about

Our mission

To create a network of scholars and community members engaged in research activities involving the peoples, languages, cultures, and histories of the Kalahari Basin Area (KBA). As such, our primary focus are the cultures, communties, and languages associated with the Khoe-Kwadi, Kx'a and Tuu language families ("Southern African Khoisan"), as well as the Bantu, Afrikaans and other Indo-European language communities, where these relate to the broader themes of the Kalahari Basin Area.

To strive for an interdisciplinary exchange between scholars passionate about the linguistic and cultural diversity of the Kalahari Basin and southern Africa. We invite scholars of all stages in their careers, all methodologies and frameworks, and hope that the network will foster new collaborations and facilitate an exchange of ideas and materials.

Our goal

To bring together like minded people from around the world by organising a diverse programme of online events in a friendly and informal setting. We look forward to organising and hosting talks by speakers from various different fields, including linguistics, anthropology, history, archaeology, genetics, rock art and music. We will also suggest regular reading circles.

To encourage others to make use of the network to further their own interests and research: why not suggest a working group with its own more specific scope and activities? Get in touch!

Behind the scenes

The Kalahari Basin Area Network was established in 2020 by Anne-Maria Fehn, Lee J. Pratchett and Alena Witzlack-Makarevich. It has been coordinated by Alena and Lee since 2021 and Velina Ninkova joined the team in 2023.

Get in touch and send us your comments and questions:

KalahariBasinAreaNetwork [AT] gmail [DOT] com