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The Rise of African Studies (USA) and the Transnational Study of Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

William G. Martin
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Abstract:

Among Africanists, one of the remarkable events of 1957 was the founding of the African Studies Association. Commentaries on the association's history are slight and understandably celebratory. Exploration of archival and related sources, however, reveals considerable uncertainty and struggle over the construction of the field in the 1950s and 1960s. Those sources range across changing continental, colonial, and racial boundaries and reveal racialized relationships among U.S. scholars and especially foundation officials, British scholars and colonial officials, and, in unexpected ways, scholars in Africa and particularly South Africa. This essay traces the interplay of these forces and the demise of the transnational study of Africa in this period—and points briefly toward today's uncertain future for the study of Africa.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Pour les spécialistes de l'Afrique, l'un des évènements remarquables de 1957 a été la création de l'Association des Études Africaines. Les commentaires sur l'histoire de l'association sont limités et naturellement élogieux. Une exploration des archives et sources reliéfs révèle cependant une incertitude et de difficultés considérables rencontrées lors de l'établissement de ce domaine d'étude dans les années 50 et 60. Ces sources s'étendent sur le changement des frontières continentales, coloniales, el raciales, et elles révèlent des relations racialisées entre les chercheurs et en particulier les officiels américains, les cheicheurs anglais et les officiels coloniaux. Ces relations impliquent de manières inattendues les chercheurs en Afrique et en particulier en Afrique du sud. Cet essai retrace les interactions enire ces différents protagonistes et la désintégration de ce projet d'étude transnational de l'Afrique à cette période. Il soulève également de manière brève la question présente sur l'avenir incertain des études africaines.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , April 2011 , pp. 59 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2011

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