Forging a Truly South-South Post-imperial Collaborative Framework of Academic, Civic and other Social Actors between Southeast Asia and Africa II

Roundtable Chair(s)

• LH

  Lalita Hanwong

  Kasetsart University, Thailand
• IN

  Ibrahima Niang

  Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal
• AP

  Adrian Perkasa

  International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Netherlands

Roundtable Participant(s)

• MF

  Mamadou Fall

  Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal
• RS

  Richard Sambaiga

  University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
• MS

  Mathew Senga

  University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
• WK

  Webby Kalikiti

  University of Zambia, Zambia
• PP

  Philippe Peycam

  International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Netherlands
• RP

  Rita Padawangi

  Singapore University of Social Sciences, Singapore

A Public Roundtable under the South-South-North Initiative (SSN) and the Collaborative Africa-Southeast Asia Platform (CASAP) – co-moderated by Lalita Hanwong, Kasetsart University (Thailand), Ibrahima Niang, Cheikh Anta Diop University (Senegal), Adrian Perkasa, University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania).

For many years, starting from the ‘Africa-Asia, a New Axis of Knowledge’ Conference – Second Edition held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in September 2018, a number of scholars from both Southeast Asia and Africa decided to initiate a dialogic collaborative platform on account of a shared perceived need to foster deeper mutual understanding between the two world’s regions as truly representatives of a non-imperial ‘Global South’.

Several follow-up meetings and initiatives continued, thanks to the engagement of some individuals and their institutions in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2022, in Saint-Louis, Senegal, a group of these scholars worked together to draw the rationale for a new Collaborative Africa-Southeast Asia Platform (CASAP). The CASAP group made a number of preliminary recommendations in terms of research and educational capacities, and above all in network building, notably through a series of ncremental collective efforts to forge institutional capacities in universities of the two regions.

In February 2023, Universitas Airlangga (Indonesia) and partners from Kasetsart University (Thailand), Cheikh Anta Diop University (Senegal), Singapore University of Social Sciences (Singapore), University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), University of Zambia (Zambia) and International Institute for Asian Studies (Netherlands) worked together to establish the Airlangga Institute of Indian Ocean Crossroads (AIIOC). AIIOC, formerly instituted in May 2023, seeks to enhance the original work carried out by the local Institute of African Studies set up in the aftermath of the Afro-Asia Bandung Conference by widening its engagement scope across the Indian Ocean, across faculty and disciplines. AIIOC is the Indonesian pillar of the present ICAS 13 ConFest.

In the same period, the delegates from the two regions met in Bangkok at KU-AAC (Kaasetsart University Africa-Asia Centre) to deepen the programmatic aspects of CASAP, hoping to raise international institutional support for the initiative. Since then, the partners have continued to collaborate, within the framework of the preparation of the present ICAS conference, or in the perspective of the third Africa-Asia Conference to be held in Dakar, Senegal planned in April 2025. Before that, the CASAP members will meet in Dar es Salaam in May 2024, to help the university there to set up its own Indian Ocean, Southeast Asia-Africa platform. Other similar meetings are scheduled to take place in Senegal, Zambia, and again in Thailand.

In October 2023, on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, IIAS launched its South-South-North (S-S-N) Initiative. One of S-S-N’s objectives is to supports the bottom-up work carried out by the CASAP partners. On the occasion of ICAS 13, itself a collaboration between IIAS and AIIOC, the partners thought it be would be time to publicly share with the conference participants what has been achieved between Southeast Asia and Africa through CASAP, also with the intention of deepening perspectives and connections for this nascent Southeast Asia-Africa intellectual platform.

This second SSN event, coordinated by Dr Lalita Hanwong and Dr Ibrahima Niang, will invite Professors Mamadou Fall (Cheikh Anta Diop University), Mathew Senga (University of Dar es Salaam), Webby Kalikiti (University of Zambia), Rita Padawangi (Singapore University of Social Sciences), Adrian Perkasa (AIIOC/UNAIR) and Philippe Peycam (IIAS) to discuss their common undertakings and to engage with conference participants as future possible partners.