Los Angeles — On Saturday evening, March 29, before a packed auditorium at UCLA's Fowler Museum, UCLA's James S. Coleman African Studies Center director Allen F. Roberts and Africa Society's president Leonard H. Robinson, Jr. announced their intention to jointly establish a National Research Institute on African Affairs.
Following this historic announcement, the audience was treated to a special screening of Discovery Channel's groundbreaking production of "The Real Eve," with producer Paul Ashton and Discovery's senior vice president for production, Steve Burns, on hand as commentators.
Anchored at UCLA's James S. Coleman African Studies Center in Los Angeles and the Africa Society's Washington D.C. headquarters, the Institute will feature research, analysis, and publications undertaken by African scholars, research scientists and experienced practitioners on critical issues pertaining to the continent. The topics will include health care, drought/famine, socio-economic development, political transition to more open and pluralistic societies, governance, civil conflict and resolution, resource management and agriculture.
Close links will be forged with African universities and think-tanks. The Institute will draw upon UCLA's distinguished professors, especially those from African nations, as well as fellows and interns. The partnership also envisions funding an endowed chair for imminent African scholars.
According to Leonard Robinson, "one of the Institute's primary objectives is to disseminate and feature research analysis to American policy makers, the media, academicians and to the general public - - that highlights the African perspective." "Too often," Robinson said, we view Africa through our American prism, thus we are not privy to what Africans themselves think about their problems/solutions, aspirations and potential. The Institute will fill an important void."
Professor Allen Roberts added "it is our hope that this innovative collaboration will bring research to fruition through curriculum-development, conferencing, publications, and Web-based exchanges in Africa and the Americas. There is obviously great work to be done, and in these troubling times when Africa is too often overlooked or noticed for the wrong reasons, it behooves us all to redouble our efforts to build bridges between the US and our African sisters, brothers, colleagues, and friends."
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The renowned African Studies Center at UCLA was established in 1959 to further stimulate the growing national interest in the region and to develop outreach, academic and research programs on Africa. Named in 1989 to honor its founder, the late James S. Coleman, the Center is an integral part of UCLA's International Institute. The Africa Society, an outgrowth of the National Summit on Africa, is a national nonprofit that serves as a combination think tank and public education organization with programs and partners that encompass Americans of all ages from K-12 levels through university and beyond.
