In \nresponse to the global, regional and local needs for specialists in \nAfrican and African Diaspora studies, the Faculty of Arts in \ncollaboration with other cognate Faculties in the University and the \nUniversity of the West Indies have developed a joint academic Master of \nArts\/Master of Science programme in African & Diaspora Studies. This\n programme is designed to promote local and international awareness of \nAfrican realities in an interdisciplinary matrix, including the \nhumanities, social sciences and some cognate professional fields. The \nresource persons consist of seasoned academics in the various aspects of\n African studies as well as academics interested in global Africa\u2019s \nindigenous knowledge systems and their relevance to contemporary \nexistence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The objective of the African & Diaspora \nStudies M.A\/MSc Programme is to provide an opportunity and platform for \ngraduate students to engage in intensive study and research on Africa, \nits history, science, technologies, philosophy, culture and experiences \non an interdisciplinary basis. The programme is designed to promote \nlocal and international awareness of African realities in an \ninterdisciplinary matrix including the humanities, social sciences, and \nsome cognate professional fields. The programme is a platform for \nadvancing training of Africa and African Diaspora specialists committed \nto both academic excellence and social responsibility in the Black \npluriversalist world and the broader global community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Africa is \noften a neglected or marginalized part of the world whose studies have \nnot gained much deserved attention. The need to tell African stories, \nrealities and challenges from within with an expertise\u2019s insights, \nrather than from the perspective of paternalistic external \u2018experts\u2019, \nnecessitates studying at an advanced level, the different dimensions of \nthe African world. In consolidating the leading positions of the \nUniversity of Lagos and University of the West Indies in University \neducation in Nigeria, the sub-Saharan African region, the West Indies \nand globally, the M.A\/MSc programme in African & Diaspora Studies \nwould offer foreign, African and West Indies students deeper \nunderstanding and wider horizons of their knowledge of the African \ncontinent. More fundamentally, a Masters\u2019 programme in African & \nDiaspora Studies would enhance the two Universities attraction to \nforeign students, who have special interests in Africa and its peoples. \nOnly very few universities in Africa and globally offer any form of \ngraduate programme in African & Diaspora Studies.<\/p>\n