This article focuses on the impact of COVID-19 in Africa, describes its effects for ongoing research, and asks how it may impact African studies. In Africa, as elsewhere in the world, the pandemic is changing the way people think about the future. The crisis gives rise to a feeling of uncertainty, while casting doubt on future orientations based on forecasts and planning. This scepticism does not concern the African continent alone, but it is here that the call to open a fresh perspective on the future is expressed most emphatically. COVID-19 reinvigorates the question of how African futures are imagined and shaped in relation to the world at large. Against this backdrop, this article suggests three areas where future-oriented African studies should be revised in response to the current crisis – namely, how to incorporate uncertainty, how to decolonise understandings of African futures, and how to translate these considerations into research practice.

本文重点介绍COVID-19在非洲的影响，描述其对正在进行的研究的影响，并询问其如何影响非洲的研究。在非洲，就像在世界其他地方一样，这种流行病正在改变人们对未来的看法。危机引起了不确定感，同时对基于预测和计划的未来发展方向产生了怀疑。这种怀疑并不仅仅与非洲大陆有关，而是在这里最有力地表达了对未来开辟新观点的呼吁。COVID-19重新激发了一个问题，即如何想象和塑造与整个世界有关的非洲期货。在此背景下，本文提出了应对当前危机应对非洲面向未来的研究进行修订的三个领域，即如何纳入不确定性，