Paper short abstract:

Focusing on social sciences publishing in Africa, I introduce a project to assess its achievements and relationship with publishing on Africa in the North. I assess current support for African publishing given its essential place in the constitution of knowledge.

Paper long abstract:

This presentation focuses on social sciences publishing on African topics in both Africa and the North. The paper will introduce a preliminary discussion of a larger project, the aim of which is to assess the achievements of publishing in Africa through a series of case studies of publishing by institutions across West, East and Southern Africa such as CODESRIA, HSRC, OSSREA and some smaller African institutions in terms of postcolonial concepts such as publishing autonomy and control, and regional and international collaboration.

The paper will assess the links between social sciences publishing within and beyond the African continent, in terms of mainstreaming African knowledge in the Western academy, and more critically in terms of the dominance of Northern journals, and the extraversion of African knowledge. At the same time, there is little support for publishing in the continent itself. I will investigate the trajectory of strategic and funding support for African publishing initiatives, arguing this is currently highly fragmented and of low political priority despite knowledge constituted within African institutions being essential for the health of the study and understanding of the continent.