WHO WE ARE
The Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB) is a research library for Southern Africa. Its extensive digital and physical archive and library collections, particularly those focusing on Namibia, are unique. They facilitate diverse exchange between Basel and Southern Africa, foster post-colonial knowledge production, and invite scholarly and artistic engagement and inspiration.
The BAB Publishing House promotes publications by authors from Southern Africa and is increasingly focusing on Open Access.
AFRIKA
Collections
The Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB) are a renowned documentation and competence center in Basel specializing in Namibia and southern Africa. The institution includes a library and an archive and offers researchers and interested individuals a wide range of materials.
Publishing House
The BAB Publishing House offers books that open up new insights and perspectives in the humanities and social science research on Southern Africa. Through our strong commitment to Open Access, we promote free and equitable access to academic knowledge worldwide. We invite authors to submit book proposals and support you with comprehensive information on manuscript preparation, submission, and related services. Our publications are available through an international distribution network and via our online shop
NEWS
Opening the Future: A new model for Open Access at the BAB Publishing House
We are joining the 'Opening the Future' initiative, a collective funding model that provides library backlist access while supporting new Open Access monographs without author fees
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New Release: Histories and Legacies of Migrant Labour in Namibia and Switzerland
By comparing exploitative migrant labor systems in apartheid Namibia and post-war Switzerland, this volume reveals how both nations utilized seasonal quotas and marginalization to fuel economic growth.
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PARC
PARC (Portal for African Research Collections) is the meta-catalogue for the Africana collections at the Basel research hub as well as for the Frobenius Institute in Frankfurt.
Learn morePartnerships
The Basler Afrika Bibliographien (BAB) maintain long term transnational partnerships and cooperations with universities, archives and libraries in and outside of Switzerland and southern Africa. Since 1995 this includes repatriation of collections to the National Archives of Namibia, in particular. We initiate and facilitate seminars and workshops, exhibitions and publishing projects collaboratively.
Namibia
The BAB cooperates since decades and in multiple ways with many institutions in Namibia, in particular with the University of Namibia (UNAM) Library and the National Archives of Namibia (NAN) in Windhoek.
PARC
PARC is the new meta-catalogue for the Africana collections at the research location Basel and the Frobenius-Institute in Frankfurt.
ZASB
The BAB are founding members of the Centre for African Studies (CAS) which coordinates teaching and research on Africa at the University of Basel and its partner institutions.
ELIAS
The BAB are a founding member of the network European Librarians in African Studies (ELIAS) of the research network African Studies in Europe (AEGIS).
