Africa in Times of Rapid Global Transformation: Reclaiming Agency, Rethinking Leadership, Advancing Justice.
Venue: Dakar, Senegal
Date: 7th to 11th December 2026
The Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) is pleased to announce its 17th Triennial General Assembly (GA), to be held in Dakar, Senegal from the 7th to the 11th December 2026 under the theme ‘Africa in Times of Rapid Global Transformation: Reclaiming Agency, Rethinking Leadership, Advancing Justice.’ The CODESRIA GA is a triennial conference of scholars and academics primarily drawn from the humanities and social sciences in Africa and the African Diaspora. In addition to the scientific sessions of the GA, a meeting of members in ‘good standing' will be convened to review the work and functioning of the Council in the period since the 16th General Assembly and to discuss the broad agenda to be pursued for the subsequent three years.
The CODESRIA GA meetings have historically been intellectual forums for robust and insightful discourses on the extant political and socioeconomic developments whose trajectories have major implications for Africa, its peoples, the state and society. In the same vein, the 17th GA is designed to provide participants the space to explore and probe, on-going rapid transformations in the global system. The idea is to highlight how the continent should position itself relative to these transformations in order to positively shape its own future and, in so doing, contribute to reshaping global affairs.
The overarching themes of agency, leadership, knowledge and justice come through strongly in the current geopolitical transformations. The menacing dangers of reinstating neo-colonial relationships stand out as a major threat for Africa. The desire in the United States of America (USA) and Europe to reinvigorate the transatlantic alliance, even if grudgingly embraced in some quarters in the USA, harks back to a world order that imagined Africa as an inferior player in that order. Matters are not helped on the African side by the persisting behaviour of most African leadership that positions itself as supplicants to dictates emanating from the global North. Participants in the GA will be encouraged to examine the current political, socio-economic, technological, climatic, and geostrategic transformations in the global system, account for these transformations, highlight their opportunities and challenges relative to Africa, and articulate appropriate African policy and positional responses in advancement of continental and diasporic African interests.
The 2026 GA comes at a time of rapid global transformation. One of the most transformative changes is the shift towards an emerging multipolar world wherein the unipolar power of the USA has come under pressure and appears to be waning while that of China is on the ascendancy. The two countries are not only in competition for global geopolitical and economic hegemony, but also for technological superiority. This development has serious implications for Africa, particularly given the continent’s central role as a source of primary resources essential to technological development and innovation. The emerging multipolarity has also witnessed the increasing ‘re-assertion’ of the European Union within the framework of NATO, this occurring mainly in response to an increasingly isolationist U.S. foreign policy, particularly under the Donald J. Trump administration. European governments have responded by increasing defence budgets while cutting funds previously dedicated to overseas development support. This, coupled with the increasing assertiveness of Global South formations – evidenced by the expansion of the BRICS bloc of countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) to BRICS+ (now including Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) – and the challenge to the petrodollar in the face of the U.S./ Israel war against Iran, presents both unique opportunities and challenges to African states’ agency in the global system.
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