Call for Papers: University of Nairobi & British Institute in Eastern Africa Conference

Conference Dates: October 14-16, 2026

Theme    African Agency: Sustainable Societies in a Changing World

Africa’s true narrative lies in the agency of its people, who have long shaped their own pasts and futures. This theme invites reflection on Africa not only as a recipient of global change, but also as an active architect of its own destiny. It seeks to examine how African societies have used historical knowledge, cultural resilience, intellectual creativity, and social innovation to navigate change and build sustainable futures. At its core are two central questions: How can African agency transform contemporary challenges into pathways for long-term regeneration? How can history be told in ways that highlight everyday life and innovation? Such narrative renewal calls for presenting Africa’s histories on their own terms, emphasising creativity and innovation over colonial rupture.

This biennial conference of the Department of History and Archaeology at the University of Nairobi marks a significant departure from the conversations held in 2022 and 2024, which focused on Mau Mau’s contentious yet compelling legacy. This time, the conference is organized in collaboration with the British Institute in Eastern Africa (BIEA), broadening its intellectual and institutional reach. The thematic focus shifts to how Africans have shaped their histories, navigated change, and continue to envision and build sustainable futures in an ever-changing world.

Sub-Themes

1. Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Cosmologies and African Futures: Exploring the role of indigenous knowledge, belief systems, cosmologies, and epistemologies in shaping sustainable societies and imagining African futures.
2. Slavery, Colonialism and their Contemporary Legacies: Examining historical injustices and their enduring social, political, economic, and cultural consequences across Africa and the African diaspora.
3. Resistance, Liberation and the Struggle for Self-Determination: Analysing movements, ideologies, institutions, and actors that shaped Africa’s quest for freedom, dignity, and self-determination.
4. Independence, Governance, Politics, African Statecraft and Economic Transformation: Assessing post-independence trajectories, state-building, governance, democracy, development, African statecraft, and economic change.
5. Culture, Heritage, Identity, Minorities and Everyday Life: Investigating the ways Africans construct, negotiate, preserve, and transform cultural identities, social practices, heritage, and the experiences of minorities within diverse societies.
6. Health, Environment, Social Welfare and Sustainable Development: Addressing public health, environmental stewardship, social protection, social welfare, and pathways to sustainable futures.
7. Conflict, Violence, Peace-building, Security and Social Cohesion: Exploring the causes and consequences of violence and conflict, mechanisms of peace-building, reconciliation, security, and the promotion of stable and cohesive societies.
8. Innovation, Technology, and Sustainable Societies: Examining the role of science, technology, entrepreneurship, and innovation in addressing contemporary African challenges and opportunities, and advancing sustainable societies.
9. African Agency, Identity and the Future of Sustainable Societies: Reflecting on emerging questions of African agency, citizenship, belonging, identity, leadership, and the future of sustainable societies in a rapidly changing world.
10. Africa and the World: Situate Africa as a co-creator of global modernity, including flows and exchanges, global challenges, narratives and memory, building transnational research collaborations, history and shared futures, human intelligence vs AI, and Africa, BRICS and the World.
11. (Re)Telling the African Story: Consider literary forms used in narrating Africa’s past, positionality in telling the African story, accessing historical sources, and reclaiming the archive in telling the African story.

We invite interested persons to send their 300-word abstracts @ [email protected] on or before September 15 and completed papers by September 30, 2026.