Over five decades after the independence of African countries from the colonial rule, the continent is still bedeviled with the challenges of development. The manifestations of development challenges in Africa include: economic backwardness, high poverty rate, unemployment, corruption, decaying infrastructure, brain drain, environmental pollution, high mortality rate, political instability and insecurity. Numerous approaches have been attempted by development scholars to underpin and address the development challenges in Africa. Marxist, Keynesian, modernization, dependency and neo-liberal theories are typical examples. Similarly, several development conferences and initiatives have been instituted by development agencies in order to appraise the crisis and bring about development in post-colonial Africa. These included the conferences in Addis Ababa (1963), Lagos (1975), Abuja (1991 and 2001) as well as the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). These intellectual enterprises and policy-making initiatives have been dominated by the science-based disciplines. Thus, the role of the humanities in addressing Africa’s development challenges seems to have been relatively underestimated or neglected.
Against this backdrop, the Department of History, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria organizes a two-day international conference, 6-9 July 2017, to provide an interdisciplinary platform for academics, researchers, policy makers, activists, students and professionals in humanistic studies to reevaluate the approaches and initiatives to Africa’s development, with special emphases on the humanistic perspectives. It will bring into sharp focus the historical, philosophical, cultural, religious, linguistic, economic and social dimensions to development challenges on the continent.
Interested participants are invited to submit an abstract of not more than 250 words in English to humanitiesconference2017@gmail.com by 10 December 2016 on any of the following streams:
- Theories and approaches of development
- Humanistic perspectives on development
- Conceptualising development challenges in Africa
- Economic backwardness and development challenges in Africa
- Foreign aid, foreign debts and development challenges in Africa
- Technology transfer debate
- The effects of migration and brain drain on Africa’s development
- Poverty, inequality and unemployment
- Entrepreneurship and development in Africa
- The State, institutional framework and development challenges in Africa
- Corruption and Africa’s development crisis
- Systems of government and underdevelopment in Africa
- Youth and popular culture
- Gender and Sexualities
- Religion, ethnicity and challenges of development
- Education and development in Africa
- Language, Communication, New Media and development
- Literature, Creative Arts and Development
- The role of the humanities in Africa’s development
- Promoting Humanities for development in Africa
Keynote Speaker:
Prof. Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Presenters at Plenary Session:
Prof. Yakubu Ochefu, Vice-chancellor, Kwararafa University, Taraba State, Nigeria, and former President, Historical Society of Nigeria
Prof. Nicodemus Awasom, Department of History, University of Swaziland
Conference Fees:
Local Participants: N15,000
International Participants: $100
Students: N10,000
Excursion fees (optional)
International Participants: $40
Local Participants: N3,500