Nordic Africa Institute


Nordic Africa Institute serves as a research, documentation and information centre on modern Africa for the Nordic countries. The Institute also encourages research and studies on Africa. The institute was founded in 1962.
The institute is financed jointly by the Nordic countries. Administratively, it functions as a Swedish government agency that answers to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. It is located in Uppsala. The Nordic Africa Institute is part of AEGIS, a network of African Studies Centres in Europe, and organized its 4th international conference in 2011. The institute is headed by a Director, and a Programme and Research Council has the task of monitoring and advising the Director.. On 18 July 2019, the Swedish government appointed Therése Sjömander Magnusson as new Director of NAI, a position which she took up on 1 October 2019.

Previous Directors of NAI

The list is partly based on a report to the Nordic Africa Institute's 50th Anniversary in 2012.
The Nordic Africa Days is a biannual research conference arranged by the Nordic Africa Institute. The first NAD conference was held in 1999 in Uppsala, Sweden, and after that, until and including 2012, the conference locations alternated between different cities in the Nordic regions, with Nordic universities as co-organisers. Since 2014, the NAD conference has taken place biannually in Uppsala, Sweden, with NAI as the sole organiser.
The Nordic Africa Days gathers researchers and writers from all over the world working on Africa-related knowledge production. It comprises panel discussions, workshops, poster exhibitions, seminars, and a whole range of other events. The conference also provides a venue for dialogue between Africa specialists within academic and policy arenas. In 2016, the Nordic Africa Days gathered 239 participants from 36 countries.

Previous NAD conferences and their themes