As President Bill Clinton brings his message of apology and
goodwill to Africa, Yale is bumping up its emphasis on the vast and diverse, but often
little-studied, continent.
And to do it, the University is importing the big guns in the field.
Leading the pack is Northwestern University professor Chris Udry GRD '91, whose work on
African development has earned him a tenured slot on the economics faculty, which he will
assume next fall.
Udry's future Yale colleagues described him as the foremost American economist focusing on
what many Americans perceive as "the dark continent."
Udry focuses on credit and savings in households in rural Africa -- a topic that has
brought him there to test his microeconomic theory with hands-on, household-by-household
evidence. His willingness to gather data at the village level has won praise from the
economists, in a field some criticize for overly emphasizing theory over practical
realities.
"He's an unusual person," economics professor and Yale Center for International
and Area Studies Director Gustav Ranis said. "He combines first-rate theory with a
willingness to get his hands dirty on empirical work."
African Studies Council Chair David Apter called Udry's work "a kind of economic
anthropology" and said Udry's appointment would balance the loss of Yale University
Art Gallery Curator Susan Vogel, who specialized in African art.
Also boosting African studies at Yale is the restoration of Department of Education Title
VI money, which enables Yale to devote heavy attention to the oft-ignored African
continent.
"One of the big puzzles of development economics is the poor performance of African
economies," Yale development economist Robert Evenson said. "Because of this
Africa plays a major role in economic analyses and the concerns of the Economic Growth
Center at Yale."
The African Studies community is also hoping that two economists from Ghana, the first
stop on Clinton's groundbreaking tour, will bring focus and fame to African Studies here.
One is former Ghanan finance minister Kwase Botchwey, and the other is social statistics
professor Ernest Aryeetey, from the University of Ghana.
In addition to new appointments, the University is going to start granting the African
Studies degree through YCIAS rather than the African and African American Studies program
-- an administrative move that Apter said could lead to the creation of more courses in
the program.
Nigerian and possible African Studies major Olubimpe Ayeni '00 said splitting the two
programs was a move in the right direction.
"It's good thing only because you're talking about two different continents,"
Ayeni said. "I've always had a problem with how they've tried to combine
everything."
Apter is also hoping to bring University of London professor Paul Gilroy to head a center
for diaspora studies, which will be run jointly by both the African and African-American
Studies Councils.
The center will focus on the political effects of worldwide African migration.
The anthropology department is also hoping to attract an Africanist.