Editorial
Creating African Futures and Creating CODESRIA Futures
The year 2014 is the year of CODESRIA’s 14th General Assembly. The General Assembly is the most important governing organ of CODESRIA. The scientific conference of the General Assembly is also the most important scientific event of the general assembly year, given the importance of the theme of the conference, the extent of the mobilization of members of the community and of colleagues in our partner institutions to participate in it, the agenda setting role that this conference often plays. This year’s General Assembly will be no different. The theme of the conference, Creating African Futures in an Era of Global Transformation: Opportunities and Prospects, will, it is hoped, incite the scholarly community to initiate research programmes and participate in the public and policy debates on the transformation of Africa, and our societies, cultures and governance systems in ways that work for all Africans
Prospective studies, and multidisciplinary studies on how various sections of our societies perceive, think about, and prepare or relate with the future in other ways are in short supply in African universities and other research institutions. The debates at the scientific conference of the 14th General Assembly, we hope, will lead to more research being done on how we are, at various levels, trying to create futures for Africa and Africans in their diversity, but also in unity. The research community also needs to engage the African Union’s Agenda 2063, as well as with debates on The Africa we Want.