CEBRAFRICA

The Brazilian Centre for African Studies (CEBRAFRICA) traces its origins back to the Brazil-South Africa Studies Centre (CESUL), a programme established in 2005 through a cooperation agreement between the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) and the Alexandre de Gusmão Foundation (FUNAG), an agency of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The founder of CESUL/CEBRAFRICA is Prof. Dr Paulo Fagundes Visentini, who coordinated it until 2015.

Its research activities are conducted alongside the Brazilian Centre for Strategy and International Relations (NERINT), both affiliated with the Centre for International Studies on Government (CEGOV), located within the Interdisciplinary Centre for Society, Environment, and Development (CISADE) at UFRGS. The Centre's objectives are to conduct research; support the development of PhD theses, Master's dissertations, and undergraduate monographs; bring together research groups on African themes; organise seminars; promote faculty and student exchanges; establish research networks and joint projects with African and Africanist institutions; publish works produced in Brazil or translated; and expand the specialised library provided by FUNAG.

The research aims to enhance knowledge about the African continent and its relations with Brazil across the following fields: International Relations, Integration Organisations, Security and Defence, Political Systems, History, Geography, Economic Development, Social Structures and their Transformation, and Currents of Thought. It is important to emphasise that CEBRAFRICA is a strictly academic and independent institution within a Brazilian public university, free from any governmental ties or affiliation with foreign foundations.

The Centre gathers researchers from UFRGS as well as national and international institutions, alongside undergraduate and postgraduate students conducting research in these areas. CEBRAFRICA publishes the Série Africana (African Series) and the Revista Brasileira de Estudos Africanos (Brazilian Journal of African Studies). CEBRAFRICA’s partners include prestigious institutions from Brazil, Argentina, Cuba, Mexico, Canada, South Africa, Angola, Mozambique, Senegal, Cabo Verde, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Russia, India, and China.