This working  group brings together researchers, artists and practitioners interested in plants in Africa and wider planetary perspectives on plants to discuss methodological questions concerning plant research in the humanities and social sciences on and beyond the African continent. Mmea is the Kiswahili word for "plant." What methods are promising for studying plant epistemologies in Africa? What methods are suitable for working across disciplines, such as the  natural sciences and the humanities and social sciences, but also with disciplines outside of the academy, including Indigenous knowledge systems? What are the methodological specificities of doing plant research with an emphasis on African and planetary contexts? Which methods are useful for research practices that are attentive to the practices of plant practitioners and research that is committed to social justice and climate justice? What methodological innovations come out of plant research concerning interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches, as well as approaches that incorporate artistic research? What specific forms for documenting, presenting and communicating plant research evolve in these activities? The working group is concerned with plants in diverse contexts and disciplines, including but not limited to Indigenous knowledge systems, botany and plant sciences, food, medicine, horticulture, plant collecting institutions like herbaria and botanical gardens, literature, and the arts.
 

Conveners:
Abidemi Babatunde Babalola
Vera-Simone Schulz

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Past Meetings

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Jason Terry (Freie University Berlin) and Pamina Herrmann (Freie University Berlin): Sensing the Unknown: Worlds of Knowledge and Natural Histories in England and the English Empire (17th/18th Century)


 

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Edward Akintola Hubbard (darkmatter collective): Vegetal Intimacies

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Dyoniz Kindata (DW): When Plants Make News: Circulation, Mediation, and the Colonial Struggle in Swahili Print Cultures

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Justin Randolph Thompson (The Recovery Plan): Earth | Art | Space | Time: Re-Positioning The First Conference for Minority Participation in Earth Science and Mineral Engineering

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Kevin Murungi (32 Degrees East) and Luca Tenreira (European University Institute): 'Bomba La Mafuta' : Textile Memory and Multi-Species Entanglements Along the East African Oil Corridor

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Elia Nurvista (Yogyakarta): Plantation Tragedy

Presentation by the artist, followed by a screening of the film "Plantation Tragedy" (2026, 30 min) and a joint discussion

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TBA

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Mistura Allison (Villa Romana) and Helena Uambembe (Berlin): tbc

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Edwin Coomasaru (University College London/University of Bristol): Plantation Desires and Abundant Aesthetics: Queer Ecologies in Lionel Wendt’s Ceylon (1950)

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Romuald Tchibozo (Université d'Abomey-Calavi): Plants in Contemporary Art: The Case of Meschac Gaba in Benin POSTPONED

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Tuli Mekondjo (Windhoek): Oimbodi Yedu: Herbs of the Soil


 

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Rabiu Yusuf (Ahmadu Bello University): Dyed in Tradition and Sustainability: Unraveling the Intersection of Textile Production and Ecological Practices in Bunkure, Kano, Nigeria 

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Tiago Silva Alves Muniz (Universidade Federal de Goiás): The Struggle for Natural Rubber Species: Local Processes and Global Stories Moved (Around) the World

POSTPONED: new date will be announced soon

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Sahar Bazzaz (College of the Holy Cross): Plants of the Red Sea Littoral: PE Botta's Expedition to Yemen, 1836
 

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Olga Smith (Newcastle University): Ecopolitical Aesthetics of Weeds
 

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Postponed

Louis Champion (IRD France - 232 DIADE): L'origine et la diffusion de l'hibiscus (hibiscus sabdarifa): Parcours d'une plante aux racines africaines et son impact social et culturel
 
[talk in French with a powerpoint presentation in English, the Q&A will be in French and English]

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Bismark Asamoah (University of Ghana): Ethno-Archaeological Study of Traditional Medicine at Kodiabe, Ghana

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Oleksandr Polianichev (Södertörn University): Russia's Own Tropics: Empire and Exotic Plants in the South Caucasus

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Susanna Ferguson (Smith College): God’s Harmonies, Multispecies Hierarchies, and Plant Belonging in the Arab Renaissance
 
*NOTE SPECIAL TIME*

Group Conveners

307 Members

1890 Class

The first class of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences returning from a dredging trip, 1890.