African Studies Annual Lecture
The African Studies Centre traditionally invites a distinguished academic to present the African Studies Annual lecture in Trinity term at St Antony's College. On this page you can find further information and listen to podcasts of some past annual lectures.
Annual Lecture 2026
Professor Mahmood Mamdani (Columbia University)
'Decolonisation: Lessons from post-colonial Uganda'
Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 30 April 2026
Previous annual lectures
Annual lecture 2025
Premesh Lalu (University of the Western Cape)
The Becoming Technical of the Human: Race After Apartheid
Investcorp Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 12 May 2025
Annual lecture 2024
Amina Mama (University of California)
Transnational Feminism in an Age of Genocide
Investcorp Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 7 May 2024
Annual lecture 2023
Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò (Cornell University)
On the Idea of Freedom in Modern African Political Philosophy
Nissan Institute Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 15 June 2023
Annual lecture 2022
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi (Writer)
Daring to Decentre Western Readerships
Nissan Institute Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 16 June 2022
Annual lecture 2019
Professor Manthia Diawara (New York University)
Edouard Glissant and the Right to Opacity: some Trembling Thoughts on the State of Critical Theory in Francophone Africa
Investcorp Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 7 June 2019
Annual lecture 2018
We are sorry to announce that due to unforeseen circumstances this event was cancelled.
Prof. Paul Tiyambe Zeleza (Vice Chancellor and Professor of the Humanities and Social Sciences at the United States International University-Africa)
The Africa rising narrative-where now?
Investcorp Building Hall, St Antony's College, 8th June 2018
Annual lecture 2017
Jacob Dlamini (University of Princeton)
Dying to forget: History, memory and the intergenerational transfer of trauma in South Africa
Nissan Institute Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 16 June 2017
Annual lecture 2016
Quman Akli (Research Fellow, Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law)
Engineering a culture of constitutionalism: lessons from Somalia’s journey in constitution building
Investcorp Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 17 June 2016
Annual lecture 2015
Winnie Byanyima (Executive Director of Oxfam)
Is Africa Rising? A Personal Reflection
St Antony's College
Annual lecture 2014
Professor Wole Soyinka (Nobel Prize Laureate)
Literature, the African Condition and My Life
The Sheldonian Theatre, 5 May 2014
Annual lecture 2013
Professor Wale Adebanwi (UC-Davis)
‘What are Friends For? The Fatality of Affinity in the Postcolony’
Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Anthony’s College, 14 May 2013
Annual lecture 2012
Professor Emmanuel Akyeampong (Harvard)
"Diaspora and Spiritual Awakening: Religion and the Politics of Race and Empire in the Life of Kwame Nkrumah."
Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 22 May 2012
Annual lecture 2011
Professor Sarah Nuttall (University of Stellenbosch)
"City, Art, Motion: Rethinking the "Now" in Johannesburg"
Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 26 May 2011
Listen to a podcast of Professor Nuttall's lecture
Professor Achille Mbembe (University of Stellenbosch)
"Worldliness, Citiness, Postcolonial Life and Thinking from the South"
Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 26 May 2011
Annual lecture 2010
Dr Jonny Steinberg (South African writer and scholar)
"Development as an Alien Culture: the purposes of governance in South Africa"
Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 11 June 2010
Annual lecture 2009
Professor Mamadou Diouf (Columbia University)
"Islam, the ‘Originaires’ and the making of the public space in a colonial city: Saint Louis of Senegal"
Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 26 May 2009
Annual lecture 2008
Professor Jean Comaroff (University of Chicago)
"Detective Fictions: in pursuit of sovereignty in the postcolony"
Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, 3 June 2008.
Annual lecture 2007
Carolyn Brown
The Colonial State, Slavery and the Contradictions of Free Labour Policy in Nigeria
Annual Lecture 2006
Francis Nyamnjoh
Citizenship and Xenophobia in Contemporary Southern Africa
Annual Lecture 2005
John Githongo
The Fight Against Corruption in Africa