical technology in Southern Africa’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 25, 2: 114-140  
15 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1995, ‘Aspects of democracy and democratisation in Zambia and Botswana: Exploring political culture at the grassroots’, Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 13, 1: 3-33. reprinted as item 27
16 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1995, ‘Globalisation and decivilisation in urban Botswana: Towards a transcultural aesthetics?’, paper read at the EIDOS (European Interuniversity Development Opportunity Studies network) Conference on globalisation and decivilisation, Agricultural University Wageningen, The Netherlands, 14-16 December 1995, 20 pp.  
17 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1996, ‘Transregional and historical connections of four-tablet divination in Southern Africa’, Journal of Religion in Africa, 26, 1: 2-29  
18 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1997, Virtuality as a key concept in the study of globalisation: Aspects of the symbolic transformation of contemporary Africa, The Hague: WOTRO, Working papers on Globalisation and the construction of communal identity, 3.
contains discussions of Francistown urban culture as being virtualised
19 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1998, ‘Sangoma in Nederland: Over integriteit in interculturele bemiddeling’, in: Elias, M., & Reis, R., eds., Getuigen ondanks zichzelf: Voor Jan-Matthijs Schoffeleers bij zijn zeventigste verjaardag, Maastricht: Shaker, pp. 1-29 revised English version as item 25

in Dutch

20 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 1999, ‘Mary’s room: A case study on becoming a consumer in Botswana, Francistown’, in: Fardon, R., van Binsbergen, W.M.J., & van Dijk, R., 1999, eds., Modernity on a shoestring: Dimensions of globalization, consumption and development in Africa and beyond: Based on an EIDOS conference held at The Hague 13-16 March 1997, Leiden/London: EIDOS [ European Interuniversity Deveopment Opportunities Study group ] , pp. 179-206
21 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 2000, ‘La chambre de Mary, ou comment devenir consommatrice a Francistown, Botswana’, in: de Lame, D., & Zabus, C., 2000, eds., Changements au feminin en Afrique noire: Anthropologie et literature, vol I., Anthropologie, Paris: L’Harmattan, pp. 37-85  
22 van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2000, ‘Crossing cultural boundaries’, Compass Newsletter: For endogenous development, Number 3, July 2000, ‘Vitality, Health and Disease: In soils, crops, animals and people’, guest editor Sarshan Shankar, pp. 12-13.  
23 van Binsbergen, W.M.J., 2003, ‘Sangoma en filosoof: Eenheid in de praktijk, dilemma in de theorie’, in: Bulhof, I.N., Poorthuis, M., & Bhagwandin, V., eds., Mijn plaats is geen plaats: Ontmoetingen tussen wereldbeschouwingen, Kampen: Klement-Pelckmans, pp. 219-231
in Dutch
24 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 2003, ‘The translation of Southern African sangoma divination towards a global format, and the validity of the knowledge it produces’, in: van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., Intercultural encounters: African and anthropological lessons towards a philosophy of interculturality, Berlin/Muenster, LIT, pp. 235-297
25 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 2003, 'Sangoma in the North Atlantic region: On integrity in intercultural mediation', in: van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., Intercultural encounters: African and anthropological lessons towards a philosophy of interculturality, Berlin/Muenster, LIT, pp. 195-233.
26 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 2003, 'The high priest’s two riddles: Intimations of sangomahood as a translocal idiom’, in: van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., Intercultural encounters: African and anthropological lessons towards a philosophy of interculturality, Berlin/Muenster, LIT, pp. 299-313.
27 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 2004, 'Aspects of Democracy and Democratization in Zambia and Botswana', in: Tom Young,. ed., Readings in African Politics, International Africa Institute in cooperation with Indiana University Press and James Currey, London etc., 2004: 202-214 reprinted from the Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 1995 (= item 15)
28 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 2003, 'Improvising away from fixed verbal formulae in the four-tablet oracle of sangomas in contemporary Botswana', paper presented at the session ‘Het discours van de expert, orale traditie tussen formule en uitvoeringtradition between formula and ’ (‘the expert’s discourse: oral performanceAssociation of African Studies, 2003 ’), Convenor: Jan Jansen, Netherlands Conferentie perspectives in Africa studies’, 26 ‘Power, Politics and Poetry: Dutch september, Faculteit Sociale Wetenschappen, Pieter de la Courtgebouw, Wassenaarseweg 52, Leiden  
29 van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., 2005, ‘ ‘‘We are in this for the money’’: Commodification and the sangoma cult of Southern Africa’ in: van Binsbergen, Wim M.J., & Peter Geschiere, 2005, eds., Commodification: Things, Agency and Identities: The social life of Things revisited, Berlin/Muenster: LIT, ISBN 3-8258-8804-5, pp. 319-348 + bibliography pp. 351-378; full text at: http://shikanda.net/topicalities/Wim_van_Binsbergen_Commodification_and_sangoma_cult.pdf (bibliography at: http://shikanda.net/topicalities/Commodification_cumulative_bibliography.pdf )
30 in het kader van de Jumelage Genk (Belgie) / Francistown, hield ik een voordracht: 'De stad Francistown in Noord Oost Botswana, geschetst in haar sociaal-historische ontwikkeling: Presentatie voor de Gemeentelijke Stuurgroep Jumelage Genk / Francistown, Gemeentehuis, Genk (Belgie)', dinsdag 20 april 2010, 11.00-13.30 uur; klik hier om deze presentatie te openen in Dutch
     
     
     
     
     

 

Note. Wim van Binsbergen's fieldwork in Francistown and subsequent training and initiation into the sangoma ecstatic cult became the starting-point for extensive transregional, even intercontinental comparative research on geomantic divination and related formal systems, comparative mythology, etc. Not all papers in these fields have been listed here. See the log of his current research since 2002, and specifically on sangoma, on divination, and on ancient models of thought (click the links).

proceed to the Shikanda portal in order to access all other websites by Wim van Binsbergen: general (intercultural philosophy, African Studies); ethnicity-identity-politics; Afrocentricity and the Black Athena debate; Ancient Models of Thought in Africa, the Ancient Near East, and prehistory; sangoma consultation; literary work
 

return to: Shikanda portal | topicalities page

PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. The page-title illustrations featuring on this website show, from left to right: (1) A cattle-plague barrier evoking a very solid boundary such as usually does not exist between human groups except in the images they form of one another; (2) A visual ornament inspired by the colours of Panafricanism; and (3) Men belonging to the Nkoya people in western Central Zambia, Africa, bringing the royal salute to the graves of their kings; among this people -- to whom several pages of the present website will be devoted -- the kingship is the main underpinning of ethnic identity. A similar situation obtains in many societies in and outside Africa. The abstract background illustration conveys the combination of fluidity and contrast, merging and opposition, which in the author's view is one of the main features of ethnicity, as a deliberate and often flimsy social construction which yet takes on the suggestion of inescapable reality to the people identifying under a particular ethnic or national designation.

 

page last modified: 20-04-10 19:33:51