By Dr. Abdul Karim Bangura, USA
It is with great joy and humility that I share the wonderful news with you that I have been elected President of the African Studies and Research Forum (ASRF), one of the leading African intellectual organizations in the world.
Please become a member and help us grow. The following is the URL to the organization’s website: https://asrfonline.org/
My Mission Statement
Vision: To make the ASRF a more vibrant and self-sustaining organization.
Mission: The following are the goals to be met during my tenure:
ASRF Logo: A $200.00 prize for the winner of the best ASRF logo design.
ASRF Motto: A $100.00 prize for the winner of the best ASRF motto.
Grants: Apply for as many and substantial grants as possible that will allow the ASRF to subsidize the costs of its members to attend and present completed papers at its conferences suitable for publication while serving the civic-engagement needs of communities. (For example, the Washington DC annual African Community Grants are a good source and the Mayor who launched the program is an enthusiastic fan of Africa and Africans.)
Membership: Engage in an energetic recruitment drive to significantly increase the number of active members in the ASRF.
Office Space: The short-term goal is to get office space at a university or sublease space within an office to give the ASRF physical and E-mail addresses and a telephone number. The long-term goal is to get our own building via a government renovation program.
Full-time Senior Technical Advisor/Executive Support Staff: Hire a full-time person with full benefits who is multilingual and has substantial experience in operations, organizing conferences and other meetings; financial management such as accounting/bookkeeping; scheduling travels; project/program and proposal/grants management; excellent written and oral communication skills; and working with African and related organizations, diplomats, African heads of state, and lawmakers in Washington DC and overseas.
Partnerships with Like-minded Organizations and Universities: Establish partnerships with organizations such as CODESRIA and universities across Africa and the Diaspora that engage in activities of interest to ASRF members.
The ASRF Panel of the Wise (ASRF-PoW): Just as we did for the African Union Peace and Security Council’s Panel of the Wise (AU-PoW), the ASRF-PoW will provide opinions to issues that need quick resolutions and writing up opinions on important matters pertaining to Africa and its Diaspora for dissemination across the globe.
The ASRF Diegetic Initiative: A plan of action that will be geared toward pairing younger scholars with seasoned ASRF scholars to help the former develop deeper and systematic analytical skills akin to those of our ASRF scholars I demonstrated in “Diegetic Analysis of the Scholarly Works of Six ATWS/ASRF Women: Peyi Soyinka-Airewele, Theodora Ayot, Doyin Coker-Kolo, Rita Kiki Edozie, Mueni wa Muiu, and Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké Okome” in the Journal of Third World Studies, Vol.27, No.2 (Fall 2011):11-43 and republished in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Nominating John Mukum Mbaku for the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences Initiative: While we know that the names of the judges are secret, we also know that significant recommendations have led to some people winning the Prize and other Nobel Prizes. If some scholars with lesser works have won the Prize, there is no reason why we cannot make the case for Mwalimu Mbaku’s huge and effulgent body of work on Public Choice and Corruption. I will draft a letter mimicking previous such letters and assemble a list of prominent economists who are more likely to be asked to serve on the committee and others who can be asked to send letters of support while we also send our own individual letters directly to the committee.
A Udogu-type Director of Research and Publications: A person who, like Mwalimu Emmanuel (Chief Ike) Udogu, will be more dynamic in getting members to write and publish abundant and effulgent works, a tradition I continued when I was elected for the position.
An Mbaku-type Editor for The Journal of African Studies and Research (JASR): A principled person with excellent editing, formatting and technical writing skills that brought great respect to the Journal of Third World Studies (JTWS), especially the African articles, and led to the inclusion of the journal among the top ones for tenure and promotion at many universities and colleges and received kudos from the American Political Science Association. Also, like Mbaku, the editor will respect the suggestive evaluations of the referees and insist that an author makes the suggested changes and/or provide reasoned rebuttals to some or all of them. The JASR will be launched as an open-access, multiple-reviewers, double-blind-review publication and Indexed by SCOPUS, DOAJ, JSTOR, ERIC, Google Scholar, etc. during the first year of my term in office. The first edition will be numbered vol. 32, no. 1 to reflect continuation from where the JTWS ended, since ASRF articles were published in that journal under the Africa associate editorship.
ASRF Publications Database Initiative: Apply for a grant, develop a database, and hire Computer Science students to input ASRF members’ published books, book chapters, and articles in journals and conference proceedings by subject categories into the database. Members will be asked to submit their publication listings to be inputted. In order to ensure currency, requests for listings of new publications will be sent to members in June and December of each year. A link to the database on the ASRF website will make the information available across the globe and increase the citation and canonization of ASRF members. Special Advanced Search Operators will be implemented in the database so that ASRF works will come up first whenever a researcher is looking for sources on a subject. Mwalimu Dayo Oyeleye and other ASRF computer scientists can work with me to develop the computer program. When resources permit, we will later develop similar programs like those of ResearchGate and Academia.edu.
Annual ASRF Presidential Awards: In order to make the Presidential Awards more meaningful, they will be limited to two each year. One will be awarded to the ASRF member who has done the greatest amount of work for strengthening the organization during the year, and the other will be awarded to a non-ASRF member who has provided the most significant service to the African community on the Motherland and/or in the Diaspora. The awards will comprise plaques and prize money.
Annual Conferences and Venues: To ensure larger turnouts, the annual conferences will be convened in more exciting cities in Africa, the United States, and the Caribbean that will present no serious transportation challenges. The following will be the places under serious consideration:
(a) Washington, DC
(b) New York
(c) Praia, Cabo Verde (the Paradise Island on Earth Doce Carnaval): Mwalimu Odair Barros-Varela and Mwalimu Saidu Bangura can work on this.
(d) Kampala, Uganda (the Lake Victoria-Jinja-One of the Sources of the Nile Kucheza): Mwalimu Johnson Makoba and I can work with our family members in Uganda on this.
(e) Kingston, Jamaica (the Peter Tosh-Bob Marley Kumia): Mwalimu Stacey-Ann Wilson of the University of the West Indies Mona Campus in Jamaica can work on this.
(f) Dakar, Senegal (Senegal Rekh Sabar—Janga Wolof): partnership with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA). I will work with my colleagues in the organization on this.
(g) South Africa (Umhlangano Omkhulu): Mwalimu Stanley Ehiane can work on this.
(h) Lagos, Nigeria (Ipade Nla): partnership with the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization (CBAAC) and the University of Lagos. I will work with my colleagues at both institutions on this.
(i) Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago (Kalypso-Soca Bacchanal): Mwalimu Stacey-Ann Wilson and I can work with colleagues at the University of the West Indies sister campus in Trinidad and Tobago on this.
Note: Each of the major initiatives can be endowed by an ASRF member in the sum of US $2,000.00 (two thousand United States dollars) or more, and the initiative will be named after the donor.
A few weeks after the Satanic September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, I was able to convene the largest gathering, with participants coming from across the globe, in the history of the Association of Third World Studies (ATWS), and other scholarly organizations at that time, because of my organizational skills and hard work. It allowed me to say in Savannah, Georgia: Osama, Or No Osama, We Are Here!
Now in 2022, I am saying that Coronavirus COVID-2019, Or No Coronavirus COVID-2019, We Are Here!
Advertise in the Patriotic Vanguard.
Contact the Publisher for details.
Comments