A Historical Overview of Sub-Saharan Africa’s Security Evolution

Please join us for a joint Irregular Warfare Center (IWC) Africa Regional Team Lecture and IW Scholars FAN lecture by Mr. Ashford Njogu of the U.S. State Department’s National Foreign Affairs Training Center (NFATC). This lecture, titled “A Historical Overview of Sub-Saharan Africa’s Security Evolution” will provide an overarching view of the many irregular security challenges facing the region delivered by the Deputy Chair of Africa Area Studies at NFATC,  which trains American foreign affairs professionals .

Mr. Ashford Njogu will provide a historical overview of Sub-Saharan Africa’s evolving security landscape from pre-colonial governance and colonial subjugation through Cold War proxy conflicts to today’s regional security architectures and threats. It will look at shifting dynamics including intrastate conflicts, violent extremism, resource competition to contextualize contemporary African security challenges within deep historical patterns of governance, systemic disruption, and external power involvement.

Mr. Njogu serves as Deputy Chair of Africa Area Studies atthe National Foreign Affairs Training Center (NFATC). Prior to joining NFATC, he was a Senior Program Officer at the American Councils for International Education in Washington, DC, where he helped manage a range of African area studies, language, and internship programs for American college students studying abroad in Nigeria, Mozambique, South Africa, Senegal, and Tanzania, including Zanzibar. Earlier in his career, he taught Swahili as an instructor at the University of Kansas. Mr. Njogu holds a Master of Arts in International Community Development from the University of Queensland, Australia, and a Bachelor of Arts in Teacher Education from Kenyatta University, Kenya.