Connecting in Times of Duress works together with a number of international associate researchers and associate students, many of whom based in Central Africa.

Associate Researchers

Dr. Bruce Mutsvairo (UK/AU)

Bruce Mutsvairo studied social media activism in sub-Saharan Africa at Northumbria University Newcastle, UK and is currently Associate Professor in Journalism Innovation at the University of Technology Sydney’s School of Communication. His PhD at Leiden University was supervised by Prof. Mirjam de Bruijn and Prof. Menno de Jong. See also his personal website.

Dr. Djimet Seli (Tchad)

Djimet Seli attended the University of N’Djamena (Chad) from 1998 to 2006. He obtained a Master’s degree in History (2004) and another one in Mass Communications (2006). Since February 2013, he holds a PhD from the University of Leiden.

On Wednesday 13 Februay 2013 Djimet Seli defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘(De)connexions identitaires post-conflit: les Hadjeray du Tchad face à la mobilité et aux technologies de la communication’. This study deals with the mobility of the Hadjaraï (mountain dwellers) in their relation with their diaspora.

Djimet is currently lecturer, researcher and head of the Department of Anthropology at the University of N’Djamena.

Dr. Walter Gam Nkwi (Cameroon)

Walter Gam Nkwi holds a PhD in Social History/ Social Anthropology from the Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands. On May 24th 2011 he succesfully defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘Kfaang and its technologies. Towards a social history of mobility in Kom, Cameroon, 1928-1998’ (promoters Prof. Mirjam de Bruijn and Prof. dr. F.B. Nyamnjoh (University of Cape Town).

He is currently a Senior lecturer at the University of Buea teaching Social and Labour History at the Department of History.

Associate PhD Students

Pamela Ijeoma (NL)

Pamela Ijeoma is a PhD researcher at the Leiden University of the Netherlands. She holds a masters degree in Organization Sciences from the Vrije university of Amsterdam. Her MA thesis addresses the influences of a platform technology (Philips Uday Lantern) on women small businesses in rural Africa. Her love for researching female entrepreneurship inspired her PhD research titled; ‘In pursuit of economic independence: Narratives of Afro-migrant informal small business women living in the Netherlands’.

Associate Master Students

Allahissem Bruno MA (Tchad)

Allahissem Bruno holds a Master of Anthropology of the University of N’djamena – Faculty of Humanities and Social sciences, Department of Anthropology. He completed his Master education in 2015. His MA thesis ‘Pratiques et perceptions du hip-hop dans le quartier Chagoua’ (‘Practices and perceptions of hip-hop in the quarter Chagoua’) was supervised by Prof. Mirjam de Bruijn (University of Leiden) and co-supervised by Prof. Khalil Alio (University of N’djamena) and had received financial and other support from the Mobile Africa Revisited research programme and CTD.

Elie Lewa Doksala MA (Tchad)

Elie’s MA thesis on the Wodaabé, a Fulani nomadic group, ‘Crises, néo-nomadisme et appropriation de la téléphonie mobile en milieu Wodaabé’ was supervised by Prof. Mirjam de Bruijn (University of Leiden) and co-supervised by Dr. Djimet Seli (University of N’djamena). It is the first work on this topic written in Chad. In his paper, Elie examines the impact of the forced sedentarisation which the CAR crisis administered on the Woodabé group. The study is based on a fieldwork research in the city of Dourbali, one hundred kilometres from N’djamena.