Spring 2011 Institute Events
Sightlines: New Perspectives on African Architecture and Urbanism
Discussion with acclaimed Senegalese artist Viye DibaDate: Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Time: 6:30-7:45pm
Location: room 208 Knox HallUsing a range of local found and appropriated materials, including woven strips of cloth ordinarily used for shrouds; sand; and recycled objects, Viye Diba creates works that fuse painting with sculpture. In a lecture titled Environment and Object: Exploring Urban Topographies, Viye Diba discusses his recent work, created using found objects and materials from African cities including Dakar, where the artist lives. The lecture, which will be followed by a Q&A with the audience, is the first in a new series that explores contemporary African cities as unique built environments, examining their social, physical, and emotional contours. Titled Sightlines: New Perspectives on African Architecture and Urbanism, the series is co-presented by the Museum for African Art and Columbia University’s Institute of African Studies.
In French, with English translation.
Rebecca Ginsburg - Black Women in White Johannesburg: Domestic Workers' Spatial Strategies under Apartheid
Columbia University, School of International and Public Affairs, Room 1512, 420 West 118th Street, New York CityIn mid-twentieth-century South Africa, thousands of black women left rural areas to find work in the households of suburban white families. Many headed to Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city and industrial powerhouse, which was a racially and ethnically divided space. University of Illinois Professor Rebecca Ginsburg explores the ways in which domestic workers’ mobility was severely limited under Apartheid-era legislation and how these women responded and overcame these restrictions.
Dr. Ginsburg, who lived for several years in South Africa, teaches courses on historic African cities and the Atlantic slave trade, among other subjects. Her current research interests include fugitive landscapes and geographies of the Atlantic slave trade. Dr. Ginsburg’s previous publications include The Landscapes of North American Slavery; Historical Geography, and Landscape Journals, among other titles.
Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Time: 6:30-7:45 pm
Location: room 1512 International Affairs Building
Migration and Xenophobia in Southern Africa
A Discussion with Sean JacobsDate: Friday, February 18, 2011
Time: 12:00 pm
Location: TBAPresented by Aurelia Wa Kabwe-Segatti, Senior Research Fellow from the African Centre for Migration and Society, and Loren B. Landau, the director of the African Centre for Migration and Society from the University of the Witwatersrand. With discussant Sean Jacobs, Assistant Professor from The New School.
Sightlines: New Perspectives on African Architecture and Urbanism
"'Convivencia'" at Timbuktu: Jewish Influence on West African Architecture"
Discussion with Labelle PrussinDate: Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Time: 6:30-7:45 pm
Location: room 138 Horace Mann Hall, Teachers CollegeIn the past, many in the academic community viewed West Africa as isolated from the rest of the continent. Distinguished scholar and curator Labelle Prussin has been exploring a historic nexus of Jewish traders, scholars, builders, and artisans at Timbuktu and her research links them to North Africa via the historic trans-Saharan trade routes. Dr. Prussin will share examples of architectural and artisanal similarities that may point to an Islamic-cum-Judaic convivencia (coexistence) which contributed to and enriched the African architectural landscape.
Dr. Prussin, an independent curator, has spent four decades undertaking archival research and fieldwork in African arts and architecture. She has taught at the University of Science and Technology in Ghana, the University of Michigan, University of Washington, and City University of New York. In 2007 Dr. Prussin was appointed Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, in Durban, South Africa
Related Events
Promised Land
Film Screening and DiscussionDate: Thursday, February 3, 2011
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: TBAPromised Land invites viewers to take an inside look at the critical story of land reform and racial reconciliation in the new, post-apartheid South Africa. The film follows the story of the Mekgareng, an impoverished tribe removed from their land 40 years ago who, in 1998, petitioned the new democratically elected government to reclaim their land-now owned by white farmers and developers. Through their story, viewers will see why, as many inside South Africa call it, the land issue is a "ticking time bomb" that has potential to explode and destroy the fragile racial compact that post-apartheid South Africa was built upon. Promised Land, produced and directed by Yoruba Richen, won the Fledgling Fund Award for Socially Conscious Documentaries presented at the Independent Feature Project in New York City.
The Market Maker
Film Screening and DiscussionDate: Thursday, March 3, 2011
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: TBAThe Market Maker, hosted by anchor Aaron Brown, tells the dramatic, intimate story of a woman on a mission – and a world of trouble standing in her way. Eleni Gabre-Madhin is a woman with a dream. The charismatic Ethiopian economist wants to end hunger in her famine-plagued country. But rather than relying on foreign aid or new agricultural technology, she has designed the nation’s first commodities exchange, which she hopes will revolutionize an ancient market system whose inefficiencies have been partly responsible for the country’s persistent food shortages.
Directed by Hugo Berkeley, an award-winning director and cinematographer, and produced by Eli Cane, who in his career has overseen production of a dozen Grammy winning albums.
Panel on Africa Media
A Discussion with Filmmaker Rachel Boyton and Columbia Professor Anya SchiffrinDate: Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Time: TBA
Location: The Kellogg Center in the International Affairs Building (15th Floor)As the extractive sector has come to play an increasingly important role in the economies of sub-Saharan Africa, attention has turned to the media. Many hope that the media will play an important role in framing the policy agenda and educating the public and so support efforts to boost transparency, promote good governance and help ensure that revenues from the extractives are used well to reduce poverty and promote development. But in many of the countries where the extractive sector is important, the media is unable to play a forceful and active role. At the same time, an increasing number of NGOs (both foreign and domestic) have begun to look at how to ensure the continent benefits from the revenues that are generated from the extractive sector. They hope that the projected revenues from oil, gas and mining can be used to improve the economic development of extractive countries and the income of ordinary citizens. A panel hosted by CGT/IMAC could discuss the role of the media in covering the extractive sector in Africa, talk about where some of the stronger reporting is taking place currently, look at digital media (sites like saharareporters.com) and its ability to get around the restrictions faced by reporters in the legacy media and outline areas for future coverage.
The Art of Citizenship in African Cities
A Conference hosted by the Committee on Global ThoughtDate: Friday, May 6, 2011
Time: TBA
Location: Avery Hall, Wood AuditoriumInsight on African cities has driven some of the most innovative and provocative recent scholarly debates considering development, the nature of citizenship, and the postcolonial urban condition. In contrast with a familiar reading of African cities which characterizes them as dysfunctional, chaotic and decaying, there is a burgeoning scholarship which explores the way that African cities actually work and the very orderly, dynamic and creative processes which animate them. This conference builds on these insights, aiming to highlight the emergent citizenship practices through which urban Africans enact and reconfigure their cities, while asking some hard questions about the implications of these strategies and their limits.