Birders of Africa: History of a network

The Centre for Indian Studies in Africa (CISA) will host historian, Nancy Jacobs from Brown University to present this seminar.

In her unique and unprecedented monograph on birding in Africa, Jacobs reconstructed the collaborations between well-known ornithologists and the largely forgotten guides, hunters, and taxidermists who worked with them.

Drawing on ethnography, scientific publications, private archives, and interviews, Jacobs addressed several questions: How did white ornithologists both depend on and operate distinctively from African birders? What investment did African birders have in collaborating with ornithologists?

By distilling the interactions between European science and African vernacular knowledge, this stunningly illustrated work offers a fascinating examination of the colonial and postcolonial politics of expertise about nature.

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