As a discipline, Pan-African studies has developed a body of
expertise that should, in the future, help focus public policy
regarding Africa and the African diaspora, according to scholars who
participated in the Pan-African Studies Conference earlier this month.
“What Africana studies is able to do is to fully inform people
about what is happening,” said Dr. William A. Nelson Jr., research
professor in Black studies, professor of political science at Ohio
State University, and one of the keynote speakers at the conference.
It’s unfortunate that President [Bill] Clinton was not enrolled in
an Africana studies class before his trip,” Nelson said, adding that
such an education might have motivated him to spend more time
exploring, “the civic development that has occurred in Africa.”
The Pan-African Studies conference, held at Indiana State
University, had as its theme: “Pan Africanism Revisited: African
independence in the 21st Century.”
“The quest for political and economic development of the
Pan-African community is going to require serious study by scholars and
involvement of activists,” said Dr. Francois Muyumba, associate
professor of the university’s Africana studies department and the
originator of the conference fifteen years ago.
Muyumba hopes that such scholarship will translate into the
transfer of technology and the creation of “fantastic, business
opportunities” in Africa and among the African diaspora. For example,
he said when he visits his native Congo, he sees women spending “ours
and hours” preparing meals. He envisions the creation of small mills
that can grind flour and free the time of thousands of African women.
Unlike other disciplines, Pan-African studies has as part of its
stated mission the application of scholarly studies to the practical
world.
