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, the International African Library series, the African Arguments series; and the Readings in… series, for use in tertiary level teaching of African studies.
NEWS
African Digital Research Repositories, update July 2019
In 2019 the International African Institute undertook to update and develop its project initiated in 2015/16 to publish an aggregated list of institutional repositories, containing significant research and publication materials from the African continent. Additional repositories have now been added for Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Nigeria, Libya, Algeria, Botswana and Lesotho. Read more about the update and view the repositories.
Local
intellectuals strand - call for papers
The aim of this strand of the journal is to introduce and analyse texts – whether oral, manuscript
or print – produced by authors outside the literary or academic mainstream.
Read more and view the call for papers >>
Call for papers: Africa Bibliography Introductory Essays
Title
Articles of 5,000-8,000 words on topics relating to research, libraries, archives and publishing in
and on Africa, and in African studies, are invited.
Find out more here or contact Managing Editor Stephanie Kitchen for further
details, sk111(at)soas.ac.uk.
International African Library series - call for proposals
The Institute and series editors welcome new proposals for this series.
Please see further details on The International African
Library page.
NEW TITLES
South Sudan’s Injustice System: Law and Activism on the Frontline
Rachel Ibreck
With a preface by Alex de Waal
Coming into existence amid a wave of optimism in 2011, South Sudan has since slid into violence and conflict. Even in the face of escalating civil war, however, the people of the country continue to fight for justice, despite a widespread culture of corruption and impunity. Drawing on extensive new research, Rachel Ibreck examines people’s lived experiences as they navigate South Sudan’s fledgling justice system, as well as the courageous efforts of lawyers, activists, and ordinary citizens to assert their rights and hold the government to account.
In doing so, the author reveals how justice plays out in a variety of settings, from displacement camps to chiefs’ courts, and in cases ranging from communal land disputes to the country’s turbulent peace process. Based on a collaborative research project carried out with South Sudanese activists and legal practitioners, the book also demonstrates the value of conducting researching with, rather than simply about those affected by conflict. At heart, this is a people’s story of South Sudan - what works in this troubled country is what people do for themselves.
Published for the International African Institute by Zed Books
ISBN: 9781786993397, 264pp, August 2019
Radio Soundings: South Africa and the Black Modern
Liz Gunner
Zulu radio in South Africa is one of the most far-reaching and influential media in the region,
currently attracting around 6.67 million listeners daily. While the public and political role of
radio is well-established, what is less understood is how it has shaped culture by allowing
listeners to negotiate modern identities and fast-changing lifestyles. Liz Gunner explores how
understandings of the self, family, and social roles were shaped through this medium of voice and
mediated sound. Radio was the unseen literature of the auditory, the drama of the airwaves, and thus
became a conduit for many talents squeezed aside by apartheid repression. Besides Winnie Mahlangu
and K. E. Masinga among other talents, the exiles Lewis Nkosi and Bloke Modisane made a network of
identities and conversations which stretched from the heart of Harlem to the American South, drawing
together the threads of activism and creativity from both Black America and the African continent at
a critical moment of late empire. Published for the IAI by Cambridge University Press
ISBN 9781108556903, 300pp, December 2018
Race for Education: Gender, White Tone and Schooling in South Africa
Mark Hunter
When apartheid ended in 1994, the ANC government placed education at the centre of its plans to
build a nonracial and more equitable society. Yet by the 2010s a wave of student protests—beginning
with the #RhodesmustFall movement—voiced powerful demands for decolonised and affordable education.
Drawing on ethnography, archival research, and more than 500 interviews, Race for Education follows
families and schools in Durban over nearly a decade. Shedding new light on South Africa’s political
transition and the global phenomenon of education marketisation, the book rejects simple
descriptions of the country’s move from “race to class apartheid.” It reveals how “white” phenotypic
traits like skin colour retain value in the schooling system even as the multiracial middle class
embraces prestigious linguistic and embodied practices the book calls “white tone.” But the story is
also one of family love and sacrifice: white parents’ efforts to preserve past educational
privileges and the rise of the “black tax”—the support black wage earners provide to families who
fund school fees and other expenses.
Published for the IAI by Cambridge University Press
ISBN 9781108635189, 300pp, January 2019