A new 9-week online course is launching soon that will explore Afro-diasporic legacies of transformative change. The course is titled “Radical Hope: Pan African Histories and Futures” and will be held from March 1 to April 26, 2023.

The 9-week online program will consist of a series of dialogues, lectures and workshops led by 14 leading historians, activists, artists, and community leaders. The teachers include visionary black feminist thinkers and practitioners such as Hakim Adi, Jaimee Swift, Jessica Horn, Panashe Chigumadzi, Chao Tayiana Maina, and Crystal Simeoni, among others.

Participants will learn how Afro-diasporic people have sustained themselves and their communities through paradigm-shifting events. The course is composed of three modules, exploring concepts such as healing justice, Afro-indigenous epistemologies and regenerative practices, kinship and collective action, and Pan-African feminist economies.

The course is the brainchild of Anwulika Okonjo, the founder of Ijeruka, a digital learning community that curates online courses about self, social and systemic change centering people of African descent.

Read some of the guiding questions for the course below, as told to us by Okonjo:

  1. How do we work through and incorporate the atrocities, injustices, and challenges of the past into our present and future without being overwhelmed or defined by them?
  2. What can we learn from our histories, ancestors and Pan-African communities about radical hope, kinship and transformative action?
  3. Where have popular ideas of Afro-renaissance and utopia fallen short, and what ideas and practices are emerging across geographies and disciplines?
  4. How can we create regenerative systems grounded in our unique, plural experiences and cultures? How can we nurture alternative forms of power that enable us to move into life-affirming patterns of relationship with each other and our environment?
  5. What role do artistic and cultural practices, and collective memory play in shaping our visions for thriving societies?
  6. How do we build visions and societies that encompass everyone?

All sessions will be recorded in case you cannot make it to a live session. Participants will also have access to an exclusive community and options for open discussions. Go here to find more information about the course and session breakdown. Make sure to register before March 1.

Registration fee is $350, but there is a cost-accessible bursary option available for low-income participants.

Register here.