Podcasts · The Journal of African History Podcast

A Year in African Historical Scholarship

· 59 min · Episode 17

Episode A Year in African Historical Scholarship

0:00 58:52

Journal of African History Podcast: Volume 66 Retrospective

What does a year of cutting-edge African history scholarship reveal about where the field is heading? In this special episode marking the close of Volume 66, The Journal of African History managing editor Samuel Severson sits down with the journal’s regional editors—Abou Bamba (reviews and History Matters), Michelle Moyd (East Africa), Moses Ochonu (West and North Africa), and Thula Simpson (Southern Africa)—for a wide-ranging conversation about the state of African history research in 2025.

Rather than simply rehashing articles, our editors dig into the deeper currents shaping the field: Which archives are scholars turning to? What new methodological approaches are emerging in response to Africa's rapidly changing present? How are questions of positionality, ethics, and the real risks scholars face when researching politically contentious subjects reshaping what it means to write African history today?

Whether you're a contributor to JAH, a reader tracking the field’s evolution, or simply curious about the behind-the-scenes work of shaping a major academic journal, this episode offers a rare glimpse into how scholarly conversations actually happen—and where African history is headed next.

Articles Referenced in this Episode:

HISTORY MATTERS

Colonialism, Governance, and Fisheries: Perspectives from Lake Malawi Milo Gough, University of Oxford; Bryson Nkhoma, Mzuzu University; Elias Chirwa, Mzuzu University; David Wilson, University of Strathclyde; Charles Knapp, University of Strathclyde; Tracy Morse, University of Strathclyde; Wapulumuka Mulwafu, Mzuzu University

Traditional Institutions and Cultural Heritage Law: The Case of Benin Bronzes L. Amede Obiora, University of Arizona

The New Instrumental Turn in Nigerian Historical Scholarship Moses Ochonu, Vanderbilt University

Echoes of History: Legacies of the Benin Bronzes and Restitution within the Black Atlantic Cresa Pugh, The New School

RESEARCH ARTICLES

Africans Championed Free Trade: Violence, Sovereignty, and Competition in the Era of Atlantic Slave Trade Ana Lucia Araujo, Howard University

Diplomacy of Intimacy: Cameroonian Women’s Anticolonial Diplomacy with China in the Era of Decolonization Caitlin Barker, Boston College

Women's Livelihood and Status Struggles in Tabora after the End of Slavery, 1920s–60 Felicitas Becker, Ghent University; Salvatory Nyanto, University of Dar es Salaam

Decolonizing Archival Narratives: Exploring Digital Bias in the Catalogs of Portuguese-Colonized African Territories Agata Błoch, Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History; Guillem Martos Oms, University of Barcelona and National Archives of Catalonia; Clodomir Santana, Tadeusz Manteuffel Institute of History

Resurrecting the African Independent Pentecostal Church: Land, Education, and the Politics of Reconciliation during Kenya’s Decolonisation, 1952–69 Niels Boender, University of Edinburgh

Capitalist Flows and Working-Class Conditions: Colonial Labor Management and Racial Formations in Southeastern Africa, 1851–1900 Abikal Borah, San Diego State University

Manly Machines and Homely Objects: Gender, Development and Divergent Radio Technologies in Late-Colonial Ghana and Zambia Peter Brooke, University of Oxford

The Voracious Frontier: Policing, War, and Mercantilism in Dutch South Africa, 1652–1830 Paul Clarke, Independent Scholar

African Correspondents in the Second World War in Burma: Reporting on Soldiers’ Experiences of Conflict, June–August 1945 Oliver Coates, University of Cambridge

Of “Akankyemaa” and Beyond: Gender and Mining Income Disruptions in Late Colonial Asante David Damtar, University of Oxford

Neo-Colonialism, Underdevelopment, and the Making of a Radical Pan-African and Leftist Economic Institute, 1970–80 Bright Gyamfi, Rutgers University

Of Cattle and Community: Women’s History-telling in Western Uganda's Nanga Performances, 1900–Present Caitlin Cooke Monroe, University of Northern…

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