The GIGA Institute of African Affairs

• was founded on February 18, 1963 by the German-African Business Association and researchers at the University of Hamburg ("Deutsches Institut für Afrika-Forschung e.V."). In August 1975 the institute changed its name to Institute of African Affairs (IAA), and on January 1, 2007, the IAA became part of the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.

• conducts research on political, economic and social affairs in contemporary Africa. All researchers possess relevant regional expertise and language skills and make use of state-of-the-art theoretical and methodological approaches and tools.

• focuses on analyses of political, economic and social actors, structures and processes in sub-Saharan Africa.

• is the only research institute in Germany which deals solely with sub-Saharan Africa. It cooperates on a worldwide scale with relevant university departments and research units, think tanks, and academic associations. The IAA is member of the European research network AEGIS (Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies).

The GIGA operates one of Germany’s biggest specialised libraries on contemporary Africa, the
GIGA Information Centre: Africa Library .

GIGA Institute of African Affairs
Neuer Jungfernstieg 21 · 20354 Hamburg · Germany
Phone: +49 (0)40 - 428 25-523 · Fax: +49 (0)40 - 428 25-511
Email: · http://www.giga-hamburg.de/english/iaa

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Together with the Institute of Asian Studies, the Institute of Latin American Studies, the Institute of Middle East Studies, and the three Comparative Area Studies Research Programmes, the IAA forms the GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies / Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien.