Prof Francis Nyamnjoh to deliver ECAS Keynote Speech
University of Cape Town Anthropology Professor Francis Nyamnjoh, who has Chaired the HUMA Advisory Board, will be delivering the International Africa Institute’ IAI Biennial Lecture at the European Conference on African Studies (ECAS2025) to be held in Prague 25-28 June 2025. Previously known as the “Luggard Lecture” (1948-2017), the IAI keynote offers distinguished speakers the opportunity to offer new perspectives on the continent’s transformations. Nyamnjoh’s ECAS2025 address note entitled “Being and Becoming African in a Nimble-Footed World” delves into some of the critical questions that he has explored in the course of his career, introducing concepts such as incompleteness, conviviality, frontier Africans, ever-diminishing circles of inclusion, cul-de-sac Ubuntuism, amongst others.
His keynote at ECAS explores African identity through the lens of incompleteness and motion. By challenging the traditional nation-state-centric view of belonging, it offers a nuanced framework for analysing diasporic cultural production. This framework acknowledges the complex realities of individuals with multi-layered identities shaped by interconnected geographies and hierarchies at both local and global levels. The discussion expands the concept of diaspora beyond the confines of nation-states, recognising the multiplicity of “homes” and “dislocations” in the contemporary world. It highlights how ongoing conflicts and liberation struggles blur the lines between home and diaspora, demonstrating the fluidity of belonging in an ever-shifting global landscape. Ultimately, the lecture encourages a critical reassessment of diasporic experiences and emphasises the interconnectedness of “frontier homes” and “frontier diasporas” within and beyond the nation-state.
Other ECAS2025 keynote speeches will include Johnny Pitts, Assoc. Prof Fatuma Ahmed Ali (United States International University - Africa), and Asst. Prof Margaret Amaka Ohia-Nowak (Marie Curie-Sklodowska University).
This year’s theme of ECAS 2025 is “African, Afropolitan, and Afropean Belongings”
As a global gathering between scholars researching Africa, ECAS 2025 aims to engage with multiple African realities and entanglements. In particular, the conference in Prague aims to engage with complex trajectories, constructions, expressions, and performances of African, Afropolitan and Afropean forms of belonging and positioning. The past decades have seen a resurgence of identity politics all over the world and much of it has involved diverse African forms of belonging in a world where global North paradigms continue to be socio-economically, culturally and politically dominant. Considering the countless dimensions of human diversity constructed on the continent itself and within diverse diasporas, in physical and digital spaces, this conference aims to examine regionally specific struggles and how they impact on broader societies, cultures, multispecies ecologies, politics, and economies.
We are also delighted to announce the participation of our HUMA research fellows at ECAS:
Azza Ahmed Babikir (Postdoctoral Research Fellow | HUMA - SDGs postdoctoral program)
Paper: Balancing Technological Innovation and Civic Responsibility: How AI startups are redefining the National Service in Ghana
Billan Omar (Doctoral Research Fellow: Africa AI Ethics, Carnegie Corporation of New York) Paper: Qabiilkeed Tahay? Exploring the Manifestations, Imaginations, and Realities of Clan for Somalis in South Africa
Linda Makgabutlane (Doctoral Research Fellow: The Humanities Academic Pipeline, Mellon Foundation)
Paper: Sounds of Solidarity: Party People
Fanidh Sanogo (Doctoral Research Fellow: Wardsworth African Fellowship - the Wenner-Gren Foundation)
Paper: Girl is Makeup: Masking Mechanics In Ouagadougou
Riason Naidoo (Doctoral Research Fellow: The Humanities Academic Pipeline, Mellon Foundation)
Paper: Simon Njami takes a page out of Chester Himes's novel
Explore the full program of ECAS 2025
