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Upcoming
events from the Centre of African Studies, University of London,
June 2016
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How
Big is Africa?
4th July
2016 | 6 - 8pm | Hall 1 - Africa Union Building | Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia
 From ‘tragedy’ to ‘African
Renaissance’ to reality: what are the most important features of
African economies and the continent as a whole?
Dr Carlos Lopes discusses demography, land mass, the blue
economy, migration, and more within Africa and globally, to give
a better,clearer idea of Africa’s place in the world.
The talk
will be followed by drinks reception
Speaker:
Dr Carlos Lopes (Head of UNECA - UN Economic commission for
Africa)
Chair:
Professor Christopher Cramer (SOAS, University of London)
Reserve your seat on Eventbrite.
For more info please email: cas@soas.ac.uk
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Coming
Up at the Centre of African Studies
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Tues 31 May 2016 | 7:00 – 9:00 PM | Brunei
Gallery | Room B102 | SOAS, University of London
Speaker: Samba Gadjigo
Chair: Lindiwe Dovey (SOAS)
As part of the Centre for Film Studies annual PhD
symposium, Samba Gadjigo will discuss his documentary
'Sembéne!', which tells the story of the "father of
African cinema," the self-taught novelist and
filmmaker Ousmane Sembéne.
Samba Gadjigo is the director of the documentary 'Making of
Moolaade', is the world’s foremost expert on the life and work
of Ousmane Sembéne and author of Sembéne’s official biography.
He was born and raised in Senegal and is professor of African
Studies and French at Mt. Holyoke College.
Contact email: cas@soas.ac.uk
This event
is part of The Centre for Film Studies Second Annual
Postgraduate Symposium (See below).
Crossing
Boundaries: Cinema’s Conventions, Personas and Public Spaces
1
June 2016 | 09:30-15:30 | Room L67 | SOAS, University
of London
 The Centre for Film Studies Second Annual
Postgraduate Symposium is all about crossing boundaries.
Cinema, as a medium and industry, shapes and transcends
boundaries that can be geographic, but also time-based, made up
of genre conventions, gender distinctions, or that rely on the
mutually constitutive relationship between film and spectator.
At the same time they are fluid and ever changing. This
conference will explore such boundaries and demarcations, as
well as the ways in which they are becoming less fixed, and
what these changes might imply.
The symposium has an exciting schedule of academic and
non-academic events.
For more
information and to check the full programme of the day
please visit: https://www.soas.ac.uk/film-studies/events-and-seminars/crossing-boundaries-cinemas-conventions-personas-and-public-spaces/
Afrikult. presents (with the support of Centre of African
Studies, SOAS) the second of the three-part series Words that
Travel. Running throughout 2016, each event focuses on
particular mediums and traditions of African literature with
the second featuring African storytelling from oral, to print,
to digital. Words that Travel aims to showcase the wonderful
and rich diversity within the African literary genre. The
all-day event will be held at SOAS, University of London in the
Brunei Suite (BS), Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre (BGLT) and
the Junior Common Room (JCR).
Here are the main features of Words that Travel: African
Storytelling;
- African Food
Court (Location: Junior Common Room, Time: 12pm – 7pm)
- Publishers’
Market (Location: Brunei Suite, Time: 12pm – 6pm)
- Open Lit Space
(Location: Brunei Suite, Time: 1pm – 3.30pm)
- Performances
including Véronique Tadjo, Dr. Kwadwo Osei-Nyame Jnr.,
Mara Menzies and Esther Kuforji (Location: Brunei Gallery
Lecture Theatre, Doors open at 4pm)
- Film Screening:
KWAKU ANANSE (directed by Akosua Adoma Owusu) (Location:
Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, Doors open at 7.15pm)
Speaker: Professor Eric Reeves, Smith College,
United States.
Discussant: Professor Peter Woodward, Professor
Emeritus, University of Reading.
Chairperson: Dr. Lutz Oette, Director, Centre for
Human Rights Law, SOAS.
Peter Woodward was Professor of Politics and International
Relations at Reading University, Berkshire, England. He is a
former Lecturer in Politics at the University of Khartoum,
Sudan.
Dr. Lutz Oette is a senior lecturer in law at SOAS.
In his recent work, particularly as the then Counsel at the NGO
Redress (www.redress.org), he
combined litigation, capacity building and advocacy, including
the Project for Criminal Law Reform in Sudan (www.pclrs.com). His current
research focuses on constitutional reform and human rights in
Sudan, and various aspects of the prohibition of torture and
the right to reparation.
 In late July of 2015, President Barack Obama praised
Ethiopia as a “model of development,” an example of a young
democracy and an effective ally of the West in the war against
terror. Three months later, the country was rocked
by massive protests in the Oromia region demanding an end to the
one-party stranglehold on the political landscape, ethnic
discrimination in allocating national resources, and the rule
of violence in Ethiopia. In response, the state turned to
coercion and violence to put down the uprising.
The dramatic turn of events has exposed a structural weakness
in the Ethiopian state, one which John Markakis has called the
failure of nation-building. After the #OromoProtests, the
Ethiopian state is unlikely to continue business as
usual.
A
one-day symposium at SOAS, University of London, will explore
how apparently strong state institutions eventually produce
weaknesses that in turn initiate tendencies towards coercion,
illegitimacy and fragility. By addressing this phenomenon
historically and ethnographically the symposium intends to
examine new frameworks for understanding the Ethiopian state
and the changing contours of political legitimacy.
A more detailed programme will be
available soon.
 An event celebrating the work and life of the late
J.D.Y. Peel with contributions from his close colleagues and
friends.
Refreshments will be available throughout the
day. The event will close with a drinks reception.
- Abdul Adan
(Somalia/Kenya) ‘The
Lifebloom Gift’ from The Gonjon Pin and Other Stories (New
Internationalist Publications Ltd, UK, 2014)
- Lesley Nneka
Arimah (Nigeria) ‘What it Means
When a Man Falls From the Sky’ from Catapult (Catapult,
USA, 2015)
- Tope Folarin
(Nigeria) ‘Genesis’ from
Callaloo (Johns Hopkins University Press, USA, 2014)
- Bongani Kona (Zimbabwe) ‘At your
Requiem’ from Incredible Journey: Stories That Move You
(Burnet Media, South Africa, 2015)
- Lidudumalingani
(South Africa) ‘Memories we
Lost’ from Incredible Journey: Stories That Move You
(Burnet Media, South Africa, 2015)
The Caine
Prize for African Writing is a literature prize awarded to an African
writer of a short story published in English. The prize was
launched in 2000 to encourage and highlight the richness and
diversity of African writing by bringing it to a wider audience
internationally. The focus on the short story reflects the
contemporary development of the African story-telling
tradition.
For more informaton visit: http://caineprize.com/
Book your FREE seat here: http://bit.ly/1qJhUIu
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SOAS Summer Course on Understanding Africa
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SOAS SUMMER SCHOOL
- Understanding Africa Course
4 July - 22 July 2016 |
SOAS, University of London
 The
Centre of African Studies is pleased to announce that the course
'Understanding Africa' - part of SOAS Summer School - will be
running again this year, from the 4th until the 22nd of July
2016.
This course provides participants with an overall
understanding of the history, politics and culture of Africa.
With a diverse range of sessions, from History and Politics to
Languages and Music, the course gives an in-depth knowledge of
the main academic areas of study within Africa. The course
comprises a combination of lectures and interactive workshops, as
well as museum visits and social events.
This
is a great opportunity given the prominence that Africa as a
continent has gained over the past few years and the vision of
Africa Rising, a continent with many job and investment
opportunities. Also, within the Arts, we have seen an incredible
rise of the presence of African artists in the international art
circles which has been extremely stimulating and refreshing for
an understanding of arts and cultures.
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Other UK Africa-related events
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Safe House: Exploring Creative Non-Fiction from
Africa
Tues 31 May| 7 -9 pm
| Frontline Club | 13 Norfolk Place, London W2 1QJ
 A book
launch and panel discussion with three of the featured writers in
the anthology Safe House: Explorations in Creative Nonfiction,
bringing nuanced perspectives to the stories behind the
headlines, and highlighting contemporary issues across the continent.
We will be joined by three of the contributors to Safe House:
South African-based author Mark Gevisser, who chronicles the
travails of a young, gay Ugandan man living as a refugee in
Kenya; crime writer and medical immunologist Hawa Golakai, who presents
the Ebola crisis as it unfolds in Liberia through a series of
diary entries; and writer Kevin Eze, who reflects on the lives of
Chinese migrants living in Senegal’s capital. Join us to discuss
the convergence and divergence between journalism and creative
non-fiction around the coverage of contemporary issues in Africa.
This Africa Writes pre-festival event is brought to you buy The
Royal African Society in partnership with Cassava Republic Press
and Commonwealth Writers, hosted by the Frontline Club.
Speakers:
Kevin Eze, Mark Gevisser & Hawa Jande Golakai
Chair:
Delia Jarrett-Macauley
For more info and to book your tickets please visit: http://www.frontlineclub.com/safe-house-exploring-creative-non-fiction-from-africa/
Jennifer Nansubaga
Makumbi and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
Wed 1st of June 2016 | 6.30 - 8
pm | International Anthony Burgess Foundation |3 Cambridge
Street, Manchester, M1 5BY
The latest in the Literature Live series welcomes
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim and Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi. This event
will be chaired by Centre for New Writing senior lecturer Geoff
Ryman.
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim is a
Nigerian writer and journalist. His debut short story collection
The Whispering Trees (Parresia Publishers, 2012) was long-listed
for the Etisalat Prize for Literature in 2014. His debut novel
Season of Crimson Blossoms will be published in the UK in May
2016 by Cassava Republic Press.
Jennifer
Nansubuga Makumbi, a Ugandan novelist and short
story writer has a PhD from Lancaster University. Her novel,
Kintu, won the Kwani Manuscript Project in 2013.Jennifer has
published numerous short stories. Her short story, Lets Tell This
Story Properly won the overall Commonwealth Short story prize
2014. Her short story Malik’s Door came out in Closure a Black
British anthology in October 2015. She is currently working on
her second novel Nnambi was Fish while compiling a collection of
short stories, Travel is to See, Return is to Tell.
FREE, please book via eventbrite: http://ow.ly/gOR93006bua
7 - 9
June 2016 | room B101, Brunei Gallery | Russell Square | SOAS,
University of London
 The
KPAAM-CAM with great pleasure invites you to a workshop that
consists of a two project summit: it unites members and advisors
of the KPAAM-CAM and the Crossroads project which both conduct
research on rural African multilingualism. KPAAM-CAM is the
acronym of “Key Pluridisciplinary Advances on African
Multilingualism – CAMeroon”. This 3-year research project led by
Jeff Good and based at the University at Buffalo (NY) is carried
out in partnership with three Cameroonian Universities: Yaounde
1, Buea, and CATUC Bamenda. The SOAS-based Leverhulme
Research Leadership Award Project “At the Crossroads – exploring
the unexplored side of multilingualism” is led by Friederike
Lüpke and investigates multilingualism and language contact in
Southern Senegal. More information on the Crossroads project is
available here.
Details of the event including programe can be downloaded from here
(.PDF)
Speakers include Jacob Mothopeng (former Soweto
student); Christabel Gurney (AAM Archives, and former
Anti-Apartheid Movement); Professor Keith Somerville (former BBW
World journalist, and author: Africa’s Long Road Since
Independence. The Many Histories of a Continent); Dr Elizabeth
Williams, Goldsmiths College (author of ‘The Politics of Race in
Britain and South Africa: Black British Solidarity and the
Anti-Apartheid Struggle’); and Athinangamso Esther Nkopo
(#RhodesMustFall student activist, U/Oxford).
South
African former student activists, historians and journalists will
reflect on the domestic and regional importance of the Soweto
uprising, and whether comparisons can be drawn with today’s
student-led protest in the #RhodesMustFall campaign.
Jointly
organised with the Institute of Education and
the University of London Southern Africa Seminar Series
Venue:
Room 784, Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1
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Other Africa related event outside of the UK
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21-25 June 2016 | Cagliari, Italy
The 2016 Summer School will
focus on the theme of Urban Africa – Urban Africans: Emergent
Spaces and Multiple Representations. The continental rate of
urbanisation is currently the highest in the world, at the same
time as the notional countryside comes both to mimic the city and
be re-shaped by its dynamics (sometimes referred to as a process
of 'deagrarianisation'). These fundamental changes are
stimulating a growing body of research and publication on the
topic of newly emergent urban spaces.
Read more here.
For more details please
visit: www.aegis-eu.org/news/aegis-summer-school-urban-africa-urban-africans-emergent-spaces-multiple-representations or write to:
Local Organizing Committee:
CagliariSummerSchool@gmail.com
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World
Ikat Textiles...ties that bind
15th April - 25th June 2016 | 10.30am - 5.00pm |
Tuesday - Saturday | Brunei Gallery
Major new exhibition of World IKAT textiles presented by The
World Crafts Council and The World Crafts Council Asia Pacific
and Curated by Edric Ong and Manjari Nirula.
The exhibition celebrates the rich legacy of Ikat, an age old
textile technique stretching across the continents of the world.
This unique collection brings together an array of some of the
priceless pieces of “IKAT” with live demonstrations by master
weavers, a Symposium, film screenings and a book display. This
program reflects the World Crafts Council’s global commitment to
nurture, promote and revive precious indigenous craft skills. It
also serves to connect the skilled practitioners from across
these diverse regions to contemporary society and promote greater
awareness of the hand-woven tradition and its innovation.
The exhibition includes over 200 items of unique Ikat textile
from regions such as; Asia-Pacific (Indonesia, Malaysia,
Thailand, Cambodia, Philippines, India, China, Japan, Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan), Latin America, the Middle East (Turkey, Syria,
Egypt, Iran and Yemen), West Africa and Europe (Spain,
Italy).Ikat is a specialized dyeing technique applied to pattern
textiles that employs a resist dyeing process similar to tie-dye
on either the warp or weft fibres before dyeing. It is distinctly
labour intensive and known the world over for its supreme
precision and masterly craftsmanship.
Dawit L.
Petros: The Stranger's Notebook (Prologue)
20th
May - 25th June 2016 | 11am-6pm | Tiwani Contemporary
| 16 Little Portland Street,
London
W1W 8BP
 Tiwani
Contemporary is pleased to announce The Stranger's Notebook
(Prologue), a solo exhibition of new work by Dawit L. Petros. The
exhibition forms the first of a trilogy of works investigating
migration as a key constituent of modernity.The multidisciplinary
project - encompassing photography, moving image, objects and
sound - draws on research and work made by the artist during a
year-long journey from Nigeria to Morocco to Europe (2014-2015).
The project's title makes reference to Albert Camus'L'Etranger (1942),
and the experience of outsiderness evoked in the existential
novel. It also alludes to Georg Simmel's idea of the 'paradoxical
stranger': a potential wanderer, who is at once near and far.
However, its modus
operandi was inspired by a travelogue written at
the turn of the 20th century by Fesseha Giyorgis, an Abyssinian
cultural figure widely regarded as the father of Tigrinya
literature. About
the Author's Journey from Ethiopia to Italy and about the
Impressions Made on Him by His Stay in That Country in Tigrinya (1895)
chronicles Giyorgis' travels from Massawa, on the Red Sea coast,
to Italy, where he lived and worked for five years. The text
provides a rich counterpoint to contemporary narratives of
migration and challenges the legacy of European colonialism
against which these narratives continue to unfold.
For more info please visit: http://www.tiwani.co.uk/Home/Exhibitions
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