| UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA - AFRICAN STUDIES CENTER |
WISCONSIN AFRICAN STUDIES
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NEWS & NOTES NO. 42 SPRING 1994
* CENTER NEWS *
NEW GRANTS EXPAND AFRICAN STUDIES AT UW-MADISON
COMING SOON: YORUBA ON VIDEO DoIT (Division of Information Technology), UW-Madison, awarded an Instructional Technology grant of $29,536 to Dr. Antonia Schleicher, Department of African Languages & Literature. The grant "Interactive Materials for a Less Commonly Taught Language: Yoruba of Nigeria" will be used to develop materials for teaching the language. Interactive video lessons will be produced that follow the Yoruba textbook, JC K' A So Yorobt, 1994, by Dr. Schleicher. The grant will pay for a Yoruba-speaking instrumentation technologist to assist in the project and equipment.
The development of a West African language course on video continues the Department of African Languages & Literature's exemplary tradition of leadership in the teaching of African languages and literature.
Yoruba is the first language of approximately 30 million West Africans, spoken in Southwestern Nigeria, Togo, Benin, Sierra Leone. Yoruba influence is found in the languages of the Caribbean and in Latin America.
EXPLORATORY STUDY UNDERWAY: EXCHANGE SITE IN SOUTHERN AFRICA
The African Studies Program offers programs abroad in North, West, and East Africa. A new program would offer students a fourth region of study abroad in Southern Africa. The African Studies Program received a grant from the Fund for International Education to conduct preliminary travel/research to Namibia to explore a university exchange. Professor Jo Ellen Fair, Journalism, will visit the University of Namibia this fall to assess the feasibility of an exchange for journalism students. The program would be open to other disciplines as well as journalism.
GRANT TO TEACH ABOUT PRIMARY HEALTH CARE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Dr. Cynthia Haq and Dr. Richard E. Anstett, Department of Family Medicine, received a planning grant for New Initiatives in International Education to develop a course "Primary Health Care in Developing Countries" to be offered in 1995. The goal of the course is to prepare students for work in developing countries by teaching them about the medical, cultural, social, economic, political and public health problems that affect the lives and health of people they will serve.
Dr. Anstett, completed a Masters in Public Health in International Health, Harvard School of Public Health, followed by a year working in rural hospitals in Kenya and India. Dr. Haq, trained village health workers in Uganda and worked in community health in Pakistan.
Co-sponsors of the course include Latin American & Iberian Studies, Nursing, and African Studies.
JOINT AFRICAN STUDIES/ FULBRIGHT SYMPOSIUM REFLECTS ON AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION
A special symposium on the state of higher education in Africa sponsored by the African Studies Program and the Fulbright Scholar Program took place on April 30 at the Wisconsin Center. It was an opportunity for faculty at the UW-Madison and Upper Midwest institutions to consider spending a year as a Fulbright teacher or researcher in Africa. Linda Rhoad, Area Chief, Christine Djondo, Program Officer, CIES (Council for International Exchange of Scholars) and Dan Whitman, Cultural Coordinator, African Area Office, USIA, participated in the discussions on "Reflections and Reconsiderations of African Higher Education."
After Herbert S. Lewis, chairman of the African Studies Program, welcomed the participants and guests, M. Crawford Young, Political Science, UW, presented "Africa: Background to the Present Crisis," and Edmond J. Keller, Political Science,UCLA, presented "The State of African Universities Today."
Personal Experiences of teaching and research in Africa were presented by Lillian Trager, Sociology and Anthropology, UW-Parkside (Nigeria); Michael Roth, Land Tenure Center and Agricultural Economics, UW-Madison, (Burkina Faso, Mali, Mozambique, Somalia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana); and Aili Tripp, Political Science and Women's Studies, UW-Madison, (Tanzania, Uganda). Linda Rhoad, Area Chief, CIES, presented "What Difference Does It Make/The Fulbright Program in Sub-Saharan Africa."
UW ACADEMIC PROGRAMS IN AFRICA
Destination Saint Louis/Madison Faculty from UW-Madison and UniversitC de Saint Louis continue the ongoing exchange funded by the USIA University Affiliations Program. UW-Madison professors Jo Ellen Fair, Journalism, and Michael G. Schatzberg, Political Science, did research recently in Senegal. In the fall 1994, African Studies Program will welcome Saint Louis scholars, as well as the first Senegalese student participant of the exchange, Maimouna Abdoulaye Barro.
Undergraduates who will participate in the third year of the UniversitC de Saint Louis exchange are UW- Madison students Jonathan P. Klem, Molly E. Knorr, Amy M. White, and University of Arizona students Gene Bukhman and Philippa Newell. Professor Baydallaye Kane, English, UniversitC de St. Louis, will help orient the UW students before their departure.
Destination Cairo
Three undergraduates will participate in the International Studies & Programs 1994-95 Year Abroad at the American University of Cairo: Stephani Hildebrandt, Juned Siddique, and Maram Talaat.
Destination Dar es Salaam
Six undergraduates will spend the year in Tanzania at the University of Dar es Salaam. They are: Rebeccah Anderson, Stephen Corradini, Antoinette Geraghty, Jessica Hooberman, Erica Loehr, and Nichole Smaglic.
Destination Rabat
A record number of undergraduates left late May for the a summer program at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco. The summer study program, which is open to UW and non-UW students, is sponsored jointly by UW- Madison and UW- Milwaukee. Professor Edris Makward, African Languages & Literature, UW-Madison, and director of the program left Madison in mid-May to welcome the students to Rabat. The fifteen participants represent six academic institutions: Patrick Beckett, Mandy Chan, Denise Mulligan, Frances Reynolds, Lisa Silverman, Juliana Tillema (UW- Madison); Helen Kalili, Brian F. Pagel, Jr., Diane Ripple, Michele Stamos, Cherie Steigerwald (UW- Milwaukee); Jeremy Todd (MATC); Jermaine Nichols (J.C. Smith); Mary McLaughlin (University of Arizona) and Elizabeth Rathgeb (Georgetown University). Amandla, Mandela!
by Michael Oladejo Afolayan
The event of Tuesday, May 10, 1994 was worth celebrating. A king did not die, a princess was not born, and the tiger was about to give birth to the mythical child. Something greater than all of these was just in the process of being made - the new South Africa was born!
It was the dawn of a new day as the veil of apartheid was torn asunder and the rising sun of hope beamed across the nation of South Africa. It radiated across the universe; its echo could be heard in the languages of all nations, and the city of Madison was a witness to it all. In the words of Nelson Mandela, "Even the heavens smiled." A page was closed in the history of the world, and a new chapter was opened in which generations to come will read and learn the true meaning of liberty, freedom, and unabated confraternity.
To see the final collapse of apartheid is to witness the death of the worst evil the human race is capable of inflicting upon its members. Colonialism was inhuman, slavery was terrible, the Holocaust was brutish, but apartheid combined the three, and outlived them all! It was a system which took the land from the rightful owners, sent the husbands to mine in the field, used the wives as maidens and servants, and systematically exterminated those who raised an eyebrow against it -- adults, children, male or female. Neither time nor space would measure the damage that apartheid has inflicted on the psyche of those who witnessed it.
The word "apartheid" simply means "to set apart." It was a system that for three centuries oppressed, suppressed and dehumanized the peoples of black race in South Africa, made the white super-humans and marginalized people of other colors. Apartheid set blacks apart from white, and, consequently, set South Africa apart from other nations of the world. Ethnocentrism, racism, ethnic biases are found in all societies, but they are frowned at and considered illegal and counter- cultural. In South Africa, the reverse was the case as racism was state sponsored. In fact, not to be racist was illegal and unconsti- tutional, and the punitive sanctions were severe.
Thus, tears and cheers graced the occasion when in South Africa, Nelson Mandela, a man locked up for 27 years by the system of apartheid, was given the political key to unlock the gates of hell epitomized by apartheid. He will lead his people into a new dispensation in their onward march toward the attainment of independence, not only into nationhood, but also into true humanhood. As a black man, an ex- prisoner, and now the president of South Africa, Mandela will remain an indisputable icon in the archive of politics of the twentieth century. This event marked a milestone in the history of the modern world as all citizens of the world witnessed the final vestiges of legalized racial inequality.
The immeasurable joy of this occasion brought friends and colleagues together in Madison in the home of Professor Daniel Kunene. Kunene, who, for more than three decades has been exiled to the United States by the oppressive system of apartheid, called the day memorable. Professor Kunene's home was packed full of well-wishers who ate, danced, drank, sang, read poetry and shared testimonies. The air of the Kendall Avenue house was constantly rent with the joyful noise of jubilation and hilarity. For more than three hours, people gathered together and spoke of days of activism - demonstrations, protests, arrests, boycotts, mobilizations and eventual results. It was a great occasion for the recapitulation of gallantry and a testimony to the enduring strength of a relentless human spirit. Who would have thought that 1994 would mark the final episode of apartheid?
The occasion in Professor Kunene's house concluded with the enthusiastic rendition of Nkosi Sikelel'i Afrika (God Bless Africa), the once banned anthem of the ANC which has now become national anthem of South Africa.
POEM by Kasiya Makaka Phiri, African Languages & Literature
ANC Representative Lectures on Future of Democracy in South Africa An African National Congress representative came to the UW- Madison in February to thank people for their support in the anti-apartheid struggle and to ask that local investors put their money in post- apartheid South Africa."The time has now come," said Lindiwe Mabuza, who is the ANC's chief representative in the United States "In order to redress the wrongs, we need a huge influx of capital, of investments in South Africa."
Developing poor parts of South Africa will be costly and difficult, Mabuza said. More than 85 percent of the country's land is owned by whites. More than 75 percent of the shares in the Johannesburg stock exchange are in white hands. And black unemployment is high, she said."We need to see black people developed as entrepreneurs, " she stated.
Mabuza's presence in Wisconsin was largely organized by the state representatives, Johnnie Morris- Tatum and Spencer Coggs, of Milwaukee. "It is important to us, that we as African Americans establish the economic ties between the state and our brothers and sisters in South Africa, " Morris-Tatum said.
During the late 1970s, U.S. businesses and municipalities began to impose economic sanctions on South Africa. In the 1980s, the state of Wisconsin - - including the university - - stopped investing in corporations in South Africa because of institutionalized discrimination there.
Former Visitor to UW Land Tenure Center Asks Help From Mandela! Derek Hanekom, former visitor to the Land Tenure Center on several occasions, has been chosen to serve as Minister of Lands in South Africa. Minister Hanekom has asked the U.S. Ambassador to make funds available to the Land Tenure Center to assist the ministry in developing land policy in a new post-apartheid era. John Strasma, economics, has been in South Africa making preliminary negotiations.
ALUMNI NEWS
Robert Cancel, Ph.D. African Languages & Literature '81, presented "Oral Narrative Performance of Tabwa, Zambia: Dialectics of Research Methodology" at the 1994 African Literature Association conference in Ghana.
Jeffrey Cochrane, Ph.D. Agricultural Economics, '93, received a Fulbright award to do research at Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone.
Marylee S. Crofts, Ph.D. French & Italian '92, served on the Ecumenical Monitoring Programme in South Africa (EMPSA) during April. She joined 22 other team members selected from the United States by the South African Council of Churches for five weeks in South Africa to monitor elections.
Sonia David, Ph.D. Sociology '91, has a two year contract with CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture), researching beans. Her address at CIAT is Box 6247, Kampala, Uganda.
Naana Banyiwa Horne, Ph.D. African Languages & Literature '93, presented "Sankofa: Roots and Aidoo's Feminist Discourse" at ALA, Ghana in March.
Nancy Rose Hunt, Ph.D. History '92, presented "Aesthetic Standpoints on the African Novel" at ALA, Ghana in March.
El Hadj MBodj, Ph.D. Political Science '91, FacultC de Droit, UniversitC Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, passed the concours de l'agrCgation last summer.
Loretta O'Connor, M.A. African Languages & Literature '92, received a four-year Regents and Special Fellowship and an Interdisciplinary Humanities Center Junior Fellowship to study linguistics at the University of California-Santa Barbara.
Edward L. Powe, Ph.D. African Languages & Literature '84, recently published The Lore of Madagascar,the first volume of Black Martial Arts, Combat Games of Northern Nigeria,and Black Lore Melanesi which are available from Dan Aiki Publications, 533 Conklin Place, #6, Madison, WI 53706.
William Reno, Ph.D. Political Science '92, accepted a tenure track position in the Department of Political Science at Florida International University, North Miami, Florida for fall of 1994. He will attend the 1994 African Studies Association conference in Toronto by which time his book, Corruption and State Politics in Sierra Leone, (Cambridge) should be published. He is in Benin researching technocratic elites and reform this summer.
Zinta Konrad, African Languages & Literature, '83, announced her new publication, EWE COMIC HEROES Trickster Tales in Togo, published by Garland Publishing, Inc. New York & London 1994. It is part of the Albert Bates Lord Studies in Oral Tradition; Vol.9, which consists of trickster tales from southern Togo, with a small sampling from the contiguous Ewe population in Ghana.
FACULTY NEWS
Bert Adams, Sociology, gave the keynote address in June in Nairobi at a conference on "Families and Children in Kenya." He received a Fulbright Research Abroad award for the spring semester 1995 to do research in Kenya on "Changing Family and Kinship in Three Kenyan Societies."
Marianne Bloch, Curriculum & Instruction, travelled to Guinea in February, March and May to work on a World Bank project titled "The Study of Girls' Experiences in Primary Classrooms in Guinea." Her students Monica Miller-Marsh, Curriculum & Instruction, and Benita Blessing, Ed Policy Studies, also participated in the project.
Hazel Carter, African Languages & Literature, has been appointed chief examiner in African Languages for the International Baccalaureate. She received a Graduate School grant to work on her kiMbundu dictionary during the summer.
Michael Chamberlain, History, received a year fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton and a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad award to do research in Syria and Turkey on "The Politics of Heresy in the Mamluk Empire, 1250-1500." He will return to campus January 1996.
Dustin Cowell, African Languages & Literature, will teach Arabic at the International Institute for Islamic Thought and Civilization in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, for two years.
Henry Drewal, Art History, received a six-month residence research fellowship for next spring at the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York, and a J. Carter Brown Library Fellowship at Brown University. He was a consultant for "Sacred Arts of Vodun" and "Yoruba Beadwork" exhibits at UCLA.
Sharon Hutchinson, Anthropology, was named a Land Tenure Center research fellow, sponsored by the International Agricultural Programs, for a project on "Guns and Maize: Changing Patterns of Collective Violence in the Assertion of Land Tenure Claims among the Nuer of Southeastern Sudan and Southwestern Ethiopia, 1930-1933."
Linda Hunter, African Languages & Literature, will be the chairperson of the Department of African Languages & Literature in 1994-95.
Stanlie M. James, Afro-American Studies, will be on leave next year and will be affiliated with the Women's Studies Program, University of Colorado/Boulder.
Edris Makward, African Languages & Literature, presented a paper, "Ousmane Sembane: Griot of Modern Times and Advocate of a Casteless African Society" on the panel "The Africa Vision of Senegalese Writers" at the 20th Annual African Literature Association Conference "Beyond Survival: African Literature and the Search for New Life," in Accra, Ghana, in March.
Claudia Melrose, Dance, received a Fulbright Senior Grant to do research in the fall semester in Ghana on West African dance and music. She also received a Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship for choreography. Dr. Melrose was recently elected to the National Board of American College Dance Festival Association.
Russell Middleton, Sociology, received funding from the Office of International Studies & Programs and the UW System Undergraduate Teaching Improvement Grants to develop a new course "Genocide, Atrocities, and Human Rights" for the Global Cultures Program.
Richard Ralston, Afro-American Studies, is a newly elected member of the University Committee, the executive arm of the Faculty Senate at UW- Madison. He presented a paper on South African Mine Worker Narratives at the Third International Mining History Conference in Denver in June. He also presented a paper at the International Congress of Law and Mental Health titled "Changing Notions of Madness: The Courtroom vs. Popular Media" in June. Professor Ralston will take part in a "retrospective," sponsored by the Southern African Research Program, at Yale on "The New South Africa" in Cape Town in August.
Michael G. Schatzberg, Political Science, recently published an essay in Africa (63:4, 1993) entitled "Power, Legitimacy, and `Democratization' in Africa." He presented a paper, "Hijacking Change: Zaire's Transition in Comparative Perspective," at a conference on "Democratization: Phase II" at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington in April.
Antonia Schleicher, African Languages & Literature, is directing the third GPA Advanced Hausa/Yoruba program funded by Fulbright-Hays and the U.S. Department of Education in Nigeria this summer.
Aliko Songolo, African Languages & Literature and French & Italian, presented "On V.Y. Mudimbe and the Question of Exile" on the panel, "Scorched Earth: Literature, Ecology and Dictatorship," at the 20th Annual African Literature Association Conference, "Beyond Survival: African Literature and the Search for New Life," in Accra, Ghana, in March.
Robert Tabachnick, Associate Dean of Education, chaired the Second Annual International Assembly of UW-Madison to develop new initiatives in strategic planning for international education.
Freida H. Tesfagiorgis, Afro- American Studies, participated in a seminar, "African Roots in American Soil," on Afro-American art for K-12 teachers in April at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Aili Tripp, Political Science and Women's Studies, attended a conference, "Developing Uganda," at Lyngby Landgbrugsskole, Denmark, where she presented a paper, "Participation and Institutional Autonomy: Local Women's Associations in Contemporary Uganda." The paper was based on research she conducted in Uganda during 1992 and 1993. She was on leave during the academic year 1993- 94 writing a book on the political impact of women's associations in Uganda with support from the American Association of University Women and the UW Graduate School Research Committee.
M. Crawford Young, Political Science, gave the keynote speech to a Faculty Awards Ceremony at the University of Vermont, and participated in a conference on contemporary Africa on April 12. He gave a paper, "The African Colonial State and the Post-Colonial Crisis," at a conference on contemporary Africa organized by the Chinese Association for International Understanding and the U.S.-China African Studies Exchange Committee in Beijing in May. Young is part of the American delegation which visited the Institute of West Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, and the Shanghai Institute of International Relations.
NEW ASP MEMBERS
Emilie Ngo Nguidjol, reference librarian, UW Memorial Library, joined the African Studies Program this year. Emilie received her M.L.S. from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of California, Los Angeles in 1990 and her B.A. in English and French from the University of Yaounde, Cameroon, in 1986. She was the recipient of Mount Holyoke College Foreign Fellowship Award, 1986-87. Emilie has facilitated online search instruction for the participants of the African Studies Program Outreach Institutes for teachers.
Emilie and her husband, Aliko Songolo, and their five-year old daughter, Tosha, welcomed their new family member, Ngijol Robert, born April 20, 1994.
Peter Arcese, Wildlife Ecology, received his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in 1988. His research interest is the role of individual behavior in the ecology, demography, and conservation of birds and mammals, especially the African antelope. Peter's recent research has been in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, to study the oribi, a small, territorial antelope.
UPPER MIDWEST AFRICANISTS
The African Studies Program Summer Mini Grants support scholars from other institutions in the Midwest to conduct library research in Madison. The recipients of the 1994 grants are: Susan Geiger, University of Minnesota, Women's Studies, for completion of a book on Tanzanian women's constructions of nationalism in the 1950s; Dubem Okafor, University of Minnesota, for continuing research on the intersection of ethnicity and nation in Nigerian literature; David P. Sandgren, History, Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota, for studying new scholarship concerning African Christianity; and Marc Schiltz, Adjunct Faculty, Humanities and Anthropology, University of Minnesota, for study on relations between Yoruba farmers and Fulani pastoralists since the 1970s.
STUDENT NEWS
Christopher Barrett, Ag Econ and Economics, accepted a faculty position in the Economics Department at Utah State University where he will work on international development and trade beginning fall 1994.
Gretchen Bauer, Political Science, has accepted a position as assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations where she will teach African and Comparative Politics at the University of Delaware next fall.
Jacqueline Benton, African Languages & Literature, will be a participant in the UW African Studies Program Teachers' Institute this summer.
Phillip Effiong, Afro-American Studies, received his Ph.D. in May and has accepted a position in the Department of English, University of Tennessee.
Eric Higgins, History, received his Masters degree in December 1993. He will teach History next year at Southern Normal School, Brewton, Alabama.
Jonmi Koo, undergraduate in Department of African Languages & Literature, received the Hilldale Award. Harold Scheub is her advisor.
Anne Lessick-Xiao, received a 1993- 94 teaching award for excellence from the Department of African Languages & Literature. She also presented a paper, "Improving Your Own Reflection: Using Technology to Improve Students' Oral Skills," at the 14th annual conference of Wisconsin Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (WITESOL) in Madison in April.
Anne Lewinson, Anthropology, received a 1994 Fulbright Award to continue her research in Tanzania.
Timothy Longman, Political Science, will teach in the Department of Political Science, Drake University, beginning in fall 1994.
Robert C. Newton, African Languages & Literature, presented a paper, "On the State of Publishing in Mali," on the panel, "Issues in Research & Dissemination of African Literature," at the African Literature Convention in Ghana in March.
Eric Mann, History, received a Fulbright Travel Award to Germany and a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship which is sponsored jointly by the Fulbright Commission and the Padagogischer Austauschdienst (PAD). He will be continue his research on German colonial rule in Tanzania.
Christopher O'Brien, Anthropology, presented a paper, "Dental Increments in East African Fauna: Implications for Evaluating Season and Prey Demography in Archaeological Assemblages," in April at the 1994 Conference of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists in Bloomington, Indiana. Chris has been asked to be a consultant on mammalian aging research for Wildlife International, NoubalC-Ndoki Forest Project, Brazzaville, Congo.
Susan O'Brien, History, received the 1993-94 African Studies Program Travel Award to do research in Africa, and the A.C. Jordan Prize for the best paper and finished a Ph.D. minor in African Studies. She will continue her language studies this summer in Nigeria through the Group Projects Abroad for Advanced Study of Hausa.
Nancy Pauley, curriculum & instruction, is doing research at the African Studies Curriculum Center, Kenyatta University, Kenya, this summer. She will also do research in Namibia on arts in culture through interviews with teacher trainers.
Susan Peters, African Languages & Literature, travelled through Arabic- speaking countries last spring. She is currently studying Moroccan Arabic at the Arabic Language Institute in Fes during the summer.
Kasiya Makaka Phiri, African Languages & Literature, is author of "Tapping into the Oral Tradition" in Towards More Understanding - The Making and Sharing of Children's Literature in Southern Africa, Juta & Co, Ltd 1993 ISBN O 7021 3168 7.
Peter Rogers, History, is writing a book, Combat Games of Northern Nigeria, a companion volume to his Ph.D. dissertation, "Hausa Combat Literature."
Kathleen Smythe, History, received a Johann Jacobs Foundation Fellowship to do research in Tanzania and a travel award from the Graduate School for research in Tanzania.
AWARDS
Congratulations to the African Studies students on their academic achievements!
Fulbright Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Award
Jeremy Foltz, Agricultural Economics, will do dissertation research in Tunisia on "Developing Sustainable Agricultural Production: An Investigation of the Economics of Irrigation in Tunisia."
Fulbright (IIE)
Anne Lewinson, Anthropology, research in Tanzania.
Fulbright-Hays
Michael Onuscho, African Languages & Literature, to study Arabic at University of Yarmouk/Jordan through the University of Virginia, summer 1994.
Social Science Research Council Pre-Dissertation Award
Heidi Glaesel, geography, research in Kenya and Tanzania. David Mirzeler, Anthropology, to study the Turkana language and explore a research site.
MacArthur
Scott Kloeck-Jenson, Political Science, to do dissertation research on changing norms and notions of sovereignty by looking at the role of international actors and how they have affected state legitimacy in Mozambique. David Mirzeler, Anthropology, research to explore the question of ethnic boundaries and the ritual of the hippopotamus in the Lake Turkana region of Kenya.
FLAS (Foreign Language & Area Studies Scholarship)
1994-95 Academic Year:
David Benson, History, Hausa
Lynn Khadiagala, Political Science, Swahili
Ellen Nyahwihwiri, development, Swahili
Michael Onushco, African Languages & Literature, Arabic
Sofia Samatar, African Languages & Literature, Swahili
Christopher Shannon, History, Arabic
1994 Summer:
Jermaine Jones, History, Hausa GPA in Nigeria
Ellen Nyahwihwiri, development, Swahili at Michigan State University
Susan O'Brien, History, Hausa GPA in Nigeria
Christopher Shannon, History, Arabic at Middlebury College, Vermont
Michael Onushco, African Languages & Literature, Arabic at Yarmouk
University, Jordan
Novian Whitsitt, African Languages & Literature, Hausa GPA in Nigeria
Foreign Language Enhancement Program
Ellen Nyahwihwiri, development, Swahili at Michigan State University.
1993-94 Travel Award
Heidi Glaesel, geography. Research: "Resource Conservation on the Kenyan Coast: a Study in the Political Ecology of the Malindi-Watamu Biosphere Reserve"
U.S. Department of State Internships
Maria d. Olson, journalism and African Studies, Ethiopia
Ph. D. Minor in African Studies
Susan O'Brien, History
Jordan Prize Awarded for History Thesis
Susan O'Brien, History, received the Jordan Prize in May 1994 for an outstanding paper written on an African topic. The title of her paper/Masters thesis was "Spirit Possession as Historical Source: Gender, Islam, and Healing in Hausa Bori."
Concentration in African Studies (Undergraduate)
Brenda George, Sociology and Political Science Paul Feuerer, History Marc S. Fourrier, zoology Amy M. Sanborn, History
Office of International Studies & Programs Travel Awards
Rebeccah Anderson, Tanzania Stephen Corradini, Tanzania Nichole Smaglick, Tanzania Maram R. Tallaat, Egypt
RESEARCH IN NAMIBIA
by Gretchen Bauer, Political Science
Since independence in 1990, Namibia has become an increasingly popular and accessible place to conduct research. From 1991 to 1993, I carried out research there for my doctoral dissertation on the labor movement in Namibia. In every aspect my experience was a positive one. To date there are few constraints to conducting research in Namibia. There has been some discussion of instituting a system of research permits through the Prime Minister's Office or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, although, to my knowledge, this has not yet happened. With letters of support from the University of Namibia and from funding agencies, I was easily able to obtain temporary residence permits "for purposes of research only"-although this is reportedly becoming more difficult. Most researchers find affiliation through a department or research division within the University of Namibia, via the Vice-Chancellor's Office, or through one of a number of smaller research institutions at which foreign researchers have occasionally been based.
Language need not pose an obstacle. Although English is spoken by only a minority of Namibians, it was declared the national language at independence and more and more Namibians are learning it. Before independence the lingua franca was Afrikaans, a knowledge of which is exceedingly useful. The most widely spoken `indigenous' are the Oshivambo languages and Otjiherero, which, together with Afrikaans and German (and other languages), are offered in night courses at the university.
For the most part, the infrastructure in Namibia is highly developed, although given the vast distances and extremely low population density, transport and communication to the rural areas can be problematic. In general, one's own means of transport is highly recommended given a dearth of adequate public transportation. My experience was of the 'urban' areas of Namibia, primarily Windhoek and other industrial centers. While all towns in Namibia remain organized along the apartheid lines of a 'White' town (and residential area) and separate 'Black' and 'Coloured' townships or locations, these are breaking down slowly and, in any case, do not form a barrier to the interested researcher.
I feel privileged to have been able to spend two exciting years with this enchanting country and people - as they grapple with the transition from 100 years of oppressive colonial rule to independence, and a bright future.
OUTREACH NEWS
1994 Summer Institute
The second four-week intensive workshop devoted to the study of African literature will be held July 18 -August 12, 1994. It will focus on theoretical and pedagogical implications of African autobiographical works. Participants are selected from teachers and administrators of K- 16 institutions in the Upper Midwest states. Guest lecturers will include members of the African Studies faculty. The lead professor will be Maureen Eke from Michigan State University's African Studies Program. Professor Tabachnick, Associate Dean of Education, will be the co- instructor. The Institute, which is funded by the United States Department of Education, will also include educational computing and classroom Internet communication instruction.
Teaching About Africa in the '90s The African Studies Outreach Program presented a workshop "Perspectives on Teaching About Africa in the 1990s" on February 25-26 at the Wisconsin Center. It was organized for community college professors who planned to integrate or introduce African Studies into their curricula. Thirty one participants from sixteen colleges, mainly from DuPage County, Illinois, attended the workshop. UW presenters were Michael Afolayan, Henry Drewal, El Kheir El Kheir, Mabel Enwemnwa, Edris Makward, Emilie Ngo-Nguidjol, Harold Scheub, Gay Seidman, Aliko Songolo, Thomas Spear, Robert Tabachnick, and Craig Werner. The workshop was coordinated by Zinta Konrad, African Languages & Literature '83, who is working at International Education Office, College of DuPage.
Both Drs. Betty Wass and Michael Afolayan received letters of commendation and congratulations from Chancellor David Ward on the success of the workshop.
1993 Summer Institute Follow-up/Class Reunion Participants of the 1993 Summer Institute of African Literature met this spring to report on their experiences integrating their newly acquired African literature teaching skills. The political ramifications of pioneering African Studies in their respective classrooms was an issue that cut across participants' testimonies. In all, we agreed that bringing Africa to the American classrooms was challenging but worthwhile.
SPEAKERS
(January-June 1994)
Ebiegberi J. Alagoa, History, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, "An African Philosophy of History in the Oral Tradition."
Lindiwe Mabuza, chief representative of ANC in the United States, "The Future of Democracy in South Africa."
Edward Powe, African Languages & Literature, "The Lore of Madagascar."
Florence Chenoweth, UW international ag program, "Up Against a Wall: Struggling to Alleviate Poverty in The Gambia."
Deborah Green, Ross & Green, Washington, D.C., "From Cold War Dictatorship to New World Order: A Case Study on Sudan and Zaire."
Henry Drewal, art History, "The River Never Rests: Yoruba Diaspora Art History."
Kamuyu-wa-Kang'ethe, Anthropology & religion, Cardinal Stritch College, Milwaukee, "A Theoretical Model to Study the Continuity of African Culture in African American Culture."
Joseph L. Mbele, English, St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, "Tanzania's Epic Folklore."
Joseph Mvukiyumwami, Institute for Scientific & Technological Research, Butare, Rwanda, "Biodiversity and Conservation of Native Flora of Rwanda."
Aili Tripp, Political Science & women's studies, "Gender & Local Politics in Contemporary Uganda."
Peter Arcese, wildlife ecology, "Conservation in Serengeti National Park."
Christopher Barrett, Ag Econ, "Post-Liberalization Food Marketing in Rural Madagascar."
Michael Roth, Land Tenure Center, "Land Rights, Land Markets, & Institutional Transformation in Zambia."
Lars Kahlstrom and Patti Swarts, Windhoek,Namibia, "Teacher Education Reform in Namibia."
Karin Barber, preceptor, Institute for Advanced Study & Research in the African Humanities, Northwestern University, "Yourba Popular Theatre: Literacy, Improvisation and the Public."
Jo Ellen Fair, journalism, "The Body Politic, the Bodies of Women and the News Coverage of Africa."
Tyohdzuah Akosu, English, Benue State University, Makurdi, "Researching Black South African and African American Image of Self: Motives, Problems and Prospects."
ANNOUNCEMENT
1994 FALL SYMPOSIUM
Paths to the African Past: Methodological Perspectives--Past, Present, Future
The Department of History and the African Studies Program will sponsor a symposium critically assessing methodological techniques employed to reconstruct the African past.
The symposium honors the pioneering work of Jan Vansina, who has led the way in exploring the use of oral traditions, ethnography, comparative linguistics, and archaeology to reconstruct the History of African societies. Widely deployed in the field today, these methods are now being adopted by historians of women, slavery, workers, Native Americans, and other non-western peoples.
The symposium will be held September 17, 1994 and will include presentations by Professors Joseph C. Miller of the University of Virginia, David Newbury of the University of North Carolina, Iris Berger of the State University of New York at Albany, Allen Isaacman of the University of Minnesota, RenCe Tantala of Shippensburg University, and Carolyn Adenaike, Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, and David Henige of the University of Wisconsin.
A dinner honoring Jan and Claudine Vansina will close the symposium.
Editor: Ali B. Ali-Dinar
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