Nokoko is an open-access journal promoting dialogue, discourse and debate on Pan-Africanism, Africa, and Africana.  Nokoko brings forward the foundational work of Professor Daniel Osabu-Kle and his colleagues when they started the Journal of Pan-African Wisdom in 2005. ‘Nokoko’ is a Ga word that means something that is new, novel, surprising and interesting.  The journal offers a venue for scholarship to challenge enduring simplified views of Africa and the African diaspora, by providing other perspectives and insights that may be surprising, interesting, and refreshing.

Combining spaces for academic and community reflection, Nokoko creates an opportunity for discussion of research that reflects on the complicated nature of pan-African issues. It provides a forum for the publication of work from a cross disciplinary perspective that reflects scholarly endeavour, policy discussions, practitioners’ reflections, and social activists’ thinking concerning the continent and beyond. Hosted by the Institute of African Studies, at Carleton University (in Ottawa, Canada), Nokoko provides a space for emerging and established scholars to publish their work on Africa and the African diaspora.

Nokoko strives to document Africa’s past and present in an engaged manner. It hopes to convey the contemporary manifestations of the continent’s history in the myriad of locations in which its peoples have been established. Above all, Nokoko is dedicated to making the links between the everyday practices, struggles and dreams of Africans and others in Africa and beyond, the work of practitioners in the fields of policy, projects, and activism, and academia.  Nokoko encourages work with a contemporary, engaged, and de-colonial perspective that aims to cross the boundaries between the academy and practitioners, while simultaneously remaining open to other perspectives.  Nokoko maintains a critical tilt favouring engaged scholarship, while remaining open to broader perspectives.  Nokoko is a forum for current scholarship, while recognizing such wisdom is not confined to scholars.

Nokoko is currently published once a year.

Nokoko is referenced by ProQuest’s “Black Studies Center” (http://www.proquest.com/en-US/catalogs/databases/detail/bsc.shtml) and is recognized as a refereed journal by Ulrich.