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Conference (MIASA-PAPA): Sustainable Governance in Africa. The Usefulness of the Concept of Crisis

This conference marked the second collaboration between MIASA and the Pilot African Postgraduate Academy (PAPA), funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation and led by Prof. Mamadou Diawara, MIASA’s director (Germany) and Prof. Elisio Macamo of the University of Basel in Switzerland, who is also a member of the MIASA Academic Advisory Board. Together with PAPA Fellows Dr Gérard Amougou, Dr Abdoulaye Imorou, Dr Issouf Binaté, Dr Rose Essoh de Lima, Dr Lamine Savané, Dr Zakaria Soré, Dr Fabert Mensah Ngoma and Tina Tra, they convened the conference, which was held from 12 to 14 June 2025 and hosted by Dr. Chikouna Cissé and the University Felix Houphouët Boigny in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. A total of 340 applications were submitted, from which the 19 presentations were compiled. In addition, the director Dr Julius Disthelhoff of MECAM in Tunis as well as a MECAM fellow also took part thus reinforcing the close relationship between the two Merian institutes in Africa. The participants, including 10 female scholars, came from Burkina Faso, Cameroun, France, Gabon, Germany, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Jamaica, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Switzerland, Tunisia and Zimbabwe, and represented a wide range of scientific disciplines.

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The conference questioned the general tendency in the media, politics and research to describe certain phenomena/realities in Africa using the concept of crisis. In what sense, for example, can we speak of a security crisis in the light of current events in Africa, marked by the proliferation of armed terrorist groups, the resurgence of coups d’état, and the emergence of self-defense groups? What relevance does the concept of crisis have in the quest to understand these various manifestations in African societies? Are we not running the risk of misunderstanding these manifestations in their entirety if we do not judiciously define the concept of crisis? By re-examining the various uses of the concept from different disciplinary perspectives, the event aimed to gain a better understanding of the phenomena presented in the papers and to enrich the conceptual and analytical tools used by researchers in describing them.

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The papers and discussions highlighted various perspectives on the concept of crisis in Africa, emphasizing the need for a nuanced and context-specific approach. Participants cautioned that the term “crisis” can be normative, suggesting the need to decolonize knowledge and methods. A key takeaway was the importance of acknowledging diverse disciplinary viewpoints and avoiding a rush to consensus, as this diversity is a strength. Furthermore, the term “crisis” does not have an obvious or self-evident meaning. The very act of naming a situation a “crisis” is an act of power, and what one person calls a “crisis” is not necessarily understood in the same way by others. It is therefore important to ask “who speaks of crisis?” to understand how and why people use it in their specific contexts or rather apply different notions. Fieldwork is the key to understand this process, as it allows researchers to give a voice to the ground realities and to produce knowledge by characterizing events in their own way, thus contributing to the broader academic discourse.

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OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Marko Scholze (November 17, 2025). Conference (MIASA-PAPA): Sustainable Governance in Africa. The Usefulness of the Concept of Crisis. Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa - Blog. Retrieved December 11, 2025 from https://miasa.hypotheses.org/5452


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