Our History

Afro‑Ásia was launched in 1965, as the scientific divulgation vehicle of the Centro de Estudos Afro-Orientais (CEAO) [Center for Afro-Oriental Studies].

CEAO was a privileged space for this enterprise, as the first Brazilian academic institution of its genre, and was, since its inception, active in establishing university mobility programs with the African continent. Early researchers affiliated with CEAO spent long research stays in different African countries, some of them even pursuing masters and doctorates, which were still rare in Brazil at the time. CEAO also hosted the first African university students in Brazil, by means of a pioneer initiative that would later help to model the main Brazilian official scholarship program for foreign undergraduate and graduate students, run by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). Soon, the center was also recognized as a focal point of articulation for anti-racist struggles in Brazil, especially due to its always intense dialogue with Candomblé communities, the Black movement, and organic intellectuals.

The journal was regularly published until 1970, facing thereafter an extended period of institutional fragility and few editions spaced along the years. From 1995 on, Afro‑Ásia managed to retake its regular publication frequency and established itself as one of the most important venues for the Brazilian academic conversation on the African Diaspora, Africa, and Asia.

This recovery was prompted by the creation, in 1990, of a Graduate Program in History (PPGH) by the Federal University of Bahia – a split from the preexisting master’s program offered in the more general field of human sciences – and the inauguration of a doctoral program in history. In particular, scholarship conducted within the research unit Slavery and the Invention of Freedom contributed markedly to the renewal and the substantial broadening of academic work on the social history of slavery, post-emancipation, and the processes of racialization in Brazil and the Americas, helping to reinstate discussions on racism into the national agenda. Thus, in assuming editorial responsibility for Afro‑Ásia, the research unit also helped to shape the Brazilian intellectual movement, which multiplied and diversified the scholarship on topics close to the journal interests.

The institutional support to Afro‑Ásia as well as the scholar milieu that encompasses and nourishes it were reinforced in 2005 by the inauguration of the Graduate Program in Ethnic and African Studies (Pós-Afro), at the initiative of members of the Slavery and the Invention of Freedom research unit and scholars from other fields of knowledge.

In 2005, all issues of the journal were digitized, and thereon digital issues were published alongside printed versions. In 2019, Afro‑Ásia issued its last edition in paper, becoming exclusively digital.

Former editors of Afro‑Ásia:

  • Waldir Freitas Oliveira (1965-1970)
  • Nélson Correia de Araújo (1965-1980)
  • Guilherme de Souza Castro (1976)
  • Yeda Pessoa de Castro (1983)
  • Gustavo Falcón (1992-1995)
  • Antonio Sérgio A. Guimarães (1996)
  • João José Reis (1996-2004, review editor 2005-2023)
  • Renato da Silveira (1997-2008)
  • Valdemir Zamparoni (2001-2008)
  • Luis Nicolau Parés (2005-2008)
  • Florentina da Silva Souza (2008-2015)
  • Jocélio Teles dos Santos (2008-2018)
  • Wlamyra Albuquerque (2014-2018)
  • Fábio Baqueiro Figueiredo (2019-2023)
  • Iacy Maia Mata (2019-2023)
  • Jamile Borges da Silva (2019-2023)

In 2024, Edilza Sotero, Marcelo Moura Mello, and Thiago Sapede took charge of the editorial team. Since 2023, Gabriela Sampaio and Wlamyra Albuquerque have been Afro-Ásia's review editors.