Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T23:19:20.589Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

‘Us’ and ‘them’: the International African Institute and the current crisis of identity in African Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Michael Crowder
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In April 1986 British Africanists met to discuss the crisis facing African Studies in their country. The crisis was easily denned as one of lack of resources in universities where current cutbacks have particularly affected area studies; of the limited funds available to libraries specialising in African Studies; and of the severe reduction in the number of publishers willing to take on monographs relating to Africa, with the result that many scholars are ‘giving up all hope of being published'.1 Furthermore, lack of travel funds has meant that many Africanists teaching in Britain have not been to the continent of their study in seven years. So few new appointments have recently been made in the field of African Studies in British universities that, unless something drastic is done to reverse the trend, in fifteen years’ time there will be a sharp decline in the numbers actually engaged in African Studies as generations grow old and are not replaced.2 Students can see no future in pursuing African Studies at the postgraduate level and their teachers are in no position to advise even their most brilliant students that doctoral research will lead to an academic appointment. These developments have taken place in a context where those who run the government have lost or are losing interest in Africa, a continent which is seen increasingly as one of unending problems which they just wish would go away. Indeed, the whole crisis in African Studies, as described by some of the leading British Africanists that April, invited headlines in the respected weekly magazine West Africa: ‘African Studies in peril. Is the study of Africa in British universities dying?

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , January 1987 , pp. 109 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1987

References

Notes

1 James Currey, reported in Kaye Whiteman, ‘African Studies in peril’, West Africa, 14 April 1986, p. 781. See also Currey, James, ‘The state of African Studies publishing’, African Affairs, 85, 341, October 1986, 609–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Hodder-Williams, Richard, A Directory of Africanists in Britain, Bristol: Bristol University Press, 1986Google Scholar; ‘African Studies: back to the future’, African Affairs, 85, 341, October 1986, 593–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Whiteman, loc. cit.

4 Lalage Bown, reported in Whiteman, op. cit.

5 United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Report of the Second Conference of Vice-Chancellors/Presidents/Rectors of Institutions of Higher Learning in Africa, Mbabane (Swaziland), 18–22 February, 1985, Addis Ababa, March 1985.

6 Ibid., p. 13.

7 Smith, Edwin W., ‘The story of the Institute: a survey of seven years’, Africa, 7 (1), January 1934, 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8 Ibid., p. 1.

9 Ibid., p. 7.

10 Mofolo, Thomas, Chaka: an historical romance. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1931.Google Scholar

11 Cardinall, A. W., Tales Told in Togoland. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1931.Google Scholar

12 Malinowski, B., ‘Practical anthropology’, Africa, 2 (1), January 1929, 36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

13 ‘A five-year plan of research’, Africa, 5 (1), January 1932, 2.Google Scholar

14 Richards, A. I., ‘Practical anthropology in the lifetime of the International African Institute’, Africa, 14 (6), April 1944, 299.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Baumann, H., Schopfung und Urzeit des Menschen im Mythus der Afrikanischen Volker, with the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1936.Google Scholar

16 Bovill, E. W., Caravans of the Old Sahara: an introduction to the history of the western Sudan. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1933.Google Scholar

17 Monteil, Charles, Une cité soudanaise: Djènnè, mètropole du delta central du Niger. Paris: Societe d'Éditions Géographiques, Maritimes et Coloniales for the Institut International des Langues et Civilisations Africaines, 1932.Google Scholar

18 Meinhof, Carl, Introduction to the Phonology of the Bantu Languages (English translation of Grundriss einer Lautlehre der Bantusprachen). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer, 1932.Google Scholar

19 Hunter, Monica, Reaction to Conquest: effect of contact with Europeans on the Pondo of South Africa. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1936.Google Scholar

20 Schapera, I., A Handbook of Tswana Law and Custom. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1938.Google Scholar

21 S. Nadel, F., A Black Byzantium: the kingdom of Nupe in Nigeria. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1942.Google Scholar

22 Krige, E. Jensen and Krige, J. D., The Realm of a Rain Queen: a study of the pattern of Lovedu society. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1943.Google Scholar

23 Westermann, Diedrich, The African Today. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1934.Google Scholar

24 Richards, Audrey I., Land, Labour and Diet in Northern Rhodesia: an economic study of the Bemba tribe. London: Oxford University Press for the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, 1939.Google Scholar

25 ‘Annual report: the work of the Institute in 1938’, Africa, 12 (1), January 1939, 94.Google Scholar

26 ‘Notes and news’, Africa, 14 (4), October, 1943, 214–17.Google Scholar

27 ‘Notes and news’, Africa, 15 (2), April 1945, 88.Google Scholar

28 Ibid., p. 88.

29 See Richards, Paul, Indigenous African Revolution: ecology and food production in West Africa. London: (Hutchinson Education, 1985), for a perceptive discussion of this question with regard to agricultural development.Google Scholar

30 ‘Notes and news’, Africa, 16 (2), April 1946, 113.Google Scholar

31 Ibid.

32 ‘Meeting of Executive Council: London, 28–30 March 1951), Africa, 21 (3), July 1951, 224.Google Scholar

33 Busia, K. A., The Position of the Chief in the Modern Political System of Ashanti. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1951.Google Scholar

34 Aidan, Southall (ed.), Social Change in Modern Africa: studies presented and discussed at the first International African Seminar, Makerere College, Kampala, January 1959. London: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1961.Google Scholar

35 Gluckman, Max, ‘Daryll Forde, 1902–73’, Africa, 44 (1), January, 1974, 1.Google Scholar

36 Barnicott, Nigel, ‘Address given by Professor Nigel Barnicott at the thanksgiving service for Daryll Forde held at the University Church of Christ the King, Gordon Square, London, on Tuesday, 26 June 1973’, Africa, 43 (4), October 1973, 284.Google Scholar

37 Dalby, Davidet al., Drought in Africa 2. London: International African Institute, 1977Google Scholar; Hussein, Abdul Mejid (ed.), Rehab: drought and famine in Ethiopia. London: International African Institute, 1976Google Scholar: Lewis, I. M., Abaar: the Somali drought. London: International African Institute, 1975Google Scholar; O'Keefe, Phil and Wisner, Ben (eds.). Land Use and Development. London: International African Institute, 1977Google Scholar; Paul, Richards (ed.), African Environment: problems and perspectives. London: International African Institute, 1976.Google Scholar

38 Horton, Robin, ‘Ancient Ife: a reassessment’, Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 2, 1979.Google Scholar

39 See Schwerpunkt Afrikanologie and der Universität Bayreuth: Tatigkeitsbericht; Sommersemester 84 bis Wintersemester 84/85. Bayreuth: University of Bayreuth, 1985.Google Scholar