Under its current Editor, Murray Last, Africa has increasingly encouraged an interdisciplinary approach, giving particular emphasis to historical trends, issues of development and links between local and national levels of society. At the same time it maintains its commitment to theoretically informed analysis of the realities of Africa's own cultural categories. Special issues on specific themes are frequent. Covering the whole of Africa and including works in many languages, the Bibliography regularly contains well over 5000 entries, categorised by region, country and discipline. Full author and subject indexes add to its value as an important reference work.
Suitable manuscripts submitted from Africa are particularly welcome.
Some of the Institute's more recent publications are listed below. This is a series launched in 1996, edited by Alex de Waal, and published by James Currey. The IAI has launched a series of reprints, IAI-originated and others, with new introductions setting the originals in context. The series is edited by Murray Last. Many of the volumes based on these seminars have become classic assessments and syntheses.