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Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa

       

       

Pr. Abdalla Bujra (1975-1985)

The late Abdalla S. Bujra was a Kenyan national from Lamu born in 1938. He attended Lamu Primary School and Mombasa Secondary School before joining the University of London, where he earned a BA in African Studies. He later obtained his Doctoral degree (PhD) in Sociology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. As an academic scholar and researcher, Prof. Bujra taught at various universities around the world. His teaching expertise included supervising senior researchers and graduate students (PhD and MA) in academic institutions. He has also participated in and managed several major high-level Pan-African panels and committees linked to the African Union (AU) and other Pan-African Independent Research Organisations.

Prof. Bujra was one of the founders of the CODESRIA and served asthe first full-time Executive Secretary from 1975 to 1988. During his tenure, and as part of efforts of mobilizing the African Social Science Community, he conceptualized, initiated, and contributed substantively to over 50 conferences/seminars/workshops in different countries and on many different development themes – such as industrialization, rural development, economic integration, technology, population, democracy etc. As part of the process of mobilization and research, he established Pan -African and national research groups andset up the CODESRIA Documentation and Information Center (CODICE). He also launched the now famous CODESRIA journal, Africa Development, along with other CODESRIA publications,particularly books. In 1992, Prof. Bujra, alongside Govan Mbeki and Prof. Samir Amin, was honoured with the CODESRIA award of a Distinguished African Social Scientist on Institution Building.

During the 1970s and 1980s Prof. Bujra was a member of various professional bodies such as the Joint Committee of the Four Regional Social Science Organizations– CODESRIA (for Africa), CLACSO (Latin America), AIDAP (Asia & pacific) and EADI (Europe); the Africa Committee of the American Social Science Research Council; the Paris based International Social Science Council (ISSC) of UNESCO; and the Social Science Committee of the Tanzanian National Scientific Research Council. He was elected and served for two terms in all the three Committees. For over three decades, Prof. Bujra served as a team leader in numerous research initiatives in Africa, where he actively participated and led international workshops, seminars and conferences in Africa, Europe, North America, Latin America, Middle East, India and South East Asia. In 1995, he became the founding Director of the Development Policy Management Forum (DPMF), a pan-African NGO initially hosted at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNCEA) in Addis Ababa, but later relocating  to Nairobi in 2006. Prof. Bujra also served as the Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Nairobi based ACEG’s (African Center for Economic Growth).

Prof. Bujra published extensively on issues related to governance and development in Africa. He authored the book “The Politics of Stratification in a South Arabian Town” (1971) and co-authored and edited several other books among them, “Africa and the Future,” a special number of (ADB) – African Development Bank’s journal (1995), “Leadership, Civil Society and Democratization in Eastern and Southern Africa 2002” (2 Volumes ), “Perspectives on the OAU/AU and Conflict Management in Africa” (2004). His last edited book “ Kenya’s Democratic Transition: The Struggle from Liberal to Social Democracy”, was published in2005. He alsocontributed to numerous other publications including journal articles reports, occasional working papers and chapters in books.

Prof. Abdalla S. Bujra passed away on 8th January 2025, at his home in Malindi, Kenya.

 

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