20 Facts About Aidan Southall

Aidan Southall was a British cultural anthropologist recognised for his fieldwork in urban settings in post-war Africa.

Aidan Southall was married to Betty Stogdon, Isis Ragheb and Christine Obbo who survived him together with his children with Betty: daughter Lucinda; and son Mark and his wife Madeline with their children Christopher, Catherine and Andrew.

Aidan Southall, the son of a Church of England parson, was born in Warwickshire, England.

Aidan Southall attended a preparatory school, The Perse School in Cambridge, England, at the age of 8 years old.

At the age of 11, Aidan Southall began his secondary education and eventually worked his way up to Cambridge University where he initially studied Classics.

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Shortly after this, Aidan Southall switched over to anthropology after having been persuaded by one of his professors.

Aidan Southall eventually attended the University of London where he gained his PhD.

Aidan Southall was given the opportunity to apply for a position at Makerere University in Uganda, and in 1945 he became a professor of social studies at this institution.

Aidan Southall had the opportunity to carry out research in that particular area among others in Africa, and eventually conducted fieldwork in Nyanza with a Luo student in Kenya.

In Karachuonyo, South Nyanza, being restricted to a short-term study over the span of his vacation, Aidan Southall found it difficult to conduct long-term fieldwork and therefore focused on food and lineages.

Aidan Southall returned to Alur in 1948 and spent two years there conducting doctoral fieldwork.

Unlike most anthropologists of his time, Aidan Southall was generally interested in urbanisation and the development of African cities in particular.

Aidan Southall taught from 1969 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, becoming professor emeritus in 1990.

Aidan Southall became a member of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.

Furthermore, Aidan Southall was a member of International African Institute, The African Studies Association of USA and the American Anthropological Association.

Aidan Southall carried out anthropological fieldwork among the Alur people for approximately two years between 1949 and 1952.

Aidan Southall described a continuous process of political and cultural domination, done almost entirely without the use of force.

Aidan Southall later published a collection of papers, originally presented at the Wenner-Gren seminar of 1964, about cross cultural similarities in the urbanisation process.

Later that decade, Aidan Southall published a collection of essays entitled Small Urban Centers in Rural Development in Africa.

Aidan Southall's essays are broken down in different categories, the first of which represented the social and anthropological perspective.