Abstract
It is my great pleasure to introduce Leonardo R. Arriola, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Center for African Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, as Africa Spectrum’s new editor-in-chief as of May 2019. We share a passion for research on sub-Saharan Africa that seeks to do justice to the complex and multifaceted empirical realities on the ground in conceptually, theoretically, and methodologically innovative ways. He also shares the Editorial Team’s conviction that the journal should be further strengthened as an outlet that provides space for (young) African scholars.
With this editorial, it is not only time to say welcome, but also goodbye to an esteemed team member. After more than six years of tireless work for Africa Spectrum, Kate Meagher has resigned from the Editorial Team. It has been a wonderful experience to work with Kate, and we wish her much joy and success in her future endeavours.
Issue 1/2019 of Africa Spectrum is the first to be published by SAGE Publishing. This new partnership is firmly rooted in maintaining the platinum standard of the open access model. Unobstructed access to research for readers and authors hence remains one of the journal’s key features. Taking this model, which can contribute to the democratisation of knowledge production on sub-Saharan Africa, to one of the world’s leading academic publishers constitutes an exciting opportunity moving forwards. Moreover, it offers the possibility to further disseminate the GIGA’s unique “global approach” to scholarship, which is based on pluralistic methods, theories, and concepts while also striving to balance rich empirical data with keeping a close eye on how the details all add up.
I am very happy that several contributions to this issue demonstrate our continued commitment to advancing debates about academic knowledge production on the region. In her article, Devon Curtis convincingly makes a case for more responsibility and humility in social science research on Burundi. In so doing, she critically reflects on the purpose of research on this small country in the Great Lakes Region and how scholars’ diverse identities influence the research that they conduct. The paradoxes of identity and belonging also play a major role in Miriam Pedersen’s review of Francis Nyamnjoh’s award-winning monograph #RhodesMustFall, which traces the history and motives behind the South African student movement of the same name. Andrzej Polus and Wojciech J. Tycholiz address the issue of unequal ties between ‘the West’ and the African continent not in the realm of academia, but with regard to economic exchange – something that nevertheless also underpins (many) academic relations – in their analysis of the Tanzanian gas sector. We hope that you find this issue’s contributions as enjoyable to read and worthwhile as sources as we did.