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I have included, for interest and for the record, details of some conferences which have already taken place. MH

LIVERPOOL AND TRANSATLANTIC SLAVERY

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE:

FRIDAY 14 – SATURDAY 15 OCTOBER 2005

MERSEYSIDE MARITIME MUSEUM, ALBERT DOCK, LIVERPOOL.

It is over 25 years since Roger Anstey and Paul Hair produced their influential volume of papers Liverpool, the African Slave Trade, and Abolition. The Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, which published the volume in 1976, is organising an international conference which will reflect advances in research on transatlantic slavery which

have been made in the intervening period. The Merseyside Maritime Museum provides a particularly suitable location for the conference, as it has made an important contribution to debate through its permanent exhibition on the slave trade and slavery.

This conference, which will include Professor David Richardson as a keynote speaker, will examine the role of Liverpool in the wider organisational, economic, social and cultural context of transatlantic slavery. The conference organisers welcome contributions which update research on Liverpool, as well as papers which examine global links and comparative themes. Proposals for papers are invited on related issues to include profitability, port organisation and urban development, trading links at a regional, national and international level, merchants, captains and surgeons, African agency, abolition, the black presence in Britain and the memorialisation of slavery. Proposals for papers reflecting research in progress by postgraduate students are also welcome.

The Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire will produce an edited selection of the papers, entitled Liverpool and Transatlantic Slavery. Please send proposals for papers, by 30 September 2004 to: Anthony J.

Tibbles, Keeper, Merseyside Maritime Museum, Albert Dock, Liverpool

L3 4AQ, UK, e-mail tony.tibbles@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

• A Special One-Day Symposium on DOCUMENTING AFRICAN EXPERIENCE OF SLAVERY: History, Literature, Film

  • A Special One-Day Symposium
    on
    DOCUMENTING AFRICAN EXPERIENCE OF SLAVERY:
    History, Literature, Film
     
    Date:
    Saturday 1^st December, 2001
    Venue:
    Deutsches Haus, Columbia University, 420 W 116th St  [between Amsterdam & Morningside]

  • 
    The Center for Comparative Literature & Society at Columbia University announces a special one-day symposium as part of a graduate seminar on attempts by scholars and artists at documenting African experience of slavery in History, Literature and Film.  The seminar and the symposium derive from the assumption that some of most compelling records of African people's experience of slavery and the slave trade, are not to be found in formal historical discourse, but in artistic reconstructions of that experience.  The symposium will examine significant instances of how the creative imagination dares to probe those dark recesses of a lived experience so traumatic that formal historiography is often unable to document it in all its complexities.  We hope also to reflect on the goals, advantages and possible limitations of social-scientific historical research as compared to imaginative recreations of historical experience, applied to such a deeply embedded and complex subject as slavery.
    
    The symposium brings together a distinguished group of scholars/artists who have done significant work on documenting African experience of slavery.  The Symposium Chair is Manthia Diawara, professor of Comparative Literature & Film and director of Africana Studies,  NYU.   Key participants expected are: 
    
    Shirikiana Aina:      film-maker, director of the documentary Through the Gates of No Return
    Kamau Brathwaite:        poet, cultural historian of the Afro-Caribbean experience.
    Katrina Browne: film-maker: director of a forth-coming documentary, Traces of the Trade
    Zeinabu irene Davis:        film-maker, director of Mother of the River.
    Haile Gerima: film-maker, writer/director of Sankofa.
    Manu Herbstein:        author of the epic novel Ama: A Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade. (I couldn't make it - MH)
    Isidore Okpewho:        scholar/novelist, author of a forth-coming major novel on slavery.
    
    The symposium convener, Kofi Anyidoho, professor of literature, chair of English & director of the African Humanities Institute Program at the University of Ghana, is the Ford Foundation Artist-in-Residence for fall 2001 at the Center for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University.
    
    For further information, contact: Kofi Anyidoho [212-854-0582/4541] or [k_anyi@hotmail.com].

• Fighting Back : African Strategies Against the Slave Trade
  • 
    The history of slavery, the slave trade,  abolition and emancipation [SLAVERY@LISTSERV.UH.EDU]
    10-11-00 From:   Paul Lovejoy <plovejoy@YORKU.CA>
    
     Fighting Back : African Strategies Against the Slave Trade
    An International Conference at Livingstone Campus, Rutgers University, New Jersey, February 16-17, 2002
    
    The Rutgers Department of History and Center for African Studies in collaboration with the UNESCO/SSHRCC Nigerian Hinterland Project of York University, Canada, are sponsoring an international conference, Fighting Back : African Strategies Against the Slave Trade.
    
    This conference is unique in its topic and scope, and constitutes the
    first scholarly attempt to consolidate scattered information about the
    various dimensions of African people's resistance to the slave trade.
    Scholars will present research that will open up new directions for studies
    in African history, as well as the history of the Atlantic World,
    African-American history and the history of the African Diaspora. It will
    challenge widely-held myths of African passivity and complicity in the
    slave trade by using history, literature, oral tradition, psychology, the
    arts, traditional cultural forms and political science to show that
    resistance to enslavement and involvement in the slave trade was much more
    pervasive than acknowledged by the orthodox interpretation of historical
    literature.
    
    While most studies of the slave trade focus on the volume of captives and
    on their ethnic origins, few concentrate on the strategies Africans used to
    protect themselves and their communities. Moreover, most scholarly
    references to this crucial topic are dispersed among a variety of
    specialist studies, where they are often treated as marginal to the broader
    theme of the slave trade. However, no picture of the slave trade, across
    the Atlantic, the Sahara, or the Indian Ocean, or indeed within Africa
    itself, can be complete without a systematic study of the ways in which men
    and women responded to the threat and reality of enslavement. Individuals,
    families, communities, and states used a variety of strategies. They
    included, but were not limited to: the defensive planning of settlements,
    architectural design, the establishment of refugee villages, and the
    relocation of villages. Others involved the redemption of captives, the use
    of occult protection, religious interdiction against sale, attacks on
    slaving forts and entrepots, and revolts by captives.
    
    The papers presented at the conference will cover a wide area of Western
    and Central Africa from the 16th to the 20th centuries. As a group, they
    will offer an unusually comprehensive and historically accurate narrative
    of a critical chapter in the global story of the slave trade.
    
    CONFERENCE PROGRAM
    
    FRIDAY
    9:00 - 9:30 Opening Remarks
    9:30 - 12:00 : THE LANDSCAPE AS STRATEGY
    
    Slave raiding and Defensive Systems South of Lake Chad From the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century
    Thierno M. Bah
    Yaound University, Cameroon
    
    Lacustrine Villages in South Benin as Refuges Against the Slave Trade
    Elise Soumonni
    Bnin University, Benin
    
    The Myth of Inevitability and Invincibility: Resistance to Slavers and the Slave Trade in Central Africa
    in the late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries
    Dennis Cordell
    Southern Methodist University
    
    Impact of the Slave trade on Cayor and Baol: Mutations in the Habitat And Land Occupancy
    Adama Gueye
    Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
    
    12:00 - 1:30 : LUNCH BREAK
    
    1:30 - 3:30 : DEFENDING ONESELF AND ONE'S GROUP
    
    Ritual Artworks as Defense Mechanism Against Enslavement
    Baldwin Chika Anyasodo,
    Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Nigeria
    
    The Story of Nbena, 1817-1819: From Unlawful Enslavement to Freedom in Central Angola
    Jose Curto
    York University, Canada
    
    Her story or History? The Legacy of Women Resistance To the Slave trade in Igboland
    Ndu Life Njoku
    Imo State University, Nigeria
    
    3:30 - 3:45 : COFFEE BREAK
    
    3:45 - 6:00 : PROTECTING THEIR OWN: FAMILIAL AND COMMUNAL STRATEGIES
    
    Igboland, Slavery and the Drums of War and Heroism
    John Oriji
    California Polytechnic State University
    
    Protection Against Enslavement at the Slave Port of Old Calabar in the Late 18th Century
    Paul Lovejoy
    York University, Canada
    
    The Last Resort: Redeeming Family
    Sylviane A. Diouf
    Rutgers University
    
    SATURDAY
    
    9:30-12:00 : FIGHTING FROM WITHIN: SLAVE RESISTANCE AND REVOLT
    
    Slave Revolt In Yorubaland: The 'Oyo' Uprising in Ile-Ife, C.1850
    Olatunji Ojo
    York University, Canada
    
    Liberation without Freedom: An Analysis of Slave Resistance in Hausaland c. 1880-1897
    Ibrahim Hamza
    York University, Canada
    
    'A Devotion to the idea of Liberty at Any Price': Rebellion and Antislavery in 18th and 19th Century Upper Guinea Coast
    Ismail Rashid
    Vassar College
    
    Slave Resistance and Class Formation in Early 20th Century Igboland
    Carolyn Brown
    Rutgers University
    
    12:00 - 1:30 : LUNCH BREAK
    
    1:30 - 3:30 : CASE STUDIES
    
    Black Loyalists Against the Slave Trade in Sierra Leone
    Sylvie Kand
    New York University
    
    Resistance to the Slave Trade on the Guinea Coast, 19th Century
    Djibril Tamsir Niane
    UNESCO Slave Route Project
    Guinea
    
    'We shall rejoice to see the day when slavery shall cease to exist': The Gold Coast Times and the British Abolition of Slavery in Colonial Ghana, 1874-75
    Kwabena Akurang-Parry
    Tulane University
    
    3:30 - 3:45: COFFEE BREAK
    
    3:45 - 6:00 : STRATEGIES OF THE STATE AND THE STATELESS
    
    Transforming a Stateless Society: Balanta Response to the Slave Trade
    Walter Hawthorne
    Ohio State University
    
    Defensive Strategies: Wasulu, Masina and the Slave Trade
    Martin A. Klein
    University of Toronto, Canada
    
    The Struggle against the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade: the Role of the State
    Joseph Inikori
    Rochester University
    
    *** *** ***
    The conference is free and open to the public. Please register by fax:
    (732) 932 8708 or email: rcha@rci.rutgers.edu; providing your name,
    affiliation, address, telephone number, and specifying the day(s) you will
    attend.

   

• Forced Migrations in Comparative Perspective

  • (Isn't it strange that there is not a word in the following announcement about the trans-Atlantic Slave Trade? MH)
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: H-NET List for African History and Culture
    [mailto:H-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU]On Behalf Of Peter Limb
    Sent: Tuesday, August 01, 2000 10:31 AM
    To: H-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU
    Subject: CFP: Forced Migrations in Comparative Perspective
    
    From:   Stefan Wolff        University of Bath      <S.Wolff@bath.ac.uk>  Date: 1 Aug 2000
    
    Call for Papers:
      Images of Loss and Reconciliation
    Political and Literary Representations of Forced Migrations in ComparativePerspective
    
    Rationale for the Conference
    
    Forced migrations across borders and internal displacements of populations
    have shaped the twentieth century like no other century before. In Europe,
    forced population transfers are primarily linked with two phenomena which in
    themselves are interrelated: the decline of (multi-national) empires and the
    redrawing of state boundaries. From the First and Second Balkan Wars, to
    World Wars One and Two, and finally to the violent break-up of Yugoslavia,
    Europe has seen numerous expulsions and exchanges of populations that did
    not fit into the concept of ethnically homogeneous states. As a consequence
    of the ethnic mobilisation of polities and because of the hostilities that
    existed between them before and during wars, and continue to do so after the
    cessation of military activities, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural societies
    are perceived as unstable, and those elements within them that are 'held
    responsible' for this instability are perceived as threats that need to be
    eliminated.
    
    This conception of ethnic heterogeneity as a threat to the security of
    states led to the 1913-1923 population exchanges in the Balkans and to the
    expulsion of ethnic Germans from Central and Eastern Europe. While these
    events may have been unprecedented in their time, the phenomenon of
    expulsions in one form or another was by no means a unique Balkan or German
    experience. Italians in what are now Croatia and Slovenia suffered a similar
    experience after the Second World War, Poles were forcibly resettled from
    their homelands in today's Ukraine and Belarus during the same period,
    while Ukrainians and Belarusians in Poland were 'repatriated' to the two
    Soviet Republics. So called population exchanges also took place between
    (Czecho-) Slovakia and Hungary, and the most recent developments in the
    aftermath of the break-up of Yugoslavia also testify to the fact that
    expulsions have remained in the repertoire of politicians in Europe.
    The deportation of nationalities in the former Soviet Union is one of the
    most drastic examples of the uprooting and internal displacement of entire
    population groups by a state within its own boundaries.
    
    Beyond Europe, forced migrations have occurred within states and across
    national boundaries: the expulsion from their traditional homelands of the
    Australian Aborigines and of the Native Americans are but two examples in a
    long list of internal displacements. The population exchanges between India
    and Pakistan and the Rwandan genocide are two cases of vast forced
    migrations across borders.
    
    Quite clearly, these various forms of forced migrations have had a
    considerable impact both on the individuals and populations directly
    affected by them as well as on the states and nations within which the
    forced migrations occurred or which received the refugees and expellees.
    This impact on individual, collective, and national identities has been
    reflected upon in various literary forms, novels, poems, and essays. We
    believe that an analysis of these literary representations can help
    understand the causes and consequences of forced migrations, as they reflect
    individual experiences and perceptions of these events and thus contribute
    to the shaping of public attitudes towards forced migrations. At the same
    time, such individual accounts are hardly ever written in isolation from
    public discourses on the issues they portray so that an examination of
    literary representations of forced migration will enable us to analyse the
    interaction between dicourse and politics in this particular sphere.
    
    Structure of the Conference
    
    Against this background, we seek to investigate two areas:
    
    1) Political Representations of Forced Migrations, their Causes, and
    Consequences
    2) Literary Representations of Forced Migrations, their Causes, and
    Consequences
    
    In order to accomplish the best results, most productive atmosphere, and
    intellectually stimulating cross-disciplinary exchanges, it is proposed to
    conduct two topical but linked international conferences in each area in
    which all project participants will take part.
    
    We invite proposals for papers (theoretical perspectives, single case
    studies, comparative analyses) on the following issues:
    
    1) Political Representations of Forced Migrations
    -Myth and reality of forced migrations and their use for political purposes
    -Similarities and differences between expulsions and internal displacements
    -The role of the expellee populations in the political processes of the
    receiving and expelling states
    -The role of internally displaced populations in the political processes of
    their states
    -Forced migration as a factor in international relations
    
    2) Literary Representations of Forced Migrations
    In examining the literary representations of forced migration, we propose
    -to document the changes in the form and content of the various
    representations of expulsion
    -to analyse how and which political events and developments have affected
    literary representations and vice versa
    -how and to what extent such representations have shaped the public
    discourse on the topic and vice versa
    -how individual and national identities have been formed in the context and
    aftermath of expulsions
    -how different gender perspectives have had a distinct impact on the form
    and content of the various representations of forced migrations
    
    Case studies that should be considered for analysis in both areas may
    include:
    -the expulsion of ethnic Germans after the Second World War
    -the expulsion of Poles from Ukraine
    -the expulsion of Italians from Croatia and Slovenia
    -ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia
    -the Rwandan genocide
    -Palestinian Refugees
    -the mass migration in the context of the foundation of India and Pakistan
    -the expulsion of the Asian community from Uganda
    -the internal displacement of Australian Aborigines, Native Americans, and
    nationalities in the Soviet Union
    
    3) Organisation of the Conference
    
    Both conferences are jointly coordinated by Prof. Ian Wallace and Dr. Stefan
    Wolff at the University of Bath, England, UK.
    
    Conference one (Political Representations of Forced Migrations) to take
    place in September 2002, conference two (Literary Representations of Forced
    Migrations) to take place in April 2003. Both conferences will take place at
    the University of Bath.
    
    Deadlines
    
    Friday 25 August 2000 for indications of interest, accompanied by paper
    title and a SHORT abstract of no more than 300 words. All applicants will be
    notified by 15 September of the outcome.
    
    Friday 3 November 2000 for more comprehensive outlines of papers of accepted
    applicants and biographical abstracts.
    
    Friday 2 August 2002 for completed papers for Conference one (Political
    Representations of Forced Migrations).
    
    Friday 31 January 2003 for conference two (Literary Representations of
    Forced Migrations).
    
    Please email your title proposals/SHORT abstracts in the first instance to
    S.Wolff@bath.ac.uk. If sent as attachment, please use .txt, .rtf, or .doc
    formats.
    
    We are currently seeking funding from various sources that will enable us to
    cover the costs of travel and accommodation for paper presenters, but at
    this stage we can not yet guarantee whether we will be able to raise
    sufficient funds.
    
    After the two conferences, we plan to publish revised papers in theme
    volumes.

   

• The Legacy of Slavery and Emancipation in Europe and the Americas
  • CALL FOR PAPERS
    " The Legacy of Slavery and Emancipation in Europe and the Americas"
    Saint-Claude, Guadeloupe  March 9-11, 2001
    
    The institution of slavery lasted for nearly 400 years in the Americas,
    and was a crucial force in the development of the nations of Western
    Europe and the United States. It was a system that depended on, and
    propelled, the creation and maintenance of racial hierarchies, and it laid
    the foundation for contemporary attitudes towards and ideas about race in
    the Americas and Europe. Recently, scholarship in this area has expanded
    enormously, elucidating a great deal about the social, economic, and
    political causes and consequences of slavery and emancipation. Yet,
    understanding the connections between these issues and contemporary
    problems of race/integration is a complex task. The conference will bring
    together scholars from a variety of disciplines to discuss the legacy of
    slavery and emancipation. How did systems of slavery and the process of
    emancipation influence the development of racial thinking? How can we
    trace the heritage of these institutions in our contemporary concerns
    about immigration and integration?
    
    The Guadeloupe conference will be the first of a series of three
    conferences organized by The Centre d'Etude des Politiques d'Immigration,
    d'Integration et de Citoyennete [a research center located in Paris
    and under the direction of Patrick Weil, (University of Paris
    1-Sorbonne)], Erik Bleich (Middlebury College), Laurent Dubois (Michigan
    State University), Stephane Dufoix (University of Paris X-Nanterre) and
    Randall Hansen (Oxford University); it is funded by a grant from the
    German Marshall Fund. The overarching goal of the meetings is to provide
    new perspectives - particularly by integrating the history of slavery,
    emancipation, and colonization - on contemporary debates about immigration
    and integration in Western Europe and the United States. The conferences
    will be organized in a workshop format, with papers distributed in
    advance. Sessions will begin with brief presentations by the authors of
    the papers and will focus on discussion. A selection of papers from each
    conference will also be prepared for publication.
    
    We invite paper proposals for the Guadeloupe conference, which will take
    place in St. Claude, Guadeloupe, and in nearby Basse-Terre, from scholars
    from all disciplines working on the history and legacy of slavery and
    emancipation. The Greater Caribbean will be given a privileged place in
    the workshop as a comparative frame of reference for European nations and
    the United States, but papers on other regions will receive full
    consideration. We are particularly interested in papers that provide a
    method for making connections between the past and the present. If we find
    that certain proposals are more appropriate for the subsequent conferences
    in the series, we may invite applicants to participate in these
    conferences instead of the Guadeloupe conference. Some funding is
    available to cover travel and lodging for participants. The Guadeloupe
    conference will be co-organized by Professor Patrick Weil, director of
    CEPIC, History Department, Paris 1-Sorbonne, Laurent Dubois, Assistant
    Professor at Michigan State University, and Mickaella Perina, fellow
    at the DuBois Institute at Harvard; it will be coordinated by Sam Spital
    at the CEPIC in Paris. Proposals should include a title, 1-2 page
    description of the proposed paper, and a curriculum vitae. Because the
    proposals will be evaluated in France and the United States, we request
    that you send one printed copy of all materials to each of the addresses
    below and an email attachment containing your materials to both addresses.

   

• ENSLAVING CONNECTIONS; AFRICA AND BRAZIL DURING THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
  • From:   Jose C. Curto      York University      <jcurto@postoffice.yorku.ca>
    Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2000
    
                      YORK UNIVERSITY
                      Toronto, Canada
    
    Announces an International Conference Co-Sponsored by The Department of History
    and The Nigerian Hinterland Project
    
      ENSLAVING CONNECTIONS; AFRICA AND BRAZIL DURING THE ERA OF THE SLAVE TRADE
    
    October 12-15th, 2000
    
    Principal Organizer
    Prof. Jose C. Curto, Dept. of History, York University
    
    Made Possible by Grants from the
    Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
    Instituto Camoes and Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia,
    Portugal, Programa Lusitania
    Departamento da Cultura, Ministerio das Relacoes Exteriores,
    Brasil Department of History, York University
    
    And Additional Support from the
    Nigerian Hinterland Project, York University
    Consulado Geral de Portugal, Toronto, Canada
    
    The focus of this conference is the cultural, demographic,
    economic, linguistic, political, and religious connections between
    Brazil and Africa during the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
    Brazil received more enslaved Africans than any other part of the
    Americas-ten times as many as North America, and more than all of
    the Caribbean and North America combined. A great majority of these
    enslaved Africans came from Angola and other parts of west-central
    Africa, including Kimbundu, Kikongo and Umbundu speakers, even
    though many of the enslaved also came from the far interior beyond
    the locations of the Mbundu, Kongo and Ovimbundu. Another large
    segment of the deported African population came for the Bight of
    Benin (the "Slave Coast"), and included, especially Gbe and Yoruba
    speakers, but also a sizeable Muslim population. The conference
    will discuss the major themes emerging from these connections: the
    supply of African slaves to Brazil, the making of African
    identities within and outside of Africa, the transmission of
    African cultures to Brazil, ethnicity and resistance under slavery
    in Brazil, from Africans to creoles in Brazil, the Brazilian impact
    upon Angola, Mozambique, and West Africa, and a comparison of
    enslaved Africans in Brazil, Spanish America, and the Caribbean.
    
    Over 35 leading experts and advanced graduate students from Canada,
    the United States, Brazil, Europe, Africa, Central America, and
    the Caribbean will present their most recent research on these
    themes. To close the conference, a workshop will see graduate
    students discuss the reconstruction of Africa-Americas-Africa
    interconnections during slavery.
    
    Further details, including the description of the conference, the
    preliminary program, and the registration form are available at the
    WEB site of the Nigerian Hinterland Project, York University.
    Please point your browsers to www.yorku.ca/research/nhp
    and follow the links.
    
    The Nigerian Hinterland Project can also be contacted by fax (416)
    650-8173 or email nigerian@yorku.ca
    
    Jose C. Curto
    Dept. of History
    York University
    4700 Keele St.
    North York, Ontario
    CANADA     M3J 1P3
    Tel: (416) 736-5123     Fax: (416) 736-5836

   

• CROSSING BOUNDARIES:  THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM

  • H-NET List for African Literature and Cinema [H-AFRLITCINE@H-NET.MSU.EDU] 29-11-99
    Forwarded by: Kenneth Harrow <harrow@pilot.msu.edu>
    
    From:   Kay Moseley  kpmoseley@JUNO.COM
    
    Subject: Conference on the African Diaspora
    
    You are invited to participate in a conference on the
    African Diaspora entitled,   CROSSING BOUNDARIES:  THE AFRICAN DIASPORA
    IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM.  The conference is scheduled for September 20-23,
    2000 and will be hosted by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black
    Culture and by New York University. Specifics regarding hotel
    accommodations and venues are forthcoming.
    
    The conference will be research driven and will feature panels organized
    in ways which effectively stimulate discourse across geographic,
    disciplinary, cultural, and theoretical boundaries.  The concept of the
    Diaspora is global; hence, all geographic areas will be represented,
    including the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Papers and panel proposals
    that incorporate gender and women as categories of analysis are
    encouraged.
    
    Examples of projected panels include:  Ethnicity and Slave Resistance;
    Carnival; Conjuring; Communities; Therapeutic Strategies; Individual and
    Self-Expression; Cross-Regional Slave Labor; Religion as
    Resistance/Religion as Community Builder; Comparative Slavery and Anti-
    Slavery Movements; Gender and Cultural Continuity; Slave Labor and
    Capitalism; Shifting Definitions of African Liberation; Past and
    Present in the Expressive Imagination; Interpretations of the Past
    through Music/Art/Dance/Literary-Oral Traditions; Cultural
    Transmissions; Africans as Workers; Burial Grounds
    as Sites of Testimony; and African Perspectives on the Diaspora.
    
    The conference will also launch a new, multi-disciplinary association,
    tentatively called "The Association for the Study of the Worldwide
    African Diaspora," or ASWAD.
    
    Proposals and inquiries can be directed to:
    
    
           Michael Gomez                Fax:  212-995-4017
           Dept. of History             Ofc:  212-998-8624
           53 Washington Square South   Michael.Gomez@nyu.edu
           New York, NY 10012-1098
    
                          *Steering Committee*
    
    Mervyn Alleyne
    Keletso Atkins
    Lisa Aubrey
    Richard Blackett
    Michael Blakey
    Yvonne Daniel
    James Davis
    Howard Dodson
    Carlene Edie
    Elizabeth Eldredge
    David Barry Gaspar
    Michael Gomez
    Gwendolyn Midlo Hall
    Robert Hill
    John O. Hunwick
    Fatimah Jackson
    Robin D.G. Kelley
    Joseph Miller
    James Millette
    Micere Mugo
    Colin Palmer
    Julio Cesar de Tavares
    Sterling Stuckey
    Ibrahim Sundiata
    Rosalyn Terborg-Penn
    Sheila Walker
    Margaret Washington

   

• The Atlantic Slave Trade 1527-1867
  • 
    

    	The Atlantic Slave Trade 1527-1867 The Du Bois Institute Database A Workshop of the International Seminar on the History of the Atlantic World Harvard University April 25-26, 1998
    The slave ship Marie Séraphique, from Nantes, shown off the coast of Cap Français, St.. Domingue, in 1773 "on the opening day of sale, third voyage from Angola, 1772-1773." Four voyages of this ship—1769, 1770, 1772, and 1773—appear in the Du Bois Institute data set, as does its captain, J.-B. Fautrel Gaugy.

    
    This two-day Workshop was devoted to analysis and interpretation of the Atlantic slave trade, focused on the new database of 27,224 slave voyages, 1562-1867, compiled under the sponsorship of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University. This compilation, now in machine-readable form to be published on CD-ROM by the Cambridge University Press, is the product of a team of scholars—David Eltis of Queens University, Canada, David Richardson of Hull University, England, Herbert Klein of Columbia University, and Stephen Behrendt, now at the University of Victoria, New Zealand. The Introduction to the CD-ROM, now scheduled for publication in mid-1999, has been made available online by Cambridge University Press in an Acrobat format. The data set, representing voyages by all the major transatlantic carriers, covers approximately two-thirds of all voyages in the history of the trade and includes characteristics of the vessels, numbers of slaves, ports of departure and arrival, crew size, and other significant variables.
    

    Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Workshop Program

    Saturday, April 25
    
    Session 1, 9:30 a.m.
    Forum Room, Lamont Library
    

    Opening Remarks

    Professor Bernard Bailyn, Harvard University

    The Du Bois Institute Database: What Is It? What's in It? How Can It Be Used? Explanations and Illustrations

    David Eltis, Queen's University, Canada

    David Richardson, Hull University, England

    Stephen Behrendt, Charles Warren Center, Harvard University

    Herbert Klein, Columbia University

    Luncheon, 12:30 p.m. Great Space, Robinson Hall
    Session 2, 2:00 p.m.
    Forum Room, Lamont Library
    

    The Database: Exploration; Illustration; Discussion

    Professors Eltis, Richardson, Behrendt, and Klein

    Reception, 5:00 p.m., Great Space, Robinson Hall
    Sunday, April 26
    
    Session 3, 9:30 a.m.
    Barker Center, Room 110
    

    Interpretations

    Joseph A. Miller, University of Virginia Philip D. Morgan, College of William & Mary

    Responses and Discussion

    Luncheon, 1:00 p.m., Barker Center, Room 110
    
    Please send inquiries or comments to Atlantic History Seminar, Harvard University.

    © 1998 by The President and Fellows of Harvard College.

    Created and last revised March 23, 1999.

   

• The Nature of Atlantic History

  • CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT
    
      The editors of _Itinerario. The European Journal of Overseas
    History_, and the Institute for the History of European
    Expansion (IGEER) of Leiden University and pleased to
    announce a conference on "The Nature of Atlantic History"
    which will be held on Friday 14 & Saturday 15 May 1999 at
    the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS),
    Meijboomlaan 1, 2242 PR Wassenaar, The Netherlands
    
    Program:
    
    Friday Sessions:
    
    9.30 a.m.  Pieter Emmer (Leiden University): "Introduction"=20
    
    9.45 a.m.  David Hancock (University of Michigan at Ann
    Arbor): "Self-Organization, Conversation and the Emergence
    of an Atlantic Market Economy, 1663-1807"=20
    
    11.10 a.m.  David Eltis (Queen's University, Canada):
    "Pre-Nineteenth Century Atlantic History: An African
    Perspective"=20
    
    12.05 a.m.  Deborah White (Rutgers University):
    "Considerations on the Black Atlantic"=20
    
    2.15 p.m.  Carla Rahn Phillips (University of Minnesota at
    Twin Cities): "The Iberian Atlantic"=20
    
    4.00 p.m.  Wim Klooster (University of Southern Maine) &
    Pieter Emmer (Leiden University): "The Dutch Atlantic,
    1600-1800. Expansion without Empire"=20
    
    Saturday Sessions
    
    9.30 a.m.:  Silvia Marzagalli (Universit=E9 Michel de
    Montaigne-Bordeaux III): "The French Atlantic"=20
    
    10.30 a.m.:  Alison F. Games (Georgetown University):
    "Teaching Atlantic History"=20
    
    12.00 a.m.:  Philip D. Morgan (William and Mary Quarterly):
    "Afterthoughts & Discussion"=20
    
    
    For more information, please contact:
    
      Mr. Olaf Peters, editorial assistant
    _Itinerario. European Journal of Overseas History_
    Leiden University, Historical Institute
    P.O. Box 9515, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
    e-mail: Itinerario@rullet.LeidenUniv.nl
    Tel.: +31.71.527-2768 / Fax.: +31.71.527-2652
    URL: http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/itin/itin.htm

   

• Third International Conference on Women in Africa & the African Diaspora: FACING THE NEW MILLENNIUM: GENDER IN AFRICA AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA -- RETROSPECTION AND PROSPECTS
  • CALL FOR ACTION! MADAGASCAR 2001!!
    
      Third International Conference on Women in Africa & the African Diaspora
    (WAAD III)
    
    Theme:
    FACING THE NEW MILLENNIUM:
    GENDER IN AFRICA AND THE AFRICAN DIASPORA--RETROSPECTION AND PROSPECTS
    ANTANANARIVO & TAMATAVE, MADAGASCAR
    
    (OCTOBER 8-17, 2001)
    
    CONTACT: Obioma Nnaemeka, Convenor, Third WAAD Conference, Women's
    Studies Program, Cavanaugh Hall Room 001C, Indiana University, 425
    University Boulevard, Indianapolis, IN 46202, USA. Phone: (317) 278-2038,
    (317) 274-7611 or (317) 274-0062 (messages), fax: (317) 274-2347, e-mail:
    WAAD@iupui.edu (PLEASE USE E-MAIL FOR FASTER SERVICE).
    
    NOTE: This announcement and conference updates are available at the
    conference website: http://www.iupui.edu/~aaws/ (click on "Action Alert"
    or "WAAD Conference"). REGISTRATION FORM is at the end of this message.
    PREAMBLE
    "Onye amaro ebe nmili si bido mabaya ama ama onye nyelu ya akwa oji welu
    ficha aru" (Igbo proverb)/If you do not remember where the rain started to
    beat you, you will not remember who gave you the towel with which to dry
    your body.
    
    The relationship between history/memory and progress evident in the above
    Igbo proverb reflects the Janus-faced enterprise that will be undertaken
    by the third international conference on Women in Africa and African
    Diaspora (WAAD III), to be held in magnificent Madagascar at the dawn of a
    new millennium (October 2001). In the tradition of WAAD conferences, WAAD
    III will focus on issues relating to women of African descent but more
    than before, the meeting in Madagascar will draw attention to the urgency
    and pertinence of a sense of history as participants engage simultaneously
    in stocktaking and mapping forward-looking strategies for future
    engagements.
    
    WAAD has its own history. The first conference (WAAD I), which was held in
    1992 in the rural Igbo town of Nsukka (Nigeria), brought together over 700
    men and women from all continents. The sub-theme of WAAD I, "Bridges
    across Activism and the Academy," underscores the conference's primary
    goal of providing an arena for the equal participation of researchers and
    grassroots women, men, and organizations. The second conference held in
    the American city of Indianapolis in October 1998 gathered hundreds of
    participants from 35 countries and 48 national and international
    organizations to examine issues related to the health and human rights of
    women of African descent. This third conference to be held in the historic
    and beautiful island of Madagascar will examine, in cross-disciplinary
    terms, gender in relation to history, the arts, peace, democracy, and
    development.
    
    As we enter a new age, what should be the African response to non-African
    structures as they relate to women and gender, gender synthesis, etc.?
    What constitutes the Africanness of the woman? What is "woman" in Africa
    and the Diaspora? An examination of any of these issues and questions
    directs an inward look into the African political, cultural and
    socio-economic structures and history in order to engage development. What
    kind of development? Whose development?
    
    Discussing the issue of development, K. Y. Amoako, the Executive Secretary
    of the Economic Commission for Africa asserts that "Africa is experiencing
    a renaissance." What is the gender implication of this renaissance? Can
    women in Africa and the African Diaspora traverse the millennial highway
    with their male counterparts?
    
    What techniques, tools or skills are needed for this enterprise? Constructive
    analysis of governance, race relations, economic and legal reforms, war
    and peace, cultural norms, oral and written literatures, the media and
    information technology aimed at gender-friendly reconstruction is the
    starting point of engagement for the WAAD III gathering of individuals and
    organizations.
    
    PARTICIPANTS:
    WAAD does not discriminate on the basis of gender, class, race, religious
    affiliation, ethnicity, national origin, etc. Researchers, students,
    activists and policy makers, members of the media, writers and
    artists as well as all those who are interested in issues relating to
    women in Africa and the African Diaspora are invited to participate in
    this conference.
    
    FORMAT:
    There will be keynote/plenary speeches, panel presentations, workshops,
    forums, town-meetings, art exhibitions, photo/slide presentations, and
    film screening. Because the conference is designed to encourage maximum
    participation from students and grassroots men, women, and organizations,
    we will create an environment conducive to a free flow of information and
    exchanges.
    
    LANGUAGE:
    English and French are the official languages of WAAD. Proposals
    and papers in both languages will be accepted.
    
    PAPERS:
    We expect papers that deal with the nature, strengths and weaknesses of
    gender as well as the forces and structures that impact gender, those that
    have continued to shape gender, and those that are expected to influence
    it in the new millennium. Aspects of this broad field should be tackled
    as they relate to various fields and concerns such culture, theory, arts,
    development, economy, education, politics, science, ethnicity and
    diversity, war and peace, post/neo-colonialism, globalization etc.
    
    THEORY:
    Papers should address concepts, theoretical questions, and issues such as
    womanism, feminism, gender, biologism, sex and sexualities, masculinities,
    race/racism/race relations, female underdevelopment, patriarchy, gender
    education, structural inequality, motherhood, empowerment, power systems,
    polygamy, matriarchy, gender attitude etc. Is gender significant in the
    social, political and economic agenda of African states? What is the
    panacea for change--gender rhetoric, symbolic action, tokens, policies,
    civil disobedience, non-violence strategies, etc.? In light of the
    multiple relegation of women due to race, gender, class and caste, etc.,
    how should government policies and programs be packaged and targetted?
    
    CONFLICTS/PEACE, IMMIGRATION, HUMAN RIGHTS & THE LAW:
    How do issues such as women's rights, human rights, and legislation relate
    to rape, femicide, and other forms of violence against women? How
    do African traditional institutions and practices such as circumcision,
    marriage, family, widowhood rites and ceremonies construct "woman"? What
    is the status of women in traditional, statutory, religious (Islamic,
    Christian etc.) and international laws? How have global emigration,
    border-crossing and immigration policies affected women in Africa and
    the African Dispora? What are the consequences of wars/social conflicts
    on women not only as victims of wars but also as makers of peace?
    
    HEALTH--RESEARCH & SERVICES:
    We expect papers to address issues in traditional and modern health
    delivery systems; evaluate health care policies and research, sanitation
    services, cultural practices related to women's health, and child and
    maternal care; rethink issues in children's socialization, aging,
    emotional and mental health, and propose strategies for tackling endemic
    diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, cancer and tuberculosis.
    
    ARTS AND HUMANITIES:
    Construction, deconstruction and reconstruction of images and myths (of
    women and gender) that inhibit progress are major issues in the
    discipline. Papers should address African/African Diaspora gender
    construction, reconstruction, influences and projection in the work
    of story-tellers, writers, poets, artists, dramatists, performers,
    musicians, film-makers, information technicians, and media experts. What
    is and should be the place of women in professions in the arts (film,
    theater, plastic and fine arts etc.), publishing, information technology,
    and communication? What role does/should the arts play in development?
    EDUCATION:
    The nature and value of existing education/educational systems will be
    investigated. Is the colonial/Western-oriented education adequate
    in preparing Africans to question gender realities and women's education,
    tackle the massive globalization and aggressive world capital, and
    transform rather than conform to such realities? What are the prospects of
    non-institutionalized education--radio, video, the television and
    tele-centers? Is there a place or need for feminist/womanist/gender
    conscientization in the educational systems?
    POLITICAL ECONOMY:
    The gap between Africa and African Diaspora as well as widening gulf
    between African and Caucasian worlds are of serious concern--women and
    governance, democratization, militarization, activism, constitutional
    changes, war, peace and security, African women and global economy,
    prospects of small holdings and free market in the reign of capitalism,
    pre-industrial, industrial and post-industrial experience and complexes,
    indigenisation, privatization, non governmental organizations (NGOs),
    political and economic emancipation, urban/rural, African/Diaspora,
    north/south, role/work are possible areas of investigation.
    RELIGION:
    What is the status of women in the old and new religions, sects
    and cults? What is its impact on the new world order, diversity and
    feminist/womanist ideology/theology? What is the role/use of religion in
    women's predicament/lives and what are the prospects for women's
    development and empowerment?
    SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY:
    Traditional and modern science, the role of women in science and the use
    of science for women and gender categorizations are important areas of
    concern. For example, the implications of male-centered and women-hostile
    equipment are topical issues.
    CULTURE:
    Papers should use the broad perspective of culture to engage any
    aspect of the above categories in their inter-connectedness. For example,
    traditional role-sharing can intersect with marital stress which is a
    health issue and poverty which is an economic issue.
    NETWORKING:
    The regionalization of WAAD operations will allow the different regions
    (through the country representatives and regional co-ordinators) to bring
    to the the table agendas which reflect regional realities and specificity.
    The conference will provide a fertile ground for networking as participants
    search for solutions to these issues in their uniqueness and similarities.

   

• Rethinking African Diasporic Literature: Celebrating the Literary Contributions of African Peoples from Europe, Canada, and Latin America
  •   Rethinking African Diasporic Literature: Celebrating the Literary
    Contributions of African Peoples from Europe, Canada, and Latin America
    Deadline April 30, 2001
    
    October 11-12, 2001, Stony Brook University at State University of New York
    Department of Africana Studies
    
    Transatlantic, Diasporic, and Postcolonial Studies have opened doors for
    the exploration of literature that has been traditionally ignored by the
    academy. Fields of study relative to Afro-European, Afro-Canadian, and
    Afro-Latin literatures have been overshadowed by the more recognized and
    established canons such as African American, Caribbean, and African
    literature.
    
    "Rethinking African Diasporic Literature" will allow students and scholars
    to critically engage in a range of theoretical, pedagogical, and cultural
    issues pursuant to writers of African descent who are located throughout
    the Diaspora.
    
    This one-day symposium will include presentations along with roundtable
    discussions.
    
    Proposed Papers/Panels should address (but are not limited to) the following:
    
    1) Canon formation: Do we recognize an established canon for the particular
    field of study? If so, what writers are included/excluded?
    
    2) Defining Literature: How is the literature in question defined? For
    example, how does one define Black German, Black Brazilian, Black British,
    Black Canadian Literature? What works and authors are included under this
    category?
    
    3) Pedagogy: How is the literature taught. Is the literature part of a
    Pan-African, Caribbean, or Postcolonial Literature course or is the
    literature taught as a focused study course?
    
    4) Research and Methodology: Suggested recommendations for effective ways
    to locate and access primary and secondary sources--electronically and
    traditionally.
    
    Please send abstracts (no more than 500 words) to:
    Dr. T. Walters, Department of Africana Studies, Stony Brook University,
    Stony Brook, New
    York, 11794-3391;
    e-mail: twalters@notes.cc.sunysb.edu ; phone: 631-632-7470

• State of the Black World Conference "Creating Our 21st Century"

  •  

  State of the Black World Conference

  "Creating Our 21st Century"

  November 28 - December 2, 2001

  Georgia International Convention Center

  Atlanta, Georgia

  The Call

  As people of African descent, Black people, enter a new

  millennium, everything has changed for our people but

  fundamentally nothing has changed. In the motherland, the

  continent of Africa, our people have been "liberated" from

  colonialism, but the voice of Kwame Nkrumah speaks to us

  from the grave - Africa is neither genuinely free or united.

  The motherland is still in the clutches of the former

  colonial powers who control much of the land, wealth,

  natural resources and the economies of our new nations

  rendering our "liberation"an exercise in "flag

  independence." We have symbols without substance and

  governments without real power. On the richest continent

  on earth, neo-colonialism is the order of the day.

  In the diaspora, conditions for people of African descent

  are much the same. The islands of the Caribbeans are

  struggling to throw off the yoke of neo-colonialism in the

  shadow of the world's one remaining superpower, the United

  States of America. Despite halting efforts towards regional

  cooperation, disunity and economic powerlessness is still

  the prevailing reality. In Central and South America, the

  awakening Afro-Latino populations, like Black people

  everywhere, find themselves at the bottom of the

  socio-economic and political ladder forced to fight

  against discrimination, cultural aggression and economic

  exploitation. In Europe and Canada, Black communities are

  constrained by racism and economic depravity as our people

  are compelled to fight for "first class" citizenship.

  In the United States, though the walls of legal segregation

  have been abolished and we have a multitude of Black faces

  in elected offices previously occupied by White faces, in

  the rural areas of the South the vestiges of apartheid

  remain painfully intact, Black farmers continue to lose land

  at an alarming rate and the urban ghettos resemble "domestic

  colonies" -- dis-empowered zones of desolation and despair

  where our people suffer from the ravages of poverty and

  neglect. While we have more middle class and upward mobile

  Blacks than at anytime in our history on these hostile

  shores, neither our growing "Black National Income," or our

  political potential has translated into real economic and

  political power for the masses of Black people. Racial

  profiling, police brutality, tougher sentencing, more

  prisons and the death penalty are harsh facts of life for

  the huge numbers of our people in the U.S. The prison-jail

  industrial complex is being built on the backs of the

  descendants of enslaved Africans.

  DuBois' prophesy that the colorline would be the principal

  problem of the 20th century would appear to be relevant in

  the 21st century as well. How long will the sons and

  daughter of the people who gave the world its first glimpse

  of mathematics, medicine and astronomy, how long will the

  descendants of those who built the pyramids and presided

  over flourishing societies for thousands of years prior

  to the Holocaust of enslavement, how long will it take for

  people of African descent, Black people to fulfill Garvey's

  exhortation, "up you mighty race, you can accomplish what

  you will?"

  The time is now. We must approach our future with the spirit

  of Queen Ngzingha in her fierce resistance to European

  domination; Boukman, Harriet Tubman and Nat Turner who were

  determined that despite the odds, Black people must be free

  and self-determining; Fannie Lou Hamer who proclaimed that

  she was "sick and tired of being sick and tired" and then

  acted with passion and uncompromising commitment to do

  something to transform the wretched condition of our people.

  In the new millennium, people of African descent the world

  over must compete or perish. We must Create Our 21st

  Century.

  Creating our 21st century will require that we not only

  struggle relentlessly against racism, white supremacy and

  economic domination, as Cabral taught us, we must also

  "struggle against our own weaknesses." There can be no room

  in the 21st century for self aggrandizing false "leaders"

  who sell out the masses of our people by squandering our

  human and material resources, wallowing in corruption,

  engaging genocidal wars for blood money/profit or

  collaborating with the forces that would re-enslave us for

  "thirty pieces of silver." The plight of the Black masses is

  tragic testimony to the fact that having leaders with Black

  skin alone is not sufficient to guarantee our liberation.

  In memory of our collective ancestry, and for the sake of

  the youth of this and future generations, at the beginning

  of a new millennium, we are called upon to restore the

  vision and values, power, strength and humanity of the

  African worldview -- Umoja-Unity, Kujichalgulia-Self-

  Determination, Ujimaa-Collective Work and Responsibility,

  Ujamaa-Cooperative Economics, Nia-Purpose, Kuumba-Creativity

  and Imani-Faith. From Soweto to Cairo, Belize to Brazil,

  Kingston to Toronto, London to Paris, the aboriginal peoples

  of Australia and the Oceanic Islands of the Pacific, from

  Chicago to Atlanta, the masses of Black people must come

  together, people to people, movement to movement,

  institution to institution, to define and affirm the nature

  of true national liberation, self-determination and national

  reconstruction for our people and launch a new Black

  cultural, economic and political renaissance to rescue

  and restore African people to our historical greatness!

  Let the call go out across the globe to every corner of the

  planet for the sons and daughters of those who gave birth

  to humanity in Africa, Black people, to convene in Atlanta,

  Georgia November 28 - December 2, 2001, for the first great

  gathering of people of African descent in the new millennium

  - The State of the Black World Conference - to take up the

  daunting but essential and achievable challenge of Creating

  Our 21st Century!

   

  Goals and Objectives

  The State of the Black World Conference is being convened to:

  * Identify, analyze and discuss the critical crises and

  issues facing Black people and to provide leadership and

  skill development training to enhance our collective

  capacity to engage the struggle for liberation. To place a

  special emphasis on youth/young people - sharing and passing

  the torch to the next generation of leadership.

  * To bridge the gap and heal the painful and harmful

  divisions between the various peoples of African descent

  within the African/Black family, e.g., African Americans,

  Africans on the continent, Africans from the Caribbean and

  Afro-Latinos.

  * Discuss and adopt meaningful definitions of "liberation"

  and "reconstruction" consistent with the vision, values and

  historical worldview of African people.

  * Facilitate people to people, movement to movement

  and institution to institution information sharing of

  experiences, exchange of information and networking towards

  the creation of a Black World Network and Pan African

  Councils committed to genuine national liberation and

  reconstruction.

  * Intensify the global movement for reparations for people

  of African descent for the devastating damages inflicted on

  our people through the holocaust of enslavement and the

  slave trade as gross crimes against humanity.

  * Work towards the convening of an International Black Arts

  and Cultural Festival to be held in 2004 in Haiti in

  commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the Haitian

  Revolution.

  * To create an Institute of the Black World as the

  continuations mechanism of the State of the Black World

  Conference and the clearinghouse for the Black World

  Network. and Pan African Councils and a center to engage

  in critical research, provide ongoing technical assistance,

  leadership and skill development training for activists

  and organizers.

   

  Speakers * Panelists * Resource Persons * Special Guests *

  Artists & Entertainers

  Rev. Al Sharpton

  Rev. Jesse L. Jackson

  Kweisi Mfume

  Hugh Price

  Martin King III

  Minister Louis Farrakhan

  Cong. Maxine Waters

  Cong. John Conyers

  Conrad Worrill

  Winnie Mandela

  Jomoke Ogunkeyede

  Kathy Freeman

  Ali Mazuri

  Dessima Williams

  Joann Watson

  Cong. Cynthia McKinney

  Asa Hilliard

  Ramona Edelin

  Adjoa Aiyetoro

  Rose Sanders

  Gwen Patton

  Haki Madhubuti

  Sonia Sanchez

  Kevin Powell

  Chuck Dee

  Roy Hastick

  Jemadari Kamara

  Don Rojas

  Wayne Thompson

  Claude Anderson

  George Frazier

  Julienne Malveaux

  Ron Walters

  James Turner

  Nkechi Taifa

  Zainab Bangura

  Jaribu Hill

  Randall Robinson

  Viola Plummer

  Elombe Brath

  Manning Marable

  Bev Smith

  Jill Soffiyah Elijah

  Cornel West

  Johnnie Cochran

  Olusegun Obasanjo

  Jean Bertrand Aristide

  P.J. Patterson

  Zainab Bangura

  Salim A. Salim

  Charles Barron

  Mary France-Daniels

  Tim Hector

  Damu Smith

  Beverly Wright

  Maulana Karenga

  Badi Murphy

  Bob Law

  Bev Smith

  Tom Joiner

  Tavis Smiley

  Tom Pope

  Joe Madison

  Bob Bullard

  Edwidge Danticat

  Manfred Antoine

  Ray LaForest

  Danny Glover

  Ron Hampton

  Welfare Poets

  Hugh Masakela

  Bernice Powell Jackson

  Melanie Campbell

  Dennis Rogers

  Charles Ogeltree

  Rev. Willie Wilson

  Bishop George A. Stallings

  Rev. Calvin Butts

  Mark Thompson

  Ashaki Binta

  Saludin Muhammad

  Gaylord Thomas

  Cong. Jesse Jackson, Jr.

  Cong. Sheila Jackson-Lee

  Joseph Beasley

  Leonard Tate

  Leonard Dunston

  Randolph Voyard

  Kimberle Crenshaw

  Brian Conton

  Cecil Blake

  Pam Africa

  Jemadari Kamara

  Don Rojas

  Dorothy Lewis

  Hannibal Afrik

  Linda Richardson

  Kermit Eady

  Bill Fletcher

  Bill Lucy

  Ka Fleuellen

  LaVerne Gyant

  Waldaba Stewart

  Raymond Winbush

  Miatta Fahnbulleh

  Sam Anderson

  Rosemari Mealy

  Wade Henderson

  Julius Garvey

  Chokwe Lumumba

  Imari Obadele

  Babatunde Olatunji

  Queen Latifah

  Susan Taylor

  Rick Adams

  Rev. Jamal Bryant

  Peggy Shepard

  Benjamin Jealous

  Monique Hardin

  Rev. Wendell Anthony

  Ron Daniels

  Malika Sanders

  Olimatta Taal

  Johnetta Cole

  Gaylord Thomas

  Damon Walters

  Adelaide Sanford

  The Harambee Singers

  Dick Gregory

   

  State of the Black World Conference

  P.O Box 2131 - Radio City Station

  New York, NY 10101-3131

  Toll Free Information Hotline:

  866-ATL-SOBW - 866-285-7629

  Web Site:

  http://www.tbwt.com/promos/stateoftheblackworld.asp

   

   

• PREPARATORY COMMITTEE OF THE THIRD CONGRESS OF THE ASSOCIATION OF AFRICAN HISTORIANS

  •  

  ANNOUNCEMENT

  Ladies and Gentlemen,

  Dear Colleagues,

  You have certainly received, often with some delay due to mail hazards

  the first announcement of the convening of the third Congress of the

  Association of African Historians. This announcement was sent with Pr.

  J. Ki-Zerbo's Blurb relating to the Congress theme and a provisional

  registration form.

  The Preparatory Committee is happy to hereby confirm that the Congress

  will he held at the scheduled dates (september 10 - 14, 2001) informing

  you of the approach that it is recommending and the major difficulties

  it is encountering.

  About the Scientific part of Congress :

  Considering the theme proposals already recorded, different suggestions

  that were made, and in its concern for efficiency, the Preparatory

  Committee found it useful to focus scientific discussions on some major

  themes :

  Theme I. : Africa in the world in the precolonial period : Globalization

  before the letter.

  Under this theme could be presented all papers dealing with the former

  involvement of Africa in the world channel of ideas of economy, politics

  and especially its insertion in "World economy" well before the colonial

  intrusion. Here one could also deal with Africa's relationships with

  other various regions of the world and their cultures, with factors that

  were at the root of these contacts and the conditions under which they

  took place ; what were the implications on either side and particularly

  for the History of Africa.

  Theme II. : From the first explorers to the Colonial conquest : The

  passage of Africans from the status of actors to that of subjects in

  international relations.

  Under this theme, would be taken into account any period during which

  Europe, in its relationships with Africa, is gradually substituting the

  spirit of Conquest for the one which, at the beginning, seemed to be the

  concern of the discovery of the other and the search for partnership.

  Thus, from actors participating in international relations under the

  banner of their interests, Africans were reduced to subjects henceforth

  submitted to the requirements of economic expansion and the thirst for

  political domination of conquering powers.

  The impact of colonial management on the evolution of African societies,

  its implications at the level of international relations, rivalries

  between imperialist powers, Africans' participation in the two wars and

  its consequences are so many issues that could be tackled under this

  theme.

  Theme III. : Myths and realities of African integration from the

  Colonial period to the early years of independence.

  Under this rubric could be dealt with, among others, the subjects

  relating to the genesis of the Pan-Africanist movement. Did the colonial

  groups such as A.O.F. (Afrique Occidentale Francaise - French Western

  Africa), A.E.F. (Afrique Equatoriale Francaise - French Equatorial

  Africa), Commonwealth, Union Francaise (French Union), Communaute

  Francaise (French Community), play a role in Pan-African consciousness

  raising ? Were the ideas of Pan-Africanism and federalism, that led the

  discussions in the period of independances taking their roots in

  colonial or precolonial groups ? What were the different arguments that

  were supporting the Pan-Africanist theses of that period and the

  strategies proposed to achieve African Unity ?

  Theme IV. : Present experiences and perspectives of African Unity From

  OAU (Organization of African Unity) to African Union, Africa has known

  multiple experiences of subregional and regional integration. What

  result can be assessed from them ?

  Seeing the former and recent political evolutions in Africa, what

  analysis can be done today of some of the founding factors of

  Pan-Africanism, such as the OAU charter ? In the light of the on-going

  processes of economic and political liberalization, what perspectives

  are offered to African integration from the historian's point of view?

  Theme V. : Africa in the "big game" of current international relations

  or globalization seen by historians.

  What place for Africa in this globalization governed by the unique

  neo-liberal thought, and which under the leadership of international

  financial institutions, is imposing itself everywhere through the

  activities of multinational companies and stock-exhange transactions ?

  Can Africa play a role considering the world's present configuration ?

  What assets does it have at its disposal ? And what are its major

  handicaps ?

  These are so many issues that the historian's point of view can clarify.

  It is also true that the quality of lights that may be expected from the

  historian depends to a large extent on the pertinence of his approach

  and that of the methods and tools that he uses.

  The work of the historian who aims at restoring facts (constantly

  reinterpreted) through various sources largely depends on his

  methodological tools and particularly the conceptual devore he resorts

  to.

  What part do African historians play in elaborating these "referentials"

  that lay claim to universality ?

  The importance of methodological and historiographical problems

  justifies, to our mind, that the latter are examined during this plenary

  session. Thus might be tackled on this occasion some of the essential

  issues raised by Pr. Ki-Zerbo in his blurb: What critical look should be

  cast today on African History ? African History and globalization :

  Comparativism and universalism. Is there a periodisation of history at

  global level valid for Africa ? What is the pertinence for African

  history, of the most recurrent fields of investigation today ? Or even

  the problems raised by the transmission of African History to younger

  generations.

  It should be specified that if the narrowing of the general theme of the

  Congress comes from the concern to favor analysis of historical

  processes in the long term, it does not exclude at all monographic

  studies. Thus the proposals already recorded will be the subject of a

  close examination from the Scientific Committee. But the coming

  proposals should be inserted in the context of the themes retained.

  The deadline for receiving summaries (one page maximum) previously set

  on March 15 has been reset to April 30, 2001 (final deadline).

  For proposals that will be retained, the final texts should reach as

  latest by June 30, 2001, preferably by E-mail. (Please use preferably

  the Winword Software, and take into account the time of the postal mail.

  About the Associative and institutional part :

  A day will be devoted to different issues related to the life of the

  Association and its different organs. The organization modalities and

  the schedule of that day will be specified in due time for the attention

  of African participants.

  Participation in Congress :

  As the Preparatory Committee does not have sufficient means to take

  care of all participants and as it is anxious, all the same, to get a

  large participation in the Congress, it invites again colleagues to put

  a lot of effort into seeking means of taking care of them, particularly

  their tickets.

  However, the organizers will continue to seek the means that will

  enable to assure accommodation and / or the meals of a certain number of

  African participants.

  Relying on your good understanding and hoping that we will make

  together this IIIrd Congress successful, a Congress that me like to be

  that of refoundation, we wish to remain, ladies and Gentlemen, Dear

  Colleagues,

  Yours Truly,

  Bamako, March 16, 2001

  For the Preparatory Committee

  Pr. Doulaye KONATE, Chairman

  You can reach us at the following addresses :

  Association des Historiens Maliens (ASHIMA).

  SIEGE : Rue MAGE 428 - B.P. : E 5484 Bamako-Mali

  Tel. (223) 23-87-70 / Fax : (223) 23-87-72,

  E-mail : doulaye@afribone.net.ml

  C/o Bureau de l UNESCO.

  M. Ydo Yao ou Nana Kattra

  B.P. : E 1763. Bamako (MALI)

  Tel. : (223) 23 34 92/93

  Fax : (223) 23 34 94

  E-mail : ydo@afribone.net.ml

  Institut des Sciences Humaines (ISH)

  Dr Seydou Camara

  Tel. : 21 14 64

  Fax : 21 95 67

  E-mail : ish@datatech.toolnet.org

  IIIrd CONGRESS OF THE AFRICAN HISTORIANS ASSOCIATION

  Bamako, September 10 - 14 / 2001

   

   

• Race in the Humanities

  •  

  Delivered-To: H-Africa@h-net.msu.edu

  Date: Thu, 03 May 2001

  From: Jana E. Braziel

  University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

  <braziel.jana@uwlax.edu>

  UPDATED CALL FOR PAPERS--PLEASE CIRCULATE & POST

  IN YOUR DEPT./UNIV.

  A selected number of the papers presented at this conference

  may be published in book form by a university press. We are

  currently working out terms for this contract.

  Race in the Humanities

  The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse will hold an

  interdisciplinary conference on Race in the Humanities from

  November 15-17, 2001. As the organizers of the conference, we

  seek individual paper abstracts and panel proposals related to

  the conference theme. We envision the conference as an

  interdisciplinary venue that will allow students, staff, and

  faculty to discuss the role of race in the humanities--both

  within individual disciplines and within the foundations of

  humanistic studies in the university. Four keynote speakers

  will present at the conference---Molefi Asante (Africana

  Studies, Temple University); Chester J. Fontenot, Jr. (English

  and African American Studies, Mercer University); Charles W.

  Mills (Philosophy, University of Illinois at Chicago); and

  Ishmael Reed, renowned African American author and scholar.

  In keeping with Mills's theoretical interrogation of philosophy

  as a racialized discipline, this conference will examine the

  constitutive role that race has played in the formation of

  other disciplines in the humanities, such as literary studies,

  women's studies, art, art history, history, and

  theatre. Critical discussions at the conference will not

  merely reflect on the opening of canons---literary, historical,

  artistic, philosophical---to minority writers, scholars, and

  thinkers (although this shift is certainly a significant one

  that will inform our discussions of race in the humanities),

  but it will also examine the very foundations of humanistic,

  disciplinary, and interdisciplinary studies in the humanities.

  Research questions posed by the organizers of the conference,

  Pace in the Humanities, include:

  How are literary genres racialized?

  How have national literatures erased ethnic and

  racial difference within its nationalistic parameters of

  definition?

  How are definitions of history and historicity

  predicated on notions of racial difference?

  (For example, Hegel's notions of world history as articulated

  in Philosophy of History.)

  How have the arts been constructed on racialized

  aesthetic foundations?

  How have art historians shaped research through racialized

  frames of enquiry and analysis?

  How, historically and institutionally, have the arts benefited from

  the institutions of slavery and colonialism?

  How has race been formative in the establishment of

  disciplinary boundaries?

  And how do the methodologies of disciplines perpetuate the

  racialization of knowledges?

  We encourage submissions related, but not limited, to these

  research questions. As an interdisciplinary and multi-ethnic

  conference for faculty, staff, and students, the organizers

  also solicit papers that address the following:

  race and research in the humanities;

  teaching about race;

  race in the classroom; and

  myriad other topics related to race in the humanities.

  Conference topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  *the metaphysics and poetics of race

  *race and history;

  *postcolonial critiques of race and history

  * race as philosophical idea;

  *postcolonial critiques of race and philosophy

  * race as culturally-constructed metaphor

  *race as linguistic imperialism and semantic colonization

  *language as racial/national imperialism (Ngugi's

  colonization of the mind);

  *Brathwaite's nation-language (and other

  postcolonial models);

  *historical genocides in Americas & humanistic

  renaissances in Europe;

  *rhetorics of subpersonhood;

  *race as inscriptions of Otherness and alterity property

  as identity;

  *identity as property;

  *race, racism, capitalism, global capitalism, and the

  (uncertain) future of the humanities;

  *dialogues of monocultural flogging;

  *race and transatlantic passages (the Black Diaspora,

  the Indo-Caribbean Diaspora, Jewish Diaspora and

  other transnational migrations);

  *literary and historical constructions of Old World/New

  World;

  *African diasporan religions (Vodou, Obeah, Santeria, et

  cetera) and political resistance;

  *race as ubiquitous trope in American literary,

  historical, and social discourse;

  *race and theorizations of metissage, criollo, creole,

  Creolite, and hybridity;

  *racialization of minorities in the U.S. (African

  American, Asian American, Latin/American,

  Native American, and other ethnic minorities);

  *racialization of minorities globally (for example,

  Maghrebis in France; Turks in Germany;

  Pakistanis and others in Britain);

  *race, ethnic minorities, and citizenship in the U.S.;

  *race, ethnic minorities, and citizenship globally;

  *race and history; racial memory and historical monuments;

  *race, critical race theory, and legal discourse;

  *whiteness as institutionalized in humanistic disciplines;

  *privileges of whiteness;

  *failures of whiteness.

  We strongly encourage submissions by faculty, graduate, and

  undergraduate student researchers on the conference theme. We

  also plan to hold a final round table discussion (following

  the panels) to allow for critical exchange of ideas generated

  by conference speakers and to further encourage dialogue about

  the formative role of race in the humanities.

  Please submit extended abstracts (2-3 pages) and/or panel

  proposals with a brief curriculum vitae by June 10, 2001

  to the following address:

  Dr. Joseph Young or Dr.Jana Evans Braziel

  English Department

  University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

  La Crosse, WI 54601.

  Email inquiries to young.jose@uwlax.edu or

  braziel.jana@uwlax.edu.

  For more information, please visit the conference web site at

  http://www.uwlax.edu/RaceConference

  Sponsored by the University of Wisconsin System Office of

  Multicultural Affairs, the UWL Foundation, the Noel J. Richards

  Fund, the College of Liberal Studies at UWL, the Institute for

  Ethnic and Racial Studies at UWL, the following UWL

  Departments: English, Philosophy, Foreign Languages, Political

  Science/Public Administration, Sociology/Archaeology, and

  Women's Studies.

   

   

• International Conference on African Literatures: Versions & Subversions

  • Date:    Thu, 5 Jul 2001
    From:    Flora Veit-Wild and Susan Arndt
             <versions@rz.hu-berlin.de>
    
    -CALL FOR Papers! Berlin 2002!!
    
    International Conference on African Literatures:
    Versions & Subversions
    
    Hosted by the Department of African Studies
    Humboldt University, Berlin
    (May 1-4, 2002)
    
    This is the first international conference on African literature to be
    hosted in Berlin after the reunification of the two Germanies. It aims
    at raising attention to the field of African literary studies within
    German academia, and to assemble scholars, writers, publishers and
    students from Africa, Europe and around the world to enter into
    debates about newly emerging, thought-provoking, inspiring topics and
    concepts in African literary criticism. VERSIONS & SUBVERSIONS stand
    for the multiple facets, themes, styles emerging currently in African
    literatures that question hegemonic discourses in this field.
    
    Keynote addresses and plenary papers will be delivered by prominent
    writers and scholars such as Simon Gikandi and Yvonne Vera. Panel
    sessions will be devoted to the following topics:
    
            Popular literatures - conformist or subversive?
            Body, illness, insanity
            Orature and literature: Continuity or discontinuity?
            Sexuality and homosexuality
            Gender roles and subversion in orature and literature
            Literatures in the "new" and the "old" African languages - New
                    impulses, themes, styles
            Comparatist approaches to Africanliteratures
            Racism in literature
            Postcoloniality in relation to modernity and postmodernity
            War, violence, and memory
            Gendered Racialism - The relationship of "race", gender and sexism
                    in African literature
            Cross-references: Possibilities and limitations of intertextuality
            Theatre in Africa  - New trends, new meanings
            Film, video, and the new media
    
    Scholars prominent in the respective fields will be invited to chair
    panels and present papers, among them Homi Bhabha, Chantal Zabus,
    Karin Barber, Obioma Nnaemeka, Chikwenye Ogunyemi, Eileen Julien,
    Graham Furniss, Alain Ricard, Bernard Mouralis, Janos Riesz and
    Eckhard Breitinger.
    
    Furthermore there will be round table discussions on the history of
    African literary studies in East and West Germany as well as Austria;
    the feminist controversy; and a presentation of writers' associations
    from Africa. There will also be readings by different generations of
    African writers, such as Taban lo Liyong, Boubacar Boris Diop, Ahmadou
    Kourouma, Gcina Mhlope, Lindsey Collen and Calixthe Beyala.

   

• Uncovering Connections: Cultural Endurance between Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean III

  • Location: New York, United States Call for Papers Deadline: 2001-12-01
    
    The Center for Diopian Inquiry and Research on Education as Culture Transmission (DIRECT Center) and The Office of International Programs at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York are soliciting papers for the 3rd annual Uncovering Connections: Cultural Endurance between Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean conference to be held March 15-16, 2002.
    
    Conceptually, papers should
    (1) address and promote an understanding of African culture as inclusive of the culture of Africans on the continent and Africans throughout the world,
    (2) foster scholarship that illustrates and investigates the mechanisms through which African culture has survived despite invasions, enslavement and colonization and
    (3) encourage students to explore the cultural continuities between Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean.
    
     We invite the submission of papers, including literature reviews that focus on:
     - The intergenerational transmission of African culture (i.e. the role of parenting in the survival of African culture or documenting the knowledge and practices of elders in Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas)
     - The retention of African culture and traditions (Africanisms) in the Caribbean and the Americas (i.e. spirituality, cultural norms, behaviors, patterns of speech, culinary arts, and aesthetic forms of expression whose roots are traceable to Africa)
     - Instances of cultural unity and/or similarities among African people throughout the world
     - The diverse mechanisms through which the transmission of African cultural knowledge has been disrupted (i.e. through colonization, enslavement, neo-colonialism, schooling etc)
     - The various approaches African people throughout the world use or have used to maintain, retain or rediscover their cultural knowledge and identity.
     - African culture as a source of understanding and action in the context of contemporary phenomena
    
     Interested persons should forward a one to two-page proposal by December 1, 2001 to the address below. Notification of acceptance will be mailed by January 14, 2002.
     Dr. Mwalimu J. Shujaa DIRECT Center Medgar Evers College-City University of New York 1650 Bedford Ave. Buffalo, NY 11225 Phone: (718)270-4987 Fax: (718)270-5180 Email: shujaa@mec.cuny.edu
     Kathleen J. Wininger, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Philosophy University of Southern Maine Portland, ME 04104-9300 U.S.A. tel (207) 780-4928 fax (207) 780-4226 Wininger@Maine.EDU
     http://www.usm.maine.edu/phi/faculty/wininger
     
     

• The Atlantic World and Virginia

  • From: John Saillant [mailto:John.Saillant@wmich.edu] Sent: Saturday, October 13, 2001 8:02 PM To: H-OIEAHC@H-NET.MSU.EDU Cc: H-ATLANTIC@H-NET.MSU.EDU Subject: CFP: The Atlantic World & Virginia/OIEAHC, 3/2004
    
    Call for Papers: The Atlantic World and Virginia An Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture Conference March 2004, at Jamestown, Virginia
    
    The conference proposes to survey the Atlantic Littoral on the eve of England’s colonization of Virginia. Within the Ottoman Empire, West African kingdoms, European nations, the British isles, and North and Central America, shifting forces and internal contests for political, economic, and cultural domination produced displacements and consolidations of power. Competition over resources and peoples had consequences for the convergence of Europeans, Indians, and Africans in the western hemisphere. The geopolitical realignments and socioeconomic reorganizations that occurred within these circum-Atlantic territories shaped the contacts between eastern and western hemisphere peoples and influenced the formation of new world societies. The intent of the conference and the volume that will develop from it is to create a mosaic picture of the regions and influences in play that formed the context and impetus for the settlement at Jamestown in 1607.
    
    The first set of sessions will examine the dynamics of power relations among native American populations in the southeastern coastal regions and interior, from the early sixteenth century to the arrival of the English in Virginia. The unifying theme will be how the social movements and economic-political arrangements in native America created the matrix in which subsequent interactions and experiences between English and Indians occurred. The second set of sessions will consider the reallocation of peoples around the Mediterranean with the expansion of Muslim penetration into sub-Saharan Africa and the concurrent conflicts among African kingdoms and groups. Here, the thrust will be to explore how these reconfigurations of power affected the size, contours, and expansion of the slave trade. A third set of sessions, focused on the internal social and political dislocations and reorganizations in Iberia, France, the Netherlands, and the British isles, will address how readjustments within these emerging nation-states promoted their colonial undertakings. Zones of contact in the Caribbean and in Central and North America, where encounters, conflicts, and developments contributed to the English claim and settlement of Virginia, will comprise the fourth set of sessions. The question to be explored will be how the competing presence and pressure of Europeans, Indians, and Africans in these adjacent areas influenced the conditions and events on the eastern coast of North America between 1580 and 1624. A fifth set of sessions will contemplate the period of Jamestown’s settlement under the control of the Virginia Company, 1607 ­ 1624, with the aim of elucidating the impact of the converging circum-Atlantic forces set in motion in the preceding century on the early years of colonial contact and experience in Virginia.
    
    The Conference will be multi-disciplinary and the program committee welcomes proposals from scholars in all appropriate fields. The Institute will edit the papers from the conference for a volume to be released in 2007. Please submit written proposals of three to five pages outlining the subject, argument, and relevance to the conference theme. Include curriculum vitae. Send five (5) copies to: The Atlantic World and Virginia, OIEAHC, Post Office Box 8781, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8781.
    
    Postmark deadline for proposals: June 30, 2002.

   

• Conscience and the Early Modern World: 1500-1800

  • A three day conference at the University of Sheffield, UK 7-9 July 2002
    
     In an era of confessional conflict, the conscience was a powerful mediator between God and man, directing and judging moral actions. It not only governed the relationship between the human and the divine but also the relationship between the individual and society. The conscience emerged as a potent concept in a variety of discourses and literary genres; casuistry; advice to princes; economic treatises and political pamphlets. Casuistic advice was disseminated in oral, manuscript and printed form. No part of human experience was seen as being beyond the jurisdiction of the conscience. All moral actions raised questions of conscience and, as a moral action was frequently defined as any act of voluntary human agency, the range and number of possible cases of conscience were almost limitless. Casuistry, the branch of moral theology devoted to the resolution of difficult cases, has already attracted much scholarly attention. Casuists were called upon to resolve queries of conscience arising in every area of private and public life. Popes, confessors, and theologians dispensed casuistic advice to princes and city magistrates on matters of state. Political authors found casuistic treatises an ideal source for resolving questions of allegiance. Pamphlet literature in political controversies frequently appeared as printed cases of conscience. Individuals torn between religious and political allegiances would quiz their consciences and use casuistic strategies to make up their minds. Whether probing their stance on questions of religious dogma and political loyalty or examining their own mind so as to recover a moral equilibrium disturbed by the state of their domestic and marital affairs, individuals wittingly or unwittingly engaged in a process of self-fashioning. Confronted with insights into the workings of the order of nature opened by new methods of scientific enquiry, scholars sought to find means and ways to link heterodox knowledge to orthodox attitudes. Speakers to include: Robert Bireley, Bernard Capp, Fernando Cervantes, Ginevra Crosignani, Nicholas Davidson, Barbara Donagan, Michael Hunter, James F. Keenan, Thomas McCoog , Michael Questier, Isabel Rivers, Rudolf Schuessler, Johann Sommerville, John Spurr, David Turner and Alexandra Walsham.
    
     Dr. Edward Vallance University of Sheffield Department of History Sheffield S10 2TN Tel. 0114 2222590 e-mail  edward.vallance@sheffield.ac.uk
    
     For papers on European or world history:
    
     Dr. Harald Braun, Dept of History King's College, London Strand London WC2R 2LS Room no. 323 Tel. : 020-7848-2667 Email: harald.braun@seh.ox.ac.uk
    
      

   

• Citizens, Nations, and Cultures: Transatlantic Perspectives An Interdisciplinary Conference

  • 16th-19th October 2002
    The Maastricht Center for Transatlantic Studies Maastricht, The Netherlands The Atlantic has been a crossing-point for people, ideas, and commodities for centuries. This conference will broadly explore what the 'transatlantic' means for the people of Africa, the Americas, and Europe. More specifically the conference will address three inter-locking dimensions of the transatlantic experience. Firstly, it will consider the lessons of the dynamics of transatlantic relations. At a time when globalisation, which for some has its origins in the history of the transatlantic experience, raises concerns about the impact of westernisation or, more specifically, Americanisation on the rest of the world, the conference will ask what a study of the transatlantic can tell us about how people have adapted to cultural exchanges in the past. How have these exchanges impacted on cultures and identities in the transatlantic world? Secondly, the conference will examine the transatlantic experience as a focus of enquiry. Thus, contributions might consider how artists, scholars, and writers have come to explore transatlantic connections in the course of their work. Finally, the conference will ask what we can learn by the comparative experiences on the different sides of the Atlantic. What, for example, can comparative studies tell us about the relative experiences of citizenship, nation, and race?
    
    Located at the Maastricht Center for Transatlantic Studies (Netherlands), the overall aim of the conference is to bring together scholars from across the world to discuss the development of citizens, nations, and cultures through the lens of the transatlantic relationship. The city of Maastricht has been a crossing-point for European cultures through history, and as 2002 marks the anniversary of the Treaty on European Union, signed in the city and which formally established EU citizenship, it is both an ideal location and an opportune time to consider the changing relations between citizens, nations, and cultures.
    
    The organisers invite contributions from any discipline. The organisers especially welcome contributions from young scholars and postgraduates. All papers must nevertheless have the transatlantic relationship as the underlying theme.
    
    Please send a 300-400 word abstract by 28th February 2002 to: Neil Wynn or Andrew Thompson School of Humanities and Social Sciences University of Glamorgan, Treforest, Rhondda Cynon Taff, CF37 1DL, United Kingdom
    
    Visit MCTS web site at:  www.cmsu.edu/mcts
     

   

• Uncovering Connections: Cultural Endurance between Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean III

  • Location: New York, United States Call for Papers Deadline: 2001-12-01
    
    The Center for Diopian Inquiry and Research on Education as Culture Transmission (DIRECT Center) and The Office of International Programs at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York are soliciting papers for the 3rd annual Uncovering Connections: Cultural Endurance between Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean conference to be held March 15-16, 2002.
    
    Conceptually, papers should
    (1) address and promote an understanding of African culture as inclusive of the culture of Africans on the continent and Africans throughout the world,
    (2) foster scholarship that illustrates and investigates the mechanisms through which African culture has survived despite invasions, enslavement and colonization and
    (3) encourage students to explore the cultural continuities between Africa, the Americas and the Caribbean.
    
     We invite the submission of papers, including literature reviews that focus on:
     - The intergenerational transmission of African culture (i.e. the role of parenting in the survival of African culture or documenting the knowledge and practices of elders in Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas)
     - The retention of African culture and traditions (Africanisms) in the Caribbean and the Americas (i.e. spirituality, cultural norms, behaviors, patterns of speech, culinary arts, and aesthetic forms of expression whose roots are traceable to Africa)
     - Instances of cultural unity and/or similarities among African people throughout the world
     - The diverse mechanisms through which the transmission of African cultural knowledge has been disrupted (i.e. through colonization, enslavement, neo-colonialism, schooling etc)
     - The various approaches African people throughout the world use or have used to maintain, retain or rediscover their cultural knowledge and identity.
     - African culture as a source of understanding and action in the context of contemporary phenomena
    
     Interested persons should forward a one to two-page proposal by December 1, 2001 to the address below. Notification of acceptance will be mailed by January 14, 2002.
     Dr. Mwalimu J. Shujaa DIRECT Center Medgar Evers College-City University of New York 1650 Bedford Ave. Buffalo, NY 11225 Phone: (718)270-4987 Fax: (718)270-5180 Email: shujaa@mec.cuny.edu
     Kathleen J. Wininger, Ph.D. Associate Professor Department of Philosophy University of Southern Maine Portland, ME 04104-9300 U.S.A. tel (207) 780-4928 fax (207) 780-4226 Wininger@Maine.EDU
     http://www.usm.maine.edu/phi/faculty/wininger

  •  

   

• International Symposium on African Languages

  • 
    International Symposium ,University of Zurich, 18-20 October, 2001
    
    Invitation and call for papers 2^nd circular (includes  information of the 1^st  announcement)
     
    Text in context :
    African languages between orality and scripturality
    
    Textes en contexte :langue et écrit face à l’oralité africaine
    
    Sprache und Text im Kontext afrikanischer Oralität und Literalität
    
    Matini katika muktadha: lugha za Kiafrika kati ya kusemwa na kuandikwa
    
    Organizers Swiss Society of African Studies Section of African Languages, Department of General Linguistics, University of Zurich
    
    Thomas Bearth, Prof. Dr., Department of General Linguistics, University of Zurich
    Lorenza Coray-Dapretto, Dr ès lettres, Département d'Anglais, Université de Genève
    Marianne Chenou, Dr (des), Institute for Islamic Studies, University of Berne
    
    Inquiries and registration (deadline: June 20, 2001)
    
    Dept. of General Linguistics
    African Symposium
    Plattenstr. 54
    CH-8032 Zurich, Switzerland
    
    E-mail:    afrosympo@access.unizh.ch    Fax: 0041-1-634'43'57
    
    Symposium news online: http://www.unizh.ch/spw
    
    Theme and purpose
    
    African societies are undergoing processes of transformation which deeply affect the lives and attitudes of people in all areas and walks of life. Under the pressures and challenges of globalisation, access to communicative resources has become, more than ever, a key to active participation in these processes and in the discourse influencing them. Participation in the debate on issues concerning the destiny of African nations and peoples, the harmonious development of their human and natural resources, and the preservation of their artistic traditions can therefore no longer be a luxury reserved to the highly educated few.
    
    Yet communicative practices in politics, education, media and development cooperation, while pretending to bridge the social cleavage perpetuated by linguistic barriers, often contribute to deepen it, and thus to reinforce a vicious circle of deprivation and exclusion, trapping a large majority of the African populations, communicatively speaking, in the backyards of Global Village.
    
    Surprisingly, a natural key to understanding and overcoming pervasive and paralysing communicative inequalities tends to be overlooked: the 1500 or more African languages underlying the “parallel discourse” of the excluded majority. For a long time ignored by policy makers or stigmatised as an obstacle to progress, African multilingualism has in recent years come to be seen and studied as a socio-cultural and even as a socio-economic asset, and its characteristic mode of expression – orality – as a source of creativity, vitality and artistic beauty and diversity. At the same time, broad access to the alternative mode of communication through writing, facilitated by modern technologies, is no longer the utopia it once was. Hardly disputed in its dramatically critical role of a technical by-pass to defunct oral transmission of collective memories, and, particularly in rural Africa, as a functional link to modern life, writing in African languages, restored to its full potential and dignity, is an important factor in overcoming prevailing backstage morale by conveying to people a new awareness of their calling to fulfil their role as active players in the global arena.
    
    For the year 2001, proclaimed "Year of European Languages" in Europe, the Symposium offers a timely invitation to the scientific community to reflect on the dynamics of an emerging new partnership between the autochthonous languages of Africa and the languages of European descent on African soil in facing the challenges of global communication in the 21^st century. It echoes in this respect the Declarations of Harare (1997) and of Asmara (2000) as well as statements of principle by such organizations as the Organization of African Unity, UNESCO, and the Agence Intergouvernementale de la Francophonie.
    
    In multilingual Switzerland, the Symposium will offer a meeting-place for scholars and practitioners for a common reflection from a multi-disciplinary perspective on (i) language-related issues of communication in public and private discourse on the African continent, in all areas of life and through diverse means and modes of expression, (ii) on facets and functions of "text" (in the diversity of acceptations of this notion) at the intersection of orality and scripturality, and (iii) on implications (a) for human development, empowerment and democratisation, (b) for cultural and literary creativity, and (c) for research methods and scientific documentation.
    
    Call for papers
    
    The Symposium will be open for contributions from all fields of experience and inquiry reflecting an interest in text, discourse and oral or written communication on the African continent and its diasporas - sciences of language, sociology, anthropology, history, education, oral tradition research, literature, development extension, philosophy, and applications to health, agriculture etc. By focusing on the role of African languages and their contribution to shaping modern African thought and society, the Symposium is expected to strengthen a multidisciplinary perspective on a neglected theme of great significance for the future of Africa and for an emergent multicultural society in Europe and elsewhere.
    
    Conference languages: English, French, German, Swahili.
    
    The list of topics below is not necessarily exhaustive. But participants submitting proposals for communications should respect the general thematic orientation of the outline below.
    
    General theme I: the role of African languages in modern African societies
    
    1           African languages, education and development
    
    1.1 Human development in the age of globalisation: aspects of language and communication
    
    1.2 Language choice and strategies in rural and urban life and development
    
    1.3 The legacy of colonial language policies and current trends in redefining the complementary roles of African and European languages in education and public life
    
    1.4 Representations of health and illness in Africa
    
    1.5 Economic aspects of language planning and development
    
    2           Language equality, law and political debate in Africa
    
    2.1 Language and law in Africa
    
    2.2 Linguistic human rights in Africa
    
    2.3 Vote and voice: participation in the national debate in multilingual contexts
    
    2.4 Gender roles and representations in traditional and contemporary African discourse
    
    3           Language barriers and cultural communication gaps in public and private discourse
    
    3.1 (Mis)understanding(s) in multilingual society: African subtexts in dominant language use
    
    3.2 African languages in Europe
    
    3.3 Cultural keys to language – language as a key to culture
    
    3.4 Intercultural competence as a challenge to second language acquisition
    
    3.5 Secret languages
    
    General theme II: African orality and African language writing in the computer age
    
    4           African languages in literary creativity
    
    4.1 Oral literature in contemporaneous African societies
    
    4.2 Emergent writing traditions: from local literacy to local literature
    
    4.3 Religious literacy
    
    4.4 Literary creation in African languages between oral tradition and global society
    
    4.5 African language subtexts in African and world literatures
    
    4.6 Comics in African languages
    
    4.7 Children’s literature in African languages
    
    5           African languages and multimedia
    
    5.1 African languages on the internet
    
    5.2 African language texts and subtexts in art, cinema and media
    
    5.3 African language texts: the problem of translation
    
    5.4 Writing, editing and publishing in African languages: from orthographies to marketing.
    
    6           Linguistic aspects of orality and writing
    
    6.1 Indirectness and verbal art in everyday communication
    
    6.2 Grammatical and phonological features of oral vs. written texts
    
    6.3 Comparing oral performance and writing: linguistic and sociolinguistic aspects
    
    7           African language data as sources for multidisciplinary research
    
    7.1African languages in anthropological and sociological research
    
    7.2 African languages and African prehistory
    
    7.3 African oral sources and African language texts in historical research
    
    7.4 Linguistic and computational aspects of multidisciplinary textual research
    
    7.5 Grassroots texts as resources of interdisciplinary research
    
    Time allowance for papers: 25-30 minutes, including discussion time.
    
    Papers will be presented in three parallel sessions.  
    
    Plenary lectures by invited keynote speakers will set the tone for key issues. 
    
    Workshops can be organized if at least 6 participants manifest their interest for a given theme. The following workshop themes have been proposed by participants so far: 
    
    1. Linguistic human rights in Africa.
    2. Oral literature in contemporaneous African societies.
    3. The Role of African Languages in modern African societies 
    4. African language data as sources of multidisciplinary research.
    5. African orality and African language writing in the computer age.
    6. African subtext in dominant language use. 
    7. Construction of temporal concepts in oral narratives.  
    
    A 3^rd circular containing the detailed preliminary program will be sent to registered participants at the end of June.  

   

• Women in Slavery

  • Fourth Avignon Conference on Slavery and Forced Labour in honour of Suzanne Miers Deadline: 2002-02-01
    An international conference on Women in Slavery In Honour of Suzanne Miers will be held in Avignon from 16-18 October 2002. It will examine the roles of women in slavery across all geographical regions of the world, in different systems of slavery (indigenous and imported) and over time periods from from antiquity to contemporary times, as well as trades in female slaves and other means of acquiring them, and their tactics of 'resistance' and other accommodations to the positions in which they found themselves.
    Themes, within the relatively recent Atlantic experience of slavery, to be covered in the conference may include :
    a.. the economic importance and roles of the female slave (child and adult)
    b.. the sexual role of the female slave
    c.. slave relations : women-children ; female-female ; female-male
    d.. women and the 'slave family'
    e.. slave women in the families of their masters
    f.. ideology, religion and the female slave
    g.. 'memory' and the female slave
    h.. culture and the female slave
    i.. the female slave in literature
    j.. female resistance to slavery
    k.. the role of the female slave rebel (her status; her function;  female-male rebel relations during revolt and in the rebel camp)
    l.. consequences of resistance for the female slave
    m.. gender issues across the slave/master divide
    
    However, participants are also invited to consider rethinking their planned presentations in the light of growing evidence from Asia, Africa, antiquity, and other slaving in world history that its practice focused more on females (and children) than the literature generally appreciates. Is it within the reach of this conference to reformulate definitions and theory away from the still-usual reference to "the slave" as "him"?
    
    Contact: gwyn.campbell@univ-avignon.fr  OR gcampb3195@aol.com

   

• The World of Books & The World of Slavery

  • Public Lecture by Prof. Philip Morgan, (Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland)

  • The Centre for the Study of Human Settlement & Historical Change NUI, Galway

  • February 27, 2003

• Conference Cerpanac: "Revisiting Slave Narratives"

  • 
    Paul Valéry University, Montpellier III, France, 4-5 April 2003
    

  • The narratives of Olaudah Equiano, Frederick Douglass or Mary Prince, to name but a few, have now become classics. But over the past two decades, a good number of novels have been published that echo the original slave narratives, both narratologically and thematically speaking.
    
    The aim of the conference is not to examine once more the 18th & 19th  century narratives. Even if the historical & generic reference is necessary,  it will rather focus on the new versions as such. What were the choices made by the late 20th century writers when they revisited the original texts with fictionalised versions, historical novels, pseudo-autobiographies, etc. ? Why did they adopt this architecture? How did they reappropriate or distort it ? What can be said of the generic tension between the original model and its rewritten versions ?
    
    A few names might serve as a starting point although not as a limit : Fred D'Aguiar, Dionne Brand, Patrick Chamoiseau, Beryl Gilroy, Charles Johnson, Toni Morrison, Caryl Phillips, Simone Schwarz-Bart, John Alfred Williams, Sherley Ann Williams.
    
    This conference can be of interest to all those working in the Caribbean field, anglophone or francophone, as well as the African and African-American field.
    
    Judith Misrahi-Barak
     Département d'Etudes Anglophones
    Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier III
    Route de Mende
    34199 Montpellier cedex 5 e-mail: judith.misrahi-barak@wanadoo.fr

   

• The African Atlantic: The Making of Black Diasporas  13-15 April, 2003

  • <http://www.redconference.co.uk/caar/home.htm> - King Alfred's College, Winchester, England. This conference will seek to take the longest and widest perspectives, viewpoints, and positions that speakers, panels and contributors can bring to the notions of the African Atlantic and the Black Diaspora. It will focus on the old triangle of Africa, the Americas and Europe as in previous conferences. However, by pulling back and out, other coasts and other worlds come into view. The Pacific of cities, states and provinces stretching from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego is a boundary of the Black Diaspora which calls for our examination, exegesis, evocation. There is also a triangle created by the Americas, Asia and Africa. Are there disaporic links to be made across the Pacific to the Africa of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique? And what of the diaspora that goes beyond geography? Is African American expansion on-line and into the net a replication of African American experience in the Americas or are new ways of being and of seeing on offer? What kind of space is black Cyberland? Who lives there? Who is making this diaspora? Where are they taking black music, art,language, politics? Millennial promises of peace, reconciliation and harmony have been soured by continuing political, social and ethnic fracture. Where are Civil Rights Movements to go now? Has the Durban Racism Conference shown a way forward or a way nowhere? Reparation or Repossession? Is Globalization simply an extension of American Imperium; are we also witnessing the African Americanization of World Culture?

   

• Slavery as History: A Global Approach - A Lecture Series by Joseph C. Miller

  •  

  • Date:  Wed, 22 Jan 2003 From:  Bradley W. Reed <bwr4k@virginia.edu>          Assoc. Chair, Dept. of History, University of Virginia

  •  

  • Please be so kind as to distribute the following announcement. Thank you very much for your help in getting the word out on what promises to be a very interesting series.

  •  

  • The Corcoran Department of History, in conjunction with The Carter-Woodson Institute, The Office of African-American Affairs, and the History Club of the University of Virginia, Charlottesville

  •  

  • Presents

  •  

  • A Lecture Series

  •  

  • Slavery as History: A Global Approach

  •  

  • By

  •  

  • Joseph C. Miller T. Cary Johnson Jr. Professor of History University of Virginia

  •  

  • Lecture I The Problem of Slavery as History Wednesday, January 29 3:30 125 Minor Hall Reception to Follow

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  • Lecture II History and Slaving as Problems in Africa Thursday, January 30 6:30 108 Clark Hall

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  • Lecture III Problematizing Slavery in the Americas as History Friday, January 31 1:30 108 Clark Hall

   

• SAME BOAT, DIFFERENT STOP: THE AFRICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE AMERICAS 

  • A Three-Part Lecture/Slide Presentation by C. Daniel Dawson

  • Location: New York, United States

  • The Institute of African-American Affairs and Africana Studies Program at New York University present SAME BOAT, DIFFERENT STOP: THE AFRICAN CULTURAL HERITAGE OF THE AMERICAS  A Three-Part Lecture/Slide Presentation by C. Daniel Dawson  This three-part series will examine how African culture came to the Americas and transformed them  immeasurable. From the way we think about sociopolitical structures to the way we interact in the athletic arena to the way we celebrate through music and dance, African traditions and philosophies have enriched and enlivened contemporary life in the Americas.

  • Wednesday, April 2, 2003, 6:30 PM I. THE CULTURE OF FREEDOM: Quilombos. Palenques and Maroon Societies in the Americas. 

  • Wednesday, April 9, 2003, 6:30 PM II. FIST AGAINST FIST IS IRRATIONAL: The African Philosophical Influence in Athletics in the Americas. 

  • Wednesday, April 16, 2003, 6:30 PM III. WIDI MAMBO-LISTEN TO THE IMPORTANT MATTER: Celebrating the African Roots of National Musics in the Americas. 

  • All three lectures will take place at the address below.  These events are free and open to the public; however, seating is very limited.  RSVP by phone. 

  • Contact information:

  • Laura Rice Institute of African-American Affairs New York University 269 Mercer Street, Suite 601 New York, NY  10003  Phone: 212-998-2130

  • Email: laura.rice@nyu.edu

   

• The African Diaspora in the Americas: Current Research 

  • Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 20:12:48 -0500 To: "H-NET List on the History of the Atlantic World, 1500-1800" <H-ATLANTIC@h-net.msu.edu>

  • From: Vibert Cambridge <cambridg@ohio.edu>

  • Subject: The African Diaspora in the Americas: Current Research, a weekend symposium April 11-12, 2003

  • The Department of African American Studies at Ohio University, in collaboration with the College of Arts and Science, the College of Fine Arts; the Departments of History, Modern Languages, Linguistics, the School of Music, and the Latin American Studies program, announces the symposium "The African Diaspora in the Americas: Current Research." The symposium will be held April 11-12, 2003 at Ohio University.  The symposium recognizes recent developments at Ohio University to extend the study of the African diaspora in the Americas. The objectives of the symposium include: Providing an opportunity for the Ohio University community to develop an appreciation of the state of research on the African diaspora in the Americas.  Creating an environment and context for collaborative and interdisciplinary research between faculty and students.  Providing a forum for faculty and students to engage in dialogue with peers from other institutions.

  • Some of the themes to be examined include (but are not limited to):

  • (a) Slavery and its legacy in the Americas;

  • (b) United States and its connections with Latin America and the Caribbean;

  • (c) Resistance and the Literature of the Americas;

  • (d) Intellectuals, Migration and Alienation (Dubois, Garvey, Padmore);

  • (e) The Americas and Pan-Africanism (Dubois, Garvey, James, Padmore, Robeson);

  • (f) Circulation of Cultures;

  • (g) African Mythologies and Religion in the Americas;

  • (h) African Language Retentions in the Americas.

  • Papers presented at the symposium will be published in Black Praxis, a journal of the Department of African American Studies. For more information, contact Vibert C. Cambridge, Ph.D., Interim Chair, Department of African American Studies, Ohio University, Athens, OH 45701. 740-593-9178 (office). 740-593-0671 (fax). or cambridg@ohio.edu

   

• 8th World Congress of Orisa Tradition and Culture (OrisaWorld 2003)

  • July 7-13, 2003
  • Venue: Palacio de Convenciones (PALCO), Havana, Cuba
  • Congress Theme: The Place of Yorùbá Religion in the Healing of African Societies in the Modern World
  • The conference will explore ways in which forms of Orisa cultural life and expressions shapes, informs and influence contemporary values, norms, art, education, and socio-political realities
  • Sub-Themes:
  • 1. Education, pedagogy & the establishment of structures & institutions;
  • 2. Health, medicine & indigenous pharmacopoeia;
  • 3. Indigenous knowledge & technological systems;
  • 4. Sacrifices, possession & ritual ceremonies;
  • 5. Preservation & use of the Yorùbá language & thought systems;
  • 6. Visual, performing & creative arts;
  • 7. The significance of Ifá & the literature of all the Orisa;
  • 8. Promotion of Yorùbá culinary arts & sciences;
  • 9. Development & maintenance of extended, agnatic & spiritual families;
  • 10. Social, economic & development;
  • 11. Link of the African Continent with the Diaspora;
  • 12. Relations with other religions;
  • 13. Ethics, protocol, discipline & character development;
  • 14. Gender issues;
  • 15. Use of the mass media & audiovisual techniques.

   

• SYMPOSIUM: AFROAMERICAN DIASPORAS:  HISTORICAL SETTINGS, ATLANTIC DIALOGUES, SHIFTS AND PROSPECTIVE VISIONS

  • 51st International Congress of Americanists Santiago, Chile, 14-18 July 2003

  • One of the formative processes in the history of humanity during the last millennium has been the forced migration and Diaspora experience of enslaved Africans. The Atlantic and particularly the South Atlantic have emerged as the context for contact between different geographic areas and the exchange and transferral of human beings, products, ideas, myths, discourses, rituals, gods and goddesses, reactions, resistances, symbols and cultural practices. This symposium will address the historical contexts that have provided the background for the African Diaspora especially in terms of typically African phenomenon, Atlantic connections, and the various American experiences of Diaspora. The themes targeted for this symposium encompass the complete range of Diaspora possibilities, from resistance to accommodation, from gender to religion, the slave trade to African ethnic origins and identity. To this end these issues will be addressed from different methodological and theoretical perspectives so as to enrich the available research on Africans and their experiences in Diaspora. Another of the broader aims of the symposium is to facilitate interchange and collaborative research

  • Papers must be presented in one of the four official languages of the conference, Spanish, Portuguese, French or English. Presenters can do no more than two presentations in one symposium or in two different ones.  Please submit a 500-word abstract before November 30, 2002 to one of the symposium coordinators:  

  • Rafael Díaz Díaz    <rdiaz@javeriana.edu.co>

  • Renée Soulodre-La France   <soulodre@yorku.ca>

  • Maria.Eugenia Chaves  <maria.chaves@sas.ac.uk>

  • Marta Maffia   <mmaffia@museo.fcnym.unlp.edu.ar>

  • Marta Goldberg  <mbgoldberg@uolsinectis.com.ar>