History
The Royal African Society and its journal grew out of the travels of Mary Kingsley, an English writer and explorer who travelled to Africa several times in the 1890s and greatly influenced European study of Africa. In 1893, Kingsley travelled to Luanda, Angola, where she lived with the indigenous peoples to learn their customs. In 1895 she returned to study cannibal tribes, travelled up the Ogooué River collecting specimens of previously undiscovered fish, and became the first European to climb Mount Cameroon. Upon her return to England, Kingsley upset many people, particularly the Church of England: she criticized missionaries, and supported many traditional aspects of African life, most controversially the practice of polygamy. Kingsley wrote that a "black man is no more an undeveloped white man than a rabbit is an undeveloped hare".
The African Society was founded in 1901 to commemorate and continue Kingsley's work. The Society works to promote relations between the United Kingdom and Africa. In addition to the journal, the Society promotes conferences and meetings.
The journal was established in 1901 as the Journal of the African Society and was published as the Journal of the Royal African Society (ISSN 0368-4016) from 1936 to 1944. In 1944, the journal obtained its current name.
As of 2011, Dr Rita Abrahamsen (University of Ottawa) and Dr Sara Rich Dorman (University of Edinburgh) are the editors in chief.
Read more about this topic: African Affairs
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