Abiola Irele: The African Scholar and Other Essays. This seminar which is being held on the 9 March 2020, features a discussion of Abiola Irele: The African Scholar and Other Essays (Bookcraft, Nigeria, 2019), Abiola Irele's final book, which brings together the later writings of this leading scholar of African literature and thought, with some of his earlier essays, conveniently published in this compendium volume. The speakers will consider Irele's writing life and legacies. Further details >>

Ironies of Solidarity Insurance and Financialization in South Africa
An ethnographic study of how financial products and services affect inequalities and conflicts in South Africa. Mon, 24 February 2020 at SOAS, University of London.

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.

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