SCCB-Africa’s Abdul Karim Ibrahim Awarded Prestigious CODESRIA AFRIAK Fellowship

SCCB-Africa is pleased to announce that our Senior Communications and Policy Engagement Advisor, Abdul Karim Ibrahim, has been awarded the highly competitive African Fellowships for Research in Indigenous and Alternative Knowledges, administered by the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation.

The AFRIAK Fellowship supports early-career African researchers to undertake innovative studies into Indigenous/Endogenous and alternative knowledge systems across the continent. Abdul Karim joins a distinguished cohort of fellows drawn from diverse disciplines, with each contributing to the revitalization of Africa’s epistemic and cultural heritage.

Over the next seven months, Abdul Karim will pursue a project that brings to the fore critical reflections and policy contributions on Indigenous Games as Urban Cultural Infrastructure in Accra. The project will examine the growing ambivalence towards cultural continuity in urban spaces by examining how traditional games and other play forms represent important cultural infrastructure. African cities are a particular fit because whilst city dwellers increasingly embrace globalized leisure forms and digital cultures, there is also considerable interest by urban families who nostalgically seek spaces where their children could experience near-forgotten communal traditions including Indigenous games.

SCCB Africa is excited about the prospects of this project because it carries significant implications for urban policy and planning, education, and cultural renewal. Drawing on relevant and locally grounded knowledge systems could offer useful pathways for strengthening state legitimacy and deepened citizen engagement.

We congratulate Abdul Karim on this important achievement. We are confident that his participation in the AFRIAK Fellowship will enhance our collective work and further advance our commitment to socially just and culturally grounded African futures.

About the AFRIAK Fellowship The AFRIAK Fellowship is a flagship CODESRIA programme designed to foster collaborative, interdisciplinary research on Indigenous and alternative knowledges in Africa. More information is available at codesria.org/afriak.