12th International Conference on Mande Studies 2024

Towards a decolonization of knowledges in West Africa: history, actors, and productions

The 12th International Conference on Mande Studies was hosted at the Institut des Sciences Humaines, Bamako, Mali, 26-29 June 2024. It was jointly organized by the Mande Studies Association (MANSA), the Institut des Sciences Humaines in Mali, Uppsala University's Forum for Africa Studies, and the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Comparative, Engagée et Transnationale (LACET). The conference theme, Towards a Decolonization of Knowledges in West Africa: Histiory, Actors, and Productions, raised lots of interests and debates.

Some 150 abstracts were submitted. The evaluation of the abstracts resulted in 130 accepted papers. The acceptance/non-acceptance messages was out by the end of February 2024.

The funding decision on sponsoring Conference participants, thanks to the support from the Citizen Perspectives in Mali project, was taken in April 2024. 25, mostly West Africa-based, participants are sponosored by the project. The MANSA also sponsored eight, making the number of sponsored conference participants to 33.

The Conference Opening was attended by 250 people, and in total 700 people attended at least one of the conference days. This makes it the biggest MANSA conference ever and a major statement about the importance of pursuing to host international meetings in countries facing multiple crises. The academic conversations and spaces must be kept open and free!