JWAH – Department of History

The Journal of West African History International Launch Conference will be held at the East Lansing Marriott at University Place, East Lansing, Michigan from April 8-9, 2016, and will bring together seminal scholars to contribute to conversations on “The State of the Field and New Directions.”

Three distinguished keynote speakers—Dr. Johnnetta Cole, President Emerita of Spelman and Bennett

Colleges, and Director of the National Museum of African Art (NMAfA); Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, former Nigerian Federal Minister of Solid Minerals, former Nigerian Federal Minister for Education, former Vice President of World Bank’s Africa Division, and co-founder of the “Bring Back Our Girls” Campaign; and Honorable Akwasi Opong-Fosu, Minister of State at the Presidency, Republic of Ghana will address the gathering on West African Art as History, the Ebola pandemic, and the Bring Back Our Girls Campaign.

Twenty-four established US-based West Africanist scholars of Anglophone, Francophone, Lusophone, and Arabophone histories will present papers that explore the state of the field, as well as new directions on the following panels: (1) Women, Gender, and Sexuality in West Africa; (2) History, Health, Security and Contemporary Media in West Africa; (3) West African Narratives of Slavery and the Slave Trades; (4) West African and Diasporic Religions; (5) West African Oralities and Oral History; and (6) Traditional Archives and New Media.

Published semiannually, the Journal of West African History (JWAH) is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed research journal that features the highest quality articles on West African history. It is located at the cutting edge of new scholarship on the social, cultural, economic, and political history of West Africa, and fills a representational gap by providing a forum for serious scholarship and debate on women and gender, sexuality, slavery, oral history, popular and public culture, and religion. JWAH is committed to rigorous thinking and analysis; is international in scope; and offers a critical intervention about knowledge production. Scholarly reviews of current books in the field appear in every issue; and the publication is in both English and French—abstracts in both languages are provided. Michigan State University Press publishes JWAH in collaboration with MSU African Studies Center, and the Department of History. The Executive Editorial and Advisory Board is composed of national and internationally acclaimed scholars of West Africa including: Emmanuel Akyeampong, Bolanle Awe, Boubacar Barry, Cheikh Babou, Robert Baum, Carolyn Brown, Sati Fwatshak, Rudolf Pell Gaudio, Trevor Getz, Sandra Greene, Walter Hawthorne, Obaro Ikime, Joseph Inikori, Martin Klein, Benjamin Lawrance, Ghislaine Lydon, Kristin Mann, Takyiwaa Manuh, Penda Mbow, Stephan Miescher, Obioma Nnaemeka, Ugo Nwokeji, Steven Pierce, David Robinson, Ibrahima Thioub, and Ato Quayson. JWAH’s inaugural volume (volume 1, issues 1 and 2) and subsequent volumes (volume 2, issues 1 and 2) feature contributions from the following senior scholars: Jan Jansen, Ralph Austen, Claire Robertson, David Robinson, Jonathan Reynolds, Trevor Getz, Moses Ochonu, Sabine Jell-Bahlsen, Ifi Amadiume, David Skinner, Simon Ottenberg, Merrick Posnansky, Cheikh Babou, Mariano Pavanello, Elisha Renne, Odile Goerg, Beverly Mack, Pierluigi Valsecchi, Mohammed Bashir Salau, Erik McDuffie, Steven Pierce, Robert Baum, and Obioma Nnaemeka, Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, Hakim Tijani, Phillip Zachernuk, Madalina Florescu, and Hélène Neveu Kringelbach.

Please join us for this important conference; and visit our conference website conference.jwah.msu.edu for more information.

Nwando Achebe, Founding Editor-in-Chief

Professor of History