This article focuses on the impact of COVID-19 in Africa, describes its effects
for ongoing research, and asks how it may impact African studies. In Africa, as
elsewhere in the world, the pandemic is changing the way people think about the
future. The crisis gives rise to a feeling of uncertainty, while casting doubt on future
orientations based on forecasts and planning. This scepticism does not concern the
African continent alone, but it is here that the call to open a fresh perspective on
the future is expressed most emphatically. COVID-19 reinvigorates the question
of how African futures are imagined and shaped in relation to the world at large.
Against this backdrop, this article suggests three areas where future-oriented
African studies should be revised in response to the current crisis – namely, how
to incorporate uncertainty, how to decolonise understandings of African futures,
and how to translate these considerations into research practice.