diff --git a/package/MDAnalysis/analysis/encore/clustering/affinityprop.pyx b/package/MDAnalysis/analysis/encore/clustering/affinityprop.pyx
index cd4ba3cf756..be3d00dca79 100644
--- a/package/MDAnalysis/analysis/encore/clustering/affinityprop.pyx
+++ b/package/MDAnalysis/analysis/encore/clustering/affinityprop.pyx
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@ def AffinityPropagation(s, preference, float lam, int max_iterations, int conver
 
     # Prepare input and ouput arrays
     cdef numpy.ndarray[numpy.float32_t,  ndim=1] matndarray = numpy.ascontiguousarray(s._elements, dtype=numpy.float32)
-    cdef numpy.ndarray[long,   ndim=1] clusters   = numpy.zeros((s.size),dtype=long)
+    cdef numpy.ndarray[long,   ndim=1] clusters   = numpy.zeros((s.size),dtype=numpy.dtype("long"))
 
     # run C module Affinity Propagation
     iterations = CAffinityPropagation(<float*>matndarray.data, cn, lam, max_iterations, convergence, noise, <long*>clusters.data)