In 1948, when most American universities barely regarded Africa as worthy of sustained scholarly attention, Northwestern University took a visionary step by creating the country’s first program of African studies.
The program’s founder, anthropologist Melville J. Herskovits, devoted his career to challenging the assumption that Africa existed only as a footnote in Western history. He argued that the people and cultures of African descent must be understood on their own terms — not through the distortions of colonial prejudice. He also insisted that Black American culture was neither deficient nor “pathological” but deeply rooted in African histories and traditions.
For nearly 80 years, Northwestern celebrated that intellectual audacity as evidence of its global leadership and moral seriousness. Yet at the very moment the university is showcasing its privately funded $850 million-plus new football stadium, it appears to be preparing to diminish the African studies program, an institution that helped propel Northwestern’s rise as an academic behemoth.
The contrast is difficult to ignore. Universities are entitled to make choices. But when a university can find the money for athletics while reducing support for the African studies program, it is also making a statement about what it values, what it wishes to be known for and what parts of its inheritance it is willing to leave behind.
University officials have been countering recent reports of the program’s imminent demise. The program, according to a spokesperson, has not closed but is “transitioning away from” its status as a universitywide research institute and center.
Staff have said otherwise. They were told they would no longer be employed as of Aug. 31.
The conflicting messages have left faculty, alumni, donors and international partners uncertain about what will remain and what will be lost.
The most important question is not whether African studies survives on paper but whether Northwestern is weakening its commitment to it.
Institutions can’t communicate its priorities through news releases. They need to be conveyed through investment, staffing, organizational support and tangible commitments. Simply preserving the program’s name while reducing staff, resources and institutional standing signals that African studies is no longer welcome in a space of prominence.
Africa is home to the world’s youngest population, some of its fastest-growing economies and extraordinary innovation in technology, entrepreneurship, public health, culture and governance. If ever there were a moment for universities to deepen their engagement with Africa, it is now. Northwestern should be leading that effort.
Instead, it appears to be stepping back, shirking its role as a university that has cultivated international research partnerships, trained distinguished scholars and developed the premier Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies.
Building on those accomplishments is the only way to move forward instead of speaking of them as triumphs of the past.
Celebrating Northwestern’s historic feats in fundraising campaigns and admissions materials isn’t enough. That history must be strengthened and protected.
The issue before Northwestern is not an accounting exercise. It is a test of institutional character at a time when the Trump administration is blocking or whitewashing classroom lessons and public displays about systemic racism and slavery.
Those who care about the university’s future should not remain silent. Alumni, students, faculty, donors and trustees should demand Northwestern leadership offer a clear commitment to the future of African studies with dedicated staffing, stable funding and an ambitious vision worthy of the program’s historic reputation and status.
Preservation alone shows weak-kneed leadership.
The university that pioneered African studies in America should not be asking how little support it can provide while still claiming the program survives. It should be asking how it can expand a legacy that has distinguished Northwestern for nearly eight decades.
At a moment when Africa’s economic, political, cultural and demographic significance to the world has never been greater, retreat is the wrong message from an institution that once led the way.
The new Ryan Field will eventually grow old. A decision that could gut the African studies program will also age, but not in the way Northwestern would like to be remembered: standing on the wrong side of history.
Dr. Jeffrey Sterling, a Northwestern University alum, is the author of the book “Voices and Visions: The Evolution of the Black Experience at Northwestern University.” He was the president of Northwestern University’s Black Alumni Association from 2014-2018.