African Studies first black professor
The Department of African Studies at the University of Vienna appoints its first black professor. When searching who had preceded the chair Adams Bodomo was going to fulfill, one comes across the history that the institute itself provides. This one is described as a a list of individual successes ("famous excavator of the pyramyd", "under him more languages were studied") and comes off closer to a history of sucessions. Strangely there is no connection with what were main historical shifts in African history, such as their late independence from colonial rule.
Das Institut:
http://afrika.univie.ac.at/das-institut/
1868/73 - 1903 Leo Reinisch was Professor for "Egyptian archeology"
1873-1892 African Studies lectures were offered in "Philology, antiquity and linguistics“. 1893-1922/23 at the Orientalist Institute of the study "General and comparative linguistics and Oriental Philology". 1923 the "Institute of Egyptology and African Studies" was founded by Hermann Junker, the famous excavator of the pyramid fields of Giza, and was a forerunner of today's Institute.
1925/31 Wilhelm Czermak, Professor of Egyptology and African Studies, Rector in 1952-53. Under him and his successor Gertrude Thausing there was a diversified teaching in a number of African languages (Ewe, Fulfulde, Nubian languages, Somali, ...).
1953 Hans Günther Mukarovsky, a pupil of Czermak and Diedrich Westermann- fulfilled a teaching position for African linguistics. Habilitated in 1963 he was appointed to what was finally an independent Chair of African Studies in Vienna in 1977, a position he held until shortly before his death in 1992.
In addition to his research on problems of large-scale linguistic affinities within Africa and Euro African speech relations, his interest was also the history and present of the African societies. Therefore, along historical and descriptive linguistics, the history, literature, politics and geography of all countries in Africa were taught at the Viennese "Institute of African Studies", since 1978 an independent institution.
After the retirement of Mukarovsky in 1992 Inge Hofmann took over as interim head of the Institute. Between 1994-2004 Norbert Cyffer was head of the institute. Followed by Walter Schicho between 2005-2010. In 2007 it was renamed "Department of African Studies". Walter Schicho retired in 2010.
The professorship "history and societies in Africa" was taken over on 1 October 2012 by Prof. Kirsten Rüther (Schicho’s successor). The professorship "African Languages and Literatures" was taken over on 1 August 2013 by Mr. Prof. Adams Bodomo (Cyffer’s sucessor).
http://afrika.univie.ac.at/mitarbeiterinnen/aktuelle-mitarbeiterinnen/#c470388
http://freshzine.at/2015/06/04/after-650-years-of-existence-university-of-vienna-appoints-very-first-black-professor/
https://www.facebook.com/imayna.caceres/posts/10152978238071973