Jan Abbink works as a senior researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, and as a research professor at VU University, Amsterdam. His interests are political anthropology, ethno-history, and culture and religion in the Horn of Africa (Ethiopia, Somalia). Current research projects are on Ethiopian regional history and livelihoods, the rhetoric and practice of 'development', and religion and community formation in Northeast Africa.

Mirjam de Bruijn is an anthropologist and senior researcher at the African Studies Centre, Leiden, Professor of African Studies (Contemporary History and Anthropology of West and Central Africa) at Leiden University and director of the Research Masters in African Studies at the ASC. Her research has developed around the theme of mobility and she has done extensive fieldwork in Chad, Mali and Cameroon on (interdisciplinary) projects on migration, conflict and poverty, and mobility and communication technology.