The Institute of African Studies at the College of Humanities at the University of Ghana, is pleased to announce that Council of the University of Ghana, at its meeting held on 29th September 2020, has appointed Professor Amina Mama as the Fourth occupant of the Kwame Nkrumah (KN) Chair in African Studies. The appointment took effect from 1st November 2020 and Professor Mama has since assumed the position.
The Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies was established in 2007 with a two-fold aim: a) to honour Nkrumah for his significant intellectual contributions to African thought, and for his vision and commitment to the liberation and development of Africans on the continent and in the Diaspora; and b) to promote knowledge production, preservation and dissemination in African Studies.
The Kwame Nkrumah Chair, under the generous sponsorship of AngloGold Ashanti Ghana Limited, is located at the Institute of African Studies and has been occupied by three distinguished scholars of international stature. The first occupant was Professor Kofi Anyidoho, a poet, literary scholar, educator, and cultural activist. The second was Professor Jacob Gordon, a historian in African and African-American studies; and the third was Professor Horace Campbell, an international peace and justice scholar and political scientist.
The new and fourth occupant, Professor Amina Mama is a Gender and Sexuality scholar. She has been Research Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at the University of California, Davis, United States of America since 2009. Before that, she had been the Barbara Lee Distinguished Chair in Women’s Leadership at Mills College in the USA (2007-09); and served as Chair in Gender Studies and Director of the African Gender Institute, at the University of Cape Town, South Africa (1999-2009). Besides holding positions in academic institutions, Professor Mama has been engaged in independent research, consultancy and professional services in Africa, Europe, the United States, and within the United Nations system.
Professor Amina Mama brings to the KN Chair her immense stature and a wealth of research experience, which will enhance the visibility and reputation of the Chair. Professor Mama hopes to among other things, establish a People’s Archive of Africa, as a contribution to the decolonization of African thought and the cultivation of visions of freedom. This Project seeks to address the persisting global inequalities in the production of knowledge and theories about African societies and the change process.
All of us at the Institute of African Studies and the University of Ghana warmly welcome Professor Amina Mama to the Institute of African Studies as the fourth occupant of the Kwame Nkrumah Endowed Chair in African Studies and wish her a successful tenure.
Professor Dzodzi Tsikata
DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE OF AFRICAN STUDIES