Conference: Divination in Africa, Leiden, 07/2005

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE - PRELIMINARY PROGRAM AND CALL FOR PAPERS

Realities Re-Viewed / Revealed - Divination in Sub-Saharan Africa Leiden, July 4-5, 2005

(Please note, for matters of organization, that this conference has been scheduled two days after the AEGIS conference at SOAS, London.)

Organizers

Philip Peek (Drew University), Wouter van Beek (African Studies Center, Leiden), Jan Jansen (Leiden University), and Annette Schmidt (National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden)

Among the sub-topics we hope to address are the roles of today's diviners as political leaders and healers, the fundamental epistemologies which divination articulates, and the complex processes by which underlying realities are revealed.We also encourage descriptions of previously unstudied divination systems. Selected papers from the conference will be published.

If you want to attend the conference or to present a paper, please contact Jan Jansen at jansenj@fsw.leidenuniv.nl

Hosted by: the National Museum of Ethnology, Leiden

Sponsored by

Leiden University, Research School CNWS, Netherlands Association for African Studies NVAS, African Studies Centre, Leiden, and Brill Academic Publishers

PRELIMINARY PROGRAM

JULY 4, 2005

9.00 - 10.00 Subscription and reception

10.00

10.15 Opening (Walter van Beek [African Studies Center, Leiden], Jan Jansen [Leiden University], Philip Peek [Drew University])

10.15 - 11.00 Keynote Speech

• Wim van Binsbergen (African Studies Center/ Erasmus

University) Divination through Space and Time

11.00-11.15 Discussion

11.15-11.30 Break

11.30

13.00 Panel I
Mediums, Codes, Principles Chair: Peter Geschiere (University of Amsterdam)

• Adrien N. Ngudiankama (Princeton University) Kongo Divination

Principles and Practices

• René Devisch (Africa Research Centre, K.U.Leuven) Matrixial

Intelligence in Yaka Mediumnic Divination

• Jeanne-Francoise Vincent (Université de Clermont-Ferrand)

Pouvoir du futur, pouvoir du present: le devin face au pouvoir politique chez les Mofu-Diamare

13.00 - 14.30 Lunch

14.30-16.30 Panel II (Break at 15.30)
Mathematically Inspired Interpretations of Divination Chair: Peter Pels (Leiden University)

• David Zeitlyn (Kent University) Almost the Real Thing - Using

Computer Based Simulation to Study Mambila Divination

• Ron Eglash (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute): An

Ethnomathematics Comparison of African and Native American Divination Systems

• Franklin Tjon Sie Fat (Leiden University) Binary models in

Divination in Africa and Beyond

• Jan Jansen (Leiden University) Maninka Sand Divination : a

Formalized Teaching Trajectory in an Illiterate Context

16.30 - 21.00 Reception/Dinner

JULY 5, 2005

9.00-11.00 Panel III
Maraboutic and non-maraboutic divination in the Mande World Chair: Jan Jansen (Leiden University)
Discussant: Benjamin Soares (African Studies Center, Leiden)

• Knut Graw (Africa Research Centre, K.U.Leuven) Divinastion

and Ttime: a Processual Analysis of Prospective Divinatory Praxis in Senegal and The Gambia

• Amber Gemmeke (Leiden University) Marabout Women in Dakar:

Islam, Divination, and Femininity

• Ferdinand de Jong (University of East Anglia) People said: It

is like 9/11. The Interpretation of a Senegalese Shipwreckage

• Dorothea Schulz (Freie Universität, Berlin) Divination and

Monetarisation; Marabouts in Mali

• Trevor Marchand (SOAS, London) Fortifying Futures on Blessed

Foundations: masons, magic and gaurantees in Djenne

11.00-11.15 Break

11.15 - 12.00 Keynote speech

• Alfred Adler (CNRS, Paris) Retour au bâton de l' aveugle: les

dynamiques de la divination Moundang

12.00-13.30 Lunch

13.30-15.00 Panel IV
Divination as Codes of Behavior?
Chair: Philip Peek (Drew University)

• Koen Stroeken (Africa Research Centre, K.U.Leuven) Sensory

Codes in Sukuma Divination

• Anja Veirman (Gand University) Sandogo Divination chez les

Senufo du Folona (Mali)

• Walter van Beek (African Studies Center/Utrecht University)

Predicting the past, foreseeing the future: choices in Dogon divination

15.00-15.15 Break

15.15-16.45 Panel V
Divination and the Construction of the Self Chair: Benjamin Soares (Africa Studies Center, Leiden)

• Philip Peek (Drew University) The Communal Self: Diviners,

Twins, and Doubles

• Rijk van Dijk (African Stdies Center, Leiden) Confession as

Divination in Pentacostal Practice: Private Narratives in Changing Public Situations

• Kai Kresse (St. Andrews University) Can research on African

divination be made fertile for the field of African philosophy?

16.45-17.30

From: Jan Jansen
<JANSENJ@FSW.leidenuniv.nl>

Page Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Ph.D.