The African Humanities Program (AHP) was created in 2008 with the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York to fund early-career scholars working and living in Africa. ACLS designed the program to encourage and enable the production of new knowledge and new approaches to research, to strengthen the capacity of early-career researchers at African universities, and to advance the humanities by establishing networks for scholarly communication throughout Africa and with Africanists worldwide.
From 2009-2022, the African Humanities Program awarded fellowships to nearly 500 early-career scholars in Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda, with the generous support of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The final competition took place in 2021-22 and the last cohort of Fellows completed their tenures in 2023. The momentum generated by AHP will continue through its successor organization, the African Humanities Association, the new scholarly association founded by AHP Fellows, assessors, and advisers.
The African Humanities Association (AHA) was established by the adoption of its constitution at an AHP Regional Assembly in Abuja in February 2020. The AHA envisages a future in Africa of confident, self-referring communities of Humanities, Social Science and Arts scholars who enjoy the respect of peers in other disciplines and in wider society through their engagement with multifarious challenges facing the continent. ACLS looks forward to continued partnership with the AHA to support scholar development and capacity building on the continent in the coming years.
A summary report of AHP’s outcomes and impact after 15 years.
AHP Fellows on program’s lasting impact on individual scholars and scholarly communities across Africa.
Watch Wole Soyinka’s passionate keynote address at the Fourth Regional Assembly of the African Humanities Program in Abuja, Nigeria.
