Rethinking African Studies: Four Challenges and the Case for Comparative African Studies

Abstract

This article takes stock of the state of African Studies and argues that (1) research on Africa is strongly dominated by outside, non-African, mostly Western views; (2) there is a tendency towards undifferentiated views on “Africa,” which usually concentrate on negative aspects, overlooking progress in many areas; (3) methodologies that focus on causal identification are rarely used; and (4) the field focuses on micro-perspectives while few works examine the big picture and the longue durée. The article then argues that Comparative African Studies, which builds upon the concept of Comparative Area Studies, can address some of these challenges. A pronouncedly comparative perspective would help to systematically combine and contrast “outside” and “inside” perspectives in order to better identify causal relationships and general trends both within Africa and between Africa and other regions. Consequently, African Studies requires more resources and should more effectively engage in multi-disciplinary and mixed-methods research.

African Studies in Distress: German Scholarship on Africa and the Neglected Challenge of Decoloniality

“…In Africa Spectrum 55/2020, political scientist Matthias Basedau published an article titled, “Rethinking African Studies: Four Challenges and the Case for Comparative African Studies,” in which he laid out his vision for African Studies, embedding it in the broader comparative agenda of the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA). With this response, we would like to take up Basedau's invitation “to disagree and to suggest corrections and modifications” (2020: 196).…”

“…Basedau identifies the four challenges as (1) the “domination of outside, often Western perspectives” in the study of Africa, (2) the currency of “undifferentiated and often negative views” of Africa, (3) the lacking attention to the “causal revolution,” which translates into the negligence of methodologies that focus on identifying causes, and (4) the prevalence of micro perspectives at the expense of “the big picture and the longue durée” (2020: 195). In a nutshell, Basedau's response to these interrelated challenges lies in the approach pursued and further developed by GIGA-based scholars over the past few years: Comparative Area Studies, or CAS.…”

“…First, even though his initial challenge explicitly raises the issue of the domination of outside perspectives, his proposed solution consists of merely emphasizing, in a rather Eurocentric manner and without referencing the existence of a rich African archive, the need for a “diversity of views in conjunction with constant questioning of our own biases” (2020: 198). However, he limits the diversity in researcher demographics to Africans on the continent (marked as racialized positions; 2020: 195) while disregarding gendered and classed positionalities which have long been active in knowledge production in African Studies, but continue to be woefully underrepresented in academic spaces. 1 Such lacunae are especially painful in view of the range of scholarship produced, for example, by Black German scholars, who also remain marginalized in mainstream academia.…”

“…Second, Basedau's critique of the prevalence of negative views of Africa is built on a questionable claim to impartial scholarship, which further underscores his failure to account for the challenge of decoloniality. His concern is with contemporary Western stereotypes that, according to him, overlook progress in many areas (2020: 194). But he does not engage with the long-standing stereotypes and prejudices that were brought to bear on African contexts, spaces, politics, and cultural and value systems, which constructed negative views of Africa as a space of lack, as ahistorical, amoral, backward, incapable of education and advancement.…”

Dear German Academia: What is Your Role in African Knowledge Production?

“…Another challenge is that African Studies in Germany is heavily skewed towards specific topics, such as conflict, corruption, and democracy (for a discussion on this, see Basedau, 2020). This is not to say that these issues should not be studied, but Africa as a 'den of horror' and its representation in the context of the 'white man's burden' are the canvases on which the continent is commonly portrayed in research agendas.…”