Africa Research Forum

The Africa Research Group is a structure within the School of HAPP to promote the internationalisation of research, teaching and recruitment related to the African continent. The school is committed to an increased internationalisation of its staff and student body, and Africa is a central part of that agenda.

Historical links exists to many countries on the African continent (institutional and personal, with students and staff) and MoU are developed in several countries. An African yearly Lecture has been set up as well as a Postgraduate conference. Many other one-off events are in the making, some for Africa day and others for Black history months. Keep visiting the page to know more!

Africa Research Forum Members

“Rebel taxation” Prof. Zachariah Mampilly

Keynote to the Jihad in Africa conference

Date April 15, 2026

Location Senate Room, �鶹��

Time 17:00 - 18:30

Annual Africa Lecture 2025

Professor Adeshina Afolayan (University of Ibadan, Nigeria)

Putting Contemporary African Philosophy on Trial: A Pedagogical Perspective

Professor Adeshina Afolayan (University of Ibadan, Nigeria), delivered the Annual Africa Lecture

Event details here

Martin Lynn Prize

2024 Martin Lynn prizes for the best dissertation in Africa & Asian history

Professor James Davis, Head, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, presented two prize winners this year Ryan Marlowe and James McCann for best dissertation in African or Asian history.

2024 Martin Lynn prizes for the best dissertation in Africa & Asian history

The 2024 Martin Lynn prize for the best dissertation in African or Asian history has been attributed this year to two History students with strong first class marks (77 both).

The prize-winners are:

Ryan Marlowe with a dissertation entitled “Classroom Colonialism: The social and political impact of western education on Nigerian nationalism in Southern Nigeria (1842-1960)”

James McCann with a dissertation entitled “Heroes Remembered: The Legacy of Nationalists Figures in Africa”

The prize ceremony took place on Wednesday 13 December 2023 in the Great Hall, Lanyon Building, �鶹��.

Image: Prize winners presented with their certificates by Professor James Davis, Head, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics

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Annual Africa Lecture 2024

Professor Gerald Chikozho Mazarire, University of Birmingham

Zimbabwe: Liberation, Unity and the Making of a Party State 1961-2017

Professor Gerald Chikozho Mazarire, University of Birmingham, delivered the Annual Africa Lecture on 1 March 2024 in �鶹��.

Event details here

Black History Month

Dates: 3/10/2023 - 27/10/2023
Time: 12:45PM - 4:00PM
Location: �鶹��
Category: Community Event

Africa in Ireland: Historical and Theoretical Perspectives

Dates: 28/04/2023 - 29/04/2023
Time: 9:00AM - 4:00PM
Location: �鶹��
Category: Conference / Symposium

Divisions and Repair Postgraduate Conference

20 April 2023

Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), in collaboration with the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta (FUNAAB), hosted the Divisions and Repair postgraduate virtual conference.

The virtual conference provided postgraduate students from across the globe the opportunity to interact, share research findings and collaborate. Postgraduate Research Students from African studies, anthropology, politics, philosophy, history and cultural or heritage studies submitted proposals on broadly conceptualized sub-themes:

Legacies of colonialism and violence
Inequalities and Marginalisation
Reconstruction and Development
Natural Resource Management
Peace and Nation-Building
Communication and Representation
Truth and Truthfulness

View Conference Programme Outline here_

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Inaugural Africa Lecture

Professor Mehmood Shahid Essop Vawda, University of Cape Town

Professor Mehmood Shahid Essop Vawda, University of Cape Town, delivered the inaugural Annual Africa Lecture on Thursday 7 April 2022, in �鶹��. ‘Entanglements and engagements: Researching modernity and coloniality in Southern Africa’.

Shahid Vawda graduated from the universities of Durban-Westville (BA), �鶹�� (MA) and KwaZulu-Natal (PhD). Before taking up academic positions he worked in the trade union movement and at the educational NGO, the SACHED Trust in the 1980s, and as consultant researcher for the post-1994 local, provincial and national governments (land reform, housing, informal settlements, forestry re-structuring and heritage). His academic teaching and research has been at various universities in South Africa, some African countries and abroad, including participation in some UNESCO and International Council of Museums (ICOM) research workshops related to culture, heritage and diversity. He held positions as head of the departments of Anthropology at the Universities of Durban-Westville and Witwatersrand, and was the Head of the School of Social Science at the University of Witwatersrand. He has been active on the boards of the International Council of Museums committee for history and archaeology (ICMAH), and the local South Africa ICOM committee, the Public Affairs Research Institute, Centre for Critical Diversity Studies, African Centre for Migration and Society and the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research and was part of the Department of Science and Technology team that inaugurates from 2018 the MA in e-Science Research for Humanities. Currently he holds the Archie Mafeje Chair in Critical Humanities and the directorship of the School of African and Gender Studies, Anthropology and Linguistics.

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History, Anthropology, Philosophy And Politics