NAI to initiate Research on BRIC-Africa Relations

The Nordic Africa Institute and the Institute of African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, jointly organized a panel in Moscow on BRIC-Africa relations on the occasion of the Fifth International Conference on ‘Hierarchy and Power in the History of Civilizations’. A total of seven papers were presented and central to the discussion by the panel members was the extent to which the emergence of the BRICs can open up policy space for African countries. The participants agreed to establish a research and policy dialogue network called, The BRIC -Africa Dialogue, which will include researchers from Russia, Brazil, India, China and Africa.
Read Research Director Fantu Cheru's report from the BRIC Summit (pdf).
The Joint Statement of the BRIC Countries’ Leaders
The official BRIC Summit website

NAI's Research Director Fantu Cheru writes a tribute to his friend Professor Haroub Othman, University of Dar-es-Salaam who recently passed away.

"Professor Haroub Othman, one of the leading voices on Pan-Africanism and a close friend of the Nordic Africa Institute, passed away in his sleep on Saturday June 27 in Zanzibar. Within a span of two months, Carin Norberg, the institute’s director, and Fantu Cheru, the research director, have had the pleasure to meet Haroub twice in Dar-es-Salaam during the Mwalimu Nyrere Intellectual Festival event organized by the University of Dar-es-Salaam, and a month and half later at the ECAS conference in Leipzig, Germany.   During both encounters, Haroub looked well fit and engaging as usual."
Read the complete tribute text here (pdf).

Nordic Africa Days 1-3 October
The Nordic Africa Days 2009 with the theme ‘Africa - In Search of Alternatives’ is jointly organized by the Nordic Africa Institute and Africa Network Norway. The Nordic Africa Days 2009 takes place in Trondheim, Norway 1-3 October 2009.  Patrick Chabal and Henning Mankell are Keynote speakers. Read more at the Africa Network Norway site.

European Development Days (EDD) 22-24 October
The meeting this year is arranged byThe European Commission together with Sweden as Presidency of the EU. EDD is an open forum for dialogue about global development issues between development actors and the general public. This year’s theme is Citizenship and Development, three areas are highlighted: democracy, the climate and the financial situation.
Read more at http://www.eudevdays.eu
Read more about the Swedish Presidency of the EU at http://se2009.eu/