Michaela Pelican

Selected Publications

For the full list of publications, see complete CV

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-3173-2410, Scopus author ID: 25959246200
If you have no access to the journal articles, please contact me.
 

Monographs

Pelican, Michaela. 2015. Masks and Staffs: Identity Politics in the Cameroon Grassfields. Oxford, New York: Berghahn. Read introduction Book reviews by Peter Geschiere, 2018, Africa 88(3): 626-627; Jude Fokwang, 2016, American Anthropologist 118(4): 849-850; Ousmanou Adama, 2016, Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Afrikastudien. Newsletter 2016-2.

Pelican, Michaela. 2006. Getting along in the Grassfields: interethnic relations and identity politics in Northwest Cameroon. Halle, Saale: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt.

Pelican, Michaela. 1999. Die Arbeit der Mbororo-Frauen früher und heute: eine Studie zum Wandel der sozio-ökonomischen Situation semi-nomadischer Fulbe-Frauen in Nordwest Kamerun. Bayreuth: Universitätsbibliothek Bayreuth.

Edited volumes/special issues

Pelican, Michaela, Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf, and Karim Zafer (eds.). 2020. Flucht - Familie - soziale Netzwerke: Forschungen mit Geflüchteten in und um Köln. Kölner Arbeitspapiere für Ethnologie (KAE) No. 08.

Pelican, Michaela and Sofie Steinberger (eds.). 2017. Melilla. Perspectives on a Border Town. Kölner Arbeitspapiere zur Ethnologie 6. Institut für Ethnologie, Universität zu Köln.

University of Cologne Forum "Ethnicity as a Political Resource" (ed.). 2015. Ethnicity as a political resource: Conceptualizations across Disciplines, Regions, and Periods. Bielefeld: Transcript. Open Access E-Book

Maruyama, Junko and Michaela Pelican (eds.). 2015. Indigenous Identities and Ethnic Coexistence in Africa. Special issue of African Study Monographs 36(1).

Pelican, Michaela and Mahir Şaul (eds.). 2014. African Global Entrepreneurs, Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development (UAS) 43: 1,2,3.

Heiss, Jan Patrick and Michaela Pelican (eds.). 2014. "Making a Future" in Contemporary Africa. Special issue of Journal des Africanistes 84(1).

Pelican, Michaela (ed.). 2014. BAOHAN Street: An African Community in Guangzhou. Documentary photographs by Li Dong. Kölner Arbeitspapiere zur Ethnologie 4. Institut für Ethnologie, Universität zu Köln.

Damir-Geilsdorf, Sabine, Mira Menzfeld und Michaela Pelican (eds.). 2014. Islam und Sport: Einblicke in das interdisziplinäre Forschungs- und Lehrprojekt „Ethnographie vor der Haustür“ der Universität zu Köln. Kölner Arbeitspapiere zur Ethnologie 5. Institut für Ethnologie, Universität zu Köln.

Selected articles and book chapters

Barabantseva, Elena, Caroline Grillot, Michaela Pelican. 2023. Embodied by state borders: citizenship negotiations of children in Chinese–foreign families in the People’s Republic of China. JEMS, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2023.2206000 (open access)

Pelican, Michaela. 2022. Studying conflict and ethnicity through performative and audio-visual research methods. In: M. Höhne, E. Gabbert, J. Eidson (eds.). Dynamics of Identification and Conflict: Anthropological Encounters. New York/Oxford: Berghahn, 105-133.

Pelican, Michaela. 2022. The Anglophone conflict in Cameroon – historical and political background. Freiburg: ABI Working Paper 20.

Pelican, Michaela, Kim Schumann, Sina Plücken, David Drew. 2022. Mbororo under Attack: Extreme Speech and Violence in the Anglophone Conflict in Cameroon. Freiburg: ABI Working Paper 21.

Ngeh, Jonathan and Michaela Pelican. 2022. Innovation, music and future making of African youths in a challenging environment: examples from Cameroon and Nigeria. In: C. Greiner, M. Bollig and S. Van Wolputte (eds.) African Futures. Leiden, Boston MA: Brill Academic Publisher.

Damir-Geilsdorf, Sabine and Michaela Pelican. 2019. Between regular and irregular employment: Subverting the kafala system in the GCC countries. Migration and Development 8(2): 155-175.

Ngeh, Jonathan und Michaela Pelican. 2018. Intersectionality and the Labour Market in the United Arab Emirates: the Experiences of African Migrants. Zeitschrift für Ethnologie 143(2): 171-194.

Pelican, Michaela. 2015. Neoliberal Challenges and Transnational Lives of Cameroonian Migrants in Dubai. In: Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf and Dale F. Eickelman (eds.). Africa and the Gulf Region: Blurred Boundaries and Shifting Ties. Berlin: Gerlach Press: 92-110. Abstract This contribution focuses on Cameroonian migrants in Dubai. It uses the framework of neoliberalism to shed light on the structural constraints – both the global inequalities and the disciplining techniques – that impact on the lives and agency of migrants in the Gulf. At the same time, the contribution will discuss the migrants’ own assessment of capitalist opportunities and constraints. As I will argue, their views and practices challenge widespread assumptions about labor migrants’ economic and legal impasse in the Gulf. The chapter will thus contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the culturally and regionally specific workings of neoliberalism as well as the interconnections between Africa and the Gulf.

Pelican, Michaela and Junko Maruyama. 2015. The Indigenous Rights Movement in Africa: Perspectives from Botswana and Cameroon. African Study Monographs 36(1): 49-74. Abstract This article outlines the different trajectories of the indigenous rights movement in Africa, and discusses the factors that have contributed to its success or decline. Two case studies are compared; namely, the case of the San people of Botswana in Southern Africa, and the case of the Mbororo people of Cameroon in West Africa. On a general level, this article argues that the indigenous rights movement in different parts of Africa has gone through various phases, from expectation and success to disillusionment and pragmatism. Moreover, it demonstrates that the San and Mbororo communities and other groups not only rely on the global indigenous rights movement, but have also adopted alternative and complementary strategies to deal with the unforeseen consequences of this movement. Finally, we argue that our case studies attest to the enduring relevance of the nation-state and the ideal of ethnic coexistence in Africa.

Pelican, Michaela and Jan Patrick Heiss. 2014. "Making a future" in contemporary Africa. Introduction. Journal des Africanistes 84(1): 7-19. Abstract We speak of making a future, because a future is not only conceived of, it is not only a product of imagination, but it is also confronted and constructed through action, in a back-and forth process between actors and their environment. The processes that “making a future” consists of and the ways they differ between actors and societies, will be illustrated by the case studies in this special issue and will be become clearer in the course of this text.

Şaul, Mahir and Michaela Pelican. 2014. Global African Entrepreneurs: A new research perspective on contemporary African migration. Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development (UAS) 43: 1-16. Abstract So far, public and scholarly engagement has focused on western perceptions of African migrants as political or economic refugees. Concurrently, the debates have centered on issues of integration, exclusion, xenophobia, brain drain, transnationalism, remittances, etc. In this special issue, we like to get away from the perspective of African migrants as “victims” and the idea of a uni-directional impetus (people going abroad, money flowing back). We would rather stress the self-directed nature of migration, migrants' entrepreneurial aspiration and orientation, and sometimes the success of these enterprises. Our geographic focus on South-South/East is not based on the assumption that African migration to the North is so much different, but rather that the new destinations in the South/East seem to resonate well with entrepreneurial aspirations.

Pelican, Michaela. 2014. Urban Lifeworlds of Cameroonian Migrants in Dubai. Urban Anthropology and Studies of Cultural Systems and World Economic Development (UAS) 43 : 255-309. Abstract This contribution engages with urban lifeworlds and strategies of place making of Cameroonian traders and migrants in Dubai. It outlines their economic, spatial, and social imprint on Dubai’s cityscape, and discusses migrants’ self-understanding and transnational aspirations against the background of the UAE immigration system.

Pelican, Michaela. 2013. Insights from Cameroon: Five years after the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Anthropology Today 29(3): 13-16. Abstract Five years have passed since the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. What difference has it made? Have the activists’ expectations materialized? How has the declaration been implemented? What are the responses of governmental and civil society actors? Drawing on institutional developments at the United Nations as well as the case of Cameroon and the Mbororo as a national minority group, this article aims to provide some answers to these questions.

Pelican, Michaela. 2013. International Migration: Virtue or Vice? Perspectives from Cameroon. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 39(2): 237-258. Abstract This article argues that both global and national power differences play a crucial role in shaping local imaginaries of international migration among youths in two Cameroonian cities - Bamenda and Yaoundé. While Yaoundé is the national capital, Bamenda is the headquarters of the Anglophone north-west, an area generally opposed to the ruling regime and claiming historical as well as contemporary political marginalisation. Physical mobility has long been associated with social mobility and viewed rather positively. In both areas more critical perspectives on international migration are emerging. This is reflected in differences in envisioned destinations as well as in terminologies and concepts. Thus, in Yaoundé 'the dangers of illegal migration' have become the topic of the day - a theme publicised by international organisations in collaboration with local NGOs. Conversely, youths in Bamenda consciously compare their conceptualisations of the advantages and disadvantages of life abroad on the basis of imparted experiences of migrant family members and friends. These discourses influence not only youths' perception of different forms of migrancy but also their assessment of their future in Cameroon. International migration is thus viewed in a broad discursive spectrum from virtue to vice, and perceptions are shaped by regional, national and international political discourse.

Pelican, Michaela. 2011. Mbororo on the move: from pastoral mobility to international travel. Journal of Contemporary African Studies 29(4): 427-440. Abstract This contribution deals with historical and contemporary experiences of mobility among Mbororo (Fulbe pastoralists) in northwest Cameroon. It examines the impact of these experiences on Mbororo interaction with their environment, and the emergence of ideas of tourism and heritage among Mbororo based in Cameroon and abroad. It argues that while Mbororo mobility has now attained a global scale, it is largely limited to the more prosperous and educated elite, and contributes to social stratification within Mbororo society.

Pelican, Michaela. 2009. Complexities of indigeneity and autochthony: an African example. American Ethnologist 36(1): 149-162. Abstract In this article, I deal with the complexities of "indigeneity" and "autochthony," two distinct yet closely interrelated concepts used by various actors in local, national, and international arenas in Africa and elsewhere. With the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations General Assembly in September 2007, hopes were high among activists and organizations that the precarious situation of many minority groups might be gradually improved. However, sharing the concerns of other scholars, I argue that discourses of indigeneity and autochthony are highly politicized, are subject to local and national particularities, and produce ambivalent, sometimes paradoxical, outcomes. My elaborations are based on in-depth knowledge of the case of the Mbororo in Cameroon, a pastoralist group and national minority recognized by the United Nations as an "indigenous people" although locally perceived as "strangers" and "migrants." For comparative purposes, and drawing on related studies, I integrate the Bagyeli and Baka (also known as Pygmies) of southern and southeastern Cameroon into my analysis, as they share the designation of indigenous people with the Mbororo and face similar predicaments.

Transfer: podcasts, exhibitions, documentary shorts

Podcast series 'Alter Voices - Covid Stories', outcome of the research unit 'The Production and Reproduction of Social Inequalities', 2022. Direct link to Spotify

Exhibition: China Migrant: Photographs and short films by Daniel Traub. IN-EAST Institute of East Asian Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen, November 2019 ‒ March 2020. Curators: Birgit Mersmann, Michaela Pelican, Daniel Traub.

Podcast Series 'Research, Action & Art', Department of Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Cologne, 2016; student contributions supervised by Caterina Reinker, Michaela Pelican and Sabine Damir-Geilsdorf.

Documentary short: Pelican, Michaela and Francesco Bondanini. 2014. Portrait of a Migrant Woman: Martha in Dubai, 14:20 min.

Documentary short: Pelican, Michaela and Nikolaus Greil. 2013. 'Performing Ethnography': Cameroonian masked performance enacted by anthropology students of the University of Cologne as part of the course on methods of visual and theatre anthropology, 5:31 min.

To view previous films see Visual and Media Anthropology

Radio interviews

Radio interview on witchcraft (clipping, in German), 6 min. WDR 5, Diesseits von Eden, 14.04.2013, contribution by Naima El Moussaoui

Interviews about the photo exhibition "Baohan Street: an African community in Guangzhou" DRadio Wissen, 15.10.2014, 06:35 min, by Grit Eggerichs Afrotown in Guangzhou – Gespräch mit Michaela Pelican DLF (Deutschlandfunk), 16.10.2014, 03:58 min, by Markus Dichmann Chocolate City – Fotoausstellung über Guangzhous schwarzes Viertel