Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the University of Rwanda (UR) have been cooperating academically since 1985. The partnership agreement was renewed in October 2024.
Since 40-years the collaboration in research and teaching primarily takes place between the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and African Studies (ifeas) and the School of Governance, Development and Society at the College of Arts and Social Sciences (CASS) at UR in Huye. Other institutions from both universities may join the agreement at any time.
Since April 2024 Prof. Dr. Franziska Fay is in charge of the partnership at JGU Mainz. She succeeds Dr. Anna-Maria Brandstetter, who supervised the university cooperation since 2011. Since April 2020 Gisèle Oldorff, M.A. has been the supporting research assistant. From 2013 to 2019, Dr. Yamara Wessling worked as a research assistant for the university partnership. Since October 2024 Prof. Dr. Charles Mulinda Kabwete has succeeded Assoc. Prof. Dr. Raphaël Nkaka as the UR’s Partnership Delegate.
Reclaiming History – Film Screening
In October 2024, the Institute for Cultural Anthropology and African Studies, together with the Rwanda Department of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Chancellery, showed the Film “Reclaiming History” by Samuel Ishimwe and Matthias Frickel.
The Rwandan-German directing team explores for the first time in a documentary film the connections between German and Belgian colonialism and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. On a joint journey through Rwanda, Germany and Belgium, they search for the origins of the racially motivated hatred between Tutsi and Hutu in conversation with historians and contemporary witnesses.
Following the screening, the two directors joined Prof. Dr. Charles Kabwete (Department of History and Heritage Studies, UR Huye) and Gisèle Oldorff (Institute of Cultural Anthropology and African Studies, JGU Mainz) to discuss their personal experiences during the filming, the colonial origins of racially motivated violence and the future aspirations of young Rwandans. The German-Rwandan exchange was moderated by Dr. Anna-Maria Brandstetter.
Anniversary celebration 40 years of partnership between Rwanda and Rhineland-Palatinate
In 2022, Rwanda and Rhineland-Palatinate celebrated the 40th anniversary of their partnership. During a panel discussion at the state chancellery, Dr. Anna-Maria Brandstetter, together with Dr. Bernhard Vogel, former Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate, Kurt Beck, also former Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate, and Jean-Claude Kazenga, who had worked at the coordination office in Kigali since 1985 and is now retired, looked back on the early days of the cooperation.
Exhibition: In the land of a thousand hills
From 2008 to 2017, today’s Kandt House Museum in Kigali presented the bilingual poster exhibition “In the land of a thousand hills. Rwandans and Germans meet each other, 1892-1916 / Mu Gihugu Cy’Imisozi Igihumbi. Ubusabane Hagati y’Abanyarwanda n’Abadage, 1892-1916″
The exhibition is based on a concept by Dr. Anna-Maria Brandstetter and was developed in collaboration with various Rwandan and German partners.
(Click on the picture gallery on the left to enlarge)
ifeas delegation at the University of Rwanda
In November 2024, Prof. Dr. Nico Nassenstein, Junior Prof. Dr. Franziska Fay, Dr. Anna-Maria Brandstetter and Axel Brandstetter had the opportunity to visit Assoc. Prof. Dr. Raphaël Nkaka at the campus of the University of Rwanda in Huye and discuss the continuation of the university partnership.
Guests of the University of Rwanda
Numerous guests from the University of Rwanda visited the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and African Studies as part of the academic cooperation. Most recently, Prof. Dr. Charles Kabwete spent a month in Mainz in October 2024. Other guests in recent years have included Assoc. Prof. Dr. Raphaël Nkaka (2022), Prof. Dr. Simeon Wiehler (2017), Dr. Augustin Rudacogora (2014) and Dr. Charles Kalinganire.
Semester abroad at the University of Rwanda
Visit the University of Rwanda as part of a semester abroad. Students from all JGU faculties who are at least in their second semester of a bachelor’s degree at JGU at the time of application and are pursuing a degree at JGU are eligible to apply.
Saron Samuel Kifle spent a semester in Huye from October 2023 to March 2024 as part of her program of study in Cultural Anthropology and Political Science: The six months in Rwanda were an unforgettable and impressive time…(Read more)
Doctoral projects
Ongoing
Gisèle Oldorff: “Negotiating agaciro: self-determination and dignity in the future plans of young people in Rwanda” (working title)
Deborah Wockelmann: “Sociolinguistics of Migration: Creative Language Practices in Kinyarwanda” (working title)
Completed
Dr. Yamara-Monika Wessling: Women of Change. On the significance of gender and sexuality in Rwanda’s emerging middle class(Kula-Verlag, 2023).
Dr. Bettina Mukundente Pieck: Health insurance, state and society in Rwanda. An interdisciplinary work(Mainz University Library, 2019).
Research projects
Ongoing
Contouring and blurring of linguistic human differentiation. Rwandan or Burundian?
Subproject B02 in the Collaborative Research Center 1482 “Human Differentiation” at JGU Mainz, project manager: Prof. Dr. Nico Nassenstein, collaborator: Deborah Wockelmann. Funding: DFG (duration: 2021 – 2025).
