UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER
MSU Tuesday Bulletin (9), 03/12/'96

MSU Tuesday Bulletin (9), 03/12/'96

TUESDAY BULLETIN, SPRING NO. 9, MARCH 12, 1996

AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER, MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY 100 INTERNATIONAL CENTER, EAST LANSING, MI 48824-1035

Major subheadings: events, MSU announcements, other announcements, Africa-related courses at MSU, conferences, grants, fellowships, scholarships, jobs

EVENTS

March 14, Thursday, "Work, Leisure, and Institutions in Peasant Agriculture" African Studies Center Brown Bag with Dejene Aredo (Faculty, Addis Ababa University, Visiting Scholar, MSU) 12:00 noon, Spartan Room C, Crossroads Food Court, International Center.

March 15, Friday, Yaaba 90 minute film by Producer/Director Idrissa

Ouedraogo. 1996 African Film Festival: African's Africa: Films by and about Africa, 7:00 p.m. in 128 Natural Science Building. Free. The public is invited. Discussion following the film. (See article in the MSU Announcements Section.)

March 19, Tuesday, "A Survey of the Historiography of Senegambia: the Slave Trade, Ecology, Regional Integration, the Desert Frontier, and Islam." African Studies Center Special Guest Seminar with Barry Boubacar (Professor of History, University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal, and Visiting Professor, University of Michigan). 12:00 noon, Spartan Room B, Crossroads Food Court, International Center.

March 21, Thursday, "H. F. Verwoerd as an Academic" African Studies Center Brown Bag with Roberta Miller (Director, CIESIN, Saginaw, Michigan), 12:00 noon, Spartan Room C, Crossroads Food Court, International Center.

March 22, Friday, Finzan, film produced and directed by Cheick Oumar Sissoko. African Film Festival: African's Africa: Films by and about Africans, 7:00 p.m. in 128 Natural Science Building. Free and the public is invited. Discussion following the film.

March 28, Thursday, "Botswana and Its New Financial Policy" African Studies Center Brown Bag with Leapetswe Malete (Graduate Student, Physical Education, MSU) and Scholar Puso (Graduate Student, Business Administration, MSU), 12:00 noon, Spartan Room C, Crossroads Food Court, International Center.

MSU ANNOUNCEMENTS

A 1996 African Film Festival, "African's Africa: Films by and about Africans," is being held at MSU. Sponsored by the African Studies Center, TODAY (Training of Disadvantaged African Youth) International, the Association of African Women, and Women in International Development (WID), four films produced and directed by Africans will be shown on the MSU campus beginning Friday, March 15. All shows will be shown at 7:00 p.m. in 128 Natural Science Building. There will be a discussion after each film, with the discussants to be from the MSU Africanist faculty and citizens of respective countries. All films are free of charge and the public is invited.

"Yaaba" (Burkina Faso), will be shown on March 15. This 90 minute

film is one of the most highly acclaimed African films. On March 22, "Finzan" (Mali), will be shown. In Bambara, Finzan means "rebellion," and it is a fitting title for this story of two women resisting the oppression of tradition. "Hyena's" (Senegal), will be shown on April 5. In this film, a timeless parable of human greed is adapted into a biting satire of today's Africa--betraying the hopes of independence for the false promises of Western materialism. "Allah Tantou" ("God's Will"), (Guinea/France), will be shown April 19. This is the first feature film on human rights abuses and the first to speak with an unabashedly personal voice. "Allah Tantou" examines the life of the filmmaker's father, a diplomat under the Sekou Toure regime, who later "disappeared" in the Guinean gulag.

"Religion in America" is a seminar being organized for April 8 - 12 at Michigan State University by David Robinson (Professor, History Department and African Studies Center). This seminar follows a conference on "Islam in West Africa", to be held at the University of Illinois, Urbana, on April 1 - 5, 1996. American studies faculty in Arts and Letters will teach the seminar.

Seminar participants will include:

Jillali El-Adnani, Morocco, doctoral student at the University of Provence;

Said Bousbina, Morocco, doctoral student at the University of Paris VII, France;

Dedoud ould Abdallah, Mauritania, Maitre de Conferences; Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherches Historiques, UniversiteÇ de Nouakchott;

Fatima Harrak, Morocco, Research Professor, Institute of African Studies, University Mohammed V, Rabat;

Ousmane Kane, Senegal, Maitre assistant, Political Science, University de St. Louis, Senegal;

Assimi Kouanda, Burkina Faso, Maitre assistant, Ouagadougou, currently Burkina Ambassador to Morocco;

Penda Mbow, Senegal, Maitre assistant, History Department, Universite Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal;

Abdel Wedoud Ould Cheikh, Mauritania, Maitre de Conferences, University de Nouakchott, Mauritania;

Ibrahima Sall, Mauritania, doctoral student, University of Paris VII, France;

Boukary Savadogo, Burkina Faso, doctoral student, University of Provence, France;

Mai Korema Zakari, Nigeria, Directeur, Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines, Niamey, Niger;

Moukhtar Bechar Moukhta, Maitre assistant, UniversitÇ de Ndjamena, Chad;

Najat Sebti, Professor Literature, English Department, University Muhammad V, Rabat;

Boubacar Barry, Professor of History, University Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, and a visiting professor at the University of Michigan.

MSU faculty interested in meeting with these guests are invited to

contact Yacob Fisseha or David Robinson. For more information about the seminar, contact Yacob Fisseha at the African Studies Center, 3-1700. E-mail: 21248yf@msu.edu or David Robinson, History Department, 5-7500. E-mail: robbins@pilot.msu.edu.

"Ethnic Conflicts in Burundi: The Impact on Human and Natural Resources" by Dr. Mevin Ndarusigiye will be part of a special seminar hosted by the Department of Resource Development on Thursday, March 14, from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m. in Room 338 Natural Resources Building. The cyclical ethnic conflicts in Burundi have significantly affected human and natural resources since the 1960s. Topics such as the eroded labor force, increased birth rate, health hazards, environmental degradation, unstable economy, externalities and misallocation of resources will be examined.

OTHER ANNOUNCEMENTS

A Hausa/Yoruba Group Project Abroad Program in Nigeria is being offered by the University of Florida for summer 1996. Details about this program and application materials are available from the Center for African Studies at the University of Florida. Phone: 904/392-2187.

Tracing African Genealogy on the internet. There is now a Usenet newsgroup dedicated to tracing the genealogy of African and the African Diaspora: <soc.genealogy.african>. This non-moderated newsgroup, located within the genealogy hierarchy of one of the Big 7 newsgroups, intends to bring together blacks, non-blacks, or anyone who has pertinent concerns about their African ancestry or relations. Many good practices for the study of genealogy may be gathered from following the newsgroups.

"The Senegalese Novel by Women Through Their Own Eyes" is a new book by Susan Stringer. Senegal has to date produced the largest group of women writers in French-speaking West Africa. This book examines the novels and autobiographies published since 1975, focussing on the works of Nafissatiou Diallo, Mariama Ba and Aminata Maiga Ka. Susan Stringer is an assistant professor of Foreign Languages at The University of Michigan-Flint. For more information and an order form, contact: Peter Lang Publishing, 275 Seventh Avenue, 28th Floor, New York, NY 10001. Customer Service: 1-800-770-LANG. Or, phone: (212) 647-7706. Fax: (212) 647-7707. European orders: contact: Peter Lang AG, Jupiterstrasse 15, CH 3000 Bern 15, Switzerland. Phone: 031 940 21 21. Telefax: 031

940 21 31.

"Sankofa" is a book of African folktales, proverbs, poetry and wise sayings stemming from the African tradition of the griots. These folktales and proverbs challenge us to find answers to issues confronting us in life today. The author, David Abdulai, a native of Ghana in West Africa is currently a doctoral candidate in International Economics and Technology Analysis and Management in the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver. The stories and proverbs in Sankofa are drawn from the oral traditional background of the author,s African roots. To order a copy send a money order or check for $14.95 plus $2.80 for postage and handling. Students: pay $10.00 plus $2.80 for postage and handling. Colorado residents add 3.5% sales tax. Kankori International, P.O. Box 102441, Denver, CO, 80250. Phone and Fax: 303/744-6318. ISBN: 0-9647012-0-0 Library of Congress Catalog Card No: 95-070910.

GRANTS, SCHOLARSHIPS, FELLOWSHIPS

The Program in Agrarian Studies at Yale University announces Postdoctoral Fellowship opportunities for the academic year

1997-1998. The theme will be "Hinterlands, Frontiers, and States: Transactions and Identities." For more details contact James Scott, Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University, Box 208300, New Haven, CT 06520-8300. Fax: 203/432-5036.

The James Coleman African Studies Center in coordination with The Center for the Study of Women invites applications for a Rockefeller Resident Humanities Fellowship Program at the Institute for the Study of Gender in Africa at UCLA. The Institute encourages applications in three priority areas: Development of multidisciplinary approaching gender in Africa; the examination of the historical dimensions of gender in Africa's early and precolonial past; the study of culture and gender. To apply submit a 100-word abstract; a proposal of no more than 1500 words detailing the research agenda, its theoretical basis, and its scholarly relevance; a full c.v. and three letters of recommendations. Send inquiries and applications to Muadi Mukenge, African Studies Center, 10244 Bunche Hall, UCLA, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90095-1310. Deadline is March 15.

JOBS

The International Foundation for Education and Self-Help (IFESH) is sponsoring the "Teachers for Africa Program." Teachers interested in spending an academic year in select African nations to help improve the educational system, are encouraged to apply. Throughout the Program, teachers, school administrators, and university professors are sent to African nations to teach in schools at the primary, secondary, or university level including teacher,s colleges. Teachers have been placed in schools in Ghana, Gambia, Kenya, Ethiopia, South Africa and Benin. Teachers are needed in all academic disciplines. Application deadline is March 25, 1996. For application and further information contact: Dr. C.T. Wright, Executive Director, International Foundation for Education and Self-Help, 5040 E. Shea Blvd., Suite 260, Phoenix, AZ 85254-4610. Phone: (602) 443-1800.

The Ford Foundation announces an opening for a Program Officer in Johannesburg, South Africa. Responsibility will be to design, implement, monitor, and evaluate Foundation programs and grant-making activities addressing a range of human rights and social justice issues in Southern Africa. The staff member will cooperate with governmental and non-governmental organizations and universities engaged in efforts to promote international human

rights standards, to improve the socioeconomic and legal status of less advantaged groups within the region, and to open opportunities in the legal profession to such groups. The current program includes rights education, advocacy, public interest law, women,s reproductive rights, applied research, and institutional support activities. The ideal candidate will have five to ten years of substantive work and/or teaching experience in the legal field; graduate training in law or other relevant disciplines; extensive knowledge of African development, human rights, legal education, and women,s rights; previous field experience in Africa, especially South Africa, working on issues of legal reform; demonstrated analytical and writing abilities; and superior organizational and interpersonal skills. Interested applicants should send a CV and a brief writing sample indicating position #300 to: Sheila C. Gordon, Manager of Employment, The Ford Foundation, 320 East 43rd Street, New York, NY 10017.

-- Date: Thu, 7 Mar 96 21:09:03 EST From: Judith Lessard <21248JL@ibm.cl.msu.edu> Subject: Tuesday Bulletin Spring No. 9, March 12, 1996

Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar

Previous Menu Home Page What's New Search Country Specific