Year: 2021
Type: editorial
Abstract: Several Africa-based archaeologists missed some of the recent SAfA conferences in Europe and North America because they were denied visas.In the process, they also parted with the exorbitant and nonrefundable visa application fees.Global disparities in knowledge production will remain intact until Western state actors dismantle the roadblocks they have created to prevent many Africa-based scholars from traveling to European and North American countries for professional conferences.In contrast, scholars from the global north have nearly unfettered access to Africa.The fact that we are participating in the SAfA conference from the comfort of our homes and offices is a stark reminder that the COVID-19 pandemic is still with us.The appearance of more potent variants of the virus, especially delta (B.1.617.2), has complicated the situation as new infection hotspots emerge or rekindle in different parts of the world.Africa is not exempted from the worldwide human and economic costs of the pandemic.It may be experiencing more hardship than other geographical zones, due more to stringent lockdown policies to curb the pandemic than to infection and illness (Anyanwu & Salami, 2021).African Development Bank (2021) estimates that about 39 million Africans could fall into extreme poverty in 2021 from the socioeconomic impacts of the pandemic: job loss, revenue/income declines, consumer price increases, supply-chain disruptions, business closure, and increase in the cost of doing business.There are also social deficits from By the time this journal issue (38, 3) is released, we will be wrapping up the 25th biennial meeting of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (SAfA), themed "A 20:20 Vision for the Future."For the first time, the society is running its conference entirely online in response to the disruptions caused by COVID-19.The global pandemic forced a one-year delay and converted what should have been a four-day faceto-face meeting in Oxford (UK) into a twenty-threeday online event.Lasting from August 17 through September 28, the conference program will feature 24 sessions, including four plenaries, two roundtable panels, one session for student-related activities, eighteen research panels, and a business meeting.More than 210 presentations will be showcased in the research panels.The conference would not have been possible without the resourcefulness of Peter Mitchell and his organizing committee, the SAfA executive board under Elisabeth Hildebrand's leadership, and the managers of the online meeting platform-Matt Curtis and Susan McIntosh, among others.The benefits of in-person meetings outweigh those of online interactions but many Africa-based participants would be relieved that they did not have to deal with time-consuming and expensive visa application processes in order to attend the conference in
Source: African Archaeological Review
Author: Akin Ogundiran
Institution: University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Reduced inequalities
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $2,780
OpenAlex ID: W3198066681