Team > Dr. Samwel Moses Ntapanta

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Social and Cultural Anthropology with focus on Africa

Samwel Moses Ntapanta is a Senior Research Associate at the Chair for Social and Cultural Anthropology with a focus on Africa. He holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of Oslo, Norway MScs in Human Security from Aarhus University, Denmark and a BA in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Currently, Samwel is working on the convergencies of East African urbanism, its link to globalisation, consumption and discarding of electronic and electric devices (e-waste). He is following global and local electronic waste (e-waste) flows, the influence of the electronics market to technospheres of repairing, reusing and repurposing. The assemblages of labour, ethnicity, kinship, care and solidarity arise and toxicity lifeworlds entangled with e-waste. 

Before joining the University of Bayreuth, Samwel was part of the Anthropology of Toxicity (Anthrotox) project, one of the convergence multi-disciplinary research projects funded by UiO: Life Science. The project brought together social anthropologists, historians and STS scholars, environmental toxicologists, and chemists to understand how environmental, social and political-economic processes shape flows and impacts of toxicants across societies and ecosystems and to contribute to public debate, policy processes and remedial action.

Samwel's Master thesis, "Let there be Light: Women's Participation in Solar Light Technology and Its Agency to Women's Empowerment and Social change in rural Zanzibar, " continues his engagement on the intersection between the environment, technology and society. This engagement is influenced by his work before joining Aarhus University. Samwel was worked with several civil societies organisation in areas of environment and activism. Some projects he was involved in include campaigning against dynamite fishing off the coast of Dar es Salaam, climate change information dissemination and campaign under Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and stop the Serengeti Highway. Samwel held the post of secretary for two civil society coalitions; The Mazingira Network- a network of NGOs in Tanzania working on environmental issues and the Oil and Gas Coalition network working to monitor ecological impacts of oil and gas projects in Tanzania as well as livelihoods of communities affected by the projects. Samwel also spent one year in Egypt in 2012, between the two revolutions, training youth NGOs in Cairo and Al-Fayoum on advocacy and campaigning

Detailed CV including teaching and research experience: on request.

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Social and Cultural Anthropology with focus on Africa

RESEARCH INTEREST

The intersection between urbanism, technology, infrastructures, environment, waste, labour and kinship

RESEARCH AREAS

East Africa, Tanzania

WHY ANTHROPOLOGY OF URBAN AFRICA?

African cities are the fastest-growing cities in the World. The growth comes with immense challenges; infrastructure, social services, crime, waste, and pollution, a few to mention. However, African urban dwellers continue to make a livelihood and create impeccable ways to enjoy, survive and thrive with these challenges. With its rigorous ethnographic methods, anthropology allows me to spend extended periods with my urban collaborators, share those challenges with them, and provide a platform to think together, write together and forge the future of the anthropology of African cities, policies and solutions to the problems they face.

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Social and Cultural Anthropology with focus on Africa

Publications

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
Social and Cultural Anthropology with focus on Africa

Dr. Samwel Moses Ntapanta
Senior Research Associate

University of Bayreuth
Building: Haus 4, 4.4.12a
Nürnbergerstr. 38,
​D-95447 Bayreuth

Phone: +49 (0)921 / 55-4134
E-mail: Samwel.Ntapanta@uni-bayreuth.de