Building intellectual bridges: from African studies and African American studies to Africana studies in the United States

The study of Africa and its peoples in the United States has a complex history. It has involved the study of both an external and internal other, of social realities in Africa and the condition of people of African descent in the United States. This paper traces and examines the complex intellectual, institutional, and ideological histories and intersections of African studies and African American studies. It argues that the two fields were founded by African American scholar activists as part of a Pan-African project before their divergence in the historically white universities after World War II in the maelstrom of decolonization in Africa and civil rights struggles in the United States. However, from the late 1980s and 1990s, the two fields began to converge, a process captured in the development of what has been called Africana studies. The factors behind this are attributed to both demographic shifts in American society and the academy including increased African migrations in general and of African academics in particular fleeing structural adjustment programs that devastated African universities, as well as the emergence of new scholarly paradigms especially the field of diaspora studies. The paper concludes with an examination of the likely impact of the Obama era on Africana studies

Engagements between African Diaspora Academics in the U.S. and Canada and African Institutions of Higher Education: Perspectives from North America and Africa

This report summarizes the findings from two previous projects, Engagements between African Diaspora Academics in the U.S. and Canada and African Institutions of Higher Education, and The African Dimension of Engagements between African Diaspora Academic in the U.S. and Canada and African Institutions of Higher Education. It assesses their policy implications for universities in Canada and the United States on the one hand, and in Southern, East, and West Africa on the other, as well as on donor agencies. It offers concrete proposals on how more effective strategies for engagement between African diaspora academics in Canada and the United States and African institutions of higher education might be established in the areas of faculty and student exchanges, scholarly and curricula collaborations, and the policy and institutional changes that can sustain them.

Africa\u27s Contemporary Global Migrations: Patterns, Perils, and Possibilities

The literature on international migration is dominated by economic and political perspectives. This paper begins with the culturalist readings to remind ourselves that there is more to international migration than the search for greener pastures or flight from political terror. It is about the movement of human beings, a story that is as old as humanity itself, going back to the great migrations within and out of Africa to populate the planet. But those who advance the culturalist perspectives also need to be reminded that in our contemporary world more often than not people migrate to sell their labor power and that the patterns of migration, labor procurement and utilization are conditioned by the dynamics of capitalist development, expansion, and accumulation. This is an argument for interdisciplinarity, the need for multiple perspectives on the exceedingly complex phenomenon of international migration

Mandela’s long walk with African history – Part 1

From reviled terrorist to venerated hero, Paul Tiyambe Zeleza examines Nelson Mandela, both man and myth. This is the first of three posts in which the historian posits South Africa’s founding father alongside some of the major events of the 20th century

Ciencia y tecnología para el desarrollo humano y social en África

África lleva mucho tiempo tratando de resolver el problema del desarrollo humano y social. La conciencia y la reocupación respecto a sus niveles relativos de desarrollo económico, tecnológico y social se han acrecentado desde el trágico encuentro que tuvo el continente con una Europa cada vez más imperialista e industrializada en el siglo XV. Este encuentro hizo que la modernidad y la modernización se convirtieran en asuntos apremiantes a nivel práctico e intelectual. Desde mediados del siglo XIX, los intelectuales africanos se han enfrascado en cuestiones como la «regeneración africana» y el «renacimiento africano». El desarrollo y la modernización de África se han planteado de forma que las sociedades continentales reciban las herramientas científicas y tecnológicas necesarias para mejorar la condición humana, aumentar el desarrollo social y dotar a África de una prominencia y una paridad globales (Zeleza et al., 2003).Peer Reviewe

Ciencia y tecnología para el desarrollo humano y social en África

África lleva mucho tiempo tratando de resolver el problema del desarrollo humano y social. La conciencia y la reocupación respecto a sus niveles relativos de desarrollo económico, tecnológico y social se han acrecentado desde el trágico encuentro que tuvo el continente con una Europa cada vez más imperialista e industrializada en el siglo XV. Este encuentro hizo que la modernidad y la modernización se convirtieran en asuntos apremiantes a nivel práctico e intelectual. Desde mediados del siglo XIX, los intelectuales africanos se han enfrascado en cuestiones como la «regeneración africana» y el «renacimiento africano». El desarrollo y la modernización de África se han planteado de forma que las sociedades continentales reciban las herramientas científicas y tecnológicas necesarias para mejorar la condición humana, aumentar el desarrollo social y dotar a África de una prominencia y una paridad globales (Zeleza et al., 2003).Peer Reviewe

Africa and Its Diasporas: Remembering South America

African interest in the Diaspora has never been greater than it is now. This is evident in the growing attention paid to the subject by African scholars and governments. The motivations are as varied as they are complex. The ascendancy of globalization, transnational, and postcolonial studies has helped fuel African scholarly interest in Diaspora studies as has the rising tide of African international academic migrations since the 1980s (Zeleza 2004). The academic migrants are part of Africa’s new Diasporas, whose size is growing rapidly in parts of the global North, and which is coveted by African governments for their social capital—skills, knowledge, networks, civic awareness, cultural experience and cosmopolitanism—that can provide not only access to global markets and investment and stimulate technological innovation, but also invigorate democracy, strengthen civil society and encourage the growth of new philanthropic cultures. Already, the new Diaspora is Africa’s biggest donor; not surprisingly governments increasingly regard it as a critical remittance pipeline, as an important economic asset