Reflections from the African Studies Association of Africa (ASAA) Conference, Accra, Ghana [October, 2017]

Nicodemus Minde

United States International University – Africa

The conference [October 12-14, 2017] was an excellent opportunity to debate the Africa’s standing in global politics. The conference stimulated my interest in the discussion around African studies, Africa’s agency in international relations and place of local agencies in conflict management and peacebuilding. The panel that I presented was titled “The future of Peacebuilding: Security, governance and transitional justice in post-colonial Africa.” This panel among other things debated the potency of Western-led and state-centric approaches to peacebuilding and transitional justice in Africa. In my paper presentation “Peacebuilding through Transitional Justice in South Sudan: Challenges and Prospects”, I critiqued the liberal peace thesis in the peacebuilding agenda in South Sudan. I also critiqued the timing of transitional justice in post-conflict South Sudan arguing that it was rushed. Building on the thematic area of our panel, I also looked at the role of the local agency in peacebuilding. The resulting discussion was on the need for a careful balance between Western approaches to peacebuilding with those that we refer as traditional.

I participated in many other panels which among other things looked at decolonizing academia, deconstructing and reimaging educational systems, democratic consolidation and discourses of development. All panels managed to stimulate debate and discussion on the place of Africa in global politics. For me the best debate came from Emeritus Professor Jacob Gordon of University of Kansas who presented on the role of ASAA in African Studies. Prof. Gordon averred that unless ASAA develops its capacity it cannot influence anything in the global arena. He challenged the role of ASAA and prescribed ways it can be able to resuscitate African intellectualism.