MESSAGE FROM AFAM PRESIDENT

June 8, 2020

STATEMENT OF POSITION

Having observed the dehumanization of African Americans in recent weeks in the United States, the executive team of AFAM share with you our position. The demonstrations following George Floyd’s murder in the hands of the police remind us of the dehumanization of blacks (African-Americans and Africans) across the globe. Indeed, they reflect opposition against racism and dehumanization in general.
 
On behalf of AFAM, we assert that the dehumanization and racism are intolerable. We support the peaceful protests and encourage you to join them because they are for causes that align with the mission of AFAM – advancing Africa and promoting the dignity of Africans and humanity in general.

We believe that dehumanization of Africans is dehumanization of AFAM. We believe in the worthiness of all people, a moral ideal that guided the attitudes and behaviors of our ancestors. We therefore have a responsibility to work towards elimination of dehumanization wherever it occurs. As management scholars, we should leverage our expertise to help with management of individuals, groups, organizations, and ultimately societies so as to advance Africans and all humans.

So, we must do good. Goodness comes through our actions and knowledge. Both should be extraordinary. I, in particular, recognize that it is a journey to transformation but one that is not unfamiliar. It is encapsulated in the heritage of Africans, shemsw, which contributed to the achievement of pharaonic rule. It can enable us to create positive change in both business and African societies so that there will be a better future for Africans and humanity.

AFAM must create a different and better future. So, let us work to restore, repair, and renew the world!
 

    
     David B. Zoogah, PhD
     President, Africa Academy of Management (AFAM) 

Presidential Address: Embracing the Secular in our ‘Sacred Scholarly World’

In this Address, I reflect on the journey of AFAM with regard to its past, present and future. As a new scholarly community, AFAM is called to the sacred society. Its future therefore should be based on the use of the legitimacy associated with that calling to enact its strategic role – facilitating transformation of African societies – by assuming the paramount duty of parrhesia. As a parrhesiatic organization, AFAM has to engage in value-creating practices through its discourses so that it can endow Africans with the right and ability to speak. These value-creating practices are means by which AFAM moves beyond its sacredness to the secular context of Africa. Unlike other scholarly communities, AFAM does not have the luxury of not ‘unliving’ the African challenge; it has a sacred duty to help provide a different and new living to Africans than the one they are currently experiencing.

Read more: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23322373.2019.1616987

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