scholarly journals Decolonizing the African Studies Centre

2018 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Branch
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Research ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Institutional Form ◽  
East African ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Research Institutes

The African Studies Centre has been a privileged institutional form in Britain for knowledge production on Africa since the end of colonialism. This article argues that the origin of these UK centres should be located in the colonial research institutes established in Africa, in particular the Rhodes-Livingstone Institute and the East African Institute of Social Research. Attention to the knowledge about Africa that was deemed authoritative by these institutes as well as to the institutions and structures underpinning that knowledge production can raise important questions about today’s centres that need to be addressed as part of a decolonization agenda.

On Social Change and Social Science Research in Africa

1969 ◽  
Vol 12 (02) ◽  
pp. 227-235
Author(s):  
Robert L. West
Keyword(s):  
North America ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
African Studies ◽  
Research Centers ◽  
Liaison Committee ◽  
Research Institutes

Since its establishment in 1966, the Research Liaison Committee has been charged by the members of the African Studies Association with the responsibility of finding ways to strengthen collaboration among African scholars and scholars from North America engaged in African research. The R.L.C, has been the principal instrument of the African Studies Association for informing and advising its members about research projects conducted in Africa by African, American, and other scholars; about the programs and facilities of research centers and institutes located in Africa; about the policies and procedures of governments and universities in Africa with respect to research and the activities of foreign research workers; and about the special needs and priority concerns of the governmental and academic research communities in Africa. The obverse of these responsibilities has been the effort by the R.L.C, to improve the means of communication with African research centers and to increase their familiarity with the capabilities and interests of American scholars concerned with Africa, particularly in the social sciences, the humanities, and in the broad field of development research. The R.L.C. has found two principal means of carrying out these responsibilities. First, it has entered into cooperation with groups of research centers in Africa, and with councils of scholars and directors of research institutes, to enlarge the exchange of information between the scholarly communities of Africa and North America; a notable example is the collaboration with the Council of Directors of Economic and Social Research Institutes in Africa (CODESRIA), whose chairman, Dr. H. M. A. Onitiri of the University of Ibadan, visited major centers of African studies in the United States in the spring of 1969 as a guest of the African Studies Association.

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