Footprints in the Mud of Agadem Eastern Niger’s way towards the Anthropocene

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Tilman Musch

Abstract

Petrified footprints of now extinct rhinos and those of humans in the mud of the former lake Agadem may symbolise the beginning of an epoch dominated by humans. How could such a “local” Anthropocene be defined? In eastern Niger, two aspects seem particularly important for answering this question. The first is the disappearance of the addax in the context of the megafauna extinction. The second is the question how the “natural” environment may be conceived by the local Teda where current Western discussions highlight the “hybridity” of space.

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How to Cite
Musch, T. (2018). Footprints in the Mud of Agadem: Eastern Niger’s way towards the Anthropocene. Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society, 5(2), 105–126. https://doi.org/10.26806/modafr.v5i2.198
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Articles
Author Biography

Tilman Musch, University of Bayreuth

He is working as an anthropologist at Bayreuth University, Germany, on Saharan ethnology, the anthropology of space and time, and ethnobiology. He is working in West and Central Africa as also in Central Asia. E-Mail: Tilman.Musch@uni-bayreuth.de.