Our History

Bridging Africa and its global disaspora since 1953.

1950’s : AAI’s Origins

The Africa-America Institute, originally named the Institute of African American Relations (IAAR), was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1953 by a small, yet committed group of American educators who sought to form an organization to support African students in pursuing higher education in the United States.
Co-founders Horace Mann Bond and William Leo Hansberry were part of a generation of African Americans who took part in in 20th century transnational movements to secure full U.S. citizenship rights for African Americans and decolonization and self-determination for Africans on the continent. Their commitment and outreach won the early endorsement of members of AAI’s all African, International Advisory Council including Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, and Ahmadu Bello of Nigeria, Kwame Nkrumah of the Gold Coast (now Ghana), and William V.S. Tubman of Liberia.
In its first year, AAI facilitated a three-day conference at Howard University in Washington DC that was attended by hundreds of African students already enrolled at colleges and universities across the United States and in Canada. And early on, AAI launched programs to support African students in the US with emergency, loan, and scholarship funds and to assist US educators and researchers interested in teaching and studying in Africa. At a time when African nations were decolonizing, AAI’s assistance responded to Africans’ felt need for advanced academic and professional training designed to prepare a new generation of African leadership.
1960’s-1970’s : Expanding Educational Opportunities

With the onset of African independence, AAI began AAI began pioneering new programs to offer advanced education opportunities and specialized training to a greater number of Africans, equipping them with the skills to contribute to the development of newly independent countries.
By 1963, AAI was interviewing hundreds of students in Africa for USAID-funded scholarships in the United States and starting its 40 year commitment to administering private foundation and US-government sponsored long-term advanced education initiatives. Through a multi-million dollar program portfolio encompassing the African Scholarship Program of American Universities (ASPAU), the Southern African Training Program (SATP), the Development Training Program for Portuguese-speaking Africa, and more, these initiatives brought tens of thousands of Africans from some 45 African countries to the US to earn graduate and professional degrees.
In 1968, AAI organized the first African-American Dialogues. The dialogues were series of annual conferences with leading African and American leaders of government and the private sector, to fuel greater interest in Africa through discussions on top issues of concern to Africa and the United States. Throughout the 1970s, AAI coordinated short-term U.S. visits arranged for African government leaders and educators, hosted off-the-record seminar briefings for print and broadcast journalists, and hosted exhibitions of contemporary African art. AAI was the go-to U.S. nonprofit for quality guidance, training, and materials for teaching and learning about Africa in schools and school districts across the United States.
1980’s-1990’s : Enlightening U.S. Policies Toward Africa

Throughout the 1980‘s and 1990’s AAI continued to act as a catalyst for thought, exposure, and experience for both Americans and Africans – challenging conventional American thought and policy about Africa through our congressional liaison, education and training programs, and many conferences. With a focus on democracy, the early 1990’s saw many African nations becoming multiparty democracies, Nelson Mandela was released from prison and Namibia achieved independence. With representatives across Africa and as an extension of its Congressional Program, AAI began organizing election watches, including in Nigeria, Liberia, Ethiopia and Eritrea.
AAI convened Policy Dialogues on the African continent that drew together key actors—African freedom fighters, heads of state, corporate executives, senior White House and U.S. government officials, human rights advocates, and journalists—to discuss and debate U.S. policy toward Africa. AAI also hosted non-partisan information briefings for US congressional staffers on Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.
As African nations struggled to gain their footing amidst serious political and economic challenges, AAI continued to provide support through its educational programs and in 1990 launched the Advanced Training for Leadership and Skills Project (ATLAS). Designed to improve the ability of African institutions and organizations to plan and promote sustainable development, the ATLAS program also provided opportunities for graduates to continue their development upon returning to the continent.
2000’s-Present : Continuing the Legacy

In the early 2000s, AAI had become fully-supported by private foundation, corporate, and individual donors and provided scholarships for Africans to study anywhere in the world including African countries, celebrated the first African woman to receive the Nobel Prize, AAI alumna Wangara Maathai, and began laying the foundation for closer engagement with members of AAI alumni network and with African Americans.
AAI offered a high-level platform for increased engagement with policymakers, academics, and key business and thought leaders from the United States and Africa. These discussions addressed issues relevant to Africa through African Perspectives roundtables, and the Africa Thursday Congressional Seminar Series. In 2004, a report produced by the U.S. Agency for International Development concluded, “USAID’s multi-million-dollar investment in long-term training programs managed by AAI for over 40 years produced significant and sustained changes that furthered African development in measurable ways.”
Throughout the decades AAI has advanced its mission by adapting and reshaping its program work to address contemporary challenges, while still embracing the philosophy of education for liberation that its founders espoused through a variety of educational programs that affirm humanity and cultivate the intellectual aspirations and excellence of all people.
As we approach our 75th anniversary, we continue to build on this rich program legacy, inspired by AAI’s founding vision to center the well-being of Africa and its worldwide diaspora.