African Studies Center - TUFS (ASC-TUFS) will host the 66th ASC Seminar in collaboration with Kanto branch of Japan Association for African Studies. We invite Dr. Kojo Opoku Aidoo, a senior researcher at Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, who stays in Japan during the spring semester as our visiting professor, as a speaker.

Recent times have witnessed a bourgeoning Pan African thinking and praxis after a long lull period. In the seminar, Prof. Kojo Opoku Aidoo will reflect on Pan Africanism from three genealogical aspect: academic, political, and grassroots.

◆Speaker: Dr. Kojo Opoku Aidoo (Visiting Professor, African Studies Center - TUFS / Senior Researcher, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana)

◆Title: Reflections on Academic, Political and Grassroots Genealogies of Pan Africanism

◆Abstract: One compelling issue that I have been confronted with since I started to teach Pan Africanism and African Unity both at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana and here at the African Studies Centre relates to the intellectual origins, historical evolution, and radical politics of Pan-Africanism. This paper is therefore based on a historical categorization of what I consider as three genealogical (academic, political, and grassroots) aspects of Pan Africanism that have evolved over time and space. The big question underlying this paper is threefold: How can we explain the mental images we carry of Pan Africanism? How has the word-concept evolved, and been used and/or abused in academic scholarship? How can we deconstruct the inherited banalities and construct a more balanced yet critical picture of the pan African reality? I stress, significantly, that Pan Africanism has a history of its own, and yet it is a contested idea. I show that it grounds itself in the generations-long struggle for Black freedom in the Diaspora and Continental Africa. It started first as an idea, and later a movement to realize the ideals. It is essentially meant to serve as a strategy for decolonization, anti-neo-colonial struggles, continental unity, and means of solving African development challenges. Recent times have witnessed a bourgeoning Pan African thinking and praxis, after a long lull period. The primary objective of the paper then is to reflect on the academic, political and grassroots genealogies of Pan Africanism in order to augment our comprehension of the subject.

◆Date & Time: Wednesday, May 11, 2022 5:40 - 7:10 pm (JST) / 8:40 - 10:10 (GMT)

◆Venue: Onsite (Room 104, Research and Lecture Building, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies) & Online (Zoom Meeting)

◆Language: English

◆Admission: Free

◆Pre-registration is required. Please visit here for registration by May 9, 2022. The application will be closed as soon as the capacity reaches 30 for onsite and 300 for online. We will send the Zoom Meeting information to the registered email address on May 10, 2022.

◆Jointly Organized by African Studies Center - TUFS and Kanto branch of Japan Association for African Studies