African studies
African studies is the study of
Africanists argue that there is a need to "deexoticize" Africa and banalise it, rather than understand Africa as exceptionalized and exoticized.[1] African scholars, in recent times, have focused on decolonizing African studies, and reconfiguring it to reflect the African experience through an African lens.
History
The early
Following African independence and the end of World War II, colonial methods of producing knowledge underwent challenges and changes.
After the
With the spread of nationalism, once the African higher education system began to undergo Africanization and its effects began to set in, question and criticism of the fundamental ideas of African studies began to occur as well as improvement of scientific theories and research methods, which developed an African studies that studied African affairs and phenomena, and was undertaken and driven by Africans; the African intellectuals that drove this nationalist historiography drew from local epistemic communities while partaking in the international academic community.[2]
With an increasing realization of the lasting impacts of enslavement and colonialism that were still present during the middle of the 1970s, Walter Rodney theorized about and authored, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.[3] African scholars added to this theorization in highlighting the patterns of domination and inequality between Europeans and Africans.[3] Deconstructionist methods contributed to the increasing realization that European imperialistic ideas and conceptualizations of evidence, data, and truth interfered with the ability of researchers to engage with the ideas and conceptualizations that were held by and lived out by Africans in their daily lives.[3]
While research focus on Africa decreased in the United Kingdom during the 1980s, this was counterbalanced by an increasing research focus on Africa in the United States.
As African countries experienced economic turmoil in the middle of the 1980s, the African higher education system and African studies also experienced turmoil (e.g., book famine,
Development studies became increasingly interconnected with African studies, as it had undergone growth as a discipline and was enriched by other fields (e.g., humanities, social sciences, natural sciences).[2] A considerable number of African studies organizations, which have been financed or financially influenced by foreign government aid provided from North America, Europe, and Asia, have undergone volatility as the pattern of foreign government aid has become volatile; consequently, trends in Africanist scholarship has tended to reflect general optimism or pessimism (e.g., Afro-pessimism in African studies during the 1990s).[2] With the factor of non-governmental organizations in Africa, and their use of scholarship from African studies, this has resulted in funders of non-governmental organizations also influencing the focus and development of the scholarship of renowned Africanists; the scholarship then becomes used in future development policies of funders and renowned Africanists may even serve as policy consultants to the European countries providing the funding (e.g., neopatrimonialist analysis of African policy economy and society, the international institutions informed by these analyzes, and the conditional policies employed to induce neo-liberal market reforms in Africa).[2]
Given increasing indications that a post-Cold War world did not lead to increasing peace, Africa became a greater focal point of study for North America and Europe by the early 2000s.[3] Reasons for increased study range from the restoration of civil and democratic institutions and government in Africa, to the third wave of African literature in Africa and the next up-and-coming scholars inspired by the literature, to Africa being projected to have the largest youth demographic in the world by 2050, to increasing investment by Asian countries, including China, to the United Kingdom seeking to reposition itself after Brexit.[3] The increasing interest in the study of Africa has contributed to the growth of African Studies Associations, including ASAUK and the Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies (AEGIS), as well as increased research focus on Africa by African studies organizations in Africa.[3]
The marketization of African higher education has resulted in the funding of grants rather than posts, as well as a transition toward contract-based (e.g., fixed term, part-time) hiring of academic professionals.
While the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) contributes considerable funding to African studies research to various countries (e.g., Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa) in Africa, much of the funding sources for research originate from sources abroad.[3] Non-African Africanists tend to operate in the role as perceived experts of the field, who shape the image and view of Africa to countries abroad, whereas African researchers tend to operate in the role of consultants/assistants.[3] Consequently, the narrative in African studies tends to reflect non-African interests and views rather than African interests and views.[3]
Since African independence, the long-term effects and persisting elements of enslavement and colonialism (e.g., racist fantasies and projections, silencing of the past) continue to affect Africans on the continent and in the diaspora.[3] After roughly 40 years, Africanization of the curriculums (e.g., theory, method, evidence) in Africa remains ongoing.[2]
Historiographic and conceptual problems of North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa
Historiographic and conceptual problems
The current major problem in African studies that Mohamed (2010/2012)
Following conceptualizations of
As a result of these racialized constructions and the conceptual separation of Africa, darker skinned North Africans, such as the so-called
The
As opposed to having been developed through field research, the
The trans-Saharan slave trade has been used as a
Despite being an inherited part of the 19th century religious polemical narratives, the use of race in the secularist narrative of the present-day European Africanist paradigm has given the paradigm an appearance of possessing scientific quality.[5] The religious polemical narrative (e.g., holy cause, hostile neologisms) of 19th century European abolitionists about Africa and Africans are silenced, but still preserved, in the secularist narratives of the present-day European Africanist paradigm.[4] The Orientalist stereotyped hypersexuality of the Moors were viewed by 19th century European abolitionists as deriving from the Quran.[5] The reference to times prior, often used in concert with biblical references, by 19th century European abolitionists, may indicate that realities described of Moors may have been literary fabrications.[5] The purpose of these apparent literary fabrications may have been to affirm their view of the Bible as being greater than the Quran and to affirm the viewpoints held by the readers of their composed works.[5] The adoption of 19th century European abolitionists' religious polemical narrative into the present-day European Africanist paradigm may have been due to its correspondence with the established textual tradition.[5] The use of stereotyped hypersexuality for Moors are what 19th century European abolitionists and the present-day European Africanist paradigm have in common.[5]
Due to a lack of considerable development in field research regarding enslavement in Islamic societies, this has resulted in the present-day European Africanist paradigm relying on unreliable estimates for the trans-Saharan slave trade.[5] However, insufficient data has also used as a justification for continued use of the faulty present-day European Africanist paradigm.[5] Darker skinned Maghrebians, particularly in Morocco, have grown weary of the lack of discretion foreign academics have shown toward them, bear resentment toward the way they have been depicted by foreign academics, and consequently, find the intended activities of foreign academics to be predictable.[5] Rather than continuing to rely on the faulty present-day European Africanist paradigm, Mohamed (2012) recommends revising and improving the current Africanist paradigm (e.g., critical inspection of the origins and introduction of the present characterization of the Saharan caravan; reconsideration of what makes the trans-Saharan slave trade, within its own context in Africa, distinct from the trans-Atlantic slave trade; realistic consideration of the experiences of darker-skinned Maghrebians within their own regional context).[5]
Conceptual problems
Merolla (2017)[6] has indicated that the academic study of sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa by Europeans developed with North Africa being conceptually subsumed within the Middle East and Arab world, whereas, the study of sub-Saharan Africa was viewed as conceptually distinct from North Africa, and as its own region, viewed as inherently the same.[6] The common pattern of conceptual separation of continental Africa into two regions and the view of conceptual sameness within the region of sub-Saharan Africa has continued until present-day.[6] Yet, with increasing exposure of this problem, discussion about the conceptual separation of Africa has begun to develop.[6]
The
In African and Berber literary studies, scholarship has remained largely separate from one another.
Despite having invoked and utilized identities in reference to the racialized conceptualizations of Africa (e.g., North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa) to oppose imposed identities,
Notable Africanists
University-based centers
- Austria: Institut für Afrikawissenschaften (est. 2007), University of Vienna[7]
- Belgium: Ghent University
- Canada: Institute of African Studies, Carleton University, Ottawa
- China:
- Institute of African Studies, Zhejiang Normal University
- School of Asian and African Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University
- School of Asian and African Studies, Shanghai International Studies University
- Denmark: Centre of African Studies, University of Copenhagen
- Egypt: Faculty of African Postgraduate Studies, Cairo University
- Ethiopia: Center for African Studies, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
- France:
- Germany:
- Institute of African Studies, University of Bayreuth, Germany
- Department of African Studies,[8] Humboldt University, Germany
- Institute for Asian and African Studies,[9] Humboldt University, Germany
- Institute of African Studies, University of Leipzig, Germany
- Ghana: Kwame Nkrumah Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana
- Netherlands: African Studies Centre, Leiden[10]
- Nigeria:
- Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan
- Institute of African and Diaspora Studies, University of Lagos
- Portugal:
- Centre for International Studies[11] (formerly, Centre for African Studies), ISCTE – University Institute of Lisbon
- Center for African and Development Studies[12] (CEsA, ISEG-ULisboa), Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão da Universidade de Lisboa[13]
- African Studies Centre of the University of Porto, Porto[14]
- Russia:
- Department of African Studies, Institute of Asian and African Countries, Moscow State University
- Department of African Studies, St. Petersburg University
- South Africa: Centre for African Studies (CAS), University of Cape Town
- Sweden: Center for African Studies, Dalarna University, Sweden
- UK:
- Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham
- Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge
- Centre for African Studies,[15] University of Leeds
- School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS University of London
- US:
- African Studies Center, Boston University
- University of Florida Center for African Studies
- Department of African Studies at Howard University
- African Studies Program at Indiana University
- African Studies Center, Michigan State University
- Program of African Studies at Northwestern University
- Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
- African Studies Center, UCLA
National and transnational centers
- Africa Research Institute, London
- Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala
Associations
- AEGIS(Europe)
- African Heritage Studies Association (AHSA, North America)[16]
- African Studies Association (ASA, North America)
- African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA)[17]
- African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (ASAAP)[18]
- African Studies Association of the United Kingdom (ASAUK)[19]
Projects
- Bamum Scripts and Archives Project
- Internet library sub-saharan Africa (ilissAfrica)
- Timbuktu Manuscripts Project
Degree programs
Canada
- Carleton University, Institute of African Studies - Combined Honours Undergraduate Degrees and Collaborative Masters in African Studies
Egypt
- Cairo University, Institute of African Research and Studies
Ethiopia
- University of Addis Ababa, Center for African Studies
Germany
- Humboldt University, Bachelor in Area Studies Asia/Africa[20] and Master in African Studies[8]
Ghana
- University of Ghana, Masters and PhD in African Studies
Italy
- Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale", Bachelor, Masters and PhD in African Studies
Netherlands
Nigeria University of Lagos, Masters in African and Diaspora Studies
- University of Ibadan, Nigeria Masters and PhD in African Studies
Switzerland
- University of Basel, Center for African Studies Basel[23] - MA African Studies[24]
United Kingdom
- University of Cambridge, Centre of African Studies[25] - MPhil in African Studies[26]
United States of America
- Beloit College, African Studies Minor - Interdisciplinary undergraduate minor field of concentration
- Florida International University, Masters in African Studies, African Studies Certificate
- Howard University, undergraduate minor and major in African Studies, Masters in African Studies, PhD in African Studies
- Ohio University, Masters in African Studies
- Rutgers University, undergraduate major and minor in African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures, with a regional focus
- University of Michigan, undergraduate major and minor in Afroamerican and African Studies. Also, a certificate in African Studies for graduate students.
- Indiana University, undergraduate major and minor in African Studies, Masters in African Studies, and PhD minor in African Studies
See also
- Africa Bibliography for a categorised list of publications in the field since 1984
- Ethiopian studies and Ethiopian historiography
- List of africanists
- List of African studies journals
- Outline of Africa for a list of articles relating to Africa
References
- ^ Mamdani, M. (1996), Chapter 1 from Mamdani, M., Citizen and Subject: contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism.
- ^ S2CID 154032909.
- ^ S2CID 150547666.
- ^ S2CID 145782335.
- ^ S2CID 144763718.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Merolla, Daniela. "Beyond 'two Africas' in African and Berber literary studies". Scholarly Publications Leiden University. African Studies Centre Leiden.
- ^ "Institut für Afrikawissenschaften". 27 February 2013. Archived from the original on 27 February 2013.
- ^ a b kiesewea. "Master African Studies—Institute of Asian and African Studies". www.iaaw.hu-berlin.de.
- ^ luederst. "The Institute for Asian and African Studies". www.iaaw.hu-berlin.de.
- ^ For the history of African studies in the Netherlands, see Abbink, J.: African studies in the Netherlands: a brief survey, SCOLMA 87, 3-10, 2001
- ^ "CEI-IUL – Centro de Estudos Internacionais do ISCTE-IUL". cei.iscte-iul.pt. Retrieved Aug 13, 2022.
- ^ "CESA". cesa.rc.iseg.ulisboa.pt. Retrieved Aug 13, 2022.
- ^ "ISEG - School of Economics & Management". cesa.rc.iseg.ulisboa.pt. Retrieved Aug 13, 2022.
- ^ Centro de Estudos Africanos da Universidade do Porto
- ^ "Centre for African Studies (LUCAS)". lucas.leeds.ac.uk.
- ^ "Supporting exploration, education and preservation". ahsa50.org. African Heritage Studies Association. 2022. Retrieved 9 January 2023.
The African Heritage Studies Association (AHSA) was founded in 1969 as an association of scholars of African descent, dedicated to the exploration, preservation, and academic presentation of the heritage of African people on the ancestral soil of Africa and in the diaspora.
- ^ "African Studies Association of Africa - ASAA - About ASAA". as-aa.org. Retrieved 2023-01-07.
- ^ "Home - The African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific". Afsaap.org.au. 2020-03-01. Retrieved 2022-04-14.
- ^ "ASAUK". www.asauk.net.
- ^ chayes. "Bachelor Area Studies Asia/Africa—Institute of Asian and African Studies". www.iaaw.hu-berlin.de.
- ^ "African Studies (MA) - Leiden University". www.universiteitleiden.nl.
- ^ "Research Master in African Studies". African Studies Centre Leiden. Nov 15, 2011. Retrieved Aug 13, 2022.
- ^ "Home - Zentrum für Afrikastudien". zasb.unibas.ch. 27 March 2024.
- ^ "Centre for African Studies Basel: MA African Studies". Archived from the original on 2013-12-09. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
- ^ "Centre of African Studies". www.african.cam.ac.uk.
- ^ [email protected] (23 July 2013). "MPhil in African Studies Overview â€" Centre of African Studies". www.african.cam.ac.uk.
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Further reading
- Gershenhorn, Jerry. "'Not an Academic Affair': African American Scholars and the Development of African Studies Programs in the United States, 1942–1960." Journal of African American History, 94 (Winter 2009), 44–68.
- Gershenhorn, Jerry. "St. Clair Drake, Pan-Africanism, African Studies, and the Politics of Knowledge, 1945-1965." Journal of African American History, 98 (Summer 2013), 422–433.
External links
- African e-Journals Project, Michigan State University (Provides (1) a directory of more than 2,100 journals about Africa with their URLs, and where to find tables of contents, abstracts, and full text of articles online, and (2) a full-text archive of back issues of 11 African scholarly journals in the social sciences and humanities.)
- African Studies Centres worldwide (Excerpt of the website database of ilissAfrica)
- AFRICAN STUDY: African Language Publishing For Children In South Africa Archived 2012-05-07 at the Wayback Machine (This African study focuses on the dearth of teaching and learning materials in African languages required to deliver effective bilingual education, and on the potential role of translation in offering solutions for this problem.)
- Davis Bullwinkle (ed.). "AfricaBib.org" – via Afrika-Studiecentrum, Leiden.
Africana social science titles
(Bibliography)
Library Guides for African Studies
- "Help for Researchers: Africa". British Library.
- "African Studies Research Guides". New York, USA: Columbia University Libraries. Archived from the original on 2013-10-01. Retrieved 2013-06-08.
- "African Studies & African History". Research & Subject Guides. Washington DC: Georgetown University Library.
- "African Studies Internet Portal". University of Illinois LibGuides. USA: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, University Library. Archived from the original on 2015-08-23. Retrieved 2013-05-26.
- "African Studies". LibGuides. USA: University of Iowa Libraries.
- Library. "African Studies". Topic Guides. UK: London School of Economics and Political Science.
- "Africana (African Studies)". Research Guides. USA: Michigan State University Libraries. Archived from the original on 2017-06-12. Retrieved 2017-06-12.
- "Africana Studies". Research Guides. USA: New York University Libraries. Archived from the original on 2013-09-22. Retrieved 2013-05-26.
- "Africana". LibGuides. USA: Northwestern University, Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies.
- "African Studies". Oxford LibGuides. Oxford, UK: University of Oxford, Bodleian Libraries.
- "African Studies Resources". Princeton LibGuides. USA: Princeton University Library.
- University Libraries. "African Studies". Research Guides. New Jersey, USA: Rutgers University. Archived from the original on 2014-02-22. Retrieved 2014-02-07.
- African Studies Library, Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge UK
- Studying Africa. A guide to the sources. Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala. 3rd ed., 2014
- Open Access Guide for researchers based in Africa (ilissAfrica)