African studies

Africa

African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's history (Pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial), demography (ethnic groups), culture, politics, economy, languages, and religion (Islam, Christianity, traditional religions). A specialist in African studies is often referred to as an "Africanist". A key focus of the discipline is to interrogate epistemological approaches, theories and methods in traditional disciplines using a critical lens that inserts African-centred ways of knowing and references.

For Africanists, also known as communitarians, problems within Africa are thought to be caused because the real flesh-and-blood communities that comprise Africa are marginalized from public life as so many "tribes". Therefore, the solution is understood to be the need to defend culture and put Africa's age-old communities at the center of African politics. It is also argued that there is a need to "deexoticize" Africa and banalise it, rather than understand Africa as exceptionalized and exoticized.[1]

Notable deceased Africanists

University-based centers

National and transnational centers

Associations

Projects

Degree programs

Canada

  • Carleton University, Institute of African Studies - Combined Honours Undergraduate Degrees and Collaborative Masters in African Studies

Egypt

Ethiopia

Germany

Ghana

Netherlands

Nigeria

Switzerland

United Kingdom

United States of America

  • Beloit College, African Studies Minor - Interdisciplinary undergraduate minor field of concentration
  • Florida International University, Masters in African Studies, African Studies Certificates
  • 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.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Mamdani, M. (1996), Chapter 1 from Mamdani, M., Citizen and Subject: contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism.
  2. ↑ Tribute in ACAS Review 89, incl. bibliography (2015)
  3. ↑ 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
  4. ↑ Centro de Estudos Africanos da Universidade do Porto

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.
  • 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 (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.
  • "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.
  • "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.
  • "Africana Studies". Research Guides. USA: New York University Libraries.
  • "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.
  • 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)
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