About the Journal

The International Journal of African Studies (JAS) is a peer-reviewed scholarly journal published by JDONS. The journal is dedicated to advancing critical and original research in African studies, with particular attention to African histories, societies, cultures, economies, political systems, environments, intellectual traditions, and global connections. It provides an international forum for examining how scholarship in this field develops knowledge, informs professional and public conversations, and responds to emerging questions.

With a sustained commitment to intellectual rigor, methodological diversity, and international scholarly exchange, the Journal of African Studies encourages research that crosses disciplinary boundaries, tests established assumptions, and brings diverse intellectual traditions into productive conversation. The journal seeks to cultivate innovative scholarship that clarifies major questions in African studies, strengthens methodological exchange, and contributes to understanding contemporary conditions as well as future possibilities.

Under the JDONS, the journal serves as an international platform for advancing scholarship in African studies and for fostering international collaboration among faculty, researchers, field specialists, institutional leaders, and independent investigators. It fosters international collaboration among researchers, field specialists, educators, practitioners, and policy communities and supports rigorous peer exchange across disciplinary, geographic, institutional, and methodological boundaries.

The scope of JAS extends across African histories, societies, cultures, economies, political systems, environments, intellectual traditions, and global connections. Research may engage theoretical, empirical, comparative, historical, computational, experimental, interpretive, applied, or practice-based approaches, as appropriate to the subject. The journal welcomes scholarship that places specialized research within broader cultural, social, scientific, technological, environmental, institutional, or policy contexts and encourages meaningful connections with adjacent fields.

·         African Histories and Historiographies

·         African Political Thought and Governance

·         African Languages and Literatures

·         African Religions and Philosophies

·         African Economies and Development

·         Indigenous Knowledge Systems

·         African Environmental Change

·         African Diaspora and Transnational Studies

·         Gender and Society in Africa

·         Science, Technology, and Innovation in Africa

·         Heritage and Cultural Landscapes

·         Decolonization and African Futures

The journal welcomes original research articles, theoretical essays, comparative studies, methodological contributions, policy analyses, review essays, and critical book reviews. Contributions are encouraged to engage one or more of the journal's stated foci while remaining open to emerging subjects, innovative methodologies, comparative perspectives, and questions not yet adequately represented in the literature. JAS welcomes work from established disciplines as well as emerging cross-disciplinary fields.

Contributors are encouraged to pursue comparative, transdisciplinary, and internationally grounded scholarship that critically examines the major intellectual, practical, and societal questions associated with African studies. Particular emphasis is placed on research that foregrounds diverse perspectives, including Indigenous, Global South, decolonial, comparative, community-based, and underrepresented knowledge traditions where relevant, while encouraging meaningful engagement across academic disciplines, geographic contexts, and forms of expertise.