The International African Institute (IAI), hosted at SOAS University of London, aims to promote the scholarly study of Africa's history, societies and cultures. The institute realizes its aims primarily by means of scholarly publishing. Read more about us.
The IAI publishes the long established and prestigious journal, Africa, the Journal of African Cultural Studies the annual Africa Bibliography, Research and Documentation, the International African Library series, the African Arguments series; and the Readings in… series, for use in tertiary level teaching of African studies.
NEWS
Book Launch: Sudan’s Unfinished Democracy: The Promise and Betrayal
of a People's Revolution
.
This book tells the story of the Sudanese revolution of 2019; of how it succeeded in bringing down
the long-standing rule of President Omar al-Bashir; and of the troubled transitional civilian-led
government that was installed in his place.
21 June 2022, 16:00, Hybrid event.
More information about the Book launch >>
2022 Theme
47th Annual meeting of the African Literature Association.
“Adversity and Creativity: African Literature, Film, Media and Public Discourse”.
May 18-21, 2022 (Online)
View programme >>
Book launch: Hansjörg Dilger: Book Launch "Learning Morality,
Inequalities, and Faith: Christian and Muslim Schools in Tanzania".
Response by Prof. Abdulkader Tayob (University of Cape Town). 8 June 2022, 4-6 p.m.
View details >>
Lagos Studies Association Conference:
June 21-25.
. Virtual. Lagos/West-Central Africa Time
View programme >>
Book launch: Governing in the Shadows,
Angola's Securitised State.
In this important book, Roque details how securitisation fuelled corruption and patronage in Angola
since independence.Tue, 5 July 2022, SOAS, London.
View details >>
Launching in 2022, Africa Bibliography,
Research
and
Documentation brings
together essay content from Africa Bibliography, the authoritative guide to works in African studies
published under the auspices of the International African Institute annually since 1984, with the
former
African Research & Documentation, the journal of SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archives Group on
Africa)
published since 1973.
African
Arguments book series now published with Hurst
From 2021, the African Arguments book series is being published with Hurst. For further details, see
Hurst
Publishers.
Debating
ideas
Debating Ideas is a new section that aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing writing from
within the African continent and beyond. It will offer debates and engagements, contexts and
controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books. Edited and
managed by the International African Institute. Host: SOAS
University of London. Sponsored by the World Peace Foundation. Go to
the Debating ideas
web page >>
NEW TITLES
Trade Makes States: Governing the Greater Somali Economy
Tobias Hagmann, Finn Stepputat
A detailed investigation of the links between state-building and commodity exchange across the
Somali-inhabited territories of East Africa. Trade Makes States highlights how trade and the
circulation
of goods are central to Somali societies, economies and politics. Drawing on multi-site research
from
across East Africa’s Somali-inhabited economic space–which includes areas of Kenya, Djibouti, Uganda
and
Ethiopia–this volume highlights the interconnection between trade and state-building after state
collapse. It scrutinises the ‘politics of circulation’ between competing public administrations,
which
seek to generate revenue and to control infrastructures along major trade corridors. The
contributors to
this volume draw attention to the ingenuities of transnational Somali markets, which often appear to
be
self-governed. Their dynamism and everyday administration by a host of actors provide important
insights
into contemporary state formation on the margins of global supply-chain capitalism.
Published for the International African Institute by Hurst Publishers
ISBN: 9781787387058, 312pp, June 2022
Conflict Minerals, Inc:
War, Profit and White Saviourism in Eastern Congo
Christoph N. Vogel
Have international efforts to regulate resource extraction from war zones in the DRC done more harm
than
good? In the twenty-first century, the relationship between violent conflict and natural resources
has
become
a matter of intense public and academic debate. As a result of fervent activism and international
campaigning, the flagship case of ‘conflict minerals’ has captured global attention. This term
groups
together the artisanal tin, tantalum (coltan), tungsten and gold originating from war zones in
Central
Africa. ogel demonstrates how Western advocacy and policy have relied on colonial frames to drive
change, and how White Saviourism perpetuates structural violence and inequality across global supply
and
value chains.
Published for the International African Institute by Hurst Publishers
ISBN: 9781787387065, 224pp, April 2022
Learning Morality, Inequalities, and Faith: Christian and Muslim Schools in Tanzania
Hansjörg Dilger
Christian and Muslim schools have become important target points in families and pupils' quests for
new
study opportunities and securing a 'good life' in Tanzania. These schools combine secular education
with
the moral (self-)formation of young people, triggering new realignments of the fields of education
with
interreligious co-existence and class formation in the country's urban centres. Hansjörg Dilger
explores
the emerging entanglements of faith, morality, and the educational market in Dar es Salaam, thereby
shedding light on processes of religious institutionalisation and their individual and collective
embodiment. By contextualising these dynamics through analysis of the politics of Christian-Muslim
relations in postcolonial Tanzania, this book shows how the field of education has shaped the
positions
of these highly diverse religious communities in diverging ways. In doing so, Dilger suggests that
students and teachers' religious experience and practice in faith-oriented schools are shaped by the
search for socio-moral belonging as well as by the power relations and inequalities of an
interconnected
world.
Published for the IAI by Cambridge University Press
ISBN 9781316514221, 242pp, March 2022
Decolonizing Heritage: Time to Repair in Senegal
Ferdinand De Jong
Senegal features prominently on the UNESCO World Heritage List. As many of its cultural heritage
sites
are remnants of the French empire, how does an independent nation care for the heritage of
colonialism?
How does it re-interpret slave barracks, colonial museums, and monuments to empire to imagine its
own
national future? This book examines Senegal's decolonisation of its cultural heritage. Revealing how
Léopold Sédar Senghor's philosophy of Négritude inflects the interpretation of its colonial
heritage,
Ferdinand De Jong demonstrates how Senegal's reinterpretation of heritage sites allows it to
overcome
the legacies of the slave trade, colonialism and empire. Remembering and reclaiming a Pan-African
future, De Jong shows how World Heritage sites are conceived as the archive of an Afrotopia to come,
and, in a move towards decolonisation, how they re-appropriate time to repair the wounds of
colonialism.
Published for the IAI by Cambridge University Press
ISBN 9781316514535, 242pp, February 2022