In 1987, a few UGA faculty members, some of African origin, some not, made a short list of others on campus who might be interested in sharing ideas and research about African issues. The informal group has since grown into the African Studies Institute, now offering classes in African culture, languages and an African Studies minor. This month, it celebrates 25 years of growth—gradual growth.

“It’s easy to get anything going until you ask for money,” laughs Jack Houston. Houston, an assistant professor of Agriculture, is the longest-serving member of the African Studies Institute, has twice been its interim director and was closely involved in planning the anniversary celebration.

“It was largely just an interest group [at first], and we met three or four times a year just to exchange what was happening with our research and what direction we might take,” he says. “Within two or or three years, we decided that it would be in our collective best interest to... put African languages and African studies into the undergraduate programs at the university and expand the vision of how our students would understand Africa better.”

Although African Studies is still a minor section of area studies at UGA, the institute has been able to keep respected researchers on the faculty and make an international name for itself, thanks in large part to the success of many grant proposals written by the small staff over the years. The university has been partially funding salaries for some time, but in 2001, the African Studies program was granted institute status, a distinction that allowed the faculty to apply for larger educational grants and expand the research opportunities for graduate students working with the program. Since 1987, grant proposals have earned the institute over $1.5 million in outside money.

“What started in the anthropology department with a faculty interest group has blossomed into one of the leading African Studies Institutes in the Southeast and the nation,” says African Studies Institute Director Akinloye Ojo.

“We wanted to get outside research funding for students and for enlarging the idea of learning more about Africa because of the situation of Atlanta: how it’s kind of a major international trade position, and because of the heritage of Georgia being quite largely from the African continent,” adds Houston. 

The first evening of events celebrating 25 years of African Studies kicks off on Nov. 1 at the University Theatre with the play The Darker Face of the Earth—written by the first African-American U.S. Poet Laureate, Rita Dove—which runs through Nov. 11. Many of the anniversary events are being held in conjunction with the UGA Spotlight on the Arts Festival that begins two days later (see the opposite page), featuring an address from current U.S. Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey, the second African-American person to hold the title.

Among the lectures, cultural events and meet-and-greets scheduled to celebrate the anniversary, the institute will host a two-day international conference Nov. 8–10 in the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. Titled "Africa and its Diaspora: Expressions of Indigenous and Local Knowledge," the conference has attracted a panel of ambassadors from several African nations, including Cote D'Ivoire, Lesotho, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, to discuss the African continent and the African diaspora. Renowned poet and scholar Tanure Ojaide, professor of Africana studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, will deliver the keynote address on Nov. 9 at 9 a.m.

Houston hopes the celebration will attract more students to African Studies and highlight the immense cultural richness and influence of Africa. “We are making African Studies a visible and separate section and not just a course under geography or history,” he says.

After 25 heavily awarded years, the institute is asking UGA for something: an African Studies major. Houston believes the change, which must pass the university’s administrative scrutiny, may come to fruition as soon as next year, and is even hoping for graduate programs in African Studies. 

“As things grow, things grow, so long as you're looking forward and putting forward new programs and expanding ideas; yes, it continues to grow,” says Houston. “But it has to be exciting and beneficial to the students.”

The anniversary events begin Nov. 1 and continue through Nov. 15. All events are free and open to the public, and can be viewed at afrstu.uga.edu/news-events/25-years-african-studies-uga.