Fall 2009 Events
News
The African Studies Program has received a substantial grant from the Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language Program of the U.S. Department of Education. It will fund a project devoted to integrating African Studies, Kiswahili Instruction and Study Abroad at the University of Iowa. Among the project activities in 2009-2010 will be a course taught in Spring 2010 by ASP faculty entitled “An Introduction to Africa for Health Professionals,” a new course in conversational Kiswahili, and a workshop on East African Studies in the Spring 2010. The project will also include a Study Abroad program in May-June 2010.
Two ASP faculty, James Giblin (History) and Blandina Kaduma Giblin (Linguistics) will teach a Study Abroad course in Tanzania during the 2009-2010 Winter Term. Students will either improve or gain an introduction to Kiswahili, and will also learn about East African culture and history. Students will also learn the practical skills needed to navigate the city of Dar es Salaam. Students will stay in a residential suburb of Dar es Salaam. The program will include trips to Zanzibar and Bagamoyo. Information and applications may be obtained from either of the instructors (james-giblin@uiowa.edu and blandina-giblin@uiowa.edu) or at http://international.uiowa.edu.
Events
"Geopolitics of Global Energy Supply: An Examination of U.S. - Nigerian Naval Cooperation Under AFRICOM in the Gulf of Guinea"
Date: Thursday, December 3
Time: 2:30 pm - 4:20 pm
Location: 61 Schaeffer Hall
Presenter: Professor Celestine Bassey; University of Calabar, Nigeria
Past Fall 2009 Events
"Democratic Transition in the Sudan"
Date: Friday, October 30
Time: 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
Location: Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Room A
Panelists: Abu Baker Elkhalifa and Gamaleldin Balal
The University of Iowa African Studies Program and Sudanese Community Services, Inc. invite the general public to a panel discussion.
The people of the Sudan have been for a long time victims of severe corruption, poverty, and lack of political and civil liberties under a dictatorial regime. Hence you might find a large population of Sudanese immigrants in Europe, Australia, the United States, and particularly “Iowa City”. For more than 23 years the people of Sudan have not been able to enjoy and exercise fair and democratic elections, leading to global and domestic pressures from different types of people and organizations on the Sudanese government. In April of 2010, Sudan will hold its first democratic, multiparty elections in a generation.
Panelists
Abu Baker Elkhalifa was trained in civil engineering at the University of Khartoum (B.Sc.) and University of Iowa (M.S.), and has worked in the public sectors of Sudan and the United Arab Emirates, and for multinational corporations.
Gamaleldin Balal earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics and worked as a university professor in the Sudan. Active in civil society organizations, he has served as president of the Sudanese Agriculturalist Association (1978-1980, 1986-1989), president of the Arab Organization for Agricultural Engineers (1987-1988), and most recently as president of Sudanese Community Services, Inc. (of Iowa City, 2004-2006).
"A Presentation of Recent Undergraduate Research in Africa"
Date: Wednesday, November 4
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Location: 1117 UCC
Presenters: Paul Worrell and Brian Buh
Paul Worrell:
I traveled to South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province this summer to do research for my honor's project in journalism entitled 'The Best Muthi.' As South Africa develops in the 21st century and repairs the wounds caused by decades of Apartheid by advancing its fledgling democracy, the nation faces an identity crisis. Is it a true African nation given its wealth and number of white citizens and can it embrace capitalism while still upholding the founding principles of its ruling party? Can the government instill order, improve the welfare of its citizens and protect culture all at the same time? Perhaps no issue makes achieving these three goals more difficult than traditional medicine. My project seeks to show how traditional medicine is adapting to a modernizing, urbanizing and globalizing South Africa and how that country's government and other stakeholders are attempting to delicately steer traditional medicine so that it fits in better with their vision for South Africa's future.
Brian Buh:
The Nazareth Baptist Church in South Africa is a unique mixture of traditional Zulu religion and Christianity that has been combined to create a new religious movement. The church, which has a following of around 5 million people, has often been labeled as a Zulu nationalist movement. My research project examines this claim in the post-Apartheid era to see whether Zulu nationalism still runs strong in the church and to what extent it does. I also look at the question of identity, and whether followers primarily identify themselves by their racial, ethnic, or religious qualities. Finally I observe what effect the introduction of Democracy in South Africa has had on the church with a particular focus on the recent election of Jacob Zuma.
The Following Events are Co-Sponsored by the African Studies Proram, Crossing Border Program, the Department of French and Italian, the Middle Eastern and Muslim World Studies Program, and the History Department:
Special Guests: Ida Cordelia Beam, Distinguished Visiting Professor; Professor Anne Bang, University of Bergen
"Giving Voice to Chaos: The Challenges of Writing Multiple Histories"
Date: Monday, November 9
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm
Location: 1117 UCC
Graduate Student Seminar (in conjunction with Crossing Borders Proseminar)
"Indian Ocean History-Places and the Spaces Between"
Date: Tuesday, November 10
Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm
Location: 2217 Seamans Center
Presenter: Professor Anne K. Bang, University of Bergen
The African Studies Program is co-sponsor of the Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professorship in the Department of History for 2009-2010. It is held by Professor Anne K. Bang. Professor Bang is a member of both the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, and the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at the University of Bergen, Norway. She is a leading authority in the emerging field of Indian Ocean studies, where she focuses particularly on Islamic culture and scholarship in the region. Her most notable publication is Sufis and Scholars of the Sea: Family Networks in East Africa, 1860-1925 (London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003).
"Movements of Islam in the Western Indian Ocean: Theoretical and Conceptual Challenges"
Date: Wednesday, November 11
Time: 12:00 pm
Location: 273 Schaeffer Hall
Professor Bang is a member of the Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion, and the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, at the University of Bergen, Norway. She is a leading authority in the emerging field of Indian Ocean studies, where she focuses particularly on Islamic culture and scholarship in the region. Her most prominent publication, Sufis and Scholars of the Sea: Family Networks in East Africa, 1860-1925 (London and New York: Routledge Curzon, 2003) networks of family ties and Islamic scholarship which connected the Hadramaut (the southwestern corner of the Arabian peninsula in modern Yemen) and its far-flung diasporas throughout the Indian Ocean.
Professor Bang will be in residence at the University of Iowa from November 8 to November 12, 2009.
"United States of Africa"
Date: Monday, November 16
Time: 3:30 pm - 5:20 pm
Location: 106 Gilmore Hall
Presenter: Chris Abani
As part of International Education week, Nigerian writer Chris Abani will be on campus Monday, November 16. African Studies students and faculty are cordially invited to attend the International Literature Today class to hear Mr. Abani speak about his work and participate in a discussion of Waberi's United States of Africa.