The Revue d'Histoire Contemporaine de l'Afrique (RHCA) is a French-language contemporary history journal with an international editorial board that focuses on the contemporary history of the African continent (19th to 21st centuries). Entirely open access, it publishes thematic issues (2 per year) as well as various articles, book reviews, interviews and a ‘Sources, fields & contexts’ section. RHCA publishes peer-reviewed articles in French and provides a forum for African historians to meet and exchange ideas.
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Special issue edited by Kelly Duke Bryant (Rowan Unversity) and Kalala Ngalamulume (Bryn Mawr College).
Editorial coordination within RHCA by Karine Ramondy, in collaboration with Lydia Hadj-Ahmed.
It is well known that Africa is the youngest continent in the world today, with 70% of its population under the age of thirty according to 2024 statistics. Youth are often seen as vectors of change in African societies. But historical scholarship on childhood and youth in Africa remains underdeveloped compared to the scholarship on childhood and youth on other continents. This special issue responds to this gap, bringing together work from several historians of childhood in Africa that highlights the problems, constraints, and possibilities African children have encountered from within their own communities, from missions, or from the state. Concentrating on the period from the nineteenth century to the present, these articles suggest that we must examine how the meanings of the word “child” have changed over time and across different African societies.
Image: Archives du Palais Royal, Inventory 122, 97/A, "Album contenant 35 photos de l'école pour filles 'indigènes'", Élisabethville, 1925 (Inventory of King Leopold III's photo album collection).
