SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT - NOVEMBER 2022

The African Studies Association of Africa (ASA-Africa), the African Studies Association in the US (ASA-US), the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora (ASWAD) and Africa Is a Country (AIAC) will convene a multi-site Congress throughout 2023 in order to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Organization of African Unity and the 50th anniversary of the Third International Congress of African Studies. A global focus on African Studies began at the first International Congress of African Studies in Ghana in 1962. Subsequent convenings were in Dakar (1967), Addis Ababa (1973), and Kinshasa (1978), but no Congress meeting convened after Ibadan (1985).

To commemorate these transformational events and the impact they have had for the past 60 years, ICAADS has decided to celebrate the founding of the Organization of African Unity by revisiting the cities where the work all began, and to unite these events under one theme: to bring African Studies “Home” to the continent. These Congress Days will formally mark the intellectual and political unity of Africa and the African Diaspora, serving as a forum to reflect on the broadly shared histories, contemporary realities, and to affirm the future destinies of continental Africans and African-descended people across the globe.

These commemorative events will begin with ASWAD, in Accra, Ghana. This first Congress Day will take place on August 5, 2023 and will serve as the closing event of ASWAD's biennial conference.

The next Congress Day will be hosted by ASA-Africa in Lubumbashi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on October 28, 2023 to close out their annual conference.

The final 2023 Congress Day will be hosted by ASA-US in San Francisco, on November 18, 2023 as part of the final day of programming for their conference.

These Congress Days will give ICAADS’ global membership the opportunity to attend a Congress Day of their choosing, and allow for the respective hosts to create programming, with each producing a white paper reflecting the results, commitments, and/or initiatives that emerge from their respective ICAADS sessions. These white papers will be presented in a combined virtual ICAADS session to be scheduled after all of the in-person Congress sessions have concluded, and will be made available to members.

In support of this, Africa Is a Country will work with all three organizations to develop content for dissemination through various channels: web, social media, as well as a podcast/video series on YouTube to chronicle these global events.

For the latest news and information, please visit the member sites listed below and follow them on social media with the hashtag #ICAADS2023.

https://africasacountry.com/ | https://www.aswadiaspora.org/ | https://as-aa.org/ | https://africanstudies.org/