[ASU] African Hero Nomination

[Mokake Mayoa, Flavius]

Dear one & all,

In reaction to the call for nomination of the ASU African Hero for 2012/2013, I humbly nominate Prof. Francis B. Nyamnjoh (www.nyamnjoh.com<http://www.nyamnjoh.com/>), Chair of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.

Prof. Nyamnjoh was born in the North West Region of Cameroon some 51 years ago. He was trained in the erstwhile University of Yaounde (B.A. Sociology and M.A. Political Anthropology), and the University of Leicester, UK, (Sociology of Communication).

Since 1985, Prof. Nyamnjoh has served as a teacher, researcher, and consultant to different development and scholarly institutions, and entrepreneur and publisher. Nyamnjoh has taught and delivered lectures in different Universities in Africa and the world. From 1985 to present, Nyamnjoh has being a faculty member of the Institut National de la Jeunesse et de Sports (INJS) Yaounde; Catholic University of Central Africa (Yaounde); he was the Head of Department in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology (University of Buea) between 1993 and 1999; lecturer of Social Anthropology (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa); in June 1999 he was appointed Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology (University of the Western Cape, Bellville, South Africa); between October 1999 and July 2003 he lectured in the Department of Sociology (University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana); and also was appointed professor in the Department of Anthropology and Archeology (University of Pretoria, South Africa). He joined the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar, Senegal, where he served as Senior Programme Officer and Head of Publications and Communications of the most prestigious Pan-African research institution in Africa between July 2003 and July 2009. He joined the University of Cape Coast, South Africa, as a Professor of Social Anthropology in August 2009.

Nyamnjoh is a highly sought-after and revered scholar-professor. He has served several national, Pan-African, and international research and development institutions in or working in Africa. He is an Africanist to the core and has turn down several invitations to take-up permanent teaching position in Europe and America, and has selflessly elected to visit Universities in the West just to present talks that advance the intellectual course of Africa, or as external examiner to M.A. and PhD theses and dissertations on Africa. That is to say, although Prof. Nyamnjoh is literally married to African scholarship, he is available to the global intellectual community so long as that is to advance the African epistemology. Among the awards that acknowledge Prof. Nyamnjoh’s service to the intellectual community and studentship in Africa include his beautification as the “Senior Arts Researcher of the Year for 2003” at the University of Botswana; he was in 2010 rated a “B2” professor and researcher by the South African National Research Foundation (researchers who enjoy considerable international recognition by their peers for the high quality and impact of their recent research output) valid from 1st January 2011 to 31st December 2016; and was equally inducted as a Fellow of the Cameroon Academy of Science in August 2011. He was been a beneficiary to numerous highly competitive fellowships in the world and is member of scholarly professional associations in Africa: IAI, IFC, AGGSS, ACCE, CIKO, CODESRIA, HSRC, PAAA, SARCHI, etc and serves in the editorial board of several Pan-African and Africanist peer reviewed journals: Critical Arts, Ecquid Novi, International Journal of Comic Art, Africa Affairs, African Studies, Media Development, American Ethnologist, African Diaspora: Journal of Transnational Africa in a Global World, African Studies Review, Journal of Modern African Studies, Journal of African Media Studies, Zed Books, etc.

Besides his very charged teaching schedule, Prof. Nyamnjoh has contributed immensely to scholarship and the production of knowledge in/on Africa. Between 1991 and 2011, he has authored Twenty (20) books (seven of which as co-editor); he has written Forty-five (45) book chapters; and has published at least Sixty (60) articles in peer reviewed journals worldwide on various themes on African studies. He has reviewed several books, contributed to several African newspapers and magazines, and has presented countless papers on Africa at international conferences and has prepared several assessment reports on different African countries. Nyamnjoh’s scholarship has gone beyond the dictum “publish or perish,” I consider him among the endangered collection of African intellectuals committed to the philosophy of “publish and perish,” as his scholarship has often put him at dagger drown with Cameroonian authorities.
As part of his zeal to advance research, scholarship, and to decolonize the production of knowledge in and on Africa, in 2008 he established a research institute and publishing house Langaa Research and Publishing CIG (http://www.langaa-rpcig.net/) which in its relatively brief history has published well over five hundred (500) books by African and Western scholars, and organized research training workshops for young researchers. Langaa RPCIG has provided employment to numerous Africans in Cameroon and Europe. However because Nyamnjoh’s goal has remained to provide African scholars the opportunity to publish highly intellectual works and to re-lubricate the intellectual machinery in Africa, Langaa RPCIG produces essentially Africa-related books.
Brethren, based on Prof. Nyamnjoh’s intellectual achievements, life-long commitment to scholarship in Africa, and his selfless efforts at mentoring budding scholars in Africa, it is my singular honor to nominate Prof. Francis Nyamnjoh as the ASU African Hero candidate for 2013 and encourage all to HONOR our OWN!

Driven by his spirit of simplicity and humility, I am confident Prof. Nyamnjoh would be here in February 2013 to receive his award if selected.

Thanks,
Flavius Mokake
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://listserv.ohio.edu/pipermail/asu-l/attachments/20121126/7569a487/attachment-0001.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: nyamnjoh_CV_2012.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 277614 bytes
Desc: nyamnjoh_CV_2012.pdf
Url : http://listserv.ohio.edu/pipermail/asu-l/attachments/20121126/7569a487/attachment-0001.pdf