Dear Co-Investigators, Research Collaborators, and Research Group Members
The second phase of the 5-year ‘African Potentials’ research project, which began in FY2016, could not be completed in FY2020, the final year of the project, because of the global outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); some activities and plans were carried over to FY2021. Now, we are pleased to announce the successful completion of all project activities in late March 2022.
Because of your great efforts and active participation, the project has led to the publication of five of the seven volumes of the ‘African Potentials for Convivial World-Making’ series in English; it also produced an international wrap-up seminar and a final symposium in FY2020. The project will be successfully completed by the end of March 2022. In the current fiscal year, we published the remaining two volumes and the final anthology of African Potentials by the core members (in English). Unfortunately, we could not hold the 10th Africa Forum, but we were able to elaborate on the conceptualisation to be shared and strengthen our network during the process of editing this anthology.
Our activities over the past 5 years have included the practical and intellectual challenges necessary to pioneer a new field through interdisciplinary collaboration that transcends differences among disciplines and physical fields; we have also experienced many unrelated challenges during this period, but we have sincerely enjoyed moving forward together with all the members of this project. We are grateful for your support.
The ‘African Potentials’ project, which began in 2011, has now ended, but I am confident that each member involved in this initiative will develop new projects and challenges in their own world. We close this project with the hope that we will be able to work together again in a similar manner. Thank you very much. Arigatou Gozaimashita!
Motoji Matsuda
Project Representative
