Archives - Institute of African Studies

Ghanaian Paramount Chief and University Chancellor, Neenyi Ghartey VII, Visits �Ӱ�ԭ��’s Institute of African Studies.

GabrielHabiyaremye — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 17:01:54 +0000

Ghanaian Paramount Chief of the Effutu traditional area and Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, Neenyi Ghartey VII, visited �Ӱ�ԭ�� University’s Institute of African Studies recently.

The August visitor was received by the Institute’s Director, Professor Nduka Otiono, in the company of Professor Eugene Fletcher of the Department of Biology at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University, Benjamin Offei, a �Ӱ�ԭ�� alumnus, and Mr. Ghartey Jnr who joined from Montreal. �Ӱ�ԭ�� Journalism professor, Nana Aba Duncan, also joined the group.

The visit enabled Neenyi Ghartey VII to learn more about the Institute’s research, teaching and community-engagement activities. He was given a tour of the Institute and had an opportunity to briefly attend the Building Futures through Indigenous African Knowledge conference that was underway at the Institute during his visit.

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The visit on Tuesday August 25 provided a platform for Neenyi Ghartey VII and Professor Otiono to exchange ideas and discuss areas of mutual interest, particularly the potential for education and research collaboration between �Ӱ�ԭ�� University’s Institute of African Studies and the University of Education, Winneba.

As a traditional leader and university chancellor, Neenyi Ghartey VII brings remarkable perspectives from community leadership, culture and higher education. His visit highlighted the importance of building connections between African and Canadian institutions and creating opportunities for collaborative research, knowledge exchange and educational partnerships.

Neenyi Ghartey VII noted that Professor Otiono’s “presentation on the Institute’s multidisciplinary approach, its rich academic programs, and its dynamic role in shaping global and cross-cultural perspectives particularly within Africa will have far reaching prospects for the African continent and its people.” He concluded: “We are pleased to note that the work you and your entire colleagues are doing to champion African scholarship and community engagement will have a lasting positive impact on stewardship in Africa and a lasting impression on your university.

From Kakuma to Shaping Refugee Policy

GabrielHabiyaremye — Mon, 05 Oct 2026 17:04:48 +0000

Nyabuol Biel Gang, a fourth-year Bachelor of Global and International Studies student at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University.

“Every room that I go into, I move as an expert. I might not have the academic credentials, but I do have the lived experience. And that is enough.”

After spending nearly two years living in Kenya’s Kakuma Refugee Camp, �Ӱ�ԭ�� University student Nyabuol Biel Gang is bringing her lived experience directly to decision-makers, global youth councils and Parliament Hill.

From becoming the first refugee member of UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited Young People’s Action Team to winning the C.J. Scott Memorial Award, Gang is working to ensure displaced youth have a direct voice in shaping refugee policy, education and mental health support.

Read how Gang turned her journey from Kakuma to Ottawa into a platform for global advocacy and documentary filmmaking: /…/gang-kakuma-shaping-refugee-policy/

New Book! The Elgar Companion to Democracy and Development in Africa

GabrielHabiyaremye — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 14:48:49 +0000

Edited by Yiagadeesen Samy, Professor of International Affairs, The Norman Paterson School of International Affairs and Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba, Assistant Professor, Institute of African Studies, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, �Ӱ�ԭ�� University, Ottawa, Canada

This comprehensive Elgar Companion examines the conceptual and empirical relationship between democracy and development, analysing different political regimes adopted by sub-Saharan African countries in the post-independence period. Leading experts survey their governance and development through both macro and micro lenses, drawing on specific case studies and broader, continent-wide analysis.

nterdisciplinary in scope, the book also explores various issues such as party institutionalization and ideology, women’s political leadership and participation, military coups, foreign assistance and the role of the African Union, all in relation to democracy and development. Reflecting on the diversity of the African experiences, the contributors propose that the utility of democracy lies in the extent to which it can deliver political goods to its citizens, and that achieving this requires a reimagining of the state which reincorporates indigenous governance and institutions. Analysing the implications of democratic backsliding, chapters advocate for a thinking state anchored by developmental elites, the establishment of strong and accountable institutions, and a shared value of development.

The Elgar Companion to Democracy and Development in Africa is a crucial resource for scholars and students of politics and public policy, economics and development studies. Policymakers and civil servants will also benefit from its practical insights and future-oriented perspectives.

New Book! Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Entrepreneurship, and Sustainable Development in Africa

GabrielHabiyaremye — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 14:25:32 +0000

Authors: Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba, Inocent Moyo, Zainab Monisola Olaitan and Jabulile H Mzimela

Critiques the Eurocentric framing of entrepreneurship in Africa and advocates for embracing Indigenous philosophies and practices to foster inclusive, sustainable socio-economic development.

Description

Indigenous entrepreneurship involves the use of Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) to establish enterprises whose target is not only profit but also socio-economic development of communities, and that differentiates it from mainstream economic activities. Based on this, it is then possible to bring into the conversation the issue of IKS and entrepreneurship in Africa in terms of how the conceptualization and praxis of Indigenous entrepreneurship can be decolonized to unlock and unleash socio-economic development in Africa. For this reason, it matters that Indigenous entrepreneurship does not continue to be subjected to or governed by mainstream economic principles. It should be remembered that before colonial conquest, Indigenous entrepreneurship flourished and led to authentic and inclusive socio-economic development. It was colonialism and settler Eurocentric institutions that subjected Indigenous entrepreneurship to mainstream economic governance regimes leading to its marginalization and in some cases relative demise.

Nonetheless, given on one hand the resilience of Indigenous entrepreneurship in terms of surviving the colonial encounter, onslaught, and institutions that should have suffocated and buried it and on the other its potential to spur inclusive socio-economic development, it is now time to revisit and recover it without subjecting it to or seeing it through mainstream economic lenses and the Eurocentric frame. Consequently, this raises three critical but related questions which the book tackles; first, how is entrepreneurship understood and practiced by Indigenous communities in Africa? Second, why is there a need to decolonize the conceptualization and praxis of entrepreneurship in Africa through the logic of IKS and how can this be done? Third, how and to what extent can IKS be leveraged and/or mobilized and unleashed to contribute to socio-economic development in Africa? Against this backdrop, the main goal of the book project therefore is to decolonize within the prism of IKS how Indigenous entrepreneurship is conceptualized, understood, and implemented in Africa.

This task should show the poverty of the current understanding and implementation of entrepreneurship in Africa which is couched within a Eurocentric frame. It is now time to transcend the Eurocentric monologue of entrepreneurship to an understanding of how Indigenous communities in various parts of Africa conceptualize and practice entrepreneurship leading to socio-economic development. It is important to amplify the point that since it is the cornerstone of the contemporary Indigenous economy, Indigenous entrepreneurship is both the answer and the path forward for the development and cultural survival of African communities.
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A Welcome Message from Dr. Anne Bowker

GabrielHabiyaremye — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 14:10:37 +0000

Welcome to a new academic year!

Just a few days into the fall term, I’m already heartened by the constant bustle on campus and the enthusiasm of the students I’ve crossed paths with so far.

Dr. Anne Bowker is Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.

On September 8, we held our Arts and Social Sciences in the Quad, and I was so impressed by the turnout and my conversations with many of you. You seem determined and excited as you pursue degrees in the subjects that interest you. By choosing the arts and social sciences, I think you have made a very smart decision for your future, though I may be a little biased!
As a developmental psychologist, a long-time professor and now entering my fourth year as Dean of Arts and Social Sciences, I have spent much of my career thinking about how young people learn and grow. What I have learned, often from students themselves, is that real growth does not usually occur all at once. It comes through an accumulation of experiences, relationships, questions and challenges, as well as small, everyday acts of courage and kindness.

My hope is that you give yourself every opportunity to experience that growth this year.
Your department is a good place to begin building those relationships. Introduce yourself to a professor after class or visit them during office hours. Get to know your fellow students and the staff, administrators and advisors who support your program. Become part of the department’s culture and consider what you might contribute to it. Remember that your program is more than just a collection of courses. It is an intellectual community filled with people who can change the way you understand the world and help you find your place in it.
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Building Futures Through African Indigenous Knowledge

GabrielHabiyaremye — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 13:34:23 +0000

�Ӱ�ԭ�� researcher Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba is leading an international effort to re-centre Indigenous knowledge systems in entrepreneurship��and development��initiatives��across Africa.

Across Africa, Indigenous knowledge systems carry generations of lived experience, ecological understanding and collective wisdom.

But when it comes to development, those ways of knowing have been sidelined and marginalized in favour of imported models that place decision-making power outside the communities they are meant to serve.

A major �Ӱ�ԭ��-led international research initiative is working to change that.

From 2023 to 2026, researchers, local partners and students across Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda have been working together through��a community-based project led by��Dr. Samuel Ojo Oloruntoba, assistant professor in �Ӱ�ԭ�� University’s��Institute of African Studies��and founder of the��.

Supported by the Mastercard Foundation, the “Unlocking Sustainable Solutions for Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship through Indigenous Knowledge in Africa” project brings together eight research working groups examining how Indigenous knowledge systems shape youth livelihoods and entrepreneurship in areas such as agriculture, health, ecotourism, cultural entrepreneurship, climate adaptation and environmental sustainability.

At the centre of this work is the simple but powerful methodological premise that communities are not simply participants in research, but knowledge holders in their own right. For Oloruntoba, that conviction is shaped as much by his training as a critical political economist as it is by his lived experience witnessing the repeated failures of many postcolonial development programs to address basic challenges around poverty, health and employment in Africa.

“Because I was personally affected by these challenges, I felt the need to look back and ask the question: What types of knowledge existed in Africa before colonialism and how can these forms of knowledge be studied, recorded, disseminated and recentred in ways that they can be applied to solve the challenges facing the people?”

“Historically, we know that Africans have lived and achieved great things, such as building empires and kingdoms, using their own knowledge systems before the colonial intrusion.”

That vision is the heartbeat of AIKRN’s work: re-centering African Indigenous knowledge not as an artifact of history, but as a living framework for innovation, resilience and sustainable economic development.

Promoting��Knowledge Sovereignty in Africa

The project responds to a gap in what Oloruntoba calls “epistemic freedom and knowledge sovereignty.” In applied terms, that means foregrounding the knowledge, practices and lived expertise of communities whose perspectives have too often been excluded from development policy, university curricula and formal research systems. It also means having community members and holders of knowledge as co-creators of policies and programs that have direct effects on their lives.

New Book! Rethinking the ‘international’: Contextualizing Pan-Africanism as an international relations theory in a changing global (dis)order

GabrielHabiyaremye — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 18:37:35 +0000

Authors: Prof. ��and��

Abstract

In this paper, we ask, to what extent can Pan-Africanism constitute a valid theory of international relations? Using a qualitative methodology and a critical analytical framework, we position Pan-Africanism as an international relations theory. This paper argues that Pan-Africanism contains within it unique resources for analysis of global affairs in ways that recenter excluded voices from the Global South. The emerging possibilities of a fundamental shift from the trans-Atlantic world to that of an interlocking regional world of Afro-Euro-Asia make a strong case for the validity of Pan-Africanism as a theory of international relations.

New Book! Resource Wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo

GabrielHabiyaremye — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 18:26:40 +0000

Authors: Prof. Evelyn Namakula-Mayanja and Afua Boatemaa Yakohene.

Abstract

The field of International Relations (IR) has come under increasing and sustained criticism for producing and disseminating a particular reading of European history, one rooted in violence, as if it were universal knowledge. Generations of students, academics, practitioners, and policymakers have been taught and socialized into accepting this violent historical experience as the norm and, implicitly, as a reflection of human nature. As a result, the dominant accounts of IR tend to foreground competitive, conflictual, domineering, power-seeking, and exploitative behaviours as defining features of international life. This understanding of IR marginalizes and often ignores Indigenous ways of knowing that emphasize relationality, solidarity, mutual care, and cooperative forms of social organization. In this article, we argue that centring Afrocentric Indigenous Knowledge Systems (AIKS), particularly their conceptualizations of persons in IR scholarship, has the potential to move the field beyond its bleak and violent roots towards a more humane and relational epistemology. The AIKS-centred approach to IR is better suited to capturing the nuances of contemporary global life while speaking to the lived experiences of Africans and potentially other Indigenous peoples around the world.

The Skill of Kindness

GabrielHabiyaremye — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:21:20 +0000

Please enjoy this transcript of Dr. Anne Bowker’s remarks from �Ӱ�ԭ�� University’s Spring 2026 Convocation

Dr. Anne Bowker, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at �Ӱ�ԭ�� University.

Good morning, everyone. It is such a pleasure to be here with you today.

For those who don’t know me, my name is Dr. Anne Bowker, and I have the privilege of serving as Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and as a professor of Developmental Psychology.

To the family members, friends, faculty, staff, mentors, and supporters who have helped our graduates reach this milestone, thank you. Today is a celebration of individual achievement, but it is also a celebration of community. None of us arrives at a moment like this entirely on our own.

And to the Class of 2026: Congratulations! You have worked incredibly hard to get here, and you should be so proud of what you’ve accomplished.

As I look out at you today, I find myself thinking not only about where you’re going next, but about how much you’ve changed since you first arrived at �Ӱ�ԭ��.

Four years ago, many of you arrived on campus carrying a mixture of excitement, uncertainty, ambition, and perhaps a few assumptions about how the world worked. Since then, you’ve encountered new ideas, complicated questions, unfamiliar perspectives, and people��whose experiences challenged and contrasted your own.

You have each learned a great deal in classrooms and lecture halls, libraries, studios, labs, work and field placements, community groups, and late-night conversations with friends. But education is never just about acquiring information. It is also about comprehensive personal evolution.

One of the great joys of working in a university is having the opportunity to watch students grow over time. I’ve had the honour of seeing that growth in many of you, and what strikes me most today is not simply the expertise you’ve developed through your disciplines. It’s who you’ve become.

Through your classes, experiences, and relationships at �Ӱ�ԭ��, you have become people who are better equipped to understand the world around you. And I don’t use the word��understand��lightly.

In my view, understanding is one of the most powerful skills a person can possess. It helps us make sense of a complicated world, build meaningful friendships, contribute to our communities, and become the kind of leaders people trust and want to follow. It is a skill that enriches every part of our lives, personally and professionally.

Throughout your Arts and Social Sciences education, you’ve developed that skill in ways both big and small. You’ve examined multifaceted questions from multiple perspectives, challenged your own assumptions, and learned to look beneath the surface. You’ve discovered that understanding the world around us requires curiosity and a willingness to engage with complexity.

Those habits of mind may not always provide quick answers, but they often lead to better ones.

The world you are graduating into is fast-moving and often overwhelming. Information is abundant. Opinions are everywhere. Artificial intelligence can generate answers in seconds.

Yet understanding remains as important, and as difficult, as ever. Because true understanding requires something more than information. It requires inquisitiveness, good judgment, and the willingness to see beyond our own experiences.

Whether you studied psychology, English, history, music, sociology, cognitive science, or any of the many disciplines represented here today, you have spent your time exploring the human experience and developing the capacity to understand it more deeply.

As all of you now understand, the most important challenges facing our communities are not simply technical problems waiting for technical solutions. They are human challenges. And human challenges require people who can build connections, navigate nuance, and bring people together.

In other words, they require leadership. And while leadership is often associated with authority, expertise, or visibility, the most effective leaders I have known possess something much more human. They understand people. They pay attention to context. And they recognize that meaningful progress depends on trust, and that listening is often more valuable than speaking.

And that brings me to my core point I hope you’ll remember from my remarks today.

Understanding matters. But what matters even more is what we do with that understanding.

Understanding is the foundation. Kindness is the application. Understanding allows us to see people more clearly. Kindness is what we do with that understanding.

We often talk about kindness as though it were simply a personality trait. A virtue. Something you’re either born with or not. Something admirable, perhaps, but not especially useful in a competitive world.

I see it differently. To me,��kindness��is a skill. It is the practical application of empathy and understanding. It is how we build trust, strengthen communities, and help others feel valued. And despite what we sometimes hear, these qualities are not obstacles to success. They are often the foundation of it.

The people who build strong organizations, meaningful connections, and healthy communities are rarely those who move through the world thinking only about themselves. More often, they are people who understand others, who earn trust, and who recognize that connecting and belonging matter.

Maya Angelou once observed that it takes courage to be kind. I think she was right. Kindness requires courage. It takes courage to remain curious when certainty would be easier. It takes courage to reconsider our assumptions. And it takes courage to genuinely try to understand people whose experiences differ from our own. But I believe kindness is one of the most valuable skills you can carry into the future.

Whether in your career, your relationships, or your community, kindness will help you build trust and bring people together in a world that often feels divided and uncertain, and frankly requires mending.

One of the great privileges of my career has been spending more than three decades teaching, mentoring, and learning alongside students like you.

People sometimes assume that learning flows in only one direction. That professors teach and students learn. My experience has been quite different.

What I can tell you is that year after year, students continue to challenge my assumptions, expand my perspective, and remind me that every generation brings new ideas, new energy, and new possibilities. They also remind me that kindness is far more common, and far more powerful, than we often give it credit for.

And that is one of the reasons I remain so hopeful. I have spent my career meeting the people who will shape the future. I see them sitting in front of me today.

So, as you leave �Ӱ�ԭ��, I hope you carry forward the habits of mind you’ve developed here. Continue asking thoughtful questions. Continue seeking understanding before rushing toward simple answers.

But most importantly, please continue practicing your acquired and highly dynamic and refined skill of kindness. Not because it is easy, and not because it is expected, but because it is powerful if practiced consistently and with intention.

Thank you for choosing �Ӱ�ԭ�� and for enriching our Faculty with your intelligence, creativity, generosity, and of course, your skill of kindness.

Congratulations, Class of 2026. We are so proud of you and cannot wait to see where your talents take you next.

African Cinema, Memory, and the Work of Preservation

GabrielHabiyaremye — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 13:09:12 +0000

For��Dr. Aboubakar Sanogo,��cinema is an archive of humanity that shapes how people, cultures, and nations understand themselves.

His research interests include African and Afro-diasporic cinemas, documentary film theory, history and form, transnational and world cinemas, film preservation and restoration, colonial cinema, early and silent cinema, and film festival studies.

Much of African cinema’s history remains unknown or undocumented, and the films most often studied today are
those screened at festivals, distributed internationally, or circulated beyond their countries of origin.

“There’s an immense ocean of films that never circulated and never left their own country, that were never seen beyond maybe one or two screenings. Some were never screened at all.”

“That must be accounted for properly in order to be able to really have a grasp of the further longevity of African
film history, the complexity of African history, and the interrelationship between different national contexts,” says
Sanogo.

Recovering and preserving this unseen history has become the driving force of Sanogo’s work over the past decade.
That commitment led to the��(AFHP), the initiative for which he is now internationally
known.

He says the AFHP was created in large part for African filmmakers and the larger African film community. Sanogo says many legacy creators in African cinema are insufficiently known in Africa itself. His hope is that African
filmmakers can be inspired by creative projects in their own neighbourhood.

“In other words,” Sanogo describes, “we have not yet succeeded in vanquishing the coloniality of film distribution
and exhibition.”

Across Africa, the preservation of cinematic heritage is undermined by a convergence of structural, financial, and political obstacles. Many countries lack dedicated film archives, stable funding for cinema, and adequate restoration facilities, placing existing collections at constant risk.

Dr. Aboubakar Sanogo with Martin Scorsese (The Film Foundation) and Irina Bokova (UNESCO) at the signing of the African Film Heritage Project partnership agreement in 2017.

“Our projection is thus one of repatriating the African cinematic heritage in view of its reappropriation toward the creation of other African new waves, new movements, and bold cinematic and audiovisual experiments,” says Sanogo.

The AFHP also strives to expand the domain of cinema to include newsreels, documentaries, experimental and avant-garde works, short films, and even raw footage, so long as the material in question embodies important historical, cultural, and artistic elements.

Sanogo says the AFHP grew out of his role as North American Regional Secretary of the Pan-African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), Africa’s leading filmmakers’ organization that was founded in 1970.

Through this, he launched the FEPACI Archival Project, an initiative devoted to the memory, preservation, and historiography of African cinema from each of the six regions of Africa: West Africa, North Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, and the African diaspora.
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