This month, In the Spotlight features two Czech AEGIS member institutions, with the Czech Association for African Studies (CAAS) playing the central role in organising the upcoming ECAS Conferences, which will take place in Prague from 25–28 June. These two member institutions are CAAS in Hradec Králové and the Center of African Studies (CAS) in Pilsen. In addition to highlighting the institutions themselves, we are pleased to introduce one special project and one scholar from each.
A Progressive Landscape: Exploring the Richness of Czech African Studies
Since 2014, the Czech Association for African Studies (CAAS) has been registered as an association of scholars, researches, experts, students and graduates in the field of African Studies and related disciplines. Currently the Association has 42 members. CAAS is also part of a wider Czech and international academic community as it is a member of the Council of Scientific Societies of the Czech Republic and an associate member of the Europe-wide African Studies umbrella organization AEGIS (European African Studies Association). The main goal of CAAS is to promote the development of African Studies in scientific research and education and to create links between Africanists and experts in related fields in the Czech Republic and abroad. The members of CAAS who are based at Czech universities carry out fieldwork research in different countries of sub-Saharan Africa (Zambia, Namibia, Ethiopia, South Africa etc.) and they publish results of their research in international high-impact journals. CAAS cooperates with a number of Czech governmental organizations and with representatives of African embassies in the Czech Republic by participating in round tables and media debates.
The Center for African Studies (CAS) is part of the Department of Middle Eastern and African Studies at the Faculty of Arts, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. The importance of Africa in our study programs is growing, which reflected the fact that Africa is now part of the name of the department. At the department, we focus on history, culture and politics of Noth-East, East and West Africa, where we study the themes of nationalism, ethnicity, material culture, migration, the Cold War, and security. We collaborate with universities in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Senegal, Rwanda, Tanzania and South Africa.
Research Projects in Focus: Diasporic Histories and Swahili Coastal Heritage
Below we feature two current research projects being undertaken by scholars within the Czech African Studies community.
Namibian Czechs: History and Identity of the Namibian Children Raised in Czechoslovakia 
Kateřina Mildnerová
The book, written by CAAS President and Africanist Kateřina Mildnerová, is the result of her long-term historical and anthropological research conducted in both Namibia and the Czech Republic. It explores the exile history and collective identity of the so-called Namibian Czechs—originally child war refugees who lived in Czechoslovakia between 1985 and 1991 and now reside in Namibia. Born in refugee camps in Zambia and Angola during the Namibian liberation struggle, these children were admitted to Czechoslovakia in 1985 as part of a solidarity initiative supporting SWAPO (the South West African People’s Organisation) in its fight for Namibia’s independence from South African rule. Under a special agreement between SWAPO and the Czechoslovak government, the children were raised and educated in Czechoslovakia before being forcibly repatriated in 1991—without completing their schooling—following the political transformations in both countries. This abrupt relocation led to lasting trauma and identity conflicts, as many of the Namibian Czechs were never fully accepted in Namibia and continue to consider the Czech Republic their true home. The book Namibian Czechs received wide recognition both domestically and internationally, drawing attention from academic circles as well as the media. Inspired by the book, Kateřina Mildnerová collaborated with Czech filmmaker Martin Müller to produce the feature-length documentary Black Czechs (2022).
Read more here: link book description and film
Coral stone house construction on the Swahili coast (Lamu, Kenya)
Monika Baumanova and Jasmin Anna-Karima Mahaz
This project documents technologies, practices, and knowledge associated with coral stone house construction in the town of Lamu in northern coastal Kenya. The project engages the local Swahili community, which was one of the first Islamic communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Lamu Town is one of the few remaining areas where fossilised coral is still used as building material in house construction, and where a number of coral stone houses have been continually occupied since the 18th century. The local material knowledge of construction employs a combination of methodologies including interviews, photo and video documentation, to document the entire building process of a house, as well as its renovation.
Read more here: https://www.emkp.org/coral-stone-house-construction-on-the-swahili-coast-lamu-kenya/
Leading Czech Africanists and AEGIS plenary representatives
Hana Horáková is Associate Professor of Social Anthropology at the Faculty of Arts, Palacký University in Olomouc. She holds a PhD in African Studies and a habilitation in Social Anthropology from Charles University in Prague. From 2013 to 2019 she served as President of CAAS. Her research focuses on the anthropology of tourism, rural studies, and the politics of identity and nationalism in sub-Saharan Africa. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in South Africa, particularly on nation-building in the post-apartheid era, and more recently on cultural tourism and memory politics in Namibia. She has published widely in international journals such as Anthropology Southern Africa, Asian and African Studies, and Modern Africa. Horáková is the author or editor of over eight books, including Africa on the Move (2020), Knowledge Production in and on Africa (2016), and Global Challenges, Local Reactions (2014).
Jan Záhořík is an Associate Professor at the Department of Middle Eastern and African Studies. He is a social scientist with a background in anthropology and history, focusing on modern and contemporary history of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, the security-migration-development nexus across the Sahel, ethnicity and nationalism as well as urban politics. He has initiated and developed multilayered collaboration between the University of West Bohemia and various African higher education institutions in Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, etc. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Pavia, Italy, and the University of Gondar, Ethiopia. He has published numerous books either as a co-editor or author (such as The Horn of Africa since 2018, co-edited with Aleksi Ylönen, Routledge, 2025).
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