The Program of African Studies, supported by the Office of Research, launches two new fellowships this fall quarter. They are the Ama Ata Aidoo Fellowship for visiting African writers and the Pius Okigbo Fellowship for visiting African social scientists. These fellowships are named in honor of the award-winning Ghanaian playwright, author, and former government minister, Ama Ata Aidoo, and the eminent Nigerian economist and public intellectual, who was also Northwestern’s first Africanist PhD (1956). Fellows will host masterclasses, seminars, and one-on-one mentoring sessions with graduate students through AfriSem, engage with the campus community, and utilize the Herskovits library resources.
Wana Udobang is the recipient of the Ama Ata Aidoo Fellowship. She is a multidisciplinary storyteller whose work intersects with writing, poetry, and performance. Her writings have been published by the BBC, Al Jazeera, The Guardian, The Observer, and Brittle Paper. She hosts the Culture Diaries, an online archival project that documents established and emergent artists.
Musifiky Mwanasali is the recipient of the Pius Okigbo Fellowship. A political scientist, and international civil servant with a Northwestern PhD (1994), he has worked with various United Nations and African Union agencies and missions in New York, Mali, and Sudan. He has published many book chapters and articles on conflict resolution. While at Northwestern this fall, he will be conducting research for a project on state fragility and the politics of informality in Africa.