| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
Friday, March 26, 1999 - Stiteler Hall
We are honored to welcome Professor Johannes Fabian, Chair of "Cultural Anthropology and Non-Western Sociology" at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Professor Fabian will spend the entire day at Penn discussing his work with graduate students and faculty.
Professor Fabian has published in many areas that range from sociolinguistics to colonial history, epistemology and history of social science and the study of folklore and performance.
During the day-long event, graduate students and faculty members, broken into subject-oriented groups, will discuss parts of Fabian's work with him.
The following four panels will be discussed:
Panel I: Language and Representational Acts
Panel II: Negotiating Genres: Performance, Popular Culture and Folklore
PaneL III: Constructing the Other: Orientalism, Time and Social Science
Panel IV: Remembering the Present and Producing the Past: Tshibumba and the
Art of Colonial
History
9:00-9:15 Introduction by Dr. Tom Callaghy (Political Science).
9:15-10:30 Panel I: Language and Representational Acts
Chair: Dr. Leigh Swigart (Education).
Discussants: Dr. Alwiya Omar (Linguistics),
Wendy Haugh (Anthropology), Michael Lempert (Anthropology).
10:30-10:45 Break
10:45-12:00 Panel II: Negotiating Genres: Performance, Popular Culture and Folklore
Chair: Dr. Regina Bendix (Folklore).
Discussants: Margaret Magat (Folklore), Soli Otero
(Folklore), Phil Scher (Anthropology, GWU).
Works: Power and Performance: Ethnographic Explorations through Proverbial Wisdom and Theater in Shaba" and" Moments of Freedom: Popular Culture and Anthropology.
12:00-2:00 Lunch Break
2:00-3:15 PaneL III: Constructing the Other: Orientalism Time and Social Science.
Chair: Dr. Steven Feierman (History and HSS).
Discussants: Fernando Armstrong (Anthropology),
Lauren Nauta (History), Niklas Hultin (Anthropology).
Works: Time and the Other and Time and the Work of
Anthropology: Critical Essays 1971-1991.
3:15-3:30 Break
3:30-4:45 Panel IV: Remembering the Present and Producing the Past: Tshibumba and the Art of Colonial History.
Chair: Dr. Lee Cassanelli (History)
Discussants: Elisa von Joeden-Forgey (History),
Marton Markovits (Political Science),
Jennifer Sessions (History).
Work: Remembering the Present: Painting and Popular History in Zaire.
4:45-5:00 Wrap-up
5:00- Reception
If you have any questions, please e-mail the chair of the planning committee, Niklas Hultin, at inhultin@sas.upenn.edu, or direct your questions to the African Studies Center.
The Verandah - 36 15 Locust Walk
University of Pennsylvania
Mr. Robert L. Dance, Assignments Counselor, Office of Human Resources, USIA
African Language Cultural Day - 5:00p.m. - 7:00p.m.
(Careers in Africa Day participants are invited to attend)
The project will focus on the review of relevant literature, journals and current research findings on models and theories of student affairs being applied. Interviews will also be conducted with the members of the student government and student affairs officers in three selected universities and a review of student affairs documents and handbooks will be done. I also hope to have some practical experience ( if possible ) in some of the students' activities and events. The study will seek to establish how the student government operates, its role in the university management, how it is elected ,its composition, its constitution and its relationship with the university authorities, other students and the community. The study will also attempt to find out the potential areas of conflict and how problems affecting students are solved. Finally the study will try to find out how the university authorities feel about the role of the student government and what the parameters of the student government are.
Rersearch Assistantship Announcement
* Sabina M. Perrino (1st year Graduate Student in Lin- guistic and Cultural Anthropology-Ph.D) has been awarded a Research Assistant in the African Studies Center with a Fellowship for the Academic Year 1999-2000. Research area: Senegal.
Foreign Language Area Studies announcements
FLAS 1999-2000 Fellowships have been awarded to:
* Marton Markovits (1st year Graduate Student in Political Science-Ph.D) for Swahili;
* Kristina Wirtz (2nd year Graduate Student in Linguistic and Cultural Anthropology Ph.D) for Yoruba. Research area: Cuba (Cuban Santeria).
* Ria Baker (1st year graduate student in Demography and Sociology) for Swahili.
Penn African Student Association (PASA) News
PASA is holding its 1999 Africafest `Africa and the New Millenium: What Lies Ahead?', March 29 - April 3.
March 30, 8pm - 10pm: "Where Do We Fit In?" Dubois
College House.
March 31, 8pm -10pm: "African Drumming Workshop,"
Dubois College House.
April 1, 8pm - 10pm: "What Role Does The U.S. Play In
Africa Now?" Dubious College House.
April 2: "African Cooking Showcase Extravaganza"
Dubois College House --6:00p.m.-11:00p.m.
April 3, 7pm -10pm: "Culture Night 99!!!"
Harrison Auditorium-The Museum.
Koffi Anyinéfa addressed the issue of plagiarism in African fiction as part of the African Studies Center Spring Lecture Series. He evoked several works such as Force Bontè by Bakary Diallo, Le Regard du roi by Camara Laye, Le Devoir de violence by Yambo Ouologuem as well as several works by Calixte Beyala. When Yambo Ouologuem's Le Devoir de violence was published in 1968, several African writers were already established in France with works that condemned colonization.
His novel challenged the romantic ideals of Négritude by evoking violence in African history - both pre- and post-colonization. There was much African criticism of the pessimistic view of the novel. Ouologuem, an author from Mali was accused of plagiarizing from French works and his novel was withdrawn from bookstores. Ouologuem later wrote Lettres la France nègre, with advice on how to gain recognition by borrowing from established authors. In French, "nègre" also means ghost writer. The latest scandal involving an African novel published in France was that of Calixte Beyala. Beyala won a prize from the Académie Francaise in 1996 for Les Honneurs Perdues. She was subsequently accused of that of Calixte Beyala. Beyala won a prize from the Académie Française in 1996 for Les Honneurs Perdues. She was subsequently accused of plagiarizing works by Romain Gary, Alice Walker and Paule Constant. Beyala continues to receive mixed reviews from the African community as well as the international literary community.
She has published eight novels and received numerous awards. According to Anyinéfa, her writing can be understood as a new vision of feminism and as moving away from Africa. She fully assumes the role of the plagiarist, raising issues of intertextuality. She uses the figure of the griot to do so, thus using African customs to justify plagiarism, which Anyinéfa finds questionable. In Beyala's case, provoking scandal is a way to gain recognition. Indeed, she has a large French public that extends beyond intellectual circles. For Koffi Anyinéfa the history of scandals linked remains precarious.
by Nadève Ménard
Mildred Mortimer, University of Colorado, Boulder, February 12, 1999.
Mortimer's lecture was itself a journey through literary history which surveyed the influence of race and gender on the travel narratives and the quest for identity that such narratives often describe. Mortimer has written articles on novelists such as Kourouma, Ousmane and Conde in addition to a book entitled Journeys Through the French African Novel from which her lecture was derived. Mortimer pointed out that African travel narratives are informed by African oral tradition and the European novel. Although these two traditions are inextricably blended into a cultural metissage in the contemporary African quest novel, Mortimer noted that the conclusions of these contemporary novels differ significantly from those of both their European and African predecessors. While earlier quest narratives end with the hero's return to his place of origin and his harmonious reintegration into the social order that he left, this reintegration is impossible in the contemporary novel, where a stable social order is itself lacking. Thus as Mortimer pointed out, travel narratives are structured around the opposition between self and other. The questing hero, like the colonial explorer, encounters many "others" on his journey and may eventually discover that in the course of his travels, his own people have become "other," or conversely, that he himself has become an "other." While the encounter with the "other," enables the hero to develop a complex understanding of his personal identity and social position, it may also alienate him from his place of origins, his history and his family.
Mortimer further suggested that the difficulties of the questing hero are complicated by gender. The predicament of the questing heroine is perhaps more complex than that of her male counterpart, as traveling in itself may transgress the norms of womanhood. Moreover, the concept of a female "self" separate from the family duties and domestic ideals of femininity which define it is a relatively recent ideological development. To illustrate the conflicts of the female quest narrative, Mortimer drew upon The Abandoned Baobab, an autobiographical novel by a Senegalese woman who writes under the pseudonym Ken Bugul, meaning "the person no one wants." In this book, Bugul both defines her relationship to race and gender and attempts to construct a coherent sense of identity from the interwoven memories of her childhood in a Senegalese village and her recent experiences in Brussels. In both the village and Brussels, Ken Bugul feels estranged from her own social setting and different from the other people who surround her. Her travels between two nations inspire a psychological journey, and the quest for identity turns inward upon itself. Ken Bugul does not conclusively achieve a victory, nor does she suffer a defeat. Indeed, her quest for identity is an ever-incomplete process; and she must attempt to apply the insights gained through self-analysis and to negotiate between her fragmented identity and a rapidly changing environment.
While Mortimer began her lecture by noting that journeys may be either solitary or communal, voluntary or imposed, her discussion of The Abandoned Baobab suggests that a single journey, particularly a "quest for identity: may incorporate all of these seemingly oppositional characteristics. Ken Bugul's journey is a voluntary exile which defines both her sense of self and her understanding of Senegalese and Belgian society, thereby uniting self and other to some extent. Mortimer's lecture ultimately suggested that the African quest novel is itself, as a national literary form, an embodiment of the type of journey that it describes. It is a form without a definite origin, stemming from a metissage of two cultures and their literary traditions. It cannot be placed squarely within either tradition, but is in the process of constructing its own "identity" and has its own particular insights on issues of race, class, nationality and gender to offer its readers. Unlike many of its heroes and heroines, however, the African quest narrative is integrationist. It is a tool for exploring and redefining changing social structures, a took through which the reader can vicariously share the insights gained by the hero and heroine while living to apply them in their own quest for identity.
by Juliet Shields
Moments of Freedom: Anthropology and Popular Culture Johannes Fabian (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1968), xv +172 pages, cloth $45.00, paper $17.50.
[The purpose underlying the dual authorship of this review is to provide two different perspectives on Fabian's latest book, that of a cultural anthropologist returned from three and a half years of field-work in southwestern Uganda and a linguistic anthropologist who will undertake research in Senegal. Note that Fabian will be at Penn on Friday, March 26, 1999. ]
Moments of Freedom: Anthropology and Popular Culture, is first and foremost a disquisition on popular culture. In the four Page-Barbour lectures which comprise the book, Fabian explores the concept of popular culture, how genres provide spaces and places for adversarial--"popular"--cultures to develop, how ideas of time articulate cultural discourses and the anarchic role played by popular cultures in the African setting. In the ensuing review, Richard will begin with a critical look at Fabian's conceptualization of popular culture. Sabina will follow with an examination of the relationship between popular culture and language.
Fabian attempts to concretize his conceptualization of popular culture through a critique of past anthropological theory and practice, autobiographical field-work examples and by differentiating "popular" from other cultural foci. Throughout the volume, Fabian critiques past anthropological conceptualizations of culture and proposes alternative imaginings. Both his critique of past anthropological theory and practice regarding culture, and his proposals for a new concept of culture, add little to an already well-established critique and reconceptualization of the concept. Fabian does, however, create a domain for popular culture in his deconstruction and opening up of the culture concept. A pragmatic reconsideration of genre, i.e. one which combines concern with norms and order as well as classification, operationalizes the concept. Particularly insightful is Fabian's view of culture as in itself plural. He disappoints, however, when he conflates the hypothesized intra-culture cultural plurality to a simple binary between "high" and "popular" culture. He confuses when he equates high culture with the past anthropological rendering of culture which he discards and popular culture with his reconceptualization of culture. After considering the role played by power, Fabian transposes high and popular cultural distinctions to dominant and counter cultural ones. In tying distinctive cultures to social stratum and hierarchies, he ignores the fluid circulation of ideas, shared practices and blurred distinctions occurring within any society, no matter how divided. Rather than reducing and reifying intra-cultural distinctions to two, those existing between an elite or ruling class and the "people", this reviewer would have appreciated a fuller examination of the cultural plurality existent within cultures and the role played by power in providing the dominant culture with its authoritative charter and seeming integrated wholeness, characteristics attributed by Fabian to anthropological artifice alone.
In the African context, Fabian situates popular culture in a nebulous realm between the poles of "traditional"-"tribal" and "modern"-"Western," the binary paradigm that has dominated the study of African culture. Here, he too readily dismisses alternative terms for designating this nebulous realm, relying on non-technical understanding of concepts like "folk culture," "mass culture," "worker's culture" and "urban" or "industrial culture" rather than examining their use by social scientists and historians. An additional problems lies in the fact that all of these terms were constructed to explain a European historical reality, not an African one. More ideological than analytical, one has to ask how such terms, which fail to portray the European reality out of which they arose, can define an African one. Finally, this reviewer is again not sure why Fabian insists on a single term for designating this nebulous realm. Why not relish an array of cultural foci, and cleavages, whose ranges freely flow into one another.
From a linguistic perspective, Moments of Freedom is enriched by tropic uses of language, which are specifically used to illuminate Fabian's distinction between high and popular culture. The sub-title of Chapter I, "From Culture to Popular Culture" (3), could be metaphorically re-formulated as "From Swahili to Shaba-Swahili." Fabian realized, early on, that Shaba- Swahili was not just "the way languages usually seem to be," but a recent invention arising from public speech (6). He further recognized that Shaba-Swahili is more than a vehicular language. Whereas earlier anthropologists, following a Whorfian perspective, prioritized the role played by language in cultural development and change, Fabian ties linguistic and cultural transformations to an ongoing dialogue between the two. He further points out that the linguistic processes that produced Shaba-Swahili provide a model for understanding the genesis of other cultural expressions crucial to the formation of popular culture (9). Regarding the interplay between culture and freedom, Fabian continues the analogy between popular culture and creolized languages. Both Zaïrean popular culture and Shaba-Swahili provide the marginalized with "moments of freedom" as Shaba-Swahili speakers are less obliged to follow the linguistic canon demanded in high culture speech acts.
Despite his homage to linguistic and cultural dialogue, Fabian also over-values the critical role played by Shaba-Swahili in the genesis of popular culture. He devotes nearly a quarter of the book to a discourse on genre and the mediatory role played by generic differentiation and concrete performance in articulating the contents of shared experience. This insight enables him to highlight and explain the processual nature of culture, explain and validate his notion of "moments of freedom" and demonstrate why culture in general, and popular culture specifically, is not the integrated whole mandated by past anthropological theory and practice. Contradictions arise, however, when Fabian allots to language, specifically regional dialects like Shaba-Swahili, the crucial role in amalgamating the distinctive cultural expressions, or popular discursive strategies, resulting from generic differentiation.
His disassociation of popular culture from traditional tribal or ethnic divisions illustrate the kind of problem that arises. Fabian rightly pushes notions of time and movement over the traditional anthropological foci on space and shape. He also notes that new theoretical emphases on globalization and ethnicity, particularly Binsbergen's conflation of popular culture into ethnic divisions, continue to spatialize culture. Fabian notes that none of the domains of popular culture he encountered in Shaba were identifiably ethnic. (79) This reviewer wonders, however, how Fabian can deny an areal or ethnic identity to popular culture while linking its genesis to localized forms of linguistic expression. If popular culture in Zaïre is demonstrably national in focus, as Fabian argues it is, how can Shaba-Swahili play the authorial role he accords it. In like manner, one needs to ask how and why Fabian, who perhaps more than anyone brought the diverse genres constituting African popular culture to the world's attention, concludes with a superior valuation of language.
In closing, we want to credit Fabian for providing an entry point from which to begin serious queries into African popular culture. In Moments of Freedom, he brings to the table a number of insightful ideas and provocative linkages. We applaud his comprehensible and enlightening account. At the same time, we find a lot of ambiguity and incoherence in his work which is largely due to either his inability or refusal to work through the contradictions in his positions. Readers should not expect either a programmatic statement explicating his position nor a lengthy, annotated bibliographic discourse thereon. Like popular culture itself, Fabian has produced a text which is simultaneously provocative, creative, uneven and frequently contradictory.
by Richard Robert Haavisto and Sabina Maria Perrino
AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
AFST 225 601 African Languages & Cultures M 5:30-8:10 Omar
AFST 290 401 Introduction to African Studies M 2:00-5:00 Staff
Fulfills Distribution Requirement 1: History
Anthropology
AFST 018 401 African Worlds T 1:30-4:20 Barnes
Fulfills Distribution Requirement 2: Society (Freshman Seminar)
AFST 214 401 Societies & Cultures of Africa M 2:00-5:00 Kopytoff
Fulfills Distribution Requirement 1: History
AFST 514 401 Anthropology of Africa TBA Kopytoff
History
AFST 076 401 Africa Since 1800 MW 12:00-1:00 Cassanelli
(requires registration for recitation) Fulfills General Requirement: History & Tradition
Music
AFST 403 401 The Music & Performance of Africa TR 12:00-1:30 Muller
Political Science
PSCI 165/465 401 Contemporary African Politics TR 1:30-3:00 Callaghy
Women's Studies
AFST 305 601 Interpreting African Women's Lives R 4:30-7:10 Blakely
African Languages
Note: All African Studies Languages fulfill SAS Language Requirement
AFST 240/540 680 Elementary Amharic I MW 4:30-6:30 Staff
AFST 242/543 680 Intermediate Amharic I TR 4:30-6:30 Staff
AFST 180/580 680 Elementary Swahili I TR 4:30-6:45 Omar
AFST 280/582 680 Intermediate Swahili I MW 5:00-7:15 Shariff
AFST 284/584 680 Advanced Swahili I TBA Omar
AFST 170/517 680 Elementary Yoruba I MW 4:30-6:45 Staff
AFST 270/529 680 Intermediate Yoruba I TR 4:30-6:45 Staff
AFST 370/587 680 Advanced Yoruba I TBA Staff
AFST 490 680 African Language Tutorial TBA Omar
AFST 490 681 Bambara TBA Staff
AFST 490 682 KiKongo TBA Staff
AFST 490 683 KiKuyu TBA Staff
AFST 490 685 Hausa TBA Staff
AFST 490 686 Shona TBA Staff
AFST 490 687 Twi TBA Staff
AFST 490 688 Wolof TBA Staff
AFST 490 689 Zulu TBA Staff
400 and 500 level courses can be used for graduate credits
Africa-related Courses
Anthropology
ANTH 105 601 Human Adaptation T 6:30-9:10 Mann
Fulfills General Requirement: Living World
ANTH 306 301 Medical Anthropology TR 1:30-3:00 Huss-Ashmore
ANTH 553 301 Culture, Power, & Politics W 2:00-4:00 Barnes
Afro American Studies
AFST 106 401 Studies in African-American Music TR 1:30-3:00 Ramsey
AFST 213 401 Afro-American Folklore TR 9:00-10:30 Gunke
Fulfills General Requirement: History
Comparative Literature
COML 100 401 Introduction to Literature MW 11:00-12 Sadashige
Demography
DEMG 607 4 Introduction to Demography R 4:00-7:00 Watkins
Economics
ECON 050 00 International Economics MWF 10:00-11:00 Staff
Education
EDUC 817 001 Human Development & Basic Education W 2:00-4:00 Wagner
English
ENGL 570 401 Topics in Afro-American Literature R 12:00-3:00 Baker
Freshman Seminar
FRSM 106 301 Dilemmas in International Development W 2:00-5:00 Estes
HIST 106 301 Conspiracies in History MW 3:00-4:30 Cassanelli
History
HIST 010 001 The World: 900-1750 MW 1:00-2:00 Farriss
Fulfills General Requirement: History
HIST 011 001 The World: History & Modernity M 6:30-9:10 Staff
Fulfills General Requirement: History
AFST 175 601 African Descendents in Latin America W 5:30-8:10 Bristol
History & Sociology of Science
HSSC 145 Comparative Medicine MW 11:00-12:00 Feierman
(Reg for recitation required) Fulfills Distribution Requirement 2: Society
Music
MUSC 022 401 World Music & Cultures MWF 12:00-1:00 Staff
MUSC 022 402 World Music & Cultures TR 3:00-4:30 Muller
MUSC 022 403 World Music & Cultures MWF 10:00-11:00 Tomlinson
MUSC 022 601 World Music & Cultures R 4:30-7:10 Staff
(All of the above) fulfill General Requirement: Arts & Letters
Nursing
NURS 516 001 International Nutrition TR 4:30-6:00 Sharman
Political Science
PSCI 250 001 International PoliticalEconomy TR 10:30-12:00 Callaghy
Public Policy & Management
PPMT 288 401 International Development Strat TR 10:30-12:00 Pack
Social Work
SWRK 735 001 Social & Economic Develop. R 1:00-2:50 Estes
Sociology
SOCI 006 401 Race & Ethnic Relations MWF 2:00-3:00 Staff
SOCI 006 601 Race & Ethnic Relations MW 6:00-7:30 Mamoun
(All of the above) Fulfill General Requirement: Society
SOCI 007 401 Population & Society MWF 10:00-11:00 Van de Walle
African Studies (Language)
AFST 185 980 Intensive Elementary Swahili (2 credits) MTWRF Shariff
(fulfills 1/2 Language Requirement) 9:00-1:30
Africa Related:
Anthropology
ANTH 105 910 Human Adaptation TR 4:30-7:40 Monge
Music
MUSC 022 910 World Music & Cultures MW 4:30-7:30 Kemler
Political Science
PSCI 116 910 Political Change in the 3rd Wor MTWR 10:30-1:1 Sil
Sociology
AFST 135 910 Law & Society MW Fetni
Fulfills Distribution Requirement 2: Society
Intensive Advanced Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad
has been funded by USDE
Applicants will be notified after April 1, 1999.
Dr. Alwiya Omar
University of Pennsylvania
African Studies Center
645 Williams Hall
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Tel: (215) 898-6971/4299--Fax (215) 573-8130
E-mail: asomar@babel.ling.upenn.edu
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/afl/
Applications are invited for the position of Executive Director of the African Studies Association (ASA). Minimum qualifications are a Master's Degree, significant administrative experience in managing a substantial budget and supervising a staff, experience in Africa and/or with African affairs and issues, and demonstrated ability to work with individuals from diverse national, racial, ethnic, gender, and academic disciplinary backgrounds.
Application consisting of a letter of interest, a resume, and the names of at least three references should be submitted to: Ms. Karen P. Bryant, Assistant to the Executive Director African Studies Association, 132 George Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1400. Tel: (732) 932-8173 Fax: (732) 932-3394. All applications should be submitted no later than March 31, 1999. More information can be obtained at: http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfricanStudies
The Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign seeks an Assistant Director to coordinate and develop the Center's Outreach Program, administer the interdisciplinary MA program, and to assist the Center Director in programming development and implementation. Applicants must have a doctorate in education or related field, with a concentration in African studies. Experience required. Position is full-time, 12 month, beginning August 21, 1999. Salary is negotiable with a minimum of $36,000. This position is dependent on continuation of funding from the U.S. Department of Education. In order to ensure full consideration, application letter, c.v., and three letters of recommendation must be received by Thursday, April 1, 1999. Send to: Search Committee, Center for African Studies 210 International Studies Building, 920 South Fifth Street, Champaign, IL 61820. Phone: (217) 333-6335, Fax: (217) 244-2429. E-mail: african@uiuc.edu.
Bryn Mawr College will be hosting an Africana Tea for the Bi-Co Africana Studies Program on Monday, April 12th, 4-6, in the Quita Woodward Room in Thomas Hall. This is the annual gathering of students with interest in being Africana concentrators or in taking Africana courses during their undergraduate careers at Bryn Mawr or Haverford. Representatives from Swarthmore, Haverford, and Penn have been invited to come and talk about Africana course offerings for 99-00 and study abroad possibilities or program plans in order to make the event more tri-co-focused. For more information contact Sr. Linda-Susan Beard Associate Professor of English, Coordinator, Africana Studies Program Bryn Mawr College (610) 526-5318-FAX: 610-526-7477.
New History Professor at Bryn Mawr: Ignacio Gallup-Diaz will be joining the History Department at Brwn Mawr. His address: Ignacio Gallup-Diaz, 635 Riverside Dr., #2D, New York, New York 10031. He also has an e-mail address: galupdiz@princeton.edu
The 22nd Third World Studies Conference will be held in Omaha, Nebraska., Oct. 7-9, 1999. For info: Dawn Arnold, Coordinator, College of Continuing Studies, U. Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha,NE 68128-0361. TEL:402-595-23;e-mail: thirdworld@ccs.unomaha.edu
African Language Teachers Association (ALTA) will hold its third annual international conference 1999 `Facing the winds of change: the teaching and the learning of african languages in the new millennium' april 15 - 18, 1999, Howard University. Featured speakers are: Senator Paul Simon (Keynote Speaker), African Ambassadors to the US (Roundtable) and Other Distinguished Africanist Scholars (Panelists). Conference papers relating to the field include: Acquisition Theory, The Use Of Literary Texts For Language Teaching and Learning, Assessment and Learning Outcomes, Curriculum Development, Learner and Learning Strategies,Curriculum Development, Learner and Learning Strategies, Proficiency Development and Assessment, Teacher Training, Heritage Learners, Materials Development Technology.
For more information contact the organizers: Dr. Lioba Moshi, African Studies Program - Dept. of Comparative Literature, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Tel: 706-542-2133 706-542-5314 & Ms Mkamburi Lyabaya, Howard University Washington D.C.
The African Studies Consortium of the University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr, Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges will hold its Seventh Annual Consortium Workshop on October 8, 1999. This year's over-arching theme is "Human Rights." Interested Participants should send a letter of interest, paper, topic, and abstract no later than June 1, 1999 to: Workshop Committee, African Studies Center, University of Penssylvania, 647 Williams Hall, Philadelphia, PA 19104
The National Council for Black Studies, Inc. announces the 1999 International Summit to be held at Saint Louis, Missouri, on April 15-17, 1999. The theme of the summit is: "At the Dawn of the 21st Century: Positioning African Studies for the New Millenium." For more information, contact: The State University Dominguez Hills at ncbs@dhvx20.cusdh.edu.
5:00 - 7:00 pm
Fall 1999: Amharic, Yoruba, and Swahili are three main language courses offered every semester. Twi, Shona, Wolof, Zulu, and Hausa are offered upon request in Penn's individualized tutorial program. Other languages can also be offered depending upon availability of a native speaker instructor.
`Chat' facilities for teachers and students of Swahili: On-line real time interaction is possible by visiting Kiswahili on PennMOO (telnet ccat.sas.upenn.edu 7777).
Listening exercises for 1st and 2nd semester Swahili students are available at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/plc/kiswahili/kiswahili.html.
These resources have been made possible with the technical assistance of Dr. Vasu Renganathan, Manager, Language Resource and Research Center (LARRC), & Dr. Jay Treat, Director, Educational Technology, School of Arts and Sciences Computing, University of Pennsylvania.
March 26, 1999 (SLS) 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Johannes Fabian, University of Amsterdam. Annual "Day With an African Scholar" Event, Undergraduate Lounge, Stiteler Hall.
March 26, 1999 2:00p.m. - 5:00p.m.
Careers in Africa Day
The Verandah - 3615 Locust Walk
Panel presentations and reception.
March 26, 1999 5:00p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
African Language Cultural Day
March 27, 1999 9:00a.m.-6:00p.m.
Folklore Conference
Woody Room (Room 221), Van Pelt Library, 2nd Floor
April 2, 1999 (SLS) 12:00 Noon - 1:30p.m.
A. Dragoss Ouedraogo, Université de Bordeaux , Visiting Professor, Carleton College,
"The African Epic in Oral Tradition Cinema:
Another Way to Visualize History."
Cherpack Lounge (Room 543), Williams Hall.
April 9, 1999 (SLS) 12 Noon to 1:30 p.m.
Henri Lopes, UNESCO and Congolese Embassy in Paris "Trajectory of an African Writer."
Kelly Writer's House.
April 16, 1999 (SLS) 12 Noon to 1:00 p.m.
Mark Sanders, Barnard College
"Testimony Literature after Apartheid."
Class of 1955 Conference Room, Van Pelt Library.
April 16, 1999 (SLS) 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Barbara Harlow, University of Texas at Austin "Sindiwe Magona's `'Mother to Mother' Contemporary South African Literature and the Truth Commission". Class of 1955 Conference Room, Van Pelt Library.
April 23, 1999 (SLS) 12 Noon to 1:30 p.m.
James English, University of Pennsylvania
The Globalization of the Post Colonial."
Class of 1955 Conference Room, Van Pelt Library.
*SLS = Spring Lecture Series
Dr. Thomas Callaghy, Acting Director
Dr. Alwiya Omar, Acting Assistant Director
Dr. Ahmed Shariff, Acting Language Coordinator
Dr. Ali B. Ali-Dinar, Outreach Coordinator
Lynette Loose, Program Coordinator
Richard Robert Haavisto, Graduate Research Asst.
Sabina Maria Perrino, Graduate Research Asst. (Newsletter)
Fouzia Musse, Office Assistant
Aziz Marhoum Gasim, Web Assistant
Sanam Roder, Work Study
Program Office:
647 Williams Hall
Tel: 215-898-6971
Fax: 215-573-8130
Applications are invited for the position of Executive Director of the African Studies Association (ASA). Minimum qualifications are a Master's Degree, significant administrative experience in managing a substantial budget and supervising a staff, experience in Africa and/or with African affairs and issues, and demonstrated ability to work with individuals from diverse national, racial, ethnic, gender, and academic disciplinary backgrounds. The Executive Director must have demonstrated organizational skills, be able to work independently while under the authority and supervision of the BoardExecutive Director must have demonstrated organizational skills, be able to work independently while under the authority and supervision of the Board of Directors, and be able to relate to and communicate well both in writing and orally with a diverse constituency in the United States and in Africa. Preferred qualifications include demonstrated skills in grant- and report-writing, word-processing, computer software, and a Ph.D. in an Africa-related field. The date for assuming duties is negotiable, could begin by May 1, and can be no later than August 15. The initial contract is for a period of three years and is renewable. Salary and benefits are commensurate with qualifications and experience. The ASA is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer.
Application consisting of a letter of interest, a resume, and the names of at least three references should be submitted to: Ms. Karen P. Bryant, Assistant to the Executive Director African Studies Association, 132 George Street New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1400. Tel: (732) 932-8173 Fax: (732) 932-3394. The review of completed applications will begin on February 15, 1999, and all applications should be submitted no later than March 31, 1999. More information can be obtained at: http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfricanStudies/
>SUMMER 1999
Outreach
Graduate student needed to complete outreach fieldwork as part of an ongoing project documenting the experience of African immigrants in the greater Philadelphia area. This outreach will result in the creation of a directory of community resources that will be made available to the community. The internship is funded by the Samuel S. Fels Fund as part of its 1998 Internships in Community Service Program. The internship is for a ten-week period, beginning no sooner than mid-May and ending no later than September 1999. The intern will work with the Project Director and advisory committee to identify key organizations, activities, businesses, service providers, cultural specialists, and other important individuals in local African immigrant communities, particularly Ethiopian and West providers, cultural specialists, and other important individuals in local African immigrant communities, particularly Ethiopian and West African (especially Nigerian). Duties include: conducting background research; scheduling field visits; attending cultural and social events; keeping detailed fieldnotes on contacts made, conducting informal interviews with key community people, and working with the ProjectDirector to compile information collected into a directory format. SALARY: $4000 for 10 weeks. Required: Background in folklore, anthropology, sociology, or related discipline; training and experience in ethnographic methods, particularly interview and fieldnote techniques; strong oral, written, and interpersonal skills; familiarity with African immigrant communities or African cultures; current enrollment in an appropriate graduate school program. Preferred: French, Arabic, Amharic, or West African language skills; familiarity with immigration and ethnic history and/or cultural theory. Amharic, or West African language skills; familiarity with immigration and ethnic history and/or cultural theory. APPLICATION: Submit letter of application, resume, writing sample (fieldnotes or ethnographic text preferred), and two references to:
Kathryn Wilson, Public Programming Coordinator Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies 18 S. 7th St. Philadelphia, PA 19106 Tel: (215) 925-8090, ext. 248 - Email: wilsonk@balchinstitute.org
DEADLINE: Applications received by April 20,1999 will be guaranteed consideration.
>> The National Council for Black Studies, Inc. announces the 1999 International Summit to be held at Saint Louis University, Saint Louis, Missouri, on April 15-17, 1999. The theme of the summit is: "At the Dawn of the 21st Century: Positioning African Studies for the New Millennium." Some of the thematic topics include; Assessment and Evaluation of Programs/Departments and Cultural Centers on Local and National Levels, Administration in Africana Leadership, K-12 Education and an Infusion of the Africana Materials in the Public Schools, Collective Economic Development in the African World, The Black Community in Transition, and Legislative Agenda. For more information contact: The State University Dominguez Hills, Telephone: (310) 243-2169; Fax: (310) 516-3987; Email: ncbs@dhvx20.cusdh.edu
The Center for African Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign seeks an Assistant Director to coordinate and develop the Center's Outreach Program, administer the interdisciplinary MA program, and to assist the Center Director in programming development and implementation. Applicants must have a doctorate in education or related field, with a concentration in African studies. Experience required. Position is full-time, 12 month, beginning August 21, 1999. Salary is negotiable with a minimum of $36,000. This position is dependent on continuation of funding from the U.S. Department of Education. In order to ensure full consideration, application letter, c.v., and three letters of recommendation must be received by Thursday, April 1, 1999. Send to: Search Committee, Center for African Studies
210 International Studies Building, 920 South Fifth Street, Champaign, IL 61820. Phone: (217) 333-6335, Fax: (217) 244-2429. E-mail: african@uiuc.edu
Calender of events
Conferences
The African Studies Center at Boston University is holding its 7th Annual Graduate Student Research Conference scheduled for March 26-27, 1999. For information contact: Heather Hoag, e-mail: hhoag@bu.edu
The Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association will be held in Philadelphia, Nov. 11-14, 1999. Paper deadline is March 15, 1999. For complete information see the ASA website: www.sas.upenn.edu/African Studies/Home Page/ASA Menu. html
The 22nd Third World Studies Conference will be held in Omaha, Nebraska., Oct. 7-9, 1999. For info: Dawn Arnold, Coordinator, College of Continuing Studies, U. Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68128-0361. TEL:402-595-2325; e-mail: thirdworld@ccs.unomaha.edu
African Language Teachers Association (ALTA) will hold its third annual international conference 1999 `Facing the winds of change: the teaching and the learning of african languages in the new millennium' april 15 - 18, 1999, Howard University. Featured speakers are: Senator Paul Simon (Keynote Speaker), African Ambassadors to the US (Roundtable) and Other Distinguished Africanist Scholars
(Panelists). Conference papers relating to the field include: Acquisition Theory, The Use Of Literary Texts For Language Teaching and Learning, Assessment and Learning Outcomes, Curriculum Development, Learner and Learning Strategies,Curriculum Development, Learner and Learning Strategies, Proficiency Development and Assessment, Teacher Training, Heritage Learners, Materials Development Technology
For more information contact the organizers: Dr. Lioba Moshi, African Studies Program - Dept. of Comparative Literature, University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602. Tel: 706-542-2133 706-542-5314
& Ms Mkamburi Lyabaya, Howard University Washington D.C.
Fellowships
Institute for the Study of Gender in Africa is accepting applications for Fellows for the 1999-2000 academic year. Senior fellows receive a stipend in the amount of $32,000; junior fellows receive a stipend of $25,000. In addition each fellow is provided with limited funds for medical insurance, transport to and from UCLA, and a modest research stipend. Fellows must be in residence at the James S. Coleman African Studies Center during the entire period of their award. During this period the fellows are expected to be engaged in scholarly activities on a full-time basis. To apply, please submit the following materials: Application cover letter, Proposal abstract of 100 words maximum, Proposal (not to exceed 6 double-spaced typed pages plus a one-page bibliography), Curriculum Vitae,Three letters of recommendation, The deadline for submissions is Friday, April 2, 1999. Awards will be announced on or about April 15, 1999. For more information please contact: Institute for the Study of Gender in Africa UCLA James S. Coleman African Studies Center 10244 Bunche Hall P.O. Box 951310 Los Angeles, CA 0095-1310 (310) 825-6059/3686 fax (310) 206-2250 isga@isop.ucla.edu http://www.isop.ucla.edu/jscasc/research/gender.htm
Consortia news
Africana Tea for the Bi-Co Africana Studies Program
Bryn Mawr College will be hosting an Africana Tea for the Bi-Co Africana Studies Program on Monday, April 12th, 4-6, in the Quita Woodward Room in Thomas Hall. This is the annual gathering of students with interest in being Africana concentrators or in taking Africana courses during their undergraduate careers at Bryn Mawr or Haverford. Representatives from Swarthmore, Haverford, and Penn have been invited to come and talk about Africana course offerings for 99-00 and study abroad possibilities or program plans in order to make the event more tri-co-focused. For more information contact Sr. Linda-Susan Beard Associate Professor of English, Coordinator, Africana Studies Program
Bryn Mawr College (610) 526-5318-FAX: 610-526-7477
New History Professor at Bryn Mawr
Ignacio Gallup-Diaz will be joining the History Department at Brwn MawrHis address: Ignacio Gallup-Diaz, 635 Riverside Dr., #2D, New York, New York 10031. He also has an e-mail address: galupdiz@princeton.edu
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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