African Studies Centre

Abstract Africa is increasingly being exposed to the negative impacts of climate and environmental change, while having less capacity to respond compared to other continents. The vulnerability partially results from unprecedented demographic growth, urbanization, and industrialization. However, the continent has still largely been underserved by the broader Earth system science (ESS) community, as evidenced by the limited amount of ESS data and research that cover Africa compared to other areas of the world. Here, we present the recent University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Africa Initiative that aims to enhance environmental sustainability in Africa by fostering international collaborative research partnerships coled by African scientists. Specifically, we outline urgent challenges and opportunities identified through an international workshop in six areas of ESS, namely, 1) air quality and health, 2) weather, 3) climate, 4) land and water, 5) social science perspectives, and 6) developing equitable collaboration and sustainable infrastructure. We highlight examples of successful partnerships and conclude with recommendations to advance collaborative, actionable ESS research that addresses Africa’s critical environmental challenges. Significance Statement Africa is experiencing the negative impacts of climate and environmental change. However, relevant research and hence suggested solutions are very limited. As a key outcome of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) Africa Initiative, we highlight the importance of the international community in supporting and coleading successful collaborative efforts with African scientists that can address Africa’s environmental challenges through equitable partnerships. This paper provides a forward-looking perspective by highlighting collaborative research opportunities in six critical Earth system science (ESS) areas and identifies practical directions to advance environmental sustainability in Africa through more coordinated scientific engagement.

African Studies grapple with numerous structural issues, including epistemic inequalities, power dynamics, and marginalisation in knowledge production. This study aims to examine the root causes and dimensions of these imbalances by analysing bibliometric data from the journal Africa Spectrum between 2009 and 2023, using it as a case study to explore broader trends and challenges in African Studies. It highlights critical inequalities, such as the limited representation of Africa-centred perspectives, the low visibility of women authors, and the thematic focus of the literature on Western-centric topics. Data sourced from the Scopus database were analysed using tools like VOSviewer and Excel, focusing on author profiles, citation patterns, keywords, countries, institutions, and funding structures. The findings reveal that only 32% of the authors are African, women authors represent a mere 27%, and the literature predominantly revolves around Western-centric themes such as crisis, conflict, and governance. Additionally, the dominance of Western-based institutions and funding sources underscores the continued dependency of Africa-centred knowledge production on external factors. These results emphasise the historical reproduction of power imbalances within African Studies, constraining Africa’s intellectual autonomy. By critically analysing the structural issues in African Studies, this study highlights the necessity for more inclusive and Africa-centred knowledge production processes.

Abstract This chapter explores Let ‘im Move You: Intervention, a public performance series led by Makini (also known as jumatatu m. poe) and Jermone Donte Beacham that reclaims Black queer presence through j-sette dance in historically Black neighborhoods. Originating from a YouTube encounter and forged through artistic kinship, Makini and Beacham develop performances that braid the militaristic precision of HBCU majorette traditions with the subversive vitality of queer Black club culture. The chapter demonstrates how their interventions animate public parks and streets, challenging dominant norms by queering space, rhythm, and assembly through deliberate, embodied movement. Emphasizing slowness, safety, collaboration, and vulnerability, the performers enact community and radical presence in spaces often marked by exclusion and risk. Finally, the chapter positions these choreographic acts as ephemeral cartographies—mapping Black queer existence into landscapes that have long rendered them invisible.

This article looks into the resurgence of Pan-Africanism in the Sahel region, driven by bold political rhetoric and radical actions by leaders in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. Amid rising anti-colonial sentiment, these nations are rejecting the remnants of France's neo-colonial influence, marked by efforts such as reducing the prominence of the French language in official contexts, promoting indigenous languages, and fostering regional solidarity, political and economic emancipation through the establishment of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). Using an interdisciplinary approach incorporating decoloniality, African agency, and Critical Discourse Analysis, the study examines the speeches and policies of these leaders, highlighting their implications for political, economic, and linguistic Pan-Africanism. Key findings suggest that this movement signifies a "third liberation" of Africa, emphasizing sovereignty, cultural identity, and decolonization of languages. By analyzing the rhetoric of leaders like Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, Col. Assimi Goita, Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, and Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the paper uncovers an evolving Pan-Africanism rooted in resistance to external domination and the reclamation of African autonomy. While challenges remain, these actions signal a transformative shift in the Sahel region, offering a blueprint for broader African emancipation. The article concludes by underscoring the role of linguistic Pan-Africanism as a vital step toward realizing the ideals of unity, dignity, and independence.

Abstract Acknowledging other human beings, especially when they speak a language foreign to us, comport themselves in ways we find illegible, makes manifest just how difficult the work of acknowledgement is. But the pitfalls in devoting oneself to such work are of a piece with those woven into the fabric of acknowledging others with whom we share a culture. The author of this article explores the work of acknowledgement, in light of both its Wittgensteinian inspiration and some surprising implications of paying close attention to several important claims made by J. L. Austin in ‘A Plea for Excuses’. The ‘natural economy of language’ might work against acknowledging our complicity in nothing less than the annihilation of others, especially those who speak, act, look, and in respects appear to be so different from ourselves. While our relationship to others tends to be, as Emerson noted, ‘oblique and casual’, killing in even a figurative sense is, as Austin suggested, ‘a verb of omen’. Arguably, oblique actions have more to do with ominous verbs than we appreciate—or tend to acknowledge. Such, at least, is what the author tries to render plausible.

In 1995, recognition of sexual orientation within asylum law was expanded when a transgender woman from Algeria, known by the case name Ourbih, sought asylum in France. Yet, the specifics of her trans identity remain marginalized, reflecting broader issues in asylum systems. Providing an overview of transgender asylum and displacement scholarship, this chapter problematizes the field’s concentration in the Global North. It argues that these systems impose binary, medicalized frameworks of gender, forcing trans asylum seekers into rigid categories designed to fit Global North bureaucracies. Contrasting this with literature from the Global South with a particular focus on the African continent, the chapter challenges dominant legal and scholarly narratives, emphasizing the cultural, historical, and geographical specificities of trans displacement. Moving beyond legalistic framings, the chapter advocates for a reorientation of scholarship and policy toward care, respect, and the amplification of trans voices, ensuring that asylum systems reflect the diverse realities of those they seek to protect. By considering the lived experiences of trans individuals and embracing the diversity of gender, whether they adopt or reject the term “transgender,” the chapter calls for a more inclusive and intersectional approach to trans forced migration.

As part of a geopolitical competition for talent, China is often portrayed as especially proactive in its state efforts to attract skilled migrants from around the world. In contrast to this outside view of technocratically executed talent schemes, this article investigates the contested implementation of China's skilled migration reforms in Shanghai, the country's top immigrant destination. It investigates the selective implementation of Shanghai's “new talent regime,” a set of experimental policies focused on improving skilled migrant attraction. The analysis shows that while Shanghai has built an ambitious skilled migration programme on paper, the extent of its implementation has been mixed. Specifically, state actors differentiate between policies deemed in line with longstanding policy goals, which they implement proactively, and more innovative policies, which they implement mainly on a performative level. I argue that this risk-averse policy attitude can be traced to policy centralization and an emerging (re-)politicization of immigration policy.

Humans are a curious mix of biology and culture, and one interaction area between these two that has recently come into focus is located in the senses, our biological apparatus to connect with the world. In this essay I address the variation in appreciation of the senses in various cultures, both historical and contemporaneous, in order to glean the measure in which culture steers not so much our observations, as our appreciation of the epistemological weight of our various senses. I concentrate on three, vision, hearing and smell, and show how the relative weight attributed to each of them shifts in different cultures or historical periods. Using data from anthropology, literature, psychology and linguistics, I argue that vision, sound and smell accrue different positions in various cultures, and that our sensorial balance shifts with culture. Thus, our present epistemological dominance of sight over all other senses, is neither a biological given, nor a cultural necessity.

The ability to analyse and interpret data or diagrams is an important part of science process skills. To support the achievement of these learning objectives, teacher education should teach preservice biology teachers (PBTs) with the use of charts and graphs. This research examines the application of charts by PBTs in the instruction of biology and its impact on students’ achievement. A mix methods research design was employed to evaluate the utilization of charts by PBTs. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics to answer the research questions while Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed that 51.8% of PBTs frequently utilize charts in biology classroom. They stated that chart usage makes them confident to teach biology concepts. The result further revealed a statistically significant effect of charts on students' achievement in biology, with F (1,235) = 146.286 and p 0.05. Meanwhile, results showed that there was no significant main effect of gender on students’ achievement in biology using chart-based instruction., F (1,235) = 0.058, p 0.05. Further, the result revealed that there was no interaction effect of treatment (chart-based instruction) and gender on students’ academic achievement in biology (F (1,235) = 0.363, p 0.05). This study had provided insights for institutions in teacher training programs on the importance of incorporating visual aid training for the pre-service teachers, as it had proven to increase their teaching confidence, effectiveness, and students’ achievement in biology.

Could God be present in decomposed organic matter? How are projects of making compost influencing Christians’ view and relationship to webs of biological life? Looking at a present-day project of religious education aimed at cultivating regenerative Christian farmers in South Africa, I examine conservative Evangelical-Charismatic Christians’ compost-making practices. By addressing a Christian pedagogics of mimicking the biotic order revealed in nature, I outline key aims of establishing sensory immersion with compost-making as a core educational tool for (re)ordering how Christians cultivate nature and human-nature relations. Situated in the post-apartheid context of South Africa, the case points to a compost politics centered on immanence where ordering connected to a biblical past enables Christians to engage in a project of transcending social contestations over land use in post-apartheid South Africa.