Dynamics of Political Domination in Africa: An Axel Sommerfelt Collection

Axel Sommerfelt has been an important influence on Norwegian and Scandinavian anthropology, but his contributions are almost unknown. This book brings together some of his critical writings, newly written articles and an interview which positions him in the history of ’North Sea’ social anthropology and shows his continued relevance. An Africanist, Sommerfelt did research in Ruwenzori (Uganda and Belgian Congo), but also wrote about the Tallensi (Ghana) and worked for years in Salisbury (Harare) before being evicted by Ian Smith’s racist regime in 1966. His contributions to political anthropology, methodology and legal anthropology have a lasting value.

Tone Sommerfelt is Senior Researcher at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). Her research focuses on changing kinship and marriage practices, mobility, moral politics of ethnicity and religion, and the ethnography of West Africa (Gambia, Ghana, Mali).