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This book seeks to widen perspectives on entrepreneurship by drawing attention to the diverse and partly new forms of entrepreneurial practice in Africa since the 1990s. Contrary to widespread assertions, figures of success have been regularly observed in Africa since pre-colonial times. The contributions account for these historical continuities in entrepreneurship, and identify the specifically new political and economic context within which individuals currently probe and invent novel forms of enterprise. Based on ethnographically contextualized life stories and case studies of female and male entrepreneurs, the volume offers a vivid and multi-perspectival account of their strategies, visions and ventures in domains as varied as religious proselytism, politics, tourism, media, music, prostitution, funeral organization, and education. African cultural entrepreneurs have a significant economic impact, attract the attention of large groups of people, serve as role models for many youths, and contribute to the formation of new popular cultures.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Forging Fortunes: New Perspectives on Entrepreneurial Activities in Africa Ute Röschenthaler and Dorothea Schulz Part I: Making Moral Communities 2. Religious Entrepreneurs in Ghana Karen Lauterbach 3. Let's Do Good for Islam: Two Muslim Entrepreneurs in Niamey, Niger Abdoulaye Sounaye 4. Entrepreneurial Discipleship: Cooking up Women’s Sufi Leadership in Dakar Joseph Hill 5. Social Values and Social Entrepreneurship at the University of Makeni: An Episode in the Reconstruction of Sierra Leone David O’Kane 6. Political Entrepreneurship in Cameroon Antoine Socpa Part II: Business, Pleasure, Leisure 7. Entrepreneurship in South Africa’s Emergent Township Funeral Industry Rebekah Lee 8. Sand, Sun and Toyotas: Tuareg Entrepreneurship in Desert Tourism in Niger Marko Scholze 9. "I Took My Life in My Own Hands": The Clandestine Business of Prostitution in Bamako Inès Neubauer 10. Everyday Entrepreneurs and Big Men: Facets of Entrepreneurship in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo Silke Oldenburg Part III: Media and Popular Culture 11. Entrepreneurial Trajectories and Figures of the Cameroonian Mediascape Olivier Atemsing Ndenkop 12. Aspiring to Be Praised with Many Names: Success and Obstacles in Malian Media Entrepreneurship Ute Röschenthaler 13. The Women Behind the Camera: Female Entrepreneurship in the Southern Nigerian Video Film Industry Alessandro Jedlowksi 14. You Have to Be Brave and Fearless: Video Film Entrepreneurs' Practices and Discourses in Tanzania Claudia Böhme 15. Investiture and Investment of a Prominent Singer: The (Ad)venture of the Youssou Ndour Head Office Ibrahima Wane
About the author
Ute Röschenthaler is Professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany, and a member of the Cluster of Excellence "The Formation of Normative Orders" and the research program "Africa's Asian Options" at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany.
Dorothea Schulz is Professor in the Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Cologne, Germany.
Summary
This edited volume widens perspectives on cultural inventiveness in Africa by exploring forms of cultural entrepreneurship since the 1990s. Contributions illustrate the diversity of these initiatives by presenting the biographies of female and male entrepreneurs who venture into domains as diverse as religious proselytism, politics, tourism, media, music and funeral organization.
