Dear all This year we are celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Centre of African Studies Cambridge, for our programme of events click here. Registration for our annual lecture given by Professor James Ferguson of Stanford University is now open and places are filling up quickly! To reserve a seat click here.
News from the Centre of African Studies
The Audrey Richards Annual Lecture in African Studies 2015
Professor James Ferguson
Stanford University
Give a Man a Fish: From Patriarchal Productionism to the Politics of Distribution in Southern Africa (and Beyond)
Rooms SG1 & SG2, Alison Richard Building 7 West Road, Cambridge Followed by a reception in the atrium
James Ferguson is the Susan S and William H Hindle Professor in the School of Humanities and Sciences and Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University. His research has focused on southern Africa (especially Lesotho, Zambia, South Africa, and Namibia), and has engaged a broad range of theoretical and ethnographic issues. These include the politics of "development", rural-urban migration, changing topographies of property and wealth, constructions of space and place, urban culture in mining towns, experiences of modernity, the spatialization of states, the place of "Africa" in a real and imagined world, and the theory and politics of ethnography. Professor Ferguson is the author of The Anti-Politics Machine (1990), Expectations of Modernity (1999), Global Shadows (2006), and Give a Man a Fish (2015).
CAS Lent Term Seminar Series
Gender in Africa
Monday 2 Feburary 2015 at 5pm Room S1, Alison Richard Building, Cambridge
Professor Caroline Rooney
University of Sussex
Dr Julia Borossa
Middlesex University
Same Sex Cultures and Pariah Formations in North Africa
Wednesday 4 February 2015 at 2pm Room SG1, Alison Richard Building, Cambridge Chaired by Professor John Lonsdale
Professor Klein has been one of the driving forces behind research into slavery and the slave trade in West Africa for decades. His work put the 'slave exodus' in early colonial French West Africa on the map, and has been crucial in establishing the politics of slaving and slavery in the nineteenth-century Sahel and Senegambia. He has been involved also in the study of resistance to enslavement and self-emancipation, and has facilitated a great deal of work by African-based scholars.
Africa Research Forum
Seminar
Daniel Wroe
Universit of East Anglia
"It's a Heavy Thing": Being a Man in Rural Central Malawi
Wednesday 11 February 2015, 1-2 pm Room S2, Alison Richard Building, Cambridge For pre-circulated papers and details on the Africa Research Forum click here.
Africa Research Forum
PhD Students' Workshop
Friday 6 February 2015 Elton-Bowring Room, Clare College, Cambridge
The aim of this day-long event is to provide a forum for Cambridge PhD students working on Africa-related topics to present their research and share ideas, and indeed to meet one another! Anyone is welcome to attend the Workshop as a member of the audience, but since space is limited we request that you register via the button below. Presenters will be registered automatically.
Embodied Memories - Another Perspective on Research in Africa
Photographic exhibition by Ashley Ouvier on floors 2 & 3 of the Alison Richard Building, 29 January to 27 March 2015.
A reception and academic colloquium entitled 'Virulence: Visualising the African Body as a Vector of Epidemics' will take place on 19 February 2015. For more information on the symposium click here.
This exhibition gathers a series of portraits, family stories and social facts collected in 2012 alongside an anthropological study on traces and memories of science in Niakhar. Its intention is to foreground personal points of view of those who work at the ground level of an international health and demographic research site in Africa. It is also a way to visually query the meaning of African bodies and agency in the context of global health and post-independence relations. For further details on Ashley Ouvrier's work click here.
News and Events from Elsewhere
CRASSH Faculty Research Group
Locating Religion
Monday 23 February from 1.30-3.30 pm Room 204, Alison Richard Building, Cambridge Please email jmc67@cam.ac.uk to receive pre-circulated paper. For further details click here. For a flyer click here
Andrea Grant, Cambridge
Spiritual Temporalities and the New Pentecostal Churches in Rwanda: Affect, Silence, and Noise
CRASSH Conference
Pursuing Justice in Africa
27-28 March 2015 CRASSH, Alison Richard Building, Cambridge
For registration details, a programme and speaker abstracts click here.
Convenors: Jessica Johnson and George Karekwaivanane The Keynote address will be given by Kamari Maxine Clarke (Professor of Anthropology, Yale/Pennsylvania).
The focus of the conference is on the many and varied actors pursuing visions of justice in Africa – their aspirations, divergent practices and articulations of international and vernacular idioms of justice. We will bring together, in a coherent format, topics of research that are at the cutting edge of contemporary scholarship across a wide range of disciplines, including activism, resource extraction, international legal institutions, and post-conflict reconciliation. Our engagement will be both empirical and theoretical: we aim to grapple with alternative approaches to the concept of justice and its relationships with law, morality, and rights.
MPhil in African Studies 2015-16
Find out how to apply here. Deadline for applications30 June 2015.
The CAS Audio Collection
To listen to our latest seminar 'Contesting Compliance: Tales of 'Women's Empowerment' from Nineteenth-Century SW Nigeria', click here.
Further Seminars
Cambridgde Centre for Christianity Worldwide
Lecture Series 2015, for further details click here.
9 March: Militant Masks; Youth and Insecurity in the Niger Delta. For details click here.
Scolma Seminar
11 Feb: Southern African Port Towns and the Shaping of Indian Ocean Cosmopolitanisms in the Early 19th Century For details click here.
Conferences & Calls for Papers
Postamble
Peer-reviewed online journal with a focus on the multidisciplinary study of Africa. Call for papers: Transdisciplinarity, Transformation and the Humanities, for further details click here.
2015 Oxford Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop
A weeklong workshop hosted by The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities at Oxford University, 12-18 July 2015. Deadline 15 March 2015, for further details click here, for a flyer click here.
Twelfth Cadbury Conference: Money Judgments
21-22 May 2015, University of Birmingham. Call for papers, deadline 1March 2015, for details click here.
African Studies in the 20th Century: Past, Present, and Future
13-17 Oct 2015 Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Call for papers, deadline 30 March 2015, for details click here.
Africa Research Day 2015
16 March 2015, SOAS. Call for papers, deadline 15 Feb 2015, for details click here.
Print Media in the Colonial World
CRASSH Cambridge 16-17 April 2015 For details click here.
Landscapes, Sources and Intellectual Projects in African History: Rethinking Historical Evidence and its Interpretation
University of Birmingham For details click here, deadline 31 Jan 2015.
The 2nd Eastern African Literary and Cultural Studies Conference
Textualities of Space: Connections, Intricacies, and Intimacies 20-22 August 2015. Makerere University, Uganda For details click here, deadline 31 Jan 2015.
Environment, Race, and Land Use
13-15 July 2015, Rhodes University. For details click here, deadline 31 January 2015.
African Intellectual Mobilities: Diasporic Travel and Texts, Past and Present
7 Feb 2015, University of York Further details click here.
Nigeria after the 2015 Elections
Africa Confidential Conference 25 March 2015, London Further details here.
2nd International Thematic Conference on Africa and the Indian Ocean
Fluid Networks and Hegemonic Powers in the Western Indian Ocean 9-10 April 2015, Lisbon. For more info click here, deadline 31 January 2015.
Awards, Fellowships & Scholarships
UAC Nigeria Travel Fund
Grants for Cambridge University graduate students towards field work travel in Africa. Deadline 6 March 2015, for more info click here.
Urban Studies Foundation
International Fellowship
For more details click here, for the website click here. Closing date 6 March 2015.
Opportunities
Public Health & International Development Internships in Uganda - Summer 2015 For more info click here, deadline 1 February 2015.
Dakar Institute of African Studies Summer Study Abroad Programme, Dakar, Senegal More info here.
Oxbridge Africa Mentorship Programme. For info click here and for a leaflet click here.
Africa Realities Media is independent. Your support helps us expose injustice, challenge silence and produce evidence-based analysis on Africa and the Great Lakes Region.
Africa Realities Media offre un espace aux écrivains, chercheurs, experts, activistes, voix communautaires, militants, analystes et personnes ayant une expérience vécue qui souhaitent contribuer à des contenus réfléchis, responsables et courageux sur les changements nécessaires dans la région des Grands Lacs, ainsi que sur les réalités politiques, économiques, culturelles et sociales africaines souvent ignorées, minimisées ou mal représentées.
Nos articles et vidéos visent à ouvrir le débat, renforcer la sensibilisation, encourager la pensée critique et favoriser une réflexion plus profonde sur les réalités vécues par les populations africaines. Nous voulons aider les peuples de la région des Grands Lacs à mieux comprendre leurs droits, notamment leurs droits humains, leur droit au développement, leur droit à la dignité, à la sécurité, au bien-être et à une vie meilleure.
À travers nos contenus, nous cherchons également à rappeler aux décideurs, aux institutions publiques, aux acteurs régionaux et internationaux, ainsi qu’aux responsables politiques, leur devoir de transparence, de responsabilité et de redevabilité envers les populations qu’ils prétendent servir. Notre objectif est de contribuer à une culture de vérité, de justice, de participation citoyenne et de protection égale pour tous les peuples africains.
Why We Exist
Many abuses facing African people are committed by African states, ruling elites, armed groups, military forces and security services. But these abuses are often sustained by international silence, Western lobbying, trade interests, migration deals, mineral access, diplomatic partnerships and unequal global accountability.
Africa Realities Media exposes that system.
Lived Experience Matters
Survivors, displaced communities, refugees, families affected by repression, journalists, activists, women, young people and diaspora voices are not passive subjects. They are knowledge holders.
Their experiences must shape policy, advocacy, journalism and public debate. The people closest to injustice are often closest to the solutions.
Our Principle
Africa Realities Media is rooted in one principle: African lives deserve equal truth, equal justice and equal protection.
T he FDLR Pretext Collapses Under the Weight of Documented Plunder Introduction: A Battle That Tells the Truth When Rwandan-backed RDF/M23 forces fought with extraordinary ferocity to seize and hold Rubaya — a remote mining town in North Kivu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo — the stated justification was security. Kigali's consistent public line has been that its military presence in the DRC is a response to the threat posed by the Forces Democratiques de Liberation du Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group whose leaders include individuals linked to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi. This narrative has been accepted, qualified, or left insufficiently challenged by Western governments and multilateral institutions for over a decade. The Battle of Rubaya strips that narrative bare. What unfolded in Rubaya was not a counter-insurgency operation against genocidal remnants. It was a sustained military campaign — reinforced by the Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF), prosecuted at sign...
Le prétexte des FDLR s’effondre sous le poids du pillage documenté Introduction : une bataille qui dit la vérité Lorsque les forces RDF/M23 soutenues par le Rwanda ont combattu avec une férocité extraordinaire pour s’emparer de Rubaya et la conserver — une ville minière reculée du Nord-Kivu, dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo — la justification officielle était la sécurité. La ligne publique constante de Kigali a été que sa présence militaire en RDC répond à la menace posée par les Forces démocratiques de libération du Rwanda (FDLR), un groupe armé dont les dirigeants comprennent des individus liés au génocide de 1994 contre les Tutsi. Ce récit a été accepté, nuancé, ou laissé insuffisamment contesté par les gouvernements occidentaux et les institutions multilatérales pendant plus d’une décennie. La bataille de Rubaya met ce récit à nu. Ce qui s’est déroulé à Rubaya n’était pas une opération de contre-insurrection contre des restes génocidaires. C’était une campagne mili...
Résolution 2773, Conférence de Paris, doctrine macronienne du dialogue et pari de la Francophonie La politique de la France à l’égard de l’est de la RDC a produit un schéma constant : un langage public fort, une faible application des décisions, aucune pression visible fondée sur les sanctions, et des appels répétés au dialogue qui laissent largement intact le levier militaire et politique du Rwanda. La France ne peut pas rédiger des résolutions, organiser des conférences, rejeter les sanctions, appeler au dialogue, puis revendiquer la neutralité pendant que les civils restent sous occupation, déplacement et violence. Dans une guerre de cette ampleur, le silence et l’inaction ne sont pas neutres. Ce sont des actes politiques. Introduction La France se présente comme l’une des puissances occidentales les plus engagées dans la recherche de la paix dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo. Elle a parrainé la Résolution 2773 du Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies. Elle a organ...
How France's Interests in Mozambique Obstruct Peace in the DRC A Critical Analysis of Emmanuel Macron's Interview with TV5 Monde, Africa Forward Summit, Nairobi, 12 May 2026 Published by The African Rights Campaign (ARC) | London, May 2026 1. Introduction This analysis is based on French President Emmanuel Macron's interview with TV5 Monde, conducted on 12 May 2026 during the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. In that interview, Macron was asked a direct question: given that Rwanda's support for the M23 armed group has been documented by United Nations experts, and given that the United States has imposed sanctions on the Rwanda Defence Force and several of its senior officers, why have France and the European Union declined to do the same? Macron's response was unconvincing, dishonest and analytically incoherent. It revealed not a carefully calibrated position of principled neutrality, but the operational logic of a government that has c...
----- Mail transféré ----- De : Mpania Jean <drjeanmpania@yahoo.fr> À : Hinterland <hinterland1@yahoogroupes.fr> Envoyé le : Mercredi 26 février 2014 17h13 Objet : [hinterland1] Tr : L'OCCUPATION RWANDAISE EN MARCHE Le Mercredi 26 février 2014 9h56, congokdp <congokdp@gmail.com> a écrit : L'OCCUPATION RWANDAISE EN MARCHE : Voici comment les institutions et tout le système de sécurité de la RDC sont sous contrôle du Rwanda et les officiels congolais infiltrés par des «hirondelles» rwandaises! L'OCCUPATION RWANDAISE EN MARCHE : Voici comment les institutions et tout le système de sécurité de la RDC sont sous contrôle du Rwanda et les officiels congolais infiltrés par des «hirondelles» rwandaises! Le processus d'occupation de la RDC par le lobby tutsi rwandais passe par le...
ANALYSIS AND INVESTIGATION Introduction: The Myth and the Man Behind the Myth There is a version of Paul Kagame that exists in the conference halls of Davos, in the pages of Western magazines, in private hotel meetings in London, Paris and Washington, and on the sleeves of European football shirts. In this version, Kagame is a visionary. A builder. A disciplined African moderniser. A leader who pulled a broken country from the ashes of genocide and turned it into what admirers often call the “Singapore of Africa”. In this version, Rwanda is clean, efficient, safe, investment-friendly and orderly. Kagame is presented as the African leader the West wants to believe in: controlled, polished, pro-market, security-focused and comfortable in elite Western spaces. Then there is the Rwanda that many Rwandans, exiles, journalists, opposition figures and human rights organisations describe. In this Rwanda, YouTubers and online commentators are jailed for what they say. Critics die in custo...
Dr Phil Clark was born in Sudan and is currently working at SOAS University of London. He is known to be biased lecturer and researcher about African issues, particularly the Rwandan genocide. With his poor judgement and analytical thinking, this man only talk about the results of events and forget the root causes. He is a staunch supporter of the criminal, dictator and killer Paul Kagame , the President of Rwanda. He is singing the song of the winner of the Rwandan war. He is in the same boat with Linda Melvern, a biased British freelancer who received a medal from the dictator Paul Kagame. "> "> Dr.Phil Clark "> Linda Melvern I am asking Dr Phil Clark one question: Dear Dr Phil Clark, What was the role of Paul Kagame and RPF in the Rwandan massacres and genocide in and outside Rwanda? Based...
Comment les intérêts français au Mozambique font obstacle à la paix en RDC Analyse critique de l'entretien d'Emmanuel Macron avec TV5 Monde, Africa Forward Summit, Nairobi, 12 mai 2026 Publié par The African Rights Campaign (ARC) | Londres, mai 2026 1. Introduction La présente analyse est fondée sur l'entretien accordé par le président français Emmanuel Macron à TV5 Monde, le 12 mai 2026, lors de l'Africa Forward Summit à Nairobi, au Kenya. Au cours de cet entretien, Macron s'est vu poser une question directe : étant donné que le soutien du Rwanda au groupe armé M23 est aujourd'hui documenté par les experts des Nations Unies, et étant donné que les États-Unis ont imposé des sanctions aux Forces de défense du Rwanda (FDR) ainsi qu'à plusieurs de leurs hauts responsables, pourquoi la France et l'Union européenne n'ont-elles pas fait de même ? La réponse de Macron s'est révélée peu convaincante, malhonnête et analytique...
I nvestigation: Paying to Stay Poor: How Western PR Firms, Lobbyists, Sports Clubs and Media Outlets Profit from Rwanda’s Image Economy Introduction: An Ecosystem of Paid Influence Rwanda is often presented internationally as a model of discipline, security, investment promotion and post-genocide recovery. That image has been carefully built, repeatedly amplified and professionally protected. Behind it sits a costly international network of sports sponsorships, lobbying contracts, public relations firms, legal consultancy, political access, favourable media relationships and diplomatic narrative management. The moral problem is clear. Rwanda remains heavily dependent on foreign aid and external financing. According to World Bank-linked data, foreign aid received by Rwanda reached approximately 1.39 billion US dollars in 2023. UNDP’s 2025 Human Development Report gives Rwanda a Human Development Index value of 0.578 for 2023, placing it 159th out of 193 countries and territories. U...
Introduction Depuis 2014, les tribunaux français ont poursuivi une série de ressortissants rwandais hutu pour leur rôle présumé dans le génocide de 1994 contre les Tutsi. Le premier procès, celui de l’ancien chef du renseignement Pascal Simbikangwa, a été suivi par les condamnations des anciens bourgmestres Octavien Ngenzi et Tito Barahira en 2016, puis par la condamnation, en 2023, de l’ancien officier de gendarmerie Philippe Hategekimana. Aucun accusé jugé en France, au titre de la compétence universelle, pour le génocide rwandais n’a été acquitté. D’autres poursuites devraient suivre. Ces procédures ont été largement saluées comme la preuve que la France affronte enfin son passé d’État ayant protégé des auteurs présumés du génocide sur son territoire. Des organisations internationales de défense des droits humains, des spécialistes du génocide et une partie de la société civile française les ont présentées comme une contribution tardive, mais bienvenue, à la lutte mondiale contre l’...
Africa Realities Media speaks to Africa and to the developed world. Many abuses facing African people are committed by African states and ruling elites, but they are often protected by international silence, lobbying, public relations, trade interests, migration deals and unequal global accountability. While governments pay lobbyists to present a good image abroad, ordinary African people continue to face violence, hunger, disease, poverty, repression and exclusion. We challenge the normalisation of African suffering and demand equal truth, equal justice and equal protection.
Pourquoi Africa Realities Media est différent?
Africa Realities Media s’adresse à l’Afrique et au monde développé. De nombreux abus subis par les peuples africains sont commis par des États africains et des élites dirigeantes, mais ils sont souvent protégés par le silence international, le lobbying, les relations publiques, les intérêts commerciaux, les accords migratoires et une responsabilité mondiale inégale. Tandis que des gouvernements paient des lobbyistes pour présenter une bonne image à l’étranger, des Africains ordinaires continuent de faire face à la violence, à la faim, aux maladies, à la pauvreté, à la répression et à l’exclusion. Nous contestons la normalisation de la souffrance africaine et exigeons une vérité égale, une justice égale et une protection égale.
Our work is designed to trigger debate, discomfort and action. We do not only expose injustice; we work for policy and systems change.
We want governments and institutions to address the root causes of inequality, disadvantage, discrimination, exclusion and barriers affecting African people. We believe lasting change must be shaped by people with lived experience.
Exposing Injustice in Africa
Africa Realities Media is an independent African accountability platform based in London. We report, analyse and challenge the systems that shape African suffering, silence African victims and protect abusive power.
We are not here to repeat diplomatic language. We are here to ask the questions that are often avoided: why are African deaths treated as normal? Why are African victims given less urgency? Why are governments that imprison, exclude, displace or kill their own people protected when they serve powerful international interests?
Africa Realities Media gives space to writers, researchers, experts, activists, community voices, campaigners, analysts and people with lived experience who want to contribute thoughtful, responsible and courageous content about the changes needed in the region, as well as the political, economic, cultural and social African realities that are often ignored, minimised or misrepresented.
Our articles and videos aim to encourage debate, raise awareness, stimulate critical thinking and support reflection. We seek to help people in the Great Lakes Region understand their rights to human rights, development and wellbeing, while also encouraging decision-makers to be more transparent, responsive and accountable.
Appel à contributions
Sensibilisez le public aux causes qui vous tiennent à cœur. Prenez part au changement que vous souhaitez voir émerger. Aidez à combattre l’injustice partout où elle se manifeste.
Africa Realities Media accueille des articles originaux, analyses, tribunes, réflexions communautaires et commentaires fondés sur des faits concernant la région des Grands Lacs africains, ainsi que les questions liées à la justice, aux droits humains, à la gouvernance, aux conflits, à la paix, aux réfugiés, aux ressources naturelles et à la responsabilité publique en Afrique.
Nous accueillons également les annonces concernant de nouvelles ou d’anciennes publications liées à nos domaines d’intérêt. Vous pouvez annoncer gratuitement votre publication, notamment un livre, un rapport, une étude, un article académique ou tout autre travail pertinent.
Les articles doivent être rédigés en anglais ou en français et ne doivent pas dépasser 1 500 mots.
Veuillez inclure le nom complet de l’auteur, qui sera publié avec l’article s’il est accepté.
Avant de soumettre votre article, veuillez d’abord lire nos pages du site web afin de vérifier si votre article correspond à nos priorités éditoriales, à nos thèmes et à nos domaines d’intérêt.
Si vous avez un article, un commentaire ou une annonce de publication à partager avec un public plus large, veuillez l’envoyer par email à :
africarealitiesmedia@gmail.com
Nous étudierons la possibilité de publier gratuitement les articles et annonces de publications appropriés s’ils répondent à nos critères éditoriaux, notamment la pertinence, la clarté, l’originalité, l’intérêt public, le respect des communautés concernées et l’utilisation responsable des informations et des preuves.
Les articles sont publiés tels qu’ils sont soumis s’ils répondent à nos critères et à notre politique éditoriale. Nous ne procédons pas à une modification supplémentaire de votre article avant sa publication.
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