Conference: Africa Since Independence

Africa Since Independence: Promise, Pugnacity, and Failure in the Post-Colonial Contexts. An International Conference in Honour of Prof. Akanmu G. Adebayo

3-5 August 2016, Ibadan, Nigeria

Call for Papers

The Global-Africa Development Network welcomes panel, paper, and poster presentations that will contribute to a better understanding of the African experience since independence.

The post-independence period has been one of the most crucial phases of African history. The French writer, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, once remarked, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose” (“the more things change, the more they stay the same”). How much has really changed in Africa since independence? Independence, which some have characterized as mere political independence, was a welcome development and the euphoria this brought had much to do with the promise represented by these new states and their leaders. But less than a decade after independence and several years thereafter, the states, which had held so much promise initially, had dissolved into all manners of crises. Since that period, historians, development experts and policy makers have pored endlessly over the African conundrum. From Senegal to Somalia, and from the Cape to Cairo, it had been stories of horror, terror, and stunted growth. But there were those who have continued to also argue that these were some of the pains of development and that Africa had actually recorded great progress.

This international conference in Honour of Prof. Akanmu G. Adebayo, a foremost scholar of African history and Conflict Studies, whose works have over the years reflected the increasingly important need to understand the African experience in its interlocking dimensions, provides a forum for discussion and networking for leading and younger scholars, researchers, development experts, professionals, policy makers, postgraduate students, and others interested in the past, present and future of  Africa.

Themes and subthemes of interest for submission include, but are not limited to:

1. Environment: Sustainable Development and Rural Livelihoods; Desertification; Sanitation, Waste Management and Hygiene; Climate Change; Urbanization and Urban Livelihoods; Water Resources and Clean Water Projects; Alien Plants
2. Economic Promise and Failure: Africa and the Global Economy; Agriculture and Pastoralism; Minerals and Extractive Industry; Poverty and Affluence; Land Resources Management and Food Security; Private Sector Development; International Finance, Structural Adjustment and Post-Adjustment Issues; Multinational Corporations; Global, International, and Cross-border Trade Networks
3. Women and Youths: Women in Politics; Children and Complex Emergencies; Youths in Conflict and Development; Youth Unemployment; Entrepreneurship; Civil Society
4. Infrastructure Development: Power and Alternative Energy; Transport and Aviation; Information and Communication Technology (ICT); Health and Wellness; Old and New Infectious Diseases
5. Conflict and Security: Natural Resource Conflict; Ethnic and Religious Conflict; Insurgency and Counter-Insurgency; Conflict Resolution; Small Arms and Light Weapons; State and Non-state Actors; the Police and Private Security Organizations; Military, Paramilitary, and Private Military Organizations; Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs); Humanitarian Crisis and Action; Crime, Criminality and Punishment
6. Regional Cooperation and Integration: From Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to the African Union (AU); Regional Economic Communities; Pan-Africanism
7. Political Change: Military Rule and Democratization; Constitutionalism; Elections and Post-Election Disputes; Election Management Bodies; Parliament, Legislature, and the Judiciary
8. Foreign Policy and Diplomacy: Intra-African Relations; African countries’ relations with the United States, the European Union, Russia and China
9. Culture and Society: Religions; New Religious Movements; the Press; Social Media; Art and Music; Nollywood; Drug and Human Trafficking; the Fashion Industry; Education, Higher Education, and the Future
10. Migration and the Diaspora: African Diaspora in Europe and America; African Diaspora in the Middle East and China
11. Other Related Themes

Papers presented at the conference will be peer-reviewed, and those assessed to be of high quality will be included in an edited book. Interested persons should send a 250-word abstracts, proposals and other forms of contribution. The deadline for submission of abstracts is Thursday 31^st March 2016. You will be notified of the abstracts review panel’s decision by Friday 15th April 2016. If your submission is accepted for the conference, a full draft of your contribution should be submitted by Friday 3rd June 2016. Abstracts should be submitted with the following information and in this order: (a) author(s), (b) affiliation, (c) email address, (d) phone numbers, (e) title of paper or presentation, (f) abstract of maximum 250 words, and (g) up to 5 keywords.

The abstract should be submitted to the Local Organising Committee at: use.history3@gmail.com

Local Organising Committee:

1. Prof. Olutayo C. Adesina, Department of History, University of Ibadan, Nigeria: olutayo27@gmail.com
2. Dr. Monsuru O. Muritala, Department of History, University of Ibadan, Nigeria: murimonsour@gmail.com

3. Joseph Kingsley ADJEI, Department of Sociology, University of Cape Coast
Email: kwadwo2014@yahoo.com

Please note that The Global-Africa Development Network is not in a position to assist with participants’ conference travel or subsistence.