With Africa World Initiative, Chika Okeke-Agulu helms an innovative hub connecting Princeton with Africa’s most creative minds

On Chika Okeke-Agulu’s credenza, leaning against the wall of his office in Princeton’s Green Hall, are two powerful images: the cover of a vintage magazine and a photo that graces the cover of one of his recent books. It might be too easy, though, for a visitor to overlook them. After all, the art history professor’s office is brimming with conversation starters: original artwork, an oversized beaded fly whisk, Igbo sculptures, art history books, monographs and novels.

Stacked on the desk are fresh copies of the Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, which Okeke-Agulu began co-editing more than 30 years ago. ARTnews, the oldest and most widely circulated art magazine in the world, has called it “massively influential.”

Seated at his desk on a quiet afternoon as the campus settled into a holiday break, the world-renowned scholar in African and African diaspora art history had just accepted a gift: an orange-and-black-flowered bucket hat, which he gamely donned, replacing the similar sartorial statement on his head. “I’m the chief of bucket hats,” he said with a grin. 

In 2008, Okeke-Agulu brought his many literal and figurative hats, as well as a treasure trove of bold ideas, to Princeton. As the University’s first historian of African art, his arrival on campus signaled a shift. 

With his belief that “the status quo is almost never enough,” he saw opportunities for change. When he was offered the role of director of the Program in African Studies in 2021, Okeke-Agulu thought about “what [the program] does, what it could do and what it could be.” While he had ambitious goals for bolstering the program, which has a history of excellence in the study of Africa through traditional disciplinary approaches of the humanities and social sciences, he also began talking with administrators about engaging Princeton “more meaningfully” with Africa, recognizing that Africa is not simply an academic subject but a continent rich in resources that will play an increasingly pivotal role in world affairs. By 2050, more than one in four people on the planet will be African, according to a recent forecast by the United Nations. 

Okeke-Agulu envisioned creating something that in its initial stage would be independent from and complementary to the African Studies program: Something transdepartmental. Sweeping. Focused on the future. 

Now, as director of Princeton’s Africa World Initiative (AWI), Okeke-Agulu helms a one-of-a-kind hub that aims to connect and engage the University’s research and teaching mission with the continent’s most creative thinkers. AWI is a platform for the University’s engagement with Africa and its stakeholders through the arts and humanities — and also across research partnerships in science, technology and innovation, entrepreneurship and public policy. 

What brought the art history professor to this global mission? Those two images on the credenza, significant touchpoints to his story, hold some clues.