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Journal overview

Journal of Contemporary African Studies (JCAS) is an interdisciplinary journal seeking to promote an African-centred scholarly understanding of societies on the continent and their location within the global political economy.


Its scope extends across a wide range of social science and humanities disciplines with topics covered including, but not limited to, culture, development, education, environmental questions, gender, government, labour, land, leadership, political economy politics, social movements, sociology of knowledge and welfare.


JCAS welcomes contributions reviewing general trends in the academic literature with a specific focus on debates and developments in Africa as part of a broader aim of contributing towards the development of viable communities of African scholarship. The journal publishes original research articles, book reviews, notes from the field, debates, research reports and occasional review essays. It also publishes special issues and welcomes proposals for new topics. JCAS is published four times a year, in January, April, July and October.

Peer Review Statement

All articles in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and anonymized refereeing by two referees. The Editors are responsible for the final selection of the contents of the Journal.

Authors can choose to publish gold open access in this journal.

Read the Instructions for Authors for information on how to submit your article.

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