Africa is not ONE country

In the summer semester of 2023, the University of Bayreuth, together with partners in the Czech Republic, France and Italy, successfully held the international seminar Comparative African Politics: 'Africa is not a country' for 24 MA and PhD students. The attendance part at the Czech host university Hradec Králové was preceded by online lectures in May and June, in which students and lecturers from all four partner universities took part.

The students examined and analysed various aspects of contemporary African politics from a comparative perspective, including issues of language and diversity politics, urban and international developments, as well as human rights, elections and democratisation. "The coup in Niger currently dominates the image of Africa in the European media and is often hastily and over-generalised linked to geopolitical factors of influence. Domestic conditions and patterns of relations, the rapid growth of African cities, the uneven economic development of different countries and regions or even the important elections in the most populous country Nigeria in February receive far less attention. However, cooperation between European and African partners must keep the complexity and diversity of developments on the continent in mind in order to avoid erroneous analyses," says Prof. Dr. Alexander Stroh-Steckelberg, political scientist at the University of Bayreuth.

The participants of the seminar were shown ways to analyse this complexity appropriately and were able to discuss them critically in a very diverse group. The participation certificate therefore not only provides 4 ECTS on the personal transcript, but is also proof of joint work in an international group and across the peculiarities of individual European university systems.

In addition to the University of Bayreuth and the University of Hradec Králové, the universities Sciences Po in Bordeaux (France) and L'Orientale in Naples (Italy) were also involved. All four institutions are part of EURESTRA, a European alliance of twelve universities that want to intensively develop their cooperation in teaching and research - among other things in blended intensive learning programmes such as the Erasmus+ seminar "Comparative African Politics: Africa is not a country" that just ended in Hradec Králové.