Association Mission

The purpose of the Association for Africanist Anthropology (AFAA) shall be to stimulate, strengthen, and advance anthropology by promoting the study of Africa, as well as Africanist scholarship and the professional interests of Africanist anthropologists in the U.S., and both in and outside of the African Continent.

The goals of the AFAA are:

1. To facilitate the discussion of Africanist scholarship and to emphasize its relationship to the development of comparative theory, field work methodology, and theoretical models for the discipline of anthropology, both historically as well as in the contemporary period;

2. To emphasize the contributions of African research and data for the development of the four-field approach in anthropology, and for the continued development of these sub-disciplines as well as the now global concerns of applied anthropology;

3. To contribute anthropological knowledge to the interdisciplinary efforts to address the contemporary problems facing the Continent of Africa and its people, and to encourage the discussion of Africa among non-Africanist scholars, associations, and research institutions;

4. To encourage African-focused perspectives and to establish links with Anthropological associations in Africa and with the African diaspora, for professional collaboration in teaching, research, and scholarship;

5. To promote the professional interests of Africanist anthropologists and to encourage stronger professional ethics in the anthropology of Africa;

6. To encourage and promote existing African Studies programs and to foster the development of such programs within university settings; and

7. To help anthropology produce the next generation of anthropologists who will increasingly be called upon to serve in both governmental and non-governmental agencies concerned with global affairs.