Teaching

The Institute also contributes to teaching in UJ’s humanities faculty.
Its courses are well integrated into the University’s intellectual life, and
students will have a chance to benefit from the research output of the Institute.
Since 2018, IPATC has taught 2 courses on “Pan African Thought”, and
Conflict Resolution in Africa” to African Honours students.

Research

The Institute also contributes to teaching in UJ’s humanities faculty.
Its courses are well integrated into the University’s intellectual life, and
students will have a chance to benefit from the research output of the Institute.
Since 2018, IPATC has taught 2 courses on “Pan African Thought”, and
“Conflict Resolution in Africa” to African Honours students.

Pan-African Thought

This course represents a concrete effort to contribute substantively to the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) efforts to decolonise the academic curriculum, and to ensure that the epistemology of the university’s syllabi reflects its African context.

Pan-Africanism can be defined as the efforts to promote the political, socio-economic, and cultural unity and self-reliance of Africa and its Diaspora. The subject of Pan-African political thought is one that has historically been under-researched.

One of the first attempts to synthesise these ideas into a single volume was Guy Martin’s African Political Thought, which was published only as recently as 2012. This course is thus particularly timely in ensuring that Pan-African knowledge production is part of, and influences, mainstream global thinking.

The course provides a historical overview of Pan-Africanism focusing on its political, economic, and cultural aspects before unpacking the political, economic, and philosophical dimensions of contemporary Pan-Africanism.

The perspectives of Pan-African theorists and practitioners are highlighted in this course including such figures as Edward Wilmot Blyden, Henry Sylvester-Williams, W.E.B. Du Bois, Marcus Garvey, Amy Ashwood Garvey, Frantz Fanon, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Cheikh Anta Diop, Walter Rodney, Steve Biko, Ruth First, Angela Davis, Mariama Bâ, Valentin Y. Mudimbe, Ali A. Mazrui, Samir Amin, Maya Angelou, and Thabo Mbeki.

Conflict Resolution in Africa

Welcome to the module on “Conflict Resolution in Africa”(POL8X06) taught by the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation (IPATC) at the University of Johannesburg. This module employs an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of conflict resolution in Africa, focusing particularly on the continent’s historical, political, and economic dimensions. The focus of the course is on Africa’s evolving security architecture centred on the African Union (AU) and regional bodies such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Of particular relevance is the critical understanding of the roles of key hegemons in managing Africa’s conflicts – particularly South Africa, Nigeria, the United States (US), and France. The module also assesses UN peacekeeping and peacebuilding efforts in Africa, including case studies from the Suez crisis of 1956 to the current conflicts in the two Sudans.

The module then conceptualises the link between security and development and analyses the security-migration-development nexus in Sudan. It also examines South Africa’s peace diplomacy and development agenda, as well as the multifaceted responses to security challenges in Africa. The course finally critically analyses issues beyond Africa’s state-centric security architecture.

Critical challenges of gender and conflict are examined, exploring the role of women in conflict and their representation in decision-making efforts in peacebuilding issues in Africa; as well as the role of Africa’s broader civil society in conflict management, HIV/AIDS, climate change, poverty reduction, and governance.

MA DEVELOPMENT STUDIES (Specialising in Africa and the Caribbean)

This flagship degree emerges from the Joint Institute for Global African Affairs (IGAA)
inaugurated between the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and the University of the West
Indies (UWI) in 2018. It focuses on Global Africa in the twenty-first century, addressing
historical and contemporary developmental, political, and socio-economic issues in
Africa and the Caribbean. The course anticipates a joint degree from both UJ and UWI,
joint online courses with UWI, and a 10-day intensive course at UWI in the Caribbean.
The degree aims to prepare students for careers in development, diplomacy, trade,
public service, international organisations, NGOs, think tanks, and academia.

WHAT IS THE CONTENT OF THIS DEGREE? This coursework Masters programme areas will focus
on the theories, principles, practices, and policies promoting integrated and holistic
human development at the local, national, regional, and international levels in the
context of poverty, inequality, and exclusion among and between Africa and the
Caribbean, in particular. The programme includes theories and approaches to human
and socio-economic development, underdevelopment, development management,
developmental states, conflict resolution, Pan-African thought, environmental and
natural resources management, sustainable development, and gender and
development.

MA Brochure (982kb)

Enquiries:
Dr. Adeoye O. Akinola: aoakinola@uj.ac.za