International African Institute

The International African Institute (IAI) was founded (as the International Institute of African Languages and Cultures - IIALC) in 1926 in London for the study of African languages, society, history, and culture. Frederick Lugard was the first chairman (1926 to his death in 1945); Diedrich Hermann Westermann (1926 to 1939) and Maurice Delafosse (1926) were the initial co-directors. Since 1928, the IAI has published a quarterly journal, Africa. Additional publications include the Journal of African Cultural Studies, African Bibliography, Research and Documentation, African Arguments series, the International African Library, and Readings in ... series. For some years in the 1950s to 1970s, the assistant editor was the novelist Barbara Pym. In 1946 the Italian ethnologist Vinigi Grottanelli joined the Executive Board, and remained a participant until 1968. The IAI's mission is "to promote the education of the public in the study of Africa and its languages and cultures". Its operations includes seminars, journals, monographs, edited volumes and stimulating scholarship within Africa.