We invite contributions to a special issue of the Nordic Journal of African Studies, dedicated to auxiliary constructions in Bantu languages (click here for the full call in pdf form). Despite their significance in this verb-centered family, auxiliaries have received relatively little in-depth, systematic attention in the general Bantu literature, especially when compared to the complex morphology of the simplex verbal word.

We welcome submissions addressing the plethora of formal and functional aspects of Bantu auxiliaries. Contributions may include but are not limited to the following topics:

• Detailed studies addressing the categorical status of Bantu auxiliary constructions in relation to interconnected notions such as “deficient” or “defective” verbs, “compound constructions” and “aspectual copulas”.
• In-depth analyses of the semantic and structural status, role and development of the lexical element (aka the “complement verb”, “auxiliate” or “second verb”) of the auxiliary construction.
• Reconstruction of auxiliary constructions to any proto-stage and the potential uncovering of cycles of change.

Click on "read more" below to see a longer call for papers.

NJAS now has a BlueSky account. You can find and follow us there at https://bsky.app/profile/njas.fi.

We are very excited to announce that NJAS has been accepted for indexing in Web of Science in their Emerging Sources Citation Index. Journals included in this index have to meet twenty-four quality criteria, based on best practices in publishing. All articles published in NJAS since the beginning of 2022 will be included in the index. The selection process was truly rigorous, and we are proud that our journal is being recognized for its editorial excellence.

We invite papers focused on, but not limited to, addressing the following questions:

• What are some of the ethical and moral implications of the new standardization and bureaucratization of ‘consent’, and how does it materialize in fieldwork moralities?
• What factors beyond institutional expectations influence researchers as they pursue informed consent and ethical research more broadly?
• Who is to define what determines legitimate and authentic informed consent in qualitative research? And ultimately, what can such debates on ‘consent’ in African Studies bring to both a Nordic and African research context?

Click to see the full text of the call for papers.

The Nordic Journal of African Studies has a new logo! You can see versions of it at the top of the page, and here.

NJAS has been published entirely online since 2004, and now, more than thirty years after the journal’s inception, we are excited to unveil a new logo suitable for our dynamic online presence. The logo incorporates elements from the cover that has served us so well for thirty years, drawing on elements of its colour scheme and its geographically inspired visuals. 

The new logo emphasises the dynamic links and collaborations we aim to encourage and support between Africa and the Nordic Region (and, of course, the rest of the world). 

The logo was designed by Kiira Koivunen of Mene Creative, whose work we unreservedly recommend.

Over the coming weeks and months, we will gradually update the website and our social media presence to incorporate the new logo. We will also use the new logo in future published documents.

The historical cover of NJAS will remain visible on previously published issues.

We are pleased to announce that our journal has been awarded the DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) Seal. The seal indicates that our journal follows best practices in open-access publishing. Only about 10% of open-access journals receive the seal. We are proud to be at the forefront of open-access publishing.

In other open-access news, NJAS will be changing our standard article licenses starting with the third issue of 2023. Until this point, articles have been published with CC BY-NC (Creative Commons Attribution, Non-Commercial) licenses.  We strongly support non-commercial publishing, but in practice, the Non-Commercial license has a lot of legal grey areas: for example, most social media sites are commercial enterprises. In addition, CC BY licenses, allowing for commercial use, are required as part of the Plan S open-access requirements.

Articles published to this point will retain the CC-BY NC license. In the future, if authors wish to have portions of their articles published with more restrictive licenses (e.g., original artwork), they can get in touch with the editorial team to work out a plan.

For all articles, past and future, commercial restrictions do not apply to the authors themselves, who hold the copyright to all their work and are free to re-use it in any context, as long as the  work is cited as having been originally published by NJAS.

We will add more information on the new copyright policy to the website soon.

We are happy to report that the Nordic Journal of African Studies has been accepted for indexing by Scopus, after review by an independent board. The review noted the importance of the journal in our research field, mentioning in particular our good citation rate. NJAS should be listed on the Scopus website within a month's time.

We are pleased to announce that we now have an easy and functional search on our website, which you can use to easily find articles from our extensive archives. It's available on the top (right side) of our page, and at https://njas.fi/njas/search/search.

We have published updated guidelines for the proposal of special issues. They can be found at https://njas.fi/njas/special_issues.

The email problems experienced earlier this year should be resolved now, and all OJS functions should now work as intended. Please contact us if you continue to experience any problems; otherwise, enjoy the use of our online system!

As of 1 August 2022, NJAS is happy to accept submissions again. We look forward to receiving your work!

The email system associated with our online submission platform is experiencing some technical difficulties, and messages sent through the site may not be delivered. We are working on the problem! If you have a problem sending messages through the site, please contact us directly and we will help you. For technical issues, contact njas-tech(at)njas.fi. Onlines submissions are still working properly. We hope to have the issue resolved very soon, and we thank you for your patience.

The Nordic Journal of African Studies will go on holiday from 25 June - 31 July 2022. We will not accept new online submissions during that time. Progress on already-submitted articles is also likely to be slowed. We will be open and excited to receive new submissions at the beginning of August!

We are pleased to announce that we can now once again welcome article submissions in English or French in all sections. In the languages and linguistics section, we are also accepting, on a trial basis, articles written in Swahili.

All French and Swahili articles should include an English translation of the abstract.

NJAS welcomes its new Editors-in-Chief, Dr Thera Crane and Dr Jonna Katto. Many warm thanks to outgoing Editor-in-Chief Dr Annika Teppo for four years of outstanding service to the journal!

Date limite de soumission des résumés : 31 janvier 2022
Vicky Van Bockhaven (Université de Gand) et Jonna Katto (Université d'Helsinki)

Abstract submission deadline: 31 January 2022

Editors: Vicky Van Bockhaven (Ghent University) and Jonna Katto (University of Helsinki)