Episode 53: The Impact of US government cuts on African Studies

July 7th, 2011

David Wiley, James Pritchett, Laura Mitchell, and Joshua Grace discuss huge federal government cuts to Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs and their impact on African Studies in the United States.

Episode 52: Zulu Intellectual History

April 27th, 2011

Hlonipha Mokoena (Anthropology, Columbia U.) on her new book: Magema Fuze: The Making of a Kholwa Intellectual (2011). Explains the rise of a black intelligentsia in 19th- and early 20th-century South Africa through the remarkable life of Fuze, the first Zulu-speaker to publish a book in the language: Abantu Abamnyama Lapa Bavela Ngakona / The Black People and Whence They Came.

Episode 51: Maasai Women, Culture, and the Indigenous Rights Movement

April 13th, 2011

Dorothy Hodgson (Anthropology, Rutgers) on Maasai pastoralists in Tanzania, with a focus on the experiences and perspectives of women. She discusses the intersections of gender, ethnicity, and Christianity, and then turns to the subject of her new book, Being Maasai, Becoming Indigenous, which explores local activists’ engagement with the transnational indigenous rights movement.

 

Episode 50: Political Change in Africa and the Diaspora

March 30th, 2011

Horace Campbell (African American Studies and Political Science, Syracuse U.) on political change in Africa and the Diaspora. Focus is on the revolution in Libya, popular revolts, war, peace, and neo-liberalism in Africa and beyond. Campbell also shares insights from his new book: Barack Obama and 21st Century Politics: A Revolutionary Moment in the USA.

 

Episode 49: The Revolutionary Situation in North Africa

February 25th, 2011

Salah Hassan and Ken Harrow (Michigan State University) on the democratic revolutions in North Africa. Events in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt are analyzed from below and above, with focus on the perspectives of youth, creative uses of technology, as well as the connections to, and relevance of, the events to Africa and the wider world.

 

Episode 48: Nigeria, Gender, Labor, and Environment

February 15th, 2011

Judith Byfield (History, Cornell) on the social and economic history of women and the environment in Nigeria. She elaborates on the role of the prominent Kuti family and also on the origins of her scholarly interest in Africa. The interview was recorded during Dr. Byfield’s visit to Michigan State University where she delivered the 2010 ASA Presidential Lecture.

Episode 47: Gender and Colonialism in Zimbabwe

January 23rd, 2011

Diana Jeater on Zimbabwe’s colonial history. Focus is on gender and on how culture and access to material resources shaped African lives, and on the role of African languages — and their translation by white settlers — in constructing discourses about morality. Jeater also discusses current work on private archives of Rhodesian expats in the UK, and oral histories of former members of the Rhodesian forces and the British South Africa Police.

Episode 46: Popular Politics in Southern Africa

November 30th, 2010

Historian Paul Landau (University of Maryland) on rethinking the broad history of Southern Africa from 1400 to 1948. His new book re-asserts African agency by seeing Africans in motion, coming out of their own past. Drawing on oral traditions, genealogies, 19th-century conversations, and other sources, Landau highlights the resilience of African political cultures and their adeptness at incorporating diverse peoples.

Episode 45: Terence Ranger and the Making of History in Africa

November 4th, 2010

Prof. Terence Ranger (Emeritus, University of Oxford) discusses his many contributions to African Studies and African History, how these themes have developed, and also his 17th book, Bulawayo Burning (2010). This is the first of three podcasts recorded at the ‘Making History: Terence Ranger and African Studies’ conference, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign October, 2010.

Episode 44: Oral History and Memory Work in Africa

September 17th, 2010

Ntsimane interviews Florah Buthelezi (Photo: Kare Ahlschwede)

Radikobo Ntsimane (UKZN School of Theology) on African voices in the history of mission hospitals in South Africa and the Sinomlando Center‘s ‘memory box’ program. Ntsimane’s work demonstrates how oral history is not just an intellectual practice, but also ‘a human encounter that can have a profound effect on people’s lives.’

Free download of R. Ntsimane and P. Denis, “Absent Fathers: Why do men not feature in stories of families affected by HIV/AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal,” in Baba: Men and Fatherhood in South Africa, edited by Richter and Morrell (2006).