Reclaiming the Promise of Sociological Imagination in Africa

Abstract

I have carefully chosen the theme of this paper as 'Reclaiming the Promise of Sociological

Imagination in Africa because I believe this is one area where African sociokgists have played an unsuufficient, relevant and transformational role. tne inportant message in this

Why is it important that we have journals of sociology? Is it only to provide us with a medium of academic expression, erudition and mobility? Or is it so that we can, as African sociologists, be interpreters of our own sitjations and conditions?

paper is that it not too late to reclaim our relevance as sociologists and to map out the terrain of our enterprise in relation to the challenges we face in a country like Kenya and in Africa as a whole. As my contribution to the re-leunching of the African Journal of Sociology of the University of Nairobi I want to pose following questions: Why do we research and publish?