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The School for International Training (SIT) offers 20 field-based semester programs in Africa for 16 undergraduate credits. A few of these programs include: Côte d'Ivoire: Ecology and Conservation ( a new program beginning in the spring 2000); Uganda: Development Studies; Ghana: Diaspora Studies; Mali: Cultural History and Development; Botswana: Conservation and Ecology. Courses include intensive language, thematic seminar, field study seminar, and an independent study project. SIT programs are available to top college sophomores, juniors, or seniors, who are in good academic standing at any college or university and who have a minimum grade point average of 2.5 and at least one year of college-level coursework at the time of application. Program fees range from$10,300-12,600 including tuition, room and board, health insurance, in-country excursions, and international airfare. Scholarships are available. For further information, please contact the College Semester Abroad Admissions Department at 800-336-1616 or csa@sit.edu.  African, Afro-American and Afro-Caribbean History and Culture The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is now accepting applications for its

The US Student Fulbright IIE Program is designed to give recent B.S./B.A. graduates, M.A./Ph.D. candidates, young professionals and artists opportunities for personal development and international experience. Grantees plan their own programs, and projects may personal development and international experience. Grantees plan their own programs, and projects may include university course-work, independent library or field research, classes in a music conservatory or art school, or special projects in the social or life sciences. The awards are for nine to 12 months of research or study abroad. Applicants must be US citizens and have sufficient proficiency in a written and spoken language of the host country. The initial MSU campus deadline for the Fulbright IIE competition is September 30, 1999. 

Flas Fellowship - 2000/2001  Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships will be offered to Penn graduate studetns in the Schools of Arts and Sciences, Medicine, Veterinary, Education, Social Work, Law, Nursing, and Anneberg School of Communication to study an African language.  Students must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.  The fellowships pay full tuition and a $10,000 stipend.  Application Deadline:  January 4, 2000 (incoming students), February 3, 2000 (on-going students).  Eligible languages are Swahili, Yoruba, Amharic and Arabic (if student is preparing for research or work in Sub-Saharan Africa).  The study of other African languages may be approved on a case-by-case basis by the Department of Education. 

For application form and information contact: 

Ms. Lynette Loose 
Program Coordinator 
African Studies Center 
645 Williams Hall 
University of Pennsylvania 
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 

 

 The African Language Cultural Festival was held on October 23, 1999 in Hill House, University of Pennsylvania. Eight languages are currently being taught and they were represented in the form of sketches, songs, dances, riddles and poems. The goal of the cultural festival is to enable students to demonstrate language skills as well as perform some aspects of culture, customs and traditions acquired during this period. It is also a time when all African language students, teachers and guests gather together to interact and exchange these newly acquired skills, and to have fun. Ethnic food and drinks were provided. 

Language Courses 

Fall 1999: Amharic, Yoruba, and Swahili are the three main language courses offered every semester. Twi, Shona, Wolof, Zulu, Hausa, and Luo are in Penn's individualized tutorial program. 

Recollections from a Summer in Zanzibar: 1999 Kiswahili GPA 

This past summer twelve students from various universities and departments around the United States gathered in the humid June heat of Philadelphia for a brief orientation session before flying off for two months of intensive Kiswahili study in Zanzibar, Tanzania. As one of the students participating in this Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad in Zanzibar, I spent much of the long plane ride filled with anticipation of what I would encounter in my first trip to Africa and how my two previous years of Kiswahili study would hold up when I was surrounded by native speakers. 

After arriving in Zanzibar we spent the first two days exploring and negotiating our way around Stone Town, but we shortly moved in with the host families with whom we lived for the next two months and settled down into our daily routines. Each weekday morning we made our way to the Taasisi Language Institute for four hours of advanced Kiswahili study. Our course work generally focused on improving conversational skills, and class discussion frequently turned into heated debates. While we spent most of the morning in our small classes, we also went to a series of lectures on topics such as Kiswahili poetry, the history of Zanzibar, and an explanation of the Mwaka Kogwa new year festival which we attended in Makunduchi. After class we headed home for lunch with our host families and then spent the rest of our afternoons wandering around the old town or spending time with our host families. Each Wednesday, however, was marked by a special trip with the teachers and other international students at Taasisi to various cultural and historical sites in the area including visits to a local healer, the radio station, the palace museum, and a spice farm. Our time in Zanzibar Town was complimented by weekend trips to other villages on the island and a five-day visit to mainland Tanzania, highlighted by visits to a game park, the University of Dar es Salaam, and a day trip to Bagamoyo, a former slave entrepot on the coast with a rich history and beautiful beach. Although I gained a great deal from these trips, the courses at the Taasisi, and friendships with my fellow students, the home-stay experience was by far the most rewarding part of my two months in Zanzibar. I was thrilled to be a big sister for the first time in my life and found Mohammed (7), Aziza (6), and Abou Bakar (5) to be the best Kiswahili teachers on the entire island. Each day when I arrived home in the early evening the kids would run to me, ready to play cards, draw pictures, and tell me stories. Abou would quiz me on vocabulary while Mohammed taught me songs. Aziza liked to make up stories about weddings and parties (although she often told the same story over again), but also enjoyed copying English words out of the Toni Morrison book I was reading. It was through my interaction with them and their mother Sabra (who was determined to find me a husband in Zanzibar) that my confidence and ability with Kiswahili made the most significant improvement. Now back in Philadelphia I frequently remember their kindness and generosity in welcoming me into their home without reservation and count the days until I can go back to Zanzibar to visit them again. The Kiswahili GPA not only left me with fond memories of Zanzibar and my friends and companions there, but offered me a new perspective and devotion to my Kiswahili study here in the U.S. 
 
Hana Brown, Bryn Mawr College  
4th year Kiswahili student at Penn 
 

African Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania will direct Advanced Kiswahili GPA in Tanzania in the summer of 2000 (June 19^th-August 11^th, 2000). Application information will be made available at: http://www.ccat.upenn.edu/afl/gpa.html. 

 

ASA Meeting Philadelphia November 11-14 1999The African Studies Association (ASA) was founded in 1957 as a nonprofit organization open to all individuals and institutions interested in African affairs. Its mission is to bring together people with a scholarly and professional interest in Africa. 

"Against all Odds: African Languages and Literatures into the 21^st Century," international conference and festival: Asmara, January 11-17, 2000. Countries, universities, corporations, publishers, writers, scholars, artists, students, and children will converge for a week-long conference and festival at the crossroads of centuries and a crossroads of cultures to make a historic intervention in Africa and the world. Against all Odds will embrace people everywhere who use languages and literatures to embody their dreams for a better world. Against all Odds will be a call for action by national, international, academic, and corporate institutions and foundations to promote the continued growth and development of African languages and literatures into the 21^st century. Presented in African languages and including Europhone languages, with onsite translations offered through handouts, earphones, and interpreters, Against all Odds will be cerebral, emphasizing scholarship and the highest critical standards, yet simultaneously celebratory, creating an environment in which African languages, performancemusic, film, drama, readings, and danceand visual arts will be a constant presence. Numerous topics will be discussed: Languages of the State and the State of Languages; Culture, Politics, and Performance; Scholarship and African Languages; African Women's Writing; The Child: Language, Writing, and Education; Languages, Literature, and Narrative of War and Peace in Africa; Books, Publishing, Telecommunications: African Languages, New Technologies, Broadcast Systems, and the Future. For further information, please contact: Charles Cantalupo, Organizing Chair, Against all Odds, The Pennsylvania State University, 200 University Drive, Schuykill Haven, PA 17972 USA Phone: 1-570-385-6055 / 1-610-974-9219 Fax: 1-570-385-3672 / 1-610-974-9219 E-mail: cxc8@psu.edu 

International Peace and World Politics The annual conference of the International Studies Association Midwest will be held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University in Des Moines October 810, 1999. Numerous papers, panels and round-tables are centered around the conference theme of international peace and world politics. For more information, contact: Carol C. James, 503 Ross Hall, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011-1204; Tel: (515) 294-2184; cjames514@aol.com; www.iastate.edu/~isq. 

Gender Equality and Justice The 8th International Association for Women in Development (AWID) Forum will be held in Washington, DC November 11-14, 1999. This year's forum on "Leading Solutions for Equality and Justice" explores six sub-themes: women transforming development and economics, trading women's human rights, technological changes and choices, the politics of the global women's movement, women organizing and organizational transformation, and leadership and the next generation. For more information, contact: AWID Meeting Masters, Tel: (703) 968-5872; awidreg@aol.com; http://www.awid.org. 

Friday African Cultural Soirees at The Point After. The MSU African community extends an invitation to all to socialize and network with international professionals and students who are living in the Lansing area. Every other Friday evening, beginning September 24th, people from around the world will gather at The Point After, 3015 S. MLK Jr. Blvd., Lansing, MI; Tel: (517) 882-4870. Choice hits, including African Salsa, Ndumbolo, Kwaito, Makossa, Kwassa-Kwassa, Reggae, Soca, Zook, Hip-Hop and R&B, will be featured up until November 26th. 

The Women of Color of the Midwest Society for Women in Philosophy will hold a caucus on October 23, 1999 from 10:30 a.m till 11:45 a.m. in the Illinois Room of the MSU Union. This gathering is part of the Midwest Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP) conference sponsored by MSU from October 24. The caucus aims to bring together women of color who want to think and discuss among themselves, whether they are professional philosophers, academics, community members, poets, activists or others. Modes of expression include: conversation, poetry, story telling, letter writing, prose and video. Travel subsidies are available for students, unemployed or underemployed attendees. Proposals for the caucus should be sent to: Maris Lugones, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Binghamton University, P.O. Box 6000, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000. For further information about local arrangements, contact: Crista Lebens, 374-6728; lebenscr@pilot.msu.edu.