CIHA and Global Africa’s Junior Researchers’ Institute at IAS, University of Ghana

Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa (CIHA) was honored to organize a Global Africa Junior Researchers’ Institute (JRI) at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, from 27 October – 2 November 2024.. Our JRI, supported by Global Africa, the IAS, and Oxfam, as well as CIHA, explored the topic of “ Humanitarian Relationships and the Reinvention of Africa’s Futures: Genealogies, Current Practices, and the Decolonial Imperative,  

To produce a special issue of the Global Africa journal in late 2025. The JRI brought 16 Laureates – early-career researchers and graduate students from across the continent whose work intersects with critical approaches to humanitarianism – to Accra to foster critical dialogues with the CIHA Team and its mentors on transforming aid in and to Africa into equitable, respectful relationships, recognizing that CIHA has been working to decolonize humanitarianism for more than a dozen years. The program examined the roles of power, faith, gender, and race dynamics in humanitarianism while fostering ways to critically examine contemporary approaches to decolonizing aid, such as re-centering of African practices, and genealogies of knowledge. 

The group also participated in trips to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, the W.E.B Dubois Centre for Pan-African Culture, the Elmina slave fortress, and the Kakum National Park. These trips allowed the Laureates and our CIHA team to experience connections between our work and legacies of both slavery and more contemporary forms of pan-Africanism.

We are delighted to present the summary video of the trip, produced by Dr. Mouhamed Amoussa. Stay tuned for more reflections on the Institute and the work of decolonizing humanitarianism in 2025!