Since 1993 my base has been Bergen Museum at the University of Bergen. Before then I had different positions at the department of anthropology at UiB in between work for aid organizations in Sudan and East Africa, as NORAD (Norwegian Aid), NCR (Norwegian Church Relief), FAO (UN food Programme), two years scholarship from Norwegian Research Council and a year as a visiting scholar at the Program for Visual Anthropology at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.


Research on African issues
My anthropological research has mainly dealt with pastoralists and agro-pastoralists in Sudan, Kenya and Uganda. General anthropology, i.e. adaptation, economy, ethnicity and local politics, has been my main theme. For some years now automatic weapons have replaced the nomads' pastoral staffs. Thus lately, I have looked into how neighbouring groups of people struggle to keep peace - too often a lost struggle, not at least due to the activities of the arm pushers.

My publications on these issues include:

2009 - Shepherd's Staff and the AK-47: Pastoralism and Handguns in Karamoja, Uganda, in: Kapherer, B. and B.E. Bertelsen (eds.): Crisis of the State - War and Social Upheaval. Berghahn Books, New York Oxford

2009 - Mi inspirasjonskjelde, På Høyden (12.05), UiB

2006 - Kakuma Refugee Camp and the Pari of Southern Sudan, UiB, Bergen

2003 - The Afar (78 min.) documentary (together with Rolf Scott and Getachew Kassa)

2003 - Livet i det gamle Egypt, in: Årboka 2002 for Bergen Museum

2002 - Lafon - på savannen sør i Sudan, in: Årbok for Bergen Museum 2001, Universitetet i Bergen, Bergen

2002 - Replacing the Pastoral Staff in: Resource Alienation, Militarisation and Development, ed.: Mustafa Babiker, OSSREA, Addis Ababa,

2000 - Etnisity and Scale, in: Pastoralists and Enviironment, ed. Ahmed, Manger, Addis Ababa

1999 - Under Afrikas himmel, i: Hvorfor drive kvinneforskning i museene? Ed: K.G. Losnedahl and E. Ådland, Bergen Museum skrifter, Bergen

1997- The Nexus of Economic and Political Viabilities among Nomadic Pastoralists in Turkana, Kenya, in: Research in Economic Anthropology, Jai Press Inc. Volume 18

1997- Property and Social relations, Turkana, Kenya in: Managing Scarcity: Human Adaptation in East African Drylands, eds.: Abdel Ghaffar M. Ahmed and Hassan A. Abdel Ati. Commersial Printing Press, Addis Ababa

1996 - Being a Nomad - Turkana, Kenya (dr.philos thesis) Bergen

Research on communication

A very different concern of mine has been research related to media, museology and communication.

2009 - Audience of Ethnographic Films - The role of the imagined, i: Die Maske, Zeitschrift für Kultur- und Sozialanthropologie, Wien

2009 - Antropologi, kommunikasjon og multimodale tekstar, i: Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift Nr. 3

2008 - Filming the Everyday Lives of Palestinians in Israel, in: Global Moments in the Levant - A Unifob Global Reasearch Project, Manger. L. and La Bianca, Ø. (eds) BRIC, UiB

2007 Take a proper Look! in: The Learning Eye eds. R. Geschwendtner-Wöllfle and E. Maier, Hohenems, Bucher Verlag

2004 - Multimedia and the Teaching of Cultural Variations, in: Disseminating and Using Research Results from the South, G.B. Gudmundsdottir (ed.) Report no. 3, Institute for Educational Research, University of Oslo

2004 Internett and the Future of Visual Anthropology in: Opening up to future -The role of Visual Anthropology in the 21th Century, conference-proceedings Yunnan University, Kunming, China

2004 - Tru og Overtru, in: Årbok for Bergen Museum 2003, Bergen

2003 - 6th ASTRA Film Fest - a review, in: CVA Network, Circular No. 8, IWF Knowledge and Media, Gøttingen

2001 - Folk på utstilling, in: Norsk Antropologisk Tidsskrift 1-2, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo


Research on Norwegian issues

I have also been interested topics related to Norway. I grew up by a fjord. My home village where based on the hydroelectric power from waterfalls, which laid the foundation for many small industrial societies in Norway, societies that now are dying as the hydro energy are sold at the open international market for prices the owners of the local industry will not pay.

2006 - Frå solsida til skuggeland? Industristaden Ålvik i Hardanger, 27 min. (together with Knut Terum (dir.)

2003 - Frå notekurs til Paris, in: K.Løken (red.) Med tonefølget gjennom livet, Norsk Musikkorps Forbund, Oslo

1999 - Ferrofolket ved fjorden - globale tema i lokal soge, (ed. together with Erik Fossåskaret) Nord 4, Bergen

1999 - Det er røyken vi lever av in: Ferrofolket ved Fjorden, Nord 4, Bergen



Filmmaking
As a filmmaker I have been involved in projects in Eastern and Southern Africa, in the Middle East, in Mexico and USA, in China and in Norway and on the Balkans and Greece. A theme conveyed in some of these projects has been magic, how cultural traditions and ideas, which in some contexts can be looked upon as magical beliefs, may influence everyday life of people. But most of all my aim as a filmmaker is to create virtual meetings between an audience and the people presented on the screen. I want these meetings not only to communicate information, but also to move spectators emotionally, involving them in an experience that may make a difference.


The films I have worked on include:

2009 - If the Vagina had Teeth, 60 min. (together with Liivo Niglas and Tore Sætersdal), Mozambique

2008 - Fish On! 57 min. (together with Liivo Niglas and Diane Perlov) California, USA

2007 - Making Rain - Shona People of Mozambique, 58 min. (together with Liivo Niglas and Tore Sætersdal), Mozambique

2006 - Our Courtyard - Bai People of South West China, 59 min. (together with He Yuan Wang), Yunnan

2006 - Vegar, folk og fe i Afrika, 15min. Kenya, Mozambique

2000 - Going for mackerel, 28 min. (together with Diane Perlov and Rolf Scott), Bergen

2000 - Magic at Work, 10min.)together with Diane Perlov and Rolf Scott), Bergen, Phoenix

2000 - Cactus League,18min. (together with Diane Perlov and Rolf Scott), Phoenix

1998 - Al Karamah - Human Dignity, 42min. (together with Moslih Kananneh)



Present positions

For some years now I have been the general secretary of Nordic Anthropological Film Association (NAFA) (www.nafa.uib.no). On our website we present films that are for rent from around the world.

I am also the coordinator of the NUFU-financed project Archeology and Traditions in Eastern Zimbabwe


Exhibits at Bergen Museum I have been responsible for:

2004 - Letters to Women, arts of Lilian Nabulime, Uganda

2004 - Radio Fulani - performance by Adama Barry, Burkina Faso

2003 - Evig liv - egyptiske mumiar på Bergen Museum

2003 - Flyttbar kunst frå Afrika

2002 - De Dødes Dag in cooperation with Ditte Seeberg, Århus

2001 - Alt mellom Himmel og jord - i Mexico,in cooperation with Ditte Seeberg, Århus

2001 - Koreanske drakter frå 1800-talet

2000 - Chissano & Titos - Two artists - Two generations, in cooperation with Asrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo