Objectives
- Creating a forum for specialized reflection on Africa's challenges within the framework of the current globalisation process.
- Offering a meeting space for academics, entrepreneurs and professionals involved in strategic development and cooperation with Africa.
- Supplying advanced training applied to problems related to African sustainable development.
- Fostering leadership skills amongst youngsters
- Boosting the role of the Macaronesian region as a relevant geo-strategic space regarding international scientific cooperation.
Preparing the future
The future cannot be predicted, but it can be prepared. Since the dawn of this century, various world leaders and global organizations have consistently emphasized that anticipation, prevention, reflection, and forward-looking action are absolute imperatives of our time. As UNESCO stated in A New World (2000), “protection is not enough; we must prepare for the future.”
In our times, “a toxic combination of poverty, inequality, violence, oppression, climate change, and rampant population growth seems to be pushing a growing number of Africans, Asians, and Latin Americans to embark on increasingly desperate journeys in hopes of reaching the shores of the ‘wealthy West’...
These migrations are an intrinsic and therefore inseparable part of broader processes of social, cultural, and economic transformation that are affecting our societies and our world—change that benefits some more than others, that may present disadvantages to some, but that cannot be dismissed simply by wishing it did not exist” (Hein de Haas, The Myths of Immigration, 2024). Faced with such a complex and far-reaching phenomenon, it is essential that we approach it with calm, open-minded, and thoughtful analysis. This will be the primary focus of the academic program of the seventh edition (2025) of CampusÁfrica, grounded in the conviction that we are at a crucial moment in preparing the future we want.
This is the spirit that drives CampusÁfrica, an international program of the University of La Laguna, managed by the Canary Foundation for the Control of Tropical Diseases (FUNCCET). Through this initiative, the oldest university in the African Atlantic aspires to contribute to the shared goal of building a dynamic community of knowledge in collaboration with scientific and higher education institutions throughout the surrounding continental and Atlantic regions.
Grounded in the empowering potential of science, the CampusÁfrica 2025 program is structured around the overarching theme: “African Migrations: Myths, Realities and Challenges.” It will be organized into three main academic and research strands:
- The causes, consequences, and challenges of migration affecting the African continent and nearby islands;
- The biosanitary challenges posed by emerging and poverty-related diseases;
- The cultural interactions and relationships between human groups in contact.
Of all the possible venues for CampusÁfrica in the Canary Islands, none is more fitting than the city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, on the island of Tenerife. Founded in 1496, La Laguna has been included in UNESCO’s World Heritage network in recognition of its rich cultural and historical legacy, its strong academic tradition, and its privileged natural setting. In this way, the city reaffirms its international vocation and continues to live up to the description offered by the poet Antonio de Viana four centuries ago: “a city of work, of study, and of science.”
The way we perceive and welcome others—those who are different—reveals our degree of barbarity or civilization. Barbarians are those who believe that others, simply because they are not like them, belong to an inferior humanity and deserve to be treated with contempt or condescension.
Tzvetan Todorov, Discurso de recepción del Premio Príncipe de Asturias en Ciencias Sociales, 2008
Most current debates on migration are not true debates at all, as they focus almost exclusively on opinions or wishes rather than on facts: on what migration ought to be, rather than what it actually is in terms of current trends, patterns, causes, and impacts. They also fail to consider how policies could better address realities on the ground in order to achieve the desired outcomes and avoid repeating past mistakes.
Hein de Haas, Los mitos de la inmigración, Ediciones Península, Barcelona, 2024
