A Transdisciplinary Education and Researcher, Professor Amina Mama, was on Tuesday installed as the fourth occupant of the Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies at the University of Ghana.
She is the first female to occupy the chair after Professor Kofi Anyidoho (2010 – 2012), Emeritus Professor Jacob U Gordon (2012-2015), and Professor Horace Campbell (2016 – 2018).
The Kwame Nkrumah Chair in African Studies was established to deepen research and learning on the history trajectories and current concerns of Africa and Diasporas.
It seeks to honour Ghana’s founding President in recognition of his foresight and commitment to academic excellence in Ghana and Africa, his instrumentality in the establishment of the Institute of African Studies, the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Encyclopedia African projects which he saw as crucial to decolonisation and harnessing of the self-assertion, knowledge and confidence of Africans in the interest of the people of Africa.
The chair also honoursDr Nkrumah’s intellectual and political contributions and commitment to the liberation and development of Africa as manifested in his effective politics on the global state, his leadership in the Non-Aligned Movement and Organisation of African Unity.
Professor Mama during her tenure would serve as ambassador of the institute and of ideas and ideals of Kwame Nkrumah.
She is also expected to serve as a “hub of knowledge production and dissemination”and to trigger exchange of ideas in order to nurture the new generation of scholars of African studies who are to serve as fertile soil of the chair.
The current chair occupant is an astute organiser and writer whose most influential works includes Beyond the Masks, Race, Gender and subjectivity (Routledge 1995) Engendering African Social Sciences (Co-edited CODESLIA, 1997).
After her B.Sc. (with Honours) in Physiology and Psychology, Prof. Mama pursued community activism and advisory work to advance race and gender equality in London, while undertaking graduate studies in social and organisational Psychology, (MSc. London School of Economics, 1981, PHD. BirkbeckCollege 1987).
She was appointed a senior lecturer at the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague (1989 – 1991) but left to establish new pro-democracy and women’s organisation in Nigeria in 1999.
Prof. Mama moved to South Africa to take an appointment as first full Professor and Chair in Gender studies and to direct the African Gender Institute at University of Cape Town, after a decade moved to become a Professor in Gender and Women’s studies at University of California, Davis.
The ceremony organised by the Institute of African Studies and sponsored by Anglo Gold Ashanti Ghana was on theme “Nkrumah Legacy, Feminism and the Next Generation”.
It attracted several dignitaries including past occupants of the chair, Pro-Vice chancellors for Academic and Students Affairs, Provosts of College of Humanities and other Colleges, government appointees, members of the Diplomatic corps, the Alumni and civil society organisations.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Nana Aba AppiahAmfo, assured of adopting policies to create opportunities for more female participation in all spheres of academic and administrative work.
The Director of the Institute of African Studies, Professor DzodziTsikata, commended the sponsors and planning committee for ensuring the success of the event.
BY LAWRENCE VOMAFA AKPALU
