Farewell of MIASA Director ‘Germany’ Professor Mamadou Diawara

The Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) has warmly farewelled Professor Mamadou Diawara, who served as MIASA “Director Germany” from January 2024 until December 2025. During his directorship he brought in his vast experience in African scholarship and local knowledge networks to the institute.

Throughout his directorate, Professor Diawara worked in close collaboration with the Director ‘Ghana’, Prof. Grace Diabah, focusing his efforts on advancing the institute’s strategic growth. He was strongly dedicated to progressing the critical groundwork for MIASA’s long-term sustainability and future institutional structure after the end of the funding phase by the BMFTR.

His leadership was characterized by a strong advocacy for bridging regional gaps, specifically through the integration of Anglophone and Francophone research spaces across the continent to foster mutually collaborative scholarly networks. Furthermore, he initiated and contributed to essential dialogues on rethinking structural inequalities and decolonizing academia, also by supporting strategic institutional partnerships with networks like MIASA’s sister centre MECAM.

This transition coincides with Professor Diawara’s official retirement from his long-standing professorship at the Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology at Goethe University Frankfurt and his role as deputy director of the Frobenius Institute at the end of 2025. MIASA’s administrative team, the Director ‘Ghana’, and the Executive Council extend their deep gratitude to Mamadou Diawara for his immense dedication and invaluable contributions. Following his return to Frankfurt, we wish him the very best in his retirement and in his ongoing, role as the Co-director of Point Sud, the Center for Research on Local Knowledge in Bamako, Mali.

Professor Diawara will be succeeded by the incoming Director ‘Germany’ PD Dr. Stefan Rother from the University of Freiburg from 1 January 2026 onwards.