Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja

Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja is a professor of African and Global Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A political scientist by training, he has spent much of his academic career in interdisciplinary studies. Former President of the African Studies Association (ASA) of the United States and of the African Association of Political Science (AAPS), he is the author of numerous publications on African politics. He also served in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a senior governance adviser to the Federal Government of Nigeria (2000-2002), Director of the Oslo Governance Center (2002-2005), and Facilitator for the establishment of the Africa Governance Institute (2005-2007).  His book, The Congo from Leopold to Kabila: A People’s History (London and New York: Zed Books, 2002), won the 2004 Best book Award from the African Politics Conference Group (APCG), a coordinate organization of the ASA. His latest publications include Patrice Lumumba (2014), a pocket biography in the Ohio Short Histories of Africa series of Ohio University Press, and Faillite de la gouvernance et crise de la construction nationale au Congo-Kinshasa: une analyse des luttes pour la démocratie et la souveraineté nationale (2015), published in Kinshasa by the Congolese Institute of Development Research and Strategic Studies (ICREDES). Currently, Georges serves as Ambassador for the Permanent Mission of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the United Nations.