Upcoming Event

The 2026 Conference of the Canadian Association of African Studies is happening on June 9-12th 2026. The theme is Global Africa: Legacies, Change and Aspirations.

As the continent holding 30% of the world’s natural resources, 10% of the planet’s internal renewable fresh water source and home to the youngest and fastest-growing population, Africa enjoys a unique global positioning (United Nations, 2024; United Nations Environment Programme, 2024; Population Reference Bureau, 2025). For many centuries, Africa has and continues to make pivotal contributions to world civilisation in the spheres of education, arts, music, science, technology and innovation (Bob-Miller, 2021). Indeed, Africa’s mineral reserves are critical to the global shift towards renewable energy and a green economy. By 2050, Africa’s young population is projected to comprise a quarter of the global labour force. Such contributions, however, tend to be overshadowed by the plethora of predicaments the continent must contend with, including global warming, rapid technological transformations and Western-dominated economic and governance structures. These dynamics illustrate how global problems are embedded in African experiences.

‍The notion of Global Africa aims to capture these tensions (West, 2005), that is, the tension between promise and precarity, opportunity and constraint, while reflecting the aspirations of a continent navigating a rapidly shifting economic and political landscape. Tied to this are the growing presence of emerging powers such as Brazil, China, and India, nations that are also competing for resources and political influence across the continent (Ewalefoh, 2021).

‍In the face of these changes, several questions arise: How can Africa strategically leverage these geopolitical shifts and, in so doing, escape a new ”Scramble for Africa”? How can the continent harness the vast potential of its greatest asset, its vibrant youth, to advance sustainable development? And how can we recover and adopt Indigenous African knowledge systems to confront global challenges (e.g., sociopolitical, environmental, etc.)?

‍Building on the thematic focus of past gatherings: “Making, Unmaking and Remaking of Africa” (2025), and Sustainability and Sustainable Development: Past, Present and Futures” (2024), this year’s CAAS conference theme, “Global Africa: Legacies, Change, and Aspirations”, invites a broad spectrum of papers that address these issues and beyond from historical, contemporary, and imaginative or forward-looking perspectives. We welcome Africanist academics, independent researchers, policy-makers, practitioners, and community organisations on the continent and in the Diaspora to submit analytical, theoretical, empirical and policy-oriented contributions that will spark rich intellectual conversations about the meaning, possibilities and limits of Global Africa; however, one chooses to define it.