ILANGA Fall 2008 Newsletter
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UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ILANGA Fall 2008 Newsletter FROM THE DIRECTOR’S DESK Dr. Lee Cassanelli For more than two decades, Penn’s Afri- Project, participation in CHOP’s Sickle can Studies Center (ASC) has provided Cell Research Center in Kumasi) will resources for those in our University soon be augmented by new partner- community engaged in research, teach- ships. The School of Engineering and ing, and service related to Africa. With Applied Sciences is taking the lead in devel- support from SAS and the U.S. Depart- oping a comprehensive link agreement be- ment of Education, we have been able to tween Penn and Kwame Nkrumah Institute offer regular courses or specialized tuto- of Science and Technology (KNIST), whose rials in a dozen African languages, making unique mission is to promote teaching, re- Penn a national leader in African language search and entrepreneurship training that instruction. We roster African Studies will contribute to the development of courses in many SAS departments and Ghana (and Africa) as well as provide ser- across several of Penn’s professional vice to the community. The Open Mind for schools. Our Outreach program organ- Africa Program (see article, p. 4) will be izes workshops for Philadelphia-area sending two Penn students to Ghana in the school teachers, community organiza- summer of 2009. One graduate student tions, members of the business commu- from the School of Social Policy (SP2) and nity, and local media outlets. The Cen- Practice will facilitate the growing relation- ter’s internationally-recognized website ship between KNIST and SP2. attracts an average of three million uses per month. (From left )Dr. Richard Hodges - Penn Museum Director, His The University Museum’s splendid collec- Excellency Festus Mogae - Former President of Botswana, Dr . Lee tion of Benin art is being highlighted in a New Africa-related initiatives through- Cassanelli - Professor, History Dept & Director, African Studies new exhibit, IYARE (see p. 3), while Mu- out the University coupled with grow- Center, Dr. Sandra Barnes – Professor, Anthropology Dept at seum staff and African Studies faculty are ing student interest in the continent Africa Healing Journeys Reception; Penn Museum, Fall 2008. in the planning stage of a major new have made the ASC an even busier show on ‘African Healing Journeys’ which will help transform the place. For example, Penn’s Medical School has been sending an Museum’s Africa gallery in 2011-12. The Penn Libraries’ out- average of 28-36 students a year for internships to Botswana, standing collections of African videos, language materials, and elec- where they work with HIV/AIDS tronic resources continue to grow under the energetic leadership patients in hospitals and clin- INSIDE THIS ISSUE ics alongside African health of bibliographer Lauris Olson (see his report on p. 9) professionals. The Botswana- Introductory undergraduate courses in African Studies have en- African Scholar for a Day 2 UPenn Partnership has re- rolled unprecedented numbers this fall, and more students than cently expanded to include ever before have contacted the ASC in search of short-term study Benin Art at Penn Museum faculty and student exchanges Africa Orientation 3 and service opportunities in Africa. The Provost’s Global Develop- in the humanities, arts, and ment Initiative helped send Penn students to Africa for 2008 sum- social sciences, as well as mer internships with four international NGOs; you can read about Delegation to Ghana 4 summer internships for Penn Open Mind for Africa some of their experiences in our Newsletter. graduates and undergraduates The challenges facing us now include developing courses which will Rendezvous : Dr. Kathleen 5 in a variety of fields. The ASC Ryan provides pre-departure orien- prepare students to conduct original research in Africa, as well as tation programs for these courses which can provide returning students with opportunities African Languages 6-7 students, and in 2009-10 we to apply their acquired knowledge and develop their expertise at a expect to offer regular more advanced level. The aforementioned Botswana-UPenn part- One Book, One Philadelphia 8 Setswana language classes nership, which seeks to integrate basic linguistic and cultural train- ing with professional on-the-ground experience, might well serve Library Activities 9 along with abbreviated courses for medical students as a model for student engagement with other African countries in and others going to Botswana fields ranging from Engineering, IT, and Communications to Sociol- Penn Abroad-Student Perspec- 10-11 for short-term research or ogy and Demography, Health, Education, Business, Urban Studies, tives clinical work. Penn’s well- Gender Studies, and Law. Book Reviews 12-13 established programs in The programs discussed here are only the tip of the iceberg. I Ghana (Study Abroad at Le- look forward to sharing other opportunities and challenges in Afri- gon, SEAS’s Digital Villages Contact & Announcements 14 can Studies with readers in our next Newsletter. visit us on the web at www.africa.upenn.edu 1 14th Annual African Scholar For a Day: David Coplan A report from Gavin Steingo & Roger Grant On Friday, March 28, 2008, the African Studies Center and the panel, moderated by Professor Carol Muller, had three graduate Department of Music collaborated to welcome Professor David students - Garry Bertholf, Glenn Holtzman, and Gavin Steingo - B. Coplan of Wits University, South Africa, as our 14 th annual respond to and critique Coplan’s first book, In Township Tonight! . African Scholar for a Day. A tremendous success, this year’s Professor Coplan’s skillful and graceful responses fostered lengthy event bore the title “South Africa Sonically” and was a day-long conversations that continued well into the delicious lunch, courtesy celebration of Coplan’s work, filled with lively conversation and of Kaffa Crossing. stimulating ideas. Our Scholar for a Day event culminated in Coplan’s two weeks stay as a Provost’s Distinguished Interna- tional Scholar and guest of the Department of Music. During his A screening of Songs of the Adventurers , a film about Basotho mi- visit, Coplan worked with and taught undergraduates, graduate grants directed by the late ethnographic filmmaker Gei Zantzinger students, and members of the wider Penn and Philadelphia com- and narrated by Professor Coplan, preceded the second panel. We munities. The unprecedented collaboration between the African were touched that Zantzinger’s widow was able to join us for the Studies Center and the Provost’s Distinguished International screening. The second panel focused on the interaction between the Scholar Program allowed us to benefit from our African Scholar film and Coplan’s second book, a study of Basotho world music. The panelists, John Paul Meyers, Oleosi Ntshebe, and Ellen Scott, repre- for substantially longer than usual. sented various disciplines and brought unique insights to bear on this fertile and rather understudied topic. David B. Coplan is Professor and Chair Professor Lee Cassanelli moderated this of Social Anthropology at Wits Univer- panel and the subsequent question and sity, Johannesburg, South Africa. He answer period. has also held visiting appointments at diverse institutions such as L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales Following the second panel, Professor (Paris), Rice University, NYU, and the Coplan presented a key-address titled University of Cape Town. He acted as “Performing the City: The Music that the Chief Researcher for the Made Johannesburg.” Professor Coplan’s “Mobilising Culture and Heritage for decades of work on the music of Johan- Nation Building” in South Africa’s Arts nesburg informed this erudite and bril- and Culture Department and worked as liantly orated talk. an ethnographic research consultant for University of Pennsylvania Museum and The day concluded in a celebratory and International Library of African Music. well-executed performance by Penn’s only African music ensemble: Penn African Performing Arts (PAPA). Led by Philip Asare, the He authored In Township Tonight!, currently in its second edition, group performed several classic songs from around the continent. a seminal ethnomusicological work and the first comprehensive We owe thanks to: our co-sponsors, the Department of Anthropol- study of South African black performance. In Township Tonight ! ogy, and the Political Science Department; the graduate student won the Herskovitz Award from the African Studies Association. assistants Ian MacMillen, Christine Dang, and Nina Ohman; the Coplan is also the author of In the Time of Cannibals: Word Music amazing and dedicated staff at both the African Studies Center and of South Africa's Basotho Migrants, and editor of Lyrics of the Baso- the Music Department: Lee Cassanelli, Faye Patterson, Ali Ali-Dinar, Cedric Tolliver, Anastasia Shown, and Maryellen Malek; Dean Nagel tho Migrants. for taking time out of his busy schedule to join us; and Professor Carol Muller, without whom none of this could have been possible. Dean Jack Nagel and Professor Lee Cassanelli opened the And, of course, a final thanks to the David Coplan himself, an excel- Scholar for a Day with their remarks. Two panels followed that lent scholar and true gentleman. EXCHANGE SCHOLARS FOR FALL 2008 For Fall 2008, Penn Abroad at the Office of International Programs welcomes two visiting scholars and professors in Applied Physics for their exchange program with Gaston Berger University, St. Louis, Senegal – Dr. Diène NDiaye (Left) and Dr. Bouya Diop (Right). 2 IYARE! Splendor and Tension in Benin’s Palace Theatre “You can’t resist the palace.” That’s a proverb from Nigeria’s feature of the court. Rivalries in power centers are universal, and Benin Kingdom, where I went to live and research in 1992. Imag- allow viewers to jump into the palace as audience members and ining the palace began in 1977, when I began writing my disserta- appreciate its specifics and commonalities. The various sections tion at Indiana University.