Since 1984 when the CAAS was founded, the center staff have engaged in education. First, in the Graduate School of Science and the Graduate School of Agriculture, training young researchers of African area studies. This is due to the fact that African area studies at Kyoto University has always been characterized by a strong emphasis on fieldwork in Africa. Researchers spend long periods of time in the research field, coming into contact with the true nature and the lives of the people, and emphasize fieldwork as a way of understanding the reality of life in Africa. In CAAS, there is a common understanding that the passion and energy of postgraduate students and young researchers is crucial to this kind of fieldwork.
The center staff were consistently been active in the teaching of African Area Studies, in the Department of African Area Studies, which was established in the Graduate School of Human and Environmental Studies in 1993, and then in the Department of African Area Studies in the same graduate school in 1996.
In 1998, the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies (ASAFAS) was established and the faculty members were assigned to the Division of African Area Studies in ASAFAS. In addition, we provide lectures to the Institute for Liberal Arts and Sciences (ILAS), and seminars to the ILAS Seminars, a group of small-group courses, to support the internationalization of Kyoto University. We also provide lectures and seminars in specialized courses in the Faculty of Integrated Human Studies and in the Faculty of Letters, and provide supervision to undergraduate students in Kyoto University. At CAAS, lectures are also provided for the ASAFAS certificate program for the working adults.