Historians Stephanie Beswick (Ball State U.) and Jay Spaulding (Kean U.) on ethnicity, slavery, and trade in Sudan. Focus is on pre-colonial times, with an emphasis on how power relationships and economic factors influenced identity formation and political conflict. The interview was conducted at the Sudan Studies Association meeting in East Lansing.
WE ARE ON SUMMER SCHEDULE. NEXT EPISODE: JULY 15.
Dr. Robert Hitchcock (chair of Anthropology at MSU) on San people’s struggles in southern Africa’s Kalahari region. Focus is on government-San relations; San communities’ local and international quest for empowerment and human rights; and images of the San in film. Hitchcock concludes with an assessment of the impact of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project on the region.
2009 elections in South Africa: Dr. Sean Jacobs and Dr. Hlonipha Mokoena analyze the significance of the ANC victory; Jacob Zuma and Zulu nationalism; the opposition’s weak showing outside the Western Cape; and local and international media coverage.
Prof. Abebe Zegeye (Chair of Genocide and Holocaust studies at UNISA) on Africans’ multiple identities and genocide studies in Africa. Is there a need for a different model than that of Holocaust studies to analyze political violence in colonial and post-colonial Africa? Zegeye closes with thoughts on his recent appointment as Director of WISER at Wits in Johannesburg.
Dr. Sheryl McCurdy (University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health) on drugs, gender, and violence in East Africa. McCurdy examines heroin use in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — its recent history, enabling conditions, and the differences between men and women users. She concludes with observations on the local ‘war on drugs’ and then offers policy recommendations.
Dr. Paul Darby (University of Ulster) on Africa’s place in world soccer. He examines Africa’s political relations with FIFA and the role of CAF, the continental governing body. Darby then discusses his new research on the migration of young African players to Europe through case studies of Ghana’s Liberty Professionals FC and the Right to Dream Academy.
Dr. Wapu Mulwafu (Univ. of Malawi) on African environmental history. Mulwafu discusses the history of water use and management in Malawi, focusing on political and religious aspects of soil conservation and the importance of indigenous ecological knowledge and practices. He closes with insights on the challenges of “doing history” in Malawi.
Anthropologist Mara Leichtman (MSU) on religion, migration, and politics. Leichtman unveils her new book New Perspectives on Islam in Senegal (co-edited with Mamadou Diouf). She then discusses transnational Shi’a Islam in Dakar among Lebanese migrants and Senegalese converts, and in London at the Al-Khoei Foundation. A fine example of why we cannot properly analyze “globalization” without including Africa.
Our first anniversary episode! Historian Martin Klein (Emeritus, U. of Toronto) reflects on African history and historiography and his life’s work on slavery in West Africa. Klein then sheds light on his ongoing research (in cooperation with leading Africanists) on African slaves. He concludes with observations about the state of historical research in Senegal, Mali, and Guinea.
Narissa Ramdhani (Ifa Lethu CEO) — South African historian, archivist, and cultural heritage specialist — discusses her studies in exile in the USA and how she coordinated the return of 7 million documents from African National Congress offices in 33 countries to Johannesburg. The collection is now housed at the University of Fort Hare. Ramdhani then describes Ifa Lethu’s repatriation of South African apartheid-era art and its wider social impact.
Copyright © African Online Digital Library
Entries (RSS)
and Comments (RSS).
