Decolonising African Studies: Revisiting Archie Mafeje on Theory and Method
The 2018 Audrey Richards Distinguished Public Lecture in African Studies Lecture to be given by Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza at Cambridge University: decolonising African Studies.
The Centre of African Studies is pleased to announce the 2018 Distinguished African Studies Lecture to be given by Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza, holder of the AC Jordan Chair in African Studies at the University of Cape Town. Professor Ntsebeza will be speaking on the intellectual history and legacy of Archie Mafeje, a key figure in thestruggles to decolonise knowledge production on Africa.
Mafeje earned his PhD in anthropology at Cambridge in 1966; in 1968, he was appointed Senior Lecturer at UCT, only to have the appointment reversed under pressure from the apartheid state, sparking student protests. Mafeje’s long transnational career brought him to the University of Dar es Salaam, ISS in The Hague, American University in Cairo, University of Namibia, and University of South Africa.
In 2015, the Archie Mafeje room at UCT was occupied by students during the Rhodes Must Fall protests; in the words of the student occupiers, "We have chosen the Archie Mafeje boardroom to recognise his struggle against the very institutional racism we are fighting against." We welcome everyone to join us for this important intervention by Professor Ntsebeza into debates over decolonising African Studies in the UK, in South Africa, and globally.