CFP: Imagining Slavery: National Representations of the History of Slavery and Abolition

March 18, 2010 in Uncategorized

Detail of oil painting (courtesy of Jon Sensbach) of Cornelius van de Compagnie, as he is identified on the painting, as shown on www.slaveryimages.org, sponsored by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the University of Virginia Library." Click image for more

CALL FOR PAPERS

Imagining Slavery: National Representations of the History of Slavery
and Abolition
A one-day interdisciplinary workshop

Danish National Archives, Copenhagen
8th September 2010

__________________________________

This workshop, which forms part of the EURESCL research project, will
provide scholars with opportunity to examine how the history of slavery
and abolition has featured in national histories, national memories, and
national educational curriculums. The workshop will draw together
scholars from different disciplines and geographic specialisations, and
the organizers are especially keen to hear from scholars who work within
comparative frameworks. Possible themes include:

- The history and mythology of ‘benign slavery’ in national
discourses.
- Anti-slavery, national ‘honour’ and related models of ‘civilization’
and the ‘civilizing mission’.
- Forgetting slavery, remembering abolition.
- Comparative histories of slavery and abolition.
- Museums, monuments and other national representations of slavery and
abolition.
- Teaching slavery and abolition in national curriculums.
 
The conference organisers will provide hotel accommodation and catering
for speakers, but participants will be responsible for their own travel.

To propose a 20-minute paper, to be delivered in English, please send a
title and proposal (300 words max.) and a one-page CV to Dr Douglas
Hamilton d.hamilton at hull.ac.uk.  Abstracts should be submitted by the
7th of May, 2010. Further inquiries should also be directed to Dr
Hamilton.
Scholars who wish to attend, but not to present, should contact Dr Erik
Göbel at the Danish National Archives: egat ra.sa.dk <mailto:eg at ra.sa.dk>

Co-sponsors: the Danish National Archives, Copenhagen; the Wilberforce
Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation, University of Hull;
and EURESCL: Slave trade, slavery, abolitions and their legacies in
European histories and identities.

Sweatshops Won't Save Haiti

Monday 15 March 2010

by: Tope Folarin  |  Foreign Policy in Focus

The United Nations will host a Haiti donors' conference at the end of March.

This conference will be quite different from last year's event, of course, coming as it does on the heels of the worst earthquake to strike Haiti in two centuries. An agenda has already begun to take shape: It's already clear that a future Haiti must be populated with environmentally sustainable, earthquake-resistant buildings, for example, and it's also clear that the international community must do something to ease Haiti's massive debt burden.

Former President Bill Clinton, currently serving as the UN's envoy to Haiti, and economist Paul Collier have another idea that could prove disastrous. They think Haiti needs to leverage its "cheap labor."

In other words, they think Haiti will solve its problems by opening up more sweatshops.

Of course Clinton and Collier don't call them sweatshops. They talk about "garment factories" or "manufacturing centers" or simply "workshops," but they are sweatshops and nothing more.

For Haiti to join the ranks of developed nations, they argue, Haitians must first work as many hours as possible for paltry wages so that their economy can grow.

Congress seems to agree. It has passed several bills that provide Haitian garment-makers preferential access to American consumers. According to conventional knowledge, Haiti was on the road to economic success — as a result of these legislative reforms — before the earthquake. Now, the logic goes, Haitians must rebuild their collapsed "workshops" and produce as many cheap T-shirts as possible.

All this ignores the most important point: sweatshop labor's inherent inhumanity. Sweatshop labor proponents have never worked in the conditions they so enthusiastically endorse for others. When advocating such solutions, they often offer compelling numbers as proof of their effectiveness. But what about the human costs: the extra hours workers spend away from their families, the risk of injury that accompanies repetitive movements, and the loss of morale as some boss demands that you produce even more?

In Haiti, there are a few plausible alternatives to sweatshop labor. In the lead-up to last year's donors' conference, progressive Haitian civil society organizations suggested a development program that focuses on local production and agriculture. They argued, convincingly, that the benefits from sweatshop labor often end up somewhere else, since the clothes are constructed on-site; the material for the clothes are shipped in, and the clothes are shipped out upon completion.

A focus on locally produced goods, however, would have the opposite effect. Haitian entrepreneurs would produce according to Haitian needs, and every part of the manufacturing process--from the development of materials to the production of goods--would take place in Haiti and benefit Haitians.

In addition, building up the capacity of Haitian farmers is crucial in the coming months and years. Haiti has been dependent on food aid for many years now, and a national program that focused on sustainable agriculture would not only have the effect of providing a livelihood and locally produced food for countless Haitians, it would also allow Haiti to address the environmental degradation that has crippled its economy for generations.

The link between these two suggestions is infrastructure development. Better roads and better transportation generally mean a much more stable and efficient economy.

All three of these proposals would require funding from the international community and expertise from abroad as well. All three proposals, if enacted, would benefit Haitians enormously.

The upcoming donors' conference is an incredibly important forum. We have an opportunity to help Haitians rebuild in a manner that simultaneously respects their humanity and enables them to become more productive.

We have an opportunity to heed the voices of concerned and knowledgeable Haitians. Now isn't the time to subsidize foreign investors' sweatshops.

Tope Folarin is the 2010 Carol Jean and Edward F. Newman Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, a community of public scholars and organizers linking peace, justice, and the environment in the U.S. and globally.

All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license.

Religion and Sexuality

by Rethabile on March 18, 2010

in Religion, Sexuality

Bishop Tutu was born on 7 October 1931.

“Jesus did not say, ‘If I be lifted up I will draw some’.”

Jesus said, ‘If I be lifted up I will draw all, all, all, all, all. Black, white, yellow, rich, poor, clever, not so clever, beautiful, not so beautiful.

It’s one of the most radical things. All, all, all, all, all, all, all, all. All belong.

Gay, lesbian, so-called straight. All, all are meant to be held in this incredible embrace that will not let us go. All.”

~~ Desmond Mpilo Tutu

John Akomfrah in Conversation with Alan Marcus

by Peacock Visual Arts 

<p>John Akomfrah in Conversation with Alan Marcus from Peacock Visual Arts on Vimeo.</p>  

John Akomfrah's 1986 film, Handsworth Songs, which explores race and civil strife in 1980s Britain, won seven international awards including the British Film Institute's prestigious Grierson Award for Best Documentary. His more than 20 features and documentaries have achieved acclaim in the USA and Britain, including Martin Luther King: Days of Hope (1997), Lawless (2001) and The Lie of the Land (2005). John Akomfrah is also founder of the influential Black Audio Film Collective.

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The Next Soyinka, Achebe or Adichie? Apply for the 2010 Farafina Trust Creative Writing Workshop

Posted on Wednesday, March 17th, 2010 at 4:37 pm

By Bella

Farafina Trust will be holding a creative writing workshop in Lagos, organized by award-winning writer and creative director of Farafina Trust, Chimamanda Adichie, from May 20 to May 29 2010. The workshop is sponsored by Nigerian Breweries Plc. Guest writers who will co-teach the workshop alongside Adichie are the Caine Prize Winning Kenyan writer Binyavanga Wainaina, Chika Unigwe – winner of a Rockefeller Foundation fellowship for creative writing, South African writer Niq Mhlongo and celebrated Ghanaian writer Ama Ata Aidoo.

The workshop will take the form of a class. Participants will be assigned a wide range of reading exercises, as well as daily writing exercises. The aim of the workshop is to improve the craft of Nigerian writers and to encourage published and unpublished writers by bringing different perspectives to the art of storytelling. Participation is limited only to those who apply and are accepted.

To apply, send an e-mail to Udonandu2010@gmail.com

Your e-mail subject should read ‘Workshop Application.’

The body of the e-mail should contain the following:

1. Your Name

2. Your address

3. A few sentences about yourself

4. A writing sample of between 200 and 800 words. The sample must be either fiction or non-fiction.

All material must be pasted or written in the body of the e-mail. Please Do NOT include any attachments in your e-mail. Applications with attachments will be automatically disqualified. Deadline for submissions is April 22 2010. Only those accepted to the workshop will be notified by May 6 2010. Accommodation in Lagos will be provided for all accepted applicants who are able to attend for the ten-day duration of the workshop. A literary evening of readings, open to the public, will be held at the end of the workshop.

Photo Credit: 234 Next/Elan