Günther Schlee was until 1999 Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bielefeld, having studied anthropology, romance languages and general linguistics in Hamburg. He received his doctorate for research on the belief and social systems of the Rendille, an ethnic group in northern Kenya. Alongside widespread fieldwork trips in Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan, he was also guest lecturer in Padang (Sumatra) and at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales in Paris. Typical of the research of Günther Schlee is the “inter-ethnic” procedure and the combining of historical, sociological and philological methods. One of his manifold publications is Changing identifications and alliances in North Eastern Africa (co-editor: Elizabeth E. Watson.), Volume I: Ethiopia and Kenya, Volume II: Sudan, Uganda, and the Ethiopia-Sudan Borderlands. Oxford, New York: Berghahn Books, 2009.