The XIII All-Russian School of Young Africanists "African Countries in the Global Politics of the XXI Century" was held on November 7-8, 2014. The annual forum, organized by the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Scientific Council on African Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences in cooperation with universities in various cities of Russia, is mainly aimed at attracting the widest possible range of young researchers of the African continent and supporting this area in Russian science. The conference aims to help young scientists understand the importance of different research areas for a full-scale understanding of the processes taking place in the socio-political and cultural life of Africa.

This year the School was held jointly with the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University. The conference was attended by over 90 young scientists from universities and academic institutes in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Yaroslavl, Belgorod, Yekaterinburg, Sochi, Tambov and Voronezh. Young economists, political scientists, sociologists, cultural scientists, linguists and anthropologists shared their latest research results and discussed contemporary problems in Africa.

The plenary session was opened by a prominent Russian Africanist V. S. Yagya (St. Petersburg State University). Welcoming the young scientists on behalf of the university's management - Rector N. M. Kropachev and Dean of the Faculty of International Relations I. N. Novikova, V. S. Yagya reminded the audience about the outstanding contribution of St. Petersburg.GU in the development of national African studies and glorious dates: in November, the Eastern Faculty of St. Petersburg.GU turned 160 years old and the Department of African Studies celebrated its 70th anniversary. Speaking about the growing place of Africa in the world and the relevance of the development of African studies in Russia, V. S. Yagya spoke about the establishment of a new center for African Studies at the Faculty of International Relations of the University. Head of the School of Young Africanists of Russia I. V. Sledzevsky (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) also paid tribute to the St. Petersburg School of Oriental Studies and its founders D. A. Olderogge, L. E. Kubbel, S. R. Smirnov. The guest of the conference, Ambassador of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria to the Russian Federation Smail Allaoua, in his welcoming speech, noted the growing role of Africa in the international relations system.-

He also highly appreciated the prospects for economic cooperation between the continent's countries and BRICS members, in particular Russia.

The business part of the School, which includes lectures by reputable experts for aspiring scientists, was opened by the report of the First Secretary of the Embassy of Rwanda in the Russian Federation, Karagire Francis, " African countries in global politics of the XXI century." He came to the conclusion that the key tasks in the system of foreign policy priorities for global development of Africa are to end armed conflicts, create conditions for economic revival and increase the effectiveness of foreign assistance to African countries.

The report, delivered by Yuri Vidakas, a Russian diplomat and UN military observer at missions in Western Sahara, Kuwait, DRC, and Sudan, focused on the state and prospects of Russian-Sudanese political, trade, economic, and humanitarian ties. The speaker assessed the current state of bilateral relations as consistently good, noting the mutual interest of the Russian and Sudanese sides in their development. Among the problems hindering Russian business in Sudan are bureaucracy, red tape, and security issues. In order for Russian businesses to compete on an equal footing with other foreign companies, especially Chinese ones, state support is needed. The speaker came to the conclusion that it is advisable to create an agency for Africa at the government level. Vidakas recalled the existence of a network of cultural centers in foreign countries, including African ones, in Soviet times. These centers played an important role in establishing humanitarian ties and human contacts. The revival of cultural centers would benefit both interstate relations and Russian business in Africa.

The work of the conference was continued in four sections, the most numerous of which was "International Relations, foreign Policy and law". The meeting focused on such topical issues as strengthening the BRICS countries ' positions in Africa and international cooperation of the continent's countries. V. Belov (TSU named after G. R. Derzhavin, Tambov) She noted that cooperation between BRICS and Africa will not only contribute to the development of African economies and contribute to the qualitative growth of the global economy as a whole, but also provide the BRICS countries with an opportunity to grow and strengthen their influence in the global economy and politics. M. Kolesnikova's report (St. Petersburg State University) was devoted to the Republic of Turkey's African strategy, which is aimed both at strengthening bilateral relations with African countries and at realizing global ambitions related to increasing Turkey's international prestige. D. Ramazanova (Kazan Federal University) drew attention to the rivalry between two key countries in the Middle East region - Turkey and Israel - for expanding its influence in Africa. The policy of another power that is constantly increasing its presence in Africa, the People's Republic of China, has become the subject of consideration by M. Simonova (St. Petersburg State University). The speaker focused on such an important component of Chinese policy as "soft power": the opening of Chinese language learning centers, the organization of Chinese TV channels and radio stations, etc., which undoubtedly contributes to the systematic expansion of China's economic and political presence in Africa.t) researched China's policy towards Zimbabwe. For this African country, China is the main foreign investor.

The relationship between globalization in Africa and security was the topic of M. Popadeikina's speech (RUDN University). She came to the conclusion that against the background of increasing conflict and tension in the interaction of subjects of international relations in the context of the consequences of the international economic crisis of 2008, globalization does not always have a positive impact on the international industrial, energy and environmental security of the African continent.

The attention of the conference participants was focused on those countries of the African continent affected by the events of the "Arab Spring". The Arab crisis (late 2010) led to regime change in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, the Syrian civil war, and mass protests in several other countries in the region. In Sudan, the impact of the crisis has been combined with serious political and economic problems associated with the secession of the oil-rich south of the country and the futile armed struggle against regional rebel movements. The analysis of the current political situation in the Sudan was given in the report of S. Kostelyants (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences). The attention of A. Kuimova (Kazan Federal University) was drawn to the ideology of the modern Islamist movement, which plays one of the main roles in the events of the "Arab Spring". S. Ragozin (HSE) also considered the ideology of the Islamist movement, namely the organization"Boko Haram". Her report was based on an analysis of program documents

and video messages from the movement's leaders. E. Tarasevich (BGNIU), a participant of the conference from Belgorod, regarded the development of events around Libya as the formation of a new global jihad front. I. Frantsuzov (ISAA MSU) has studied the Islamic factor in the events of the "jasmine Revolution" in Tunisia. Topic of the report: K. Meshcherina (Institute of Africa, Russian Academy of Sciences) formation of new views on the state structure and a new socio-political course in post-revolutionary Libya.

A number of presentations addressed conflicts, armed violence and human rights violations in Africa. Thus, Alexander Klunya (RUDN University) drew the audience's attention to the activities of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, established to prosecute those responsible for the 1994 genocide. The reasons for the conflict situation in Sudan were analyzed in a report by Tafotie D. D. Rovlings (RUDN University). G. Lukyanov (HSE) touched upon the impact of the military-political crisis in Libya on neighboring states. Being a source of regional threats, Libya has become a center of permanent instability and conflict in three regions - Mashriq, Maghreb, Sahara and Sahel, where radical Islamists have become the main active force. Alexander Shipilov (HSE) examined the civil war in Liberia from the point of view of the involvement of regional and global players in this conflict.

The section "Resources and economic Potential of Africa" was attended by 16 young scientists. Several reports were devoted to the problem of energy development in Africa: A. Alimov (St. Petersburg State University) studied the hydro potential of West African countries, V. Sidorov (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences)-the role of energy in the infrastructure of the South African economy, O. Kulkova (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences) - cooperation between Africa and the EU in the energy sector at the stage.

The economic presence of the Islamic Republic of Iran in West Africa was the subject of a speech by V. Andreev (St. Petersburg State University), who noted that the economic policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has always been based on other principles of Islamic economy and Islamic banking that differ from the Western ones. In 2010, the first Iran-Africa summit was held in Tehran, where representatives of forty African states agreed on joint infrastructure development projects in Kenya, Zimbabwe, the Comoros, Uganda, Senegal, and Sierra Leone. The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran sees good prospects for cooperation with this region.

E. Salakhetdinov (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences) "The Darvendale Platinum Project "and P. Slyusarchuk (National Research University Higher School of Economics)presented reports on economic cooperation of the USSR/Russia with African countries "Scientific and technical cooperation of the USSR and African countries: construction of hydroelectric power plants". The first report dealt with the agreement reached between the Russian Federation and Zimbabwe in 2014 on the development of one of the largest platinum deposits "Darwendale" by Russian companies; P. Slyusarchuk analyzed the political and ideological reasons that prompted the USSR to provide technical assistance to African countries in the field of hydropower.

Certain sectors of the African economy, such as agriculture, were the subject of research by A. Khamatshin (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences), S. Lukyanenko to D. Turyanitsa (ISAA MSU).

In the section "Social and cultural studies", D. Brilev (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences) considered various forms of mutual knowledge and influence of the African world and Russia in different periods of history. Historical relations between the Yaroslavl Region and the countries of the African continent were studied by E. Tsvetkova (Yar. GU). A. Panov (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences), based on the results of field ethnographic expeditions, presented the report "The image of Russia in Africa". In his opinion, the image of post-Soviet Russia in Africa as a whole has not yet been formed, remaining rather a kind of "shadow" of the image of the Soviet Union; the reason for this state is the lack of objective information about modern Russia in Africa.

G. Karpov (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences) noted the differences between English-speaking and French-speaking migrants from Africa in the UK, due to the time of arrival, country of origin, religious and ethnic affiliation. Common features of African migrants and their descendants in the UK include the desire to preserve their cultural and religious characteristics. N. Steblin-Kamensky's report (EUSPb) focused on labor migration from Ethiopia to the Persian Gulf countries. Ethiopian migrants see migration as a chance to change their lives for the better, but often this experience is negative, which is associated with difficulties in moving, with a disenfranchised situation in host countries and with a large number of cases of deportation.

African art and cultural aspects of socio-political processes were studied in the reports of O. Ivanchenko (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences) "Features of communication processes of the African population of Dar es Salaam", I. Tatarovskaya (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences) "Color symbols of the peoples of Tropical and Southern Africa", V. Smirnova (ISAA MSU) N. Khokholkova (Yar.GU) presented a socio-cultural theory called Afrocentrism, the essence of which is the comprehensive rehabilitation of Africans, African Americans and representatives of the African diaspora. The creator of this concept is Molefi Kete Asante, a professor at Temple University (Philadelphia, USA), a specialist in mass communications, and a public figure.

K. Klyuchnikov (St. Petersburg State University) devoted the study of religious beliefs of individual African peoples. The topic of I. Zakharov's speech was the spread and strengthening of the position of Christianity in Tropical Africa.

The section "Research in African Linguistics and Philology" analyzed one of the most modern and rapidly developing areas in linguistics, namely corpus linguistics. E. Aplonova and A. Ivanova (both St. Petersburg State University) made a presentation. Using the Bamana language as an example, they said that working with the corpus (a collection of texts in electronic form) can contribute to an in-depth study and understanding of the internal structure of the language. The subject of study of V. Kim (MSU ISAA) was borrowing in the Amharic language, which she subdivided according to their ways of penetration, spheres of use and ways of adaptation. The main loanwords in Amharic come from Greek, Arabic, Classical Ethiopian (Gyiz), Kushite, and Western European languages. Kinyarwanda is the official language of Rwanda-the subject of the report by A. Lazarev (St. Petersburg State University). The report by A. Maloletnaya (HSE) was based on the results obtained during a linguistic expedition in August-September 2014 to Cote d'Ivoire. Studying the southern Mande languages, namely Ben and ngen, the researcher came to the conclusion that the differences between them are large enough not to consider them dialects of the same language. D. Savelyeva (St. Petersburg State University) analyzed the modern poetry of Ethiopia.

The conference concluded with a discussion seminar "Conflicts in Africa: Forms, Trends, Prospects", which was attended by scientists from the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences and teachers of the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University I. V. Sledzevsky and A. D. Savateev (both from the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences). T. S. Denisova (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences) devoted her speech to the economic causes of modern wars on the continent. N. A. Dobronravii (St. Petersburg State University) highlighted the situation concerning threats to stability in Africa. V. G. Shubin (Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences) considered the situation in the south of the African continent from the point of view of the emergence of hotbeds of instability that threaten the sustainable and peaceful development of the countries of the region.

The results of the conference were summed up by N. A. Zherlitsyna, Scientific Secretary of the RAS Scientific Council on African Problems, and K. A. Panzerev (St. Petersburg State University). They noted the high level of reports presented, the great interest shown by the conference participants in the scientific discussion, and the enthusiasm and creative approach of young researchers to the study of Africa. The XIV School is scheduled for November 2015.

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