African studies
Encyclopedia
- Not to be confused with Africana studiesAfricana studiesIn United States education, Africana studies, or Africology is the study of the histories, politics and cultures of peoples of African origin both in Africa and in the African diaspora....
in American identity politics.
African studies is the study of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, especially the cultures and societies of Africa (as opposed to geology, geography, zoology, etc.).
The field includes the study of:Culture of Africa
Culture of Africa
The culture of Africa encompasses and includes all cultures within the continent of Africa. There is a political or racial split between North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa, which is in turn divided into a great number of ethnic cultures...
, History of Africa
History of Africa
The history of Africa begins with the prehistory of Africa and the emergence of Homo sapiens in East Africa, continuing into the present as a patchwork of diverse and politically developing nation states. Agriculture began about 10,000 BCE and metallurgy in about 4000 BCE. The history of early...
(Colonisation of Africa
Colonisation of Africa
The colonisation of Africa has a long history, the most famous phase being the European Scramble for Africa during the late 19th and early 20th century.- Ancient colonialism :...
, Decolonization of Africa
Decolonization of Africa
The decolonization of Africa followed World War II as colonized peoples agitated for independence and colonial powers withdrew their administrators from Africa.-Background:...
), Anthropology of Africa (Ethnic groups in Africa, Demographics of Africa
Demographics of Africa
The population of Africa has grown exponentially over the past century, and consequently shows a large youth bulge, further reinforced by a low life expectancy of below 50 years in most African countries. The population doubled in the period 1982–2009 and quadrupled from 1955–2009, according to...
), Politics of Africa, Economy of Africa
Economy of Africa
The economy of Africa consists of the trade, industry, and resources of the people of Africa. , approximately 922 million people were living in 54 different countries. Africa is by far the world's poorest inhabited continent...
(Poverty in Africa
Poverty in Africa
Poverty in Africa refers to the lack of basic human needs faced by certain segments of African society. African nations typically fall toward the bottom of any list measuring small size economic activity, such as income per capita or GDP per capita, despite a wealth of natural resources...
), Languages of Africa
Languages of Africa
There are over 2100 and by some counts over 3000 languages spoken natively in Africa in several major language families:*Afro-Asiatic spread throughout the Middle East, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the Sahel...
and Religion in Africa
Religion in Africa
Religion in Africa is multifaceted. Most Africans adhere to either Christianity or Islam. Many adherents of either religion also practice African traditional religions, with traditions of folk religion or syncretism practised alongside an adherent's Christianity or Islam.Judaism also has roots in...
(African traditional religion
African Traditional Religion
The traditional religions indigenous to Africa have, for most of their existence, been orally rather than scripturally transmitted. They are generally associated with animism. Most have ethno-based creations stories...
). A specialist in African studies is often referred to as an "Africanist". Typically, study of African studies focuses on sub-Saharan Africa, since North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
is part of the Arab world
Arab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
.
Notable Africanists
- François BassoletFrançois BassoletFrançois Djobi Bassolet was a Burkina Faso journalist, historian, and cultural leader.Bassolet was the first director of the Agence voltaïque de presse from 1978 to 1981, which was later rename the Agence d'information du Burkina...
(19XX-2001) - Albert Adu BoahenAlbert Adu BoahenAlbert Kwadwo Adu Boahen was a Ghanaian academic, historian, and politician. He was an academic at the University of Ghana from 1959 to 1990, since 1971 as a professor...
(1932–2006) - John F. ClarkJohn Clark (African specialist)Dr. John F. Clark is a professor and former Fulbright scholar who specializes in Central African Socio-Political and Economic Dynamics. He has conducted research in Congo-Brazzaville, the Democratic Republic of Congo and other Central African states, and has been recognized as one of the world's...
(196X-) - David William CohenDavid William CohenDavid William Cohen is professor of history and anthropology and director of the International Institute at the University of Michigan. He specializes in East Africa and is a leader in the emerging field of historical anthropology....
(1943-) - Basil DavidsonBasil DavidsonBasil Risbridger Davidson MC was a British historian, writer and Africanist, particularly knowledgeable on the subject of Portuguese Africa prior to the 1974 Carnation Revolution....
(1914-2010) - Cheikh Anta DiopCheikh Anta DiopCheikh Anta Diop was a historian, anthropologist, physicist, and politician who studied the human race's origins and pre-colonial African culture. He is regarded as an important figure in the development of the Afrocentric viewpoint, in particular for his theory that the ancient Egyptians were...
(1923–1986) - John Fage (1921–2002)
- Patrick ManningPatrick Manning (Professor)Patrick Manning is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of World History at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also president of the World History Network, Inc., a nonprofit corporation fostering research in world history...
(1941-) - Ali MazruiAli MazruiAli Al'amin Mazrui is an academic and political writer on African and Islamic studies and North-South relations. He is an Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and the Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York.-Education:Mazrui...
(1933-) - Micere Githae MugoMicere Githae MugoMicere Githae Mugo is a playwright, author, activist, instructor and poet from Kenya. she is a literary critic and professor of literature in the Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University...
- Carl MeinhofCarl MeinhofCarl Friedrich Michael Meinhof was a German linguist and one of the first linguists to study African languages.-Early years and career:...
(1857–1944) - Nji Oumarou NchareNji Oumarou NchareNji Oumarou Nchare is Co-Director of the Bamum Scripts and Archives Project in Foumban, Cameroon and Director of Cultural Affairs and Archivist at the Bamum Palace...
(1964-) - Roland OliverRoland OliverRoland Oliver is Emeritus Professor of African history at the University of London. Throughout a long career he was an eminent researcher, writer, teacher, administrator and organiser, who had a profound effect on the development of African Studies in the United Kingdom and who has made an...
(1923-) - Jean Price-MarsJean Price-MarsJean Price-Mars was a Haitian writer. Born in Grande Rivière du Nord, Price-Mars obtained a degree in medicine and worked as a diplomat.-Negritude movement:...
(1876–1969) - Walter RodneyWalter RodneyWalter Rodney was a prominent Guyanese historian and political activist, who was assassinated in Guyana in 1980.-Career:...
(1942–1980) - Niara SudarkasaNiara SudarkasaNiara Sudarkasa is an American scholar, educator, Africanist and anthropologist who holds thirteen honorary degrees, and is the recipient of nearly 100 civic and professional awards...
(1938-) - Jean Suret-CanaleJean Suret-CanaleJean Suret-Canale was a French historian of Africa, Marxist theoritican, political activist, and World War II French Resistance fighter.-Biography:...
(1921–2007) - Robert Sutherland RattrayRobert Sutherland RattrayRobert Sutherland Rattray, CBE, known as Captain R. S. Rattray was an early Africanist and student of the Ashanti. He was one of the early writers on Oware, and on Ashanti gold weights.-Life:...
(1881–1938) - Diedrich Westermann (1875–1956)
- Andrzej ZajączkowskiAndrzej ZajaczkowskiAndrzej Zajączkowski was a Polish sociologist, cultural anthropologist, and Africanist. In 1978 he was made a professor of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the University of Warsaw; he was made director of the Center for Studies on Non-European Countries in 1981...
(1922–1994)
African studies centers, associations, and major projects
- University-based centers
- African Studies Center, Michigan State UniversityAfrican Studies Center, Michigan State UniversityFounded in 1960, the African Studies Center at Michigan State University is a major academic center for the study of Africa and one of 11 Title VI National Resource Centers on Africa designated by the U.S. Department of Education. The Center’s strength is based on the more than 160 MSU faculty...
- Afrika-Studiecentrum, LeidenAfrika-Studiecentrum, LeidenThe African Studies Centre is an independent scientific institute in the Netherlands that undertakes social-science research on Africa with the aim of promoting a better understanding of historical, current and future social developments in Sub-Saharan Africa. The present director is Ton Dietz...
- Centre of West African StudiesCentre of West African StudiesCentre of West African Studies is a division of the School of Historical Studies at the University of Birmingham . The centre provides teaching and research into issues of African development, culture, anthropology, sociology, politics, history, and the legacies of the African diaspora,...
- School of Asian and African Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University
- The School of Oriental and African Studies
- University of Florida Center for African StudiesUniversity of Florida Center for African StudiesUniversity of Florida Center for African Studies is a center within of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida...
- African Studies Center, Michigan State University
- National and transnational centers
- Nordic Africa InstituteNordic Africa InstituteNordic Africa Institute serves as a research, documentation and information centre on modern Africa for the Nordic countries. The Institute also encourages research and studies on Africa. The institute was founded in 1962....
- Nordic Africa Institute
- Associations
- African Studies AssociationAfrican Studies AssociationThe African Studies Association is an association of scholars and professionals in the United States and Canada with an interest in the continent of Africa. Started in 1957, the ASA is the leading organization of African Studies in North America. The associations headquarters are Rutgers...
(North America) - AEGISAEGIS (African Studies)AEGIS is a research network of European centres in African studies, which aims to create synergies between experts and institutions. With primary emphasis on Social Sciences and Humanities, AEGIS' main goal is to improve understanding about contemporary African societies.AEGIS was founded in 1991...
(Europe) - African Studies Association of Australasia and the Pacific (Australasia and the Pacific)
- African Studies Association
- Projects
- Bamum Scripts and Archives ProjectBamum Scripts and Archives ProjectBamum Scripts and Archives Project at the Bamum Palace is engaged in a variety of initiatives concerning the Bamum script, including collecting and photographing threatened documents, translating and in some cases hand-copying documents, creating a fully usable Bamum computer font for the inventory...
- Timbuktu Manuscripts ProjectTimbuktu Manuscripts ProjectThe term Timbuktu Manuscripts applies to 700,000 medieval African documents, ranging from scholarly works to short letters, that have been preserved by private households in Timbuktu. The manuscripts were passed down in Timbuktu families and are mostly in poor condition. Some of the manuscripts...
- Internet library sub-saharan Africa (ilissAfrica)Internet library sub-saharan Africa (ilissAfrica)The internet library sub-saharan Africa is a German Internet portal that offers an integrated access to relevant scientific information resources in the field of African Studies and the region Africa South of the Sahara . ilissAfrica covers social sciences, history, philology, ethnology and...
- Bamum Scripts and Archives Project
Degree Programs
- United States of America
- Syracuse UniversitySyracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, Pan African Studies Masters ProgramDepartment of African American Studies - Syracuse UniversityThe Department of African American Studies at Syracuse University is a leading Africana studies department in the United States. It is a prominent independent department at Syracuse University that has had a long history of activism and scholarship in Black and Pan African Studies... - Ohio UniversityOhio UniversityOhio University is a public university located in the Midwestern United States in Athens, Ohio, situated on an campus...
, Masters in African Studies
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.
See also
- List of African studies journals
- Africa BibliographyAfrica BibliographyAfrica Bibliography is an annual guide to works in African studies published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute . It was established in 1984 and is published as an annual print volume and simultaneously as a searchable online database...
for a categorised list of publications in the field since 1984 - Pan-AfricanismPan-AfricanismPan-Africanism is a movement that seeks to unify African people or people living in Africa, into a "one African community". Differing types of Pan-Africanism seek different levels of economic, racial, social, or political unity...
- Africana studiesAfricana studiesIn United States education, Africana studies, or Africology is the study of the histories, politics and cultures of peoples of African origin both in Africa and in the African diaspora....
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 ilissAfricaInternet library sub-saharan Africa (ilissAfrica)The internet library sub-saharan Africa is a German Internet portal that offers an integrated access to relevant scientific information resources in the field of African Studies and the region Africa South of the Sahara . ilissAfrica covers social sciences, history, philology, ethnology and...
)