African studies
Sign in to saveAlso known as Africa Studies
field of academic study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- academic discipline
- Subclass of
- area studies
Show 5 more facts
- topic's main category
- Category:African studies
- Classification of Instructional Programs code
- 05.0101
- is the study of
- Africa
- facet of
- Africa
- Commons category
- African studies
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Africa. An orthographic projection, 2009. African studies is the study of Africa, especially the continent's cultures and societies (as opposed to its geology, geography, zoology, etc.). The field includes the study of Africa's history (pre-colonial, colonial, post-colonial), demography (ethnic groups), culture, politics, economy, languages, and religion (Islam, Christianity, traditional religions). A specialist in African studies is often referred to as an "Africanist".
Africanists argue that there is a need to "deexoticize" Africa and banalise it, rather than understand Africa as exceptionalized and exoticized. African scholars, in recent times, have focused on decolonizing African studies, and reconfiguring it to reflect the African experience through an African lens.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “African studies” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.