Created as a McGill African Studies initiative and published every spring, the student-run journal Uhuru gets its name from the Swahili word for freedom.
A key aim of the journal is to help its readers break free of overgeneralizations and stereotypes.
“We wanted to show Africa in a positive light, one that’s different from what we usually see, to show the multifaceted nature of the continent,” said Henry Maidoh (BA’27 Honours Political Science), Vice-President Academics for the African Studies Students’ Association and its board member for the Uhuru journal.
That includes emphasizing that Africa is a region with different cultures, fashions, foods and social issues that are specific to each country, rather than reducing the enormous continent to a single entity.
The journal also is a place where youth, especially those who are Afro-descended, can celebrate their cultures, perspectives and realities, said the U.K.-born Maidoh, who is of Nigerian heritage. He moved to Ottawa with his family when he was about 12.
“We want it to be a space that highlights who these students are and what they’re trying to achieve, both now and in the future,” he said.
Recognizing Africans as people with agency
The theme of last year’s volume, the journal’s fourth, was “Beyond the Single Story: Embracing Africa’s Diverse Realities.” Its content departed from the narrow portrayals so often seen in conventional media and academic sources.
“The whole point of that theme was to combat stigmas related to Africa and, in my opinion, sharing knowledge is the best way to combat these stigmas,” said Maidoh.
The issue’s cover featured a striking painting by Ethiopian artist Tewodros Hagos titled Journey (38). It shows a migrant wrapped in an emergency blanket, standing upright and gazing at something outside the painting’s frame.
“There’s this view of Africa that’s painted by Western media that presents Africans as lacking agency. For last year’s cover, we wanted to showcase someone who is in an unfortunate situation but is still proud, standing his ground, a person with agency. Of course there are issues that are happening outside of our control, but within that, there are human beings with dreams, aspirations and goals.”
Looking to the future
For the journal’s fifth volume, to be published this spring, the editorial team chose the theme: “Afrofuturism: Envisioning the Futures We Create.”
“The last volume was about trying to combat the misconceptions and reductive view of Africa and its global community from the past. For this next issue, we decided to take the approach of using the past as the fuel for the futures we’re creating right now, and that we want to create further out,” Maidoh explained.
He describes the forthcoming volume as one that “reclaims cultures and showcases Africa as a whole: the technological advancements, the advocacy, the ways people are becoming empowered – things that show we are a movement.”
The focus is not only on the continent itself, but also on its diasporas and global cultural presence; African cultures, politics and intellectual traditions are already globalized, and their impacts are multi-faceted and ongoing, Maidoh said.
Welcomes non-traditional submissions
While it presents itself as an academic publication, Uhuru encourages variety in the submissions it receives.
Explained Maidoh: “We want the journal to be as egalitarian and multi-disciplinary as possible, which is why we include submissions that span from research articles all the way to artwork and photography. We don’t want to put a limit on people’s forms of expression; we feel that ‘uhuru/freedom’ reflects that.”
Making African cultures and knowledge more accessible
Maidoh encourages students to gain a deeper understanding of Africa, something that is offered by McGill’s African Studies program.
“Africa is a key part of the world,” Maidoh said. “Everything nowadays tends to focus on Africa, for good or for bad. I feel it’s important to learn more about the continent, not just for the sake of academics, but to realize that you’re going to meet someone from that region, so why not learn a little bit more about the things that pertain to them that you might not otherwise have known?”
He said all too often, others are ignorant of Africa’s immense diversity; rather, the continent is seen as a single entity in need of saving, despite being made up countries, communities and cultures that are thriving.
The VP stresses the importance of overcoming preconceived notions, including that African Studies courses are only for those of African heritage.
“The classrooms reflect the McGill community; we have people from different backgrounds taking the courses,” Maidoh said. “Everyone can learn something from African Studies.”
The University should expand the program and doing more to promote it, he said.