NEWSLETTER Volume 24 Number 95 April 2019 Report by the ASAUK President It has been a busy few months since our last newsletter. Preparations for our next ASAUK conference – to be held at Cardiff University on 8th to 10th September 2020 – have begun in earnest. Alongside that, we have been actively representing our members through our policy work. ASAUK has been gathering evidence on visa denials since 2016 and as a result have been able to make evidence-based interventions on this critical matter. Addressing longstanding patterns of inequitable knowledge production and dissemination is the central to the work of the Association. We have been drawing attention to the damaging effects of visa denials for Africa-based colleagues who are prevented from leading and shaping intellectual agendas when they are unable to be present at ‘international’ meetings. We have actively sought to make our voice heard on this issue on behalf of our members. On Tuesday 22nd January the UK All Party Parliamentary Group for Africa hosted a meeting in parliament to hear oral evidence on UK visa refusals for African visitors. The meeting was attended by a number of parliamentarians and heard evidence from speakers from the business, legal, cultural, charitable and academic sectors. ASAUK had submitted written evidence based on its work collating data on visa denials and was able to make a robust evidence-based submission (you can read our submission online: http://www.asauk.net/all-partyparliamentary-group-submission/). Past President Dr Insa Nolte presented an oral report on the problems encountered by ASAUK. The meeting heard numerous accounts of conferences, festivals, collaborations and business and trade partnerships that had been undermined due to visa denials. The key findings from the written and oral evidence confirms that there are significant practical and logistical barriers to making a visa application, not least because the current hub and spoke model means that there are just three decision making ‘hubs’ (two of which are in Nigeria) and 27 visa application centres ‘spokes’ serving a continent of 1.3 billion across 57 countries covering a land mass of 11.5 million square miles. In addition, application costs, access the internet and the requirement of payment in a foreign ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 1 currency all present significant barriers. When applicants are required to attend an appointment in person at a visa application centre to provide biometric data and documents, this is costly and time consuming and often intrusive. Delays in decision-making, a lack of timely updates or of online tracking of applications all cause frustration. The evidence submitted showed that decisions are frequently inconsistent, errors regularly made, and decisions vary drastically in quality depending on the decision maker. There was significant evidence of a lack of procedural fairness and of an entrenched culture of distrust which assumes all applicants should prima facie be disbelieved. Speaking from the floor, I pointed out that the visa application system had been allowed to go rogue because there has not been sufficient oversight: because there is no right to appeal a refusal (aside from an expensive and lengthy judicial review), lack of accountability has come to characterise the visa system. ASAUK will continue to press this point. Following the meeting, a group of parliamentarians spoke with the Immigration Minister on the 13th February to discuss the issues raised. In addition, a summary of the evidence gathered will be submitted to the UK's Chief Inspector for Borders & Immigration. A policy report on visa denials is now under preparation in which ASAUK will be involved. Please keep an eye on our website for this. I am pleased to report that during 2018, the path-breaking work of ASAUK’s Writing Workshops continued. Four formal workshops jointly organised by the ASAUK and partners at African universities took place. One important trend in the workshops for this year was the strengthened links we have built with Africa-based associations, conference series, institutions and journals. We held workshops that included general information including guidance about funding opportunities and scholarship, and research training sessions to whom larger communities were invited. The main focus of the work was the papers of the scholars who received detailed comments from senior colleagues and participating journal editors. The four workshops this past year were: Lagos Studies Association Workshop (led by Carli Coetzee), the Accra Writing Workshop (led by Ola Uduku), the Luanda Workshop (led by Toby Green) and the Moi University workshop (led by George Ogola). The last year has seen many articles and publications come out of the workshops, and we hope to continue building on the links we have made with Africa-based associations, organisations and individuals. For the next year, we have committed to working with a number of conferences and networks again, and to continue this work. In future, writing workshops will ideally work in conjunction with senior partners involved in conferences and writing workshops in Africa. We have submitted funding applications for the next cycle of workshops and would be very keen to establish a permanent cycle of collaborations with these partners, thereby enriching the UK African studies community intellectually. 2 ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 The ASAUK has also been working in collaboration with our colleagues in the International African Institute (IAI) to express concerns in principle about Plan S and the APC (author-funded) model of Open Access publishing Plan S is promoting. In a comprehensive assessment of the implications of Plan S for African Studies, the IAI has pointed out the scheme is likely to be unaffordable for researchers in the humanities and social sciences in the Global South. It argues that Plan S is likely to be damaging and divisive. It has been developed predominantly for the interests of European science with scant regard for knowledge production systems outside the Global North. But it also threatens to preclude unfunded African and European researchers from publishing in journals compliant with Plan S. You can read the African Studies Response to Plan S here: https://www.internationalafricaninstitute.org/downloads/african_ studies_submission.pdf As we continue to forge close relationships with our sister African Studies Associations, our December 2018 Council meeting resolved that ASAUK would become an institutional member of the African Studies Association of Africa and we are looking forward to its next conference taking place at USIU-Africa in Nairobi in September 2019 [see this newsletter for details]. Finally, it was with great sadness that we learned the news of the death of Professor Pius Adesanmi in the Ethiopian Airlines tragedy on 10th March. We mourn the great loss of friends and colleagues in our scientific community, in Kenyatta University and beyond. The ASAUK expresses its heartfelt condolences to Professor Adesanmi’s colleagues at the Institute of African Studies at Carleton University, in the Canadian African Studies Association, and to his family and friends. Across the world, colleagues will remember his scholarship and his role as teacher and generous mentor with gratitude and affection. Professor Ambreena Manji, ASAUK President Applications for Small Grants for Conferences ASAUK administers a fund for Africa-related academic workshops and conferences to be held in the UK. The grants are up to £800. Past awards have contributed towards an African participant’s travel costs or allowed the subsidised participation of a number of UK-based postgraduate students at an event. Applications should include a short description of the intended event, the amount requested, and details of what the funds would be used for. ASAUK asks that the organisers acknowledge ASAUK/RAS support in all their event material and that they send the Council a short summary of the event for inclusion in the ASAUK newsletter. Applications will be discussed at an ASAUK Council meeting, that is, 24th May 2019 and October 2019. Applications for the May meeting by 30th April 2019 to Nici Nelson: n.nelson@gold.ac.uk and Lizzie Orekoya: ras@soas.ac.uk ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 3 Nominations for Mary Kingsley Zochonis Lecturer, 2019 ASAUK seeks nominations for this year’s Mary Kingsley Zochonis lecture to be delivered at an ASAUK event in the autumn of 2019. The award encourages and supports a young African scholar at the beginning of their career in an African university. The lecture should be non-scientific, non-technical and on an African subject. The lecturer will be awarded a £500 prize, an economy return airfare to London, accommodation and food expenses up to £500 and up to £250 for travel expenses to allow the lecturer to travel to other centres of African studies in the UK. The proposed lecturer should be nominated by an academic colleague; no self-nominations please. The nomination should include a concise statement of support from the academic nominator, a two page CV and a title and one page statement on the topic of the proposed lecture. Please send nominations by 30 April 2019 to Nici Nelson, Honorary Secretary, ASAUK: n.nelson@gold.ac.uk and to Lizzie Orekoya, RAS/ASAUK Administrator: ras@soas.ac.uk Applications for ASAUK Teaching Fellowship, 2019 ASAUK is offering up to £9,000 to support a teaching fellowship in the Social Sciences or Humanities for a UK-based academic to work in an African university. ASAUK is seeking applications from early career academics who have finished their doctoral degree on an African topic at a British university in the past five years. The award is open to applicants of any nationality who have graduated from a British university. The award provides for one international airfare and covers 3-5 months’ living expenses. ASAUK has a flexible approach to the award and would be keen to support cofunding or exchange arrangements to sustain a longer placement period. In addition to their agreed teaching duties, the successful candidate will be encouraged to organise an ASAUK Writing Workshop. If such a workshop is accepted for funding by ASAUK, fellows will be paid an additional sum to cover their additional time and administrative work. In applying for a teaching fellowship, applicants should submit: a two page CV; a two page description of research plans, teaching experience, evidence of a partner in the host institution, teaching plans, and any co-funding or partnership arrangement; a letter of support from a sponsor in an African institution; a letter of support from a supervisor or other referee in the UK. Applications by 30 April 2019 to Nici Nelson, Honorary Secretary, ASAUK: n.nelson@gold.ac.uk and to Lizzie Orekoya, RAS/ASAUK Administrator: ras@soas.ac.uk ASAUK/RAS New Address Please note that the ASAUK/Royal African Society has moved offices to 21 Russell Square, SOAS, London, WC1B 5EA. 4 ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 Conferences Future. . . UNITED KINGDOM ‘Decolonising African Studies: Questions and Dilemmas for Libraries, Archives and Collections’, SCOLMA Conference 2019, University of Edinburgh, 11 Crichton Street, Edinburgh, Monday, 10th June 2019. Panel 1 – Decolonising library collections: Jenni Skinner, Mehves Dignum and Clara Panozzo Zénere (Cambridge University), ‘Decolonising library collections and practices at Cambridge University’; Justin Cox (African Books Collective) and Stephanie Kitchen (International African Institute), ‘African Books Collective: African published books for the North’; Gerard van Der Bruinhorst (African Studies Centre Library, University of Leiden), ‘On rape and revenge: reading Peggy Oppong’s “Red heifer” against the decolonisation of African Studies collections’. Panel 2 – Decolonisation and archives in Southern Africa: Mathias Fubah Alubafi (Human Sciences Research Council), ‘The HSRC Archives (1929–1968) in a changing South Africa’; Ken Chisa (University of KwaZuluNatal), ‘Decolonising indigenous knowledge (IK) in South African archives: can policy learn from practice?’; Livingstone Muchefa (National Archives of Zimbabwe), tbc, ‘The archivist and the scholar: re-interpretation and re-location of colonial archives’. Panel 3 – Archival histories and migrations: James Lowry (Liverpool University Centre for Archive Studies), ‘Repatriation is decolonisation’; Fabienne Chameleot (University of Portsmouth), ‘Splitting the colonial archives in half: archival expertise and decolonisation in West Africa, 1958–1960’; Isabelle Dion (Archives nationales d’outre-mer, France), ‘French decolonisation and archives’ (this paper will be delivered in French). Panel 4 – Working with heritage collections: Ahmed Hussein Abdelrahman Adam (University of Khartoum) tbc, ‘Sudanese collections in the UK: current situation and challenges’; Joanne Davis, ‘Accessing UK archival holdings from Africa’; Chimwemwe Phiri tbc, ‘Unearthing new meanings: a decolonial framework for accessing and translating the Africa colonial archive at the Weston Library, University of Oxford’. The day ends with a roundtable which will provide an opportunity to discuss some of the issues raised during the conference in relation to the collections of major libraries and archives in the UK and internationally. SCOLMA thanks ECAS, the University of Edinburgh, ASAUK and Taylor & Francis for their support of the conference. Conference fee £50 (£30 unwaged) to include tea/coffee and lunch. To book a place contact Sarah Rhodes: sarah.rhodes@bodleian.ox.ac.uk ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 5 ‘Creativity and Innovation – Research and Resilience in Zimbabwean Arts and Science’, Britain Zimbabwe Society Research Day 2019, Nissan Theatre, St Antony's College, Oxford, Saturday, 15th June 2019. In partnership with the Oxford African Studies Centre, the Britain Zimbabwe Society´s Research Day explores the findings of researchers and practitioners in the achievements, challenges and futures of Zimbabwean innovation and creativity. Arts and culture, science and technology have demonstrated extraordinary resilience through times of turbulence and the most difficult economic and political circumstances in the 20th and 21st century. Key questions arise about identity, national and social recognition, finance and livelihoods, education and development, and the role of research. There will be four panels, two on art and culture, two on science and technology, with plenty of time for audience questions and discussion. Registration fees are BZS member £20, standard £30, unwaged £15, and organisation £50. Bookings for RD19 are open on Eventbrite at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/creativity-and-innovation-tickets-53087788003 For further information on registration and practical arrangements, contact Margaret Ling: margaret.ling@geo2.poptel.org.uk INTERNATIONAL ‘The Critical Thinker-Doer: Higher Education and Knowledge Production for the Common Good’, 5th International Conference of the Dakar Institute of African Studies, Dakar, Senegal, 5–6 July 2019. Discourses produced on Africa have traditionally documented the continent’s many ills and challenges. They have also shed light on the genius of its people, the vibrancy of its cultures, and its rich natural resources. This intellectual tradition has recently led many to argue that the 21st century is Africa’s time to rise and rule the world. However, beyond its rhetorical nature, what is the potential for this prediction to materialise now or in the near future? If many believe that education offers the most reliable avenue to harness Africa’s energy and creativity, have African countries the right education system at this juncture? Clapperton Mavhunga contends that they do not. He suggests that Africans need to create for themselves an education system that is cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary, problem-solving, which promotes grassroots-based and ground-up knowledge production, and trains ‘critical thinker-doers’. The goal should be to conceive ‘a philosophical template from which an African imagination could happen’, and to make sure that research is not simply aimed at the insular academic circles, but instead serves the needs of all Africans. This deep critical thinking and commitment, according to Achille Mbembe, are urgently necessary to break the vicious circle of the not-well-thought-out development strategies prescribed for Africa. Along the same perspective, decades ago, Cheikh Anta Diop advocated the importance of efficient and selfless intellectuals who are profoundly knowledgeable about Africa’s realities and 6 ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 aspirations, and who could chart the right path for the continent toward a brighter future. Today, African countries are at a critical juncture. They are in dire need for a new social contract in knowledge production and knowledge sharing for the empowerment of people and communities everywhere in the continent. This situation challenges Africans to come up with new ways of thinking and doing that epistemologically fit their existence. The Fifth International Symposium of the Dakar Institute will focus on the different ways in which the concept of the critical thinker-doer could best be materialised. Does research create useful knowledge for society? How could we measure this impact in light of the huge financial resources and energy invested in research? What should be the relationships between fundamental research, applied research, and action research? Would it be contradictory to the mission of universities and to the promotion of critical thinking to provide our students with skills necessary to solve real world problems? Where does knowledge on/by Africans (Hountondji) fit in research and teaching in our universities? How best could the scholar work with and for communities when their representation of the scholar is not conducive to collaboration? The organisers invite papers, panels, and performances in English or French on three themes. Firstly, current trends and realities of Higher Education in Africa; empowering the African university: opportunities and challenges; Higher Education and social (in)equality; African diasporas, knowledge creation and knowledge sharing; education and market forces; university curriculum, research, and the making of the thinker-doer. Secondly, the challenges of knowledge creation on/in Africa; imperialism, humanitarianism, and the origin of African Studies; the construction of Africa in the Western Academy in the 21st century; knowledge of Africa, knowledge by Africans; African art as philosophy; how African is the field of African Studies; the insurrection will come through education; and un-thinking Africa: decolonial practices beyond the Ivory Tower. Thirdly, the relationship between fundamental and applied research: applied research in Africa; theorising doing and doing theory; the public intellectual; African knowledge transfer: the role of technology; agricultural research: from the lab to the farm, and back; applied law, customary and State institutions; and politics, social activism and the future of Africa. 250 word abstracts and short bio, with the subject line ‘Conference 2019’ by 1 May 2019 to conference@thedakarinstitute.com ‘African and Africana Knowledges: Past Representations, Current Discourses, Future Communities’ African Studies Association of Africa 3rd Biennial Conference, United States International University-Africa, Nairobi, Kenya, 24– 26 October 2019. The aim of this year’s conference is to invite and initiate a scholarly stocktaking of the knowledge produced by Africans in Africa and the ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 7 Diaspora in various forms – from scholarly work to artistic expressions – and to examine representations and current African realities and emerging futures with African knowledges. In other words, by stocktaking accomplishments and challenges facing African peoples globally, the organisers hope to address the ideological basis of the current disproportions in the distribution of worth, power and well-being affecting Africans and diasporic Africans. Although Africa has contributed more human and material resources to global welfare, it is ironic that it continues to be regarded as the poorest continent intellectually and materially. Besides, the ‘African condition’ today is a result of those past representations and the production of a knowledge that still represents Africa in popular media and scholarship as hopeless, poor, dark and devoid of knowledge. Obviously, the multifaceted crises facing contemporary African societies are rooted in and stem from old structures of knowledge production. As a result, a disconnect has ensued between academic knowledge, often produced from an outsider’s vantage point, and African lived realities. As academic debates intensify about the possibility of producing theoretical knowledge with bearings on transformational praxes in Africa, it is an important time to rediscover and benefit from the Afrocentric canon and kinship between African and Africana Studies. These two different perspectives on African ontologies have been pitted against each other – separated by historical, political, geographical, and economic trajectories as if they were competing disciplines, and yet they complement each other. It is ASAA’s hope that this politicallymotivated dichotomy introduced between African and Africana studies can be overcome. This conference invites scholars, artists and activists to look at old representations, Afrocentric counter-narratives, and the futures that Africans and Africans in the Diaspora imagine and want for themselves. It is an opportune time to critically challenge both dominant discourses on Africa and the inherited structures of knowledge production that still constrain our African imaginations. The organisers welcome the submission of paper and panel proposals under the following subthemes: the politics of knowledge production on Africa; reuniting Africana and African knowledges; celebrating and canonizing African and African Diaspora Thinkers; decolonizing pedagogy in education in Africa and diasporas; higher education in Africa; emerging digital counter-narratives on Africa; African agency and perspectives in international relations; the politics of museums and African artefacts restitution; Pan-African consciousness and identity production; belonging: space, race, and culture; Africa’s historiographies and Africa’s intellectual histories; African philosophy and theology; sex, queer and African sexualities; African and black masculinities and feminisms; African Anthropocene; invention and science in Africa; security, conflicts and African resolution perspectives; development and development politics in Africa; 8 ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 ethnomusicology and African music performance; Afrocentric perspectives and indigenous knowledge systems; African languages and emerging languages; African cinema and film; and African democracies. Abstracts by 15 May 2019 for individual papers and 30 May 2019 for panel submissions via the website: https://www.as-aa.org/index.php/asaa-2019-conference/submit-an-abstract Theses Recently Accepted at UK Universities Sylvia M. Ahaotu (2019), ‘Effective Implementation of Total Quality Management within the Nigerian Construction Industry’, Ph.D thesis, University of Salford. Supervisor: Dr Chaminda Pathirage. Olanshile M. Akintola (2018), ‘Beyond Greed and Grievance: Understanding the Multi-Causal Factors of the Niger Delta Conflicts’, D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford. Supervisors: Dr Abdul Raufu Mustapha, Dr Patricia Owens and Dr Jocelyn Alexander. Rebecca Elisabeth Husebye Engebretsen (2018), ‘Financial Sector Change in the Context of Oil Abundance: Angola, 1991-2014’, D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford. Supervisor: Dr Ricardo Soares de Oliveira. Bawa Leo (2018), ‘Comparative Study of Pauline Church Growth Strategies, Including the Contribution of the Book of Acts, With CAPRO Strategies in Nigeria’, Ph.D thesis, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies/Middlesex University. Supervisors: Dr Tim Keene and Dr John Corrie; http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/25915/ Oscar Osindo (2018), ‘An Examination of the Garre Space: The Concept of Fulla’, Ph.D thesis, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies/Middlesex University. Supervisors: Dr Ida Glaser and Dr John Chesworth. Rocio Herrero Romero (2018), ‘Violence, Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Interpersonal Protective Factors for Adolescents' Resilience in Education in the Eastern Cape, South Africa’, D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford. Supervisors: Dr Lucie Cluver and Dr James Hall. Trevor Smith (2018), ’Christian Theology Emerging from the Akan Single-Tiered Unitive Perspective on Reality’, Ph.D thesis, Oxford Centre for Mission Studies/Middlesex University. Supervisors: Dr Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu and Dr Diane Stinton; uk.bl.ethos.740494 Janina Isabel Steinert (2018), ‘Building Financial Resilience in the Context of Deprivation: Experimental Evidence from a Family Financial Literacy and Parenting Programme in South Africa’, D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford. Supervisors: Dr Lucie Cluver and Dr Franziska Meinck. ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 9 Recent Publications Olayiwola Abegunrin (2018), Nigeria–United States Relations, 1960-2016, Lexington Books, 186pp, 9781498573771, £60. Stanley B. Alpern (2019), Abson & Company: Slave Traders in Eighteenth Century West Africa. Hurst, 224pp, 9781849049627, £40. Carli Coetzee (2019), Written Under The Skin: Blood and Intergenerational Memory in South Africa. James Currey, 189pp, 9781847012210, £60. Joanne Ruth Davis (2018), Tiyo Soga: A Literary History. UNISA Press, 381pp, 9781868888283, £24.50. Alicia C. Decker and Gabeba Baderoon (eds) (2019), African Feminisms: Cartographies for the Twenty-First Century. Duke University Press, 280pp, 9781478004974, £15.99. Elizabeth W. Giorgis (2019), Modernist Art in Ethiopia. Ohio University Press, 360pp, 9780821423462, £74 [Hardcover]; 9780821423479, £33 [Paperback]. Stig Jarle Hansen (2019), Horn, Sahel and Rift: Fault-Lines of the African Jihad. Hurst, 224pp, 9781849044141, £25. Mette Hjort and Eva Jørholt (eds) (2019), African Cinema and Human Rights. Indiana University Press, 376pp, 9780253039422, £79 [Hardcover]; 9780253039439, £31 [Paperback]. Malcolm Jack (2018), To the Fairest Cape: European Encounters in the Cape of Good Hope. Bucknell University Press, 242pp, 978-1684480005, £20. Brandon Kendhammer and Carmen McCain (2018), Boko Haram. Ohio University Press, 220pp, 9780821423516, £11.99. Harun Maruf and Dan Joseph (2018), Inside Al-Shabaab: The Secret History of AlQaeda’s Most Powerful Ally. Indiana University Press, 324pp, 9780253037480, £58 [Hardcover]; 9780253037497, £21.99 [Paperback]. Henning Melber (2019), Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nations, and the Decolonisation of Africa. Hurst, 296pp, 9781787380042, £24. Greg Mills, Olusegun Obasanjo, Tendai Biti and Jeffrey Herbst (2019), Democracy Works: Turning Politics to Africa’s Advantage. Hurst, 272pp, 9781787381452, £25. Robin Mitchell (2019), Venus Noire: Black Women and Colonial Fantasies in Nineteenth-Century France. University of Georgia Press, 192pp, 978-0820354316, £29.50. Joseph Mujere (2019), Land, Migration and Belonging: A History of the Basotho in Southern Rhodesia c. 1890-1960s. James Currey, 197pp, 9781847012166, £60. 10 ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 Daniel Terris (2018), The Trials of Richard Goldstone. Rutgers University Press, 398pp, 9780813599960, £29.95. Hedley Twidle (2019), Experiments with Truth: Narrative Non-fiction and the Coming of Democracy in South Africa. James Currey, 265pp, 9781847011886, £65. Olivier Van Beemen (2019), Heineken in Africa: A Multinational Unleashed. Hurst, 240p, 9781849049023, £20. New Book Series: Africa: Past, Present & Prospects Rowman & Littlefield International, in partnership with the Africa Conference, University of Texas at Austin and the TOFAC Board, has launched a new book series. Africa: Past, Present & Prospects collates and curates studies of Africa in its multivalent local, regional, and global contexts. It aims fundamentally to capture in one series historical, contemporary and multidisciplinary studies which analyse the dynamics of the African predicament and promise from deeply theoretical perspectives while marshalling empirical data to describe, explain, and predict trends in continuities and change in Africa and in African studies. The books published in this series represent the multiplicity of voices, local and global in relation to African futures, providing a platform for convergence of outstanding research that will enliven debates about the future of Africa, while also advancing theory and informing policy-making. Preference is given to studies that deliberately link the past with the present and advances knowledge about various African nations by extending the range, breadth, depth, types and sources of data and information existing and emerging about these countries. This series seeks to engage in the broader conversations about African futures in specific ways: how the African past connects with the future; the causes and courses of the current predicament of African underdevelopment and dedevelopment; the connections and disconnections between the experiences of various African countries; bilateral and multilateral relations including subregional and regional movements and institutions in which African states play key roles and which determine political and economic outcomes for various other nations; comparative studies which shed light on the extraversion of the continent, as well as issues related to globalization, the African diaspora and the disciplinary and transdisciplinary frames for studying these pan-African elements of African Studies; and multiple frames and methodologies for understanding these issues. For enquiries and submissions, contact the Series Editors, Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin: toyinfalola@austin.utexas.edu and Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, Babcock University: yacob-halisoo@babcock.edu.ng ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 11 Call for Papers: ‘The Ordinary and the Madness: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Mental Disorders in Africa’, Special Issue of Politique Africaine Epistemological definitions of madness are polymorphic according to the disciplines and theoretical approaches used (Lovell et al, 2013). From then on, the process of labelling (Becker, 1963), of qualifying madness is at the heart of this issue. We base the core of this special issue on a definition that considers madness as a category on which multiple beliefs, representations and knowledge are projected. By considering the definitions and assignments of madness as moving and not fixed, it is possible to explore the diversity of practices, representations and beliefs through which madness is apprehended, suppressed, treated and experienced. The question of the labelling of madness also allows to interrogate until which point the madness of an individual is considered tolerable by different authorities (politics, family), and when – but also where – it becomes too transgressive or even dangerous (from a physical, social, moral or political point of view). The theme of madness has been approached in a different way regarding periods, disciplines and spaces. During the colonial period, from which the first works on the subject emerged, research on madness was articulated around a differentialist ideology, documented by anthropology and validated in clinical studies, where “the primitive could appear as an exemplary image of mental alienation” (Mouralis, 1993: 47). This corpus of heterogeneous texts, most of which were written by colonial alienists – see Collignon (2006) and Akyeampong (2015) for a detailed bibliography – established itself as one of the many instruments of colonial domination. It has subsequently constituted a “witness knowledge” of the political and scientific processes that contributed to the construction of the identity of the colonised in a monolithic and racialist perspective (Porot, 1926; Carothers, 1953) – of which Frantz Fanon was one of the precursors to criticism (Fanon, 1961). The theme of mental disorder also constituted a fertile field of research after the independences with the publication of numerous works at the crossroads of studies in psychiatry and social sciences. Influenced by antipsychiatry and ethnopsychiatry, several clinicians – in particular Nigerian psychiatrist Thomas Lambo (1961) and Henri Collomb, a French psychiatrist working in the psychiatric ward of the Fann Hospital in Dakar in the late 1950s – paved the way for reflections on “African psychiatry” (Kilroy-Marac, 2019). The historiography available on madness in Africa has mainly focused on the study of the construction of psychiatric knowledge under colonial rule. As such, English-language literature is a pioneer in this field of research, due to the relatively early emergence of psychiatric assistance in British colonial territories, as soon as the conquest phase was over. Colonial psychiatry in Africa was then studied as one of several tools of social control for the “mise en valeur” of the colonised world (Vaughan, 1983; McCulloch, 1995; Oyebode, 2006). This 12 ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 “constructionist” approach follows a characteristic feature of historiography on health in colonial situations that highlights how medicine has helped to shape the “African” as an object of knowledge and to develop classification systems and practices intrinsic to the functioning of colonial power (Vaughan, 1991; Marks, 1997, Lachenal, 2014). A number of historical works have been published in recent years on psychiatry in French-speaking Africa, but most often confined to North Africa and more particularly Algeria (Keller, 2007; Studer, 2015). The history of colonial psychiatry in French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa is mainly limited to the pioneering work of René Collignon (1983; 1999; 2002) or a few articles in the journal Psychopathologie Africaine (Collomb, 1975; Osouf, 1980). Research on other African areas is lagging behind, particularly the former territories under Portuguese, Belgian or German domination (Akyeampong, 2015). More recently, other authors – psychiatrists, psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, linguists – have also given a prominent place to research on madness based on the study of “African cultures”, working in particular to (re)design clinical devices and to question the articulation between different types of care (Beneduce and Koumare, 1993; Corin, Uchoa, Bibeau, 1993; Bondaz and Jeannet, 2013). This research gave rise to work on (mental) illness, so-called magical-religious beliefs, local therapeutic care, nd nosological frameworks of (mental) illness. Finally, a series of studies at the crossroads of sociology, anthropology and psychiatry have also explored the theme of madness in relation to global health issues. Following older clinical studies, the uses of psychiatric medical categories are studied in comparison with the field of contemporary African psychiatry (Read, 2012). Some other authors question patients’ experiences through plural interpretations of mental symptoms (Droney, 2016). Similarly, mental health is questioned through contemporary issues of migration or war (child soldiers, trauma (Murphy, 2015) or even wandering (Diagne, 2016). In this special issue, we consider madness as “a tragedy of the ordinary” (Lovell et al, 2013: 25). We call on contributors to reflect from their field(s) of research and the methodology specific to their discipline(s) on the notions of everyday life, the ordinary or the common. In this respect, we follow Georges Perec’s call, which has underlined the importance of analysing “what happens every day and repeat every day, the banal, the everyday, the obvious, the common, the ordinary, the infra-ordinary, the background noise, the usual” (Pérec, 1989: 11). This look at the ordinary thus makes it possible to interrogate the daily and multiple forms of government and experiences of madness on the African continent. Submission of one page proposals in French or English by 30 April 2019 to Gina Ait Mehdi (Université libre de Bruxelles): aitmehdigina@gmail.com and Romain Tiquet (University of Geneva): romain.tiquet@gmail.com Full articles expected by 10th September 2019. The special issue will be published in Winter 2019/2020. ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 13 News African Studies in Ireland Network Scholars in Ireland launched two years ago the ‘African Studies in Ireland Network’ (ASIN). Recently they launched a discussion list on JISC. To subscribe, send a request to: africaireland-request@jiscmail.ac.uk Information about the ASIN inaugural workshop and colloquium in Dublin and Belfast in 2017 and 2018, visit: https://blogs.qub.ac.uk/africa/category/workshopsevents/ Dr Eric Morier-Genoud, Senior Lecturer in African History, Queen's University Belfast Obituaries and Appreciations Keith Sambrook, who died on 1st January 2019, was a transforming publisher in the period when the countries of the South secured their independence. He found the manuscript of Ngugi’s Weep Not, Child on his desk when, on 1st January 1963, he started work for Alan Hill at Heinemann Educational Books in London. A month earlier Chinua Achebe had been appointed as Editorial Adviser to the African Writers Series. The first thirty titles they selected were to lead to the launch of African Literature in English. Keith Sambrook and Chinua Achebe shared two ambitions; they wanted students in African schools and universities to be able to read imaginative work by their fellow Africans; and they were determined to introduce African writers to an international literary audience. The demand for the Series inside and outside Africa surprised everybody. Ngugi said in January 2019, ‘I have always associated my becoming a writer with Keith. Not only me. He had similar impact on many African writers... Africa needed this literature to heal the wounds wrought on the continent by a century of colonialism. The African Writers Series contributed to the soaring of the soul of a free continent, and Keith Sambrook, was part of it.’ Keith Sambrook established Heinemann companies for both distribution and publishing in Nigeria under Aigboje Higo and in East Africa under Henry Chakava; they brought in new authors and contributed to the effective marketing which was needed to turn a good idea into the equivalent of a Penguin Books for Africa. At the same time he built up Heinemann companies in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, India, the Caribbean and the United States. He had taken on the first titles in the growth area of English Language Teaching (ELT) and by the time the Heinemann list was sold it had a multimillion turnover. The company he established with John Watson in New Hampshire was to be crucial in continuing publishing of new titles in the Series when the sales disappeared during the ‘African Book Famine’ of the late eighties and early nineties. James Currey, who worked with him for seventeen years on the AWS, in 1985 set up his own imprint to publish academic titles on Africa; in 1988 on retirement from 14 ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 Heinemann Keith Sambrook joined James Currey Publishers which even by then was leading the field. In those years he also lectured on publishing and the history of the book at University College London and the Institute of English Studies, University of London. Keith Sambrook was born on 25th August 1925 in Birstall, Leicester to Harold and Dorothy Sambrook. He was educated at Loughborough Grammar School. A credit in Higher Certificate Mathematics equipped him to work constructively with generations of corporate accountants as Heinemann Educational Books expanded to be one of the largest companies in educational publishing. In the Royal Navy from 1943 to 1947 he was on the North Atlantic and Russian convoys and was in the Mediterranean as a Lieutenant on HMS Mine. He read English as an Exhibitioner at Jesus College, Cambridge from 1947 to 1950. His first appointment in publishing was with the Manchester University Press where from 1950 he worked on the list of academic titles in the social sciences. The pioneering sociological and anthropological publications of the RhodesLivingstone Institute in Northern Rhodesia were among his responsibilities. In 1954 he joined the Edinburgh publishing and printing company of Thomas Nelson where he met Hana Bartošova whom he married in 1955. In the period of high colonialism, before, during and after the Second World War, the firm had worked with enterprising educational officers to produce textbooks which were relevant to the needs of the Caribbean and Africa. He worked on all levels of school and student textbooks for use in ‘overseas markets’. He spent the year of 1956/57 on the campus at Legon establishing The University College of the Gold Coast Press. The Suez crisis and Ghanaian independence happened while he was there. Nelsons were President Nkrumah’s publishers. In 1958 he moved to Lagos where he set up a local publishing office in Nelson’s Nigerian branch. In 1963 he moved to Heinemann and to the launch of African Literature. He is survived by his wife Hana, brother John, sister Jennifer and daughter Katie. James Currey Professor Joseph C. Miller (1939-2019) I am deeply grieving as I share the news of Joseph C. Miller’s passing. He was a distinguished professor of history at the University of Virginia, and the author of many books and articles on African and Angolan history, and he made enormous contributions on the history of slavery. Among his best known is the monumental Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade, 1730-1830 (University of Wisconsin Press, 1988) which won the 1989 Melville Herskovits Prize of the African Studies Association. He also wrote for and edited several prize-winning reference works on African history and on slavery. To see the full extent of his prolific publications, as well ASAUK Newsletter No. 95 15 as his numerous awards and other information, see his page at the UVA website: http://history.virginia.edu/people/profile/jcm7a Many of you knew Joe and his warm and welcoming personality, his mentorship of other scholars, his active participation in conferences over the years, and his service to our profession, including terms as president of the US-based African Studies Association (2005-2006) and of the American Historical Association (1998). He always supported our efforts to build networks among scholars of Lusophone Africa. Joe had been recently diagnosed with an aggressive cancer and passed peacefully with his family around him. A memorial service is planned for later this spring. Acknowledging this piece by Dr Kathleen Sheldon on H-Luso-Africa discussion network Professor Pius Adesanmi One of the identified victims of the air crash in Ethiopia in March was Nigerianborn Professor Pius Adesanmi, the director of Carleton University's Institute of African Studies. “The contributions of Pius Adesanmi to Carleton are immeasurable,” said Pauline Rankin, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. “He worked tirelessly to build the Institute of African Studies, to share his boundless passion for African literature and to connect with and support students. He was a scholar and teacher of the highest calibre who leaves a deep imprint on Carleton.” Benoit-Antoine Bacon, president and vice-chancellor of Global Affairs Canada, said: “Pius Adesanmi was a towering figure in African and post-colonial scholarship and his sudden loss is a tragedy.” Nigeria's writers, scholars and journalists reacted to the news with “great shock and sadness”. Professor Adesanmi was travelling to Nairobi to take part in a conference organised by the African Union, reports say. Note to Contributors Send items for inclusion in the July 2019 Newsletter by 15th June 2019 to Dr Simon Heap, Academic Office, Buckley 1.08, Oxford Brookes University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford, OX3 0BP or effaheap@aol.com Any opinions expressed are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the ASAUK. For all matters relating to membership of ASAUK/RAS contact: Melmarie Laccay, 21 Russell Square, SOAS, London, WC1B 5EA; telephone: +44 (0)20-3073-8336; email: rasmembership@soas.ac.uk Check the website: www.asauk.net 16 ASAUK Newsletter No. 95