Repair across Africa: Mending, Making and Material Care

Examines repair as a dynamic social, material, cultural, and economic practice. Spanning diverse African contexts, it explores how mending connects labour, urban lives, and historical memories, revealing the artisanal skills and relational dynamics that underpin everyday acts of material care and transformation. 150 col. illus. Repair across Africa is the first edited collection to focus specifically on repair in African contexts, bringing together a diverse group of scholars and practitioners from anthropology, geography, musicology, architecture, history, and critical urban studies. Moving beyond a narrow understanding of repair as merely fixing broken things, this volume explores it as a relational practice that bridges past and present, and connects the material with the social, economic, and spiritual. The essays investigate the role of repair by mitigating the wear and tear of time in everyday life, by confronting the impact of violence and destruction and addressing environmental disasters as well as the enduring legacies of colonial and postcolonial histories that continue to shape urban transformation. Highlighting the commitment and artisanal skill, the ingenuity and traditions behind these practices, the contributors illuminate how repair becomes a vital practice of care, adaptation and contestation in a rapidly changing world, while also acknowledging the material constraints and economic pressures that often make it necessary and sometimes hazardous. By situating repair within broader critiques of late capitalism and colonialism, and within longstanding anthropological scholarship, this multidisciplinary volume opens new conversations in material culture, heritage, urban life and the politics of infrastructure. Charline Kopf and Paul Wenzel Geissler are anthropologists at the University of Oslo, Norway, working respectively on infrastructure, maintenance and materiality, and on the anthropology of science and biopolitical afterlives. Aïssatou Mbodj-Pouye is an anthropologist at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique in France, specialising in mobility, media and sound archives. Lotte Meinert is professor of anthropology at Aarhus University in Denmark, with particular interests in health, land and post-conflict transformation. An exploration of the multifaceted practices of repair across the African continent. Moving beyond a simple understanding of repair as fixing broken objects, this volume explores the cultural, social, and economic dimensions of mending and material care. It considers repair as a relational act that bridges past and future, blending tradition with innovation. The collection spans diverse African contexts, from urban centres to rural areas, showcasing how repair intersects with labour, urban life, natural and spiritual environments, and historical memory. Essays explore themes such as the role of repair in mitigating the wear and tear of time, addressing environmental disasters, examining colonial and postcolonial histories and their implications for urban transformation, and highlighting the artisanal skill and ingenuity behind these practices. Contributors draw on anthropology, architecture, history, and critical urban studies to illuminate how repair can be a form of resistance, care, and adaptation in a rapidly changing world. Richly illustrated and methodologically innovative, Repair across Africa highlights Africa's global relevance by situating its practices within broader critiques of late capitalism and the Anthropocene. Illuminates the connection between symbolic and material repair, particularly in light of the ongoing debates about colonial legacies and reparations owed to African societies for the harms done by colonialism. Essential reading for scholars and practitioners interested in material culture, urban studies, and the politics of sustainability.