Dr. Robert Vinson (History, College of William and Mary) on the spread of Garveyism in South Africa and its political and cultural impact.  Vinson explains how black men and women in the 1920s and 30s appropriated Garvey’s ideas of racial pride, pan-Africanism, and modernity to sustain themselves and to propel South Africa’s struggle for freedom.

Africa Past and Present: Episode 31 [ 33:12 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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.

Africa Past and Present: Episode 21 [ 30:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Historian Robert Edgar (Howard University) discusses his project on African Americans and South Africa, showing how black communities in different parts of the world engage, interact and influence each other. Edgar talks about the history of representations of the Zulu in America, and reflects on how he rescued the Prophetess Nonthetha Nkwenkwe and the African Communist Edwin Thabo Mofutsanyana from the ash heap of history. No wonder The New York Times dubbed him “the Indiana Jones of South Africa.”

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