Those of us fortunate enough to be honored with the presidency of the ASA share a common dilemma: what to say at the occasion of the presidential address. Our dilemma is not the result of taking this occasion lightly; indeed, I have been making notes to myself for at least two years. Rather, it is the problem of what is appropriate to an organization such as the ASA.

The association represents a host of different disciplines and interests. Its focus is on Africa, but not the events so much as the study of patterns and meaning of events. Its setting is in North America, but its constituency is tremendously diverse: native-born and naturalized, people of North American, African and European origin, institutional members as well as individual ones. Its officers, like myself, make campaign statements when we know the realities of the association only dimly; with time we realize how much of the continuity and wisdom of the organization come from the staff.

I did not feel comfortable with a statement about the current situation in Africa, about which we all know something, nor with a statement about Africanist scholarship, the reason for which we come to the panels and keynotes of a meeting such as this. What I do feel a call to express is a reflection on the association in relation to its history and the changing situations in Africa and North America and in relation to African studies. And so finally I would like to talk about “The African Studies Association at age 35.”