Program of NEWS AND EVENTS Spring 2019 African Studies Volume 29, Number 3

Conferences address contemporary trans-Saharan issues

Scholars from the US and abroad will convene at Northwestern in April for successive conferences that focus on the current situa- tion in the trans-Saharan region. The first conference, on April 10, has been organized by PAS director Rachel Riedl and institutional partners at Sciences Po in as part of the ongoing research project “Security, Governance, and Policy in the Sahel.” Conference activities will include three panels: • Identification, Inclusion, and Exclusion: Citizenship and the Politics of ID Cards in West • Identification, Surveillance, and Vigilantism: Citizenship and the Politics of Self-Defense in the Sahel Region • Policies and Politics of Intervention International presenters include Roland Marchal, Richard Banégas, Kamina Diallo, and Romand Da Cunha Dupuy (Sciences Po); Claude Mbowou (Panthéon-Sorbonne); and Catherine Gegout (University of Nottingham). Northwestern participants include “Saharan Futures” will bring together experts on the move- Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa director ments of people, ideas, and resources within and across borders. Zekeria Ahmed Salem and Will Reno (political science). The Presenters and discussants will analyze political logics, citizen conference will also include a screening of the documentary mobilizations, economic strategies, and legal infrastructure Koglweogo Land and discussion with Burkinabe filmmaker Ismaël as both constraints and opportunities for growth and security Compaore. across the region. The second conference, “Saharan Futures: Migrations, The conference will open at the Block Museum of Art with a Identities, and Economies,” will be hosted on April 11–12 by keynote by historian Ann McDougall (University of Alberta) and Northwestern’s Program of African Studies, ISITA, and Middle an evening reception on Thursday; Friday events include morn- East and North African ing and afternoon panels at PAS followed by a policy discussion Studies Program. at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. These events comple- Bridging the discon- ment the concurrent Block Museum exhibition Caravans of Gold, Inside nect between North African Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval and sub-Saharan specialists, Saharan Africa.

PAStories 3 Viewpoints 7 ISITA news 10 Community news 12 From the director

This year the Program In collaboration with the Block, the Refugee of African Studies has Knowledge Hub, the Institute for the Study of Islamic had incredible oppor- Thought in Africa, the Middle East and North African tunities to reflect on Studies Program, and the Chicago Council on Global research and dissemi- Affairs (CCGA), PAS is coordinating research and pub- nate new perspectives lic events that center on questions of migration. Last on Africa’s role in global February’s “Nations of Migrants” event at the Block was trade, production, idea an evening of dialogue exploring the experiences of ref- exchange, and migration. ugees in the US, Chicago, and Evanston and interrogat- Our partnership with ing the legal, social, political, and human implications Northwestern’s Block of crossing borders. This April’s academic conference Museum on the exhibit “Saharan Futures” (see story on page 1) will be followed Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time is a shining example, by a CCGA policy discussion of migration, economic one that demonstrates the vitality of PAS’s core mission: to flows, and security across the Sahara, connecting south generate and share knowledge while connecting our local to north. Performances, readings, and film screenings and global Africanist communities. held in collaboration with PAS’s Avant-Garde Africa The opening of Caravans of Gold drew a record crowd of Research Cluster will also take up themes of migration, more than 2,000 visitors and brought together the museum fragmentation, and translation. partners from , , and who had been The power of Caravans of Gold lies in recentering working for years with Block associate director of curatorial the place of Africa within medieval history. PAS works affairs Kathleen Bickford Berzock. Northwestern is where toward a contemporary recentering of Africa—in our they could connect, exchange perspectives on and react to research mission, in institutional environments, and the the work, and plan future collaborations. This demonstrates imaginings and understandings of the broader public. how our local hub’s activity reverberates internationally. PAS’s exhibit-related outreach is bringing a recentered perspective on African studies to Evanston and Chicago-area primary and secondary school students (see story on facing page). By providing curriculum materials and teacher kits, arranging school visits, and bringing archaeologists from Rachel B. Riedl Mali into the schools, we are reaching our local community through engaged learning. When young people learn that Africa has long been at the center of the global history of pro- duction and exchange, they gain a foundation for their future understanding of the complexity of our interwoven world.

2 PAStories

Local students gain new perspectives on medieval Africa by Amy Settergren

PAS’s winter-quarter K–12 student outreach programs cen- tered on Caravans of Gold, the Block Museum’s groundbreak- ing exhibition that brings alive the story of medieval Africa and the Saharan trade. Through student field trips, school visits, and curriculum guides for teachers, PAS aimed to make Africa’s centrality to the global medieval world a focus for perspectives on Africa and African history. In early February the Block and PAS hosted Evanston Township High School’s social studies faculty for an on-site professional development session and tour of the museum. Thirty-three teachers viewed the objects and artifacts in preparation for field trips with their students this spring. In their current academic interests. addition to touring Caravans, teachers viewed Isaac Julien’s Also in February, for the third year in a row, Dawes The Leopard (Western Union: Small Boats), a video installa- Elementary School in Evanston invited the Herskovits tion in the Block’s Alsdorf Gallery that connects the exhibi- Library and PAS to participate in its Black History Month tion’s themes of movement and exchange to contemporary celebration. PAS and the library curated a display of books discourse around migration and globalization. and objects related to Saharan trade that was visited by Fifty-eight students and four teachers from Niles North about 360 pupils in 18 classes. Each class listened to a short High School visited campus in late February to see Caravans presentation on medieval Saharan Africa and examined and attend a series of talks. Organized by Pankaj Sharma, material culture kits created by PAS and the Block to sup- a 2016 recipient of the Golden Apple Award for Excellence port Caravans outreach. Students were able to handle objects in Teaching and a long-standing PAS outreach partner, the recently acquired in markets in , Mali, and Nigeria visit began with a presentation by Northwestern University that evoked some aspect of Saharan trade, including “gold” Libraries geospatial and data analyst Kelsey Rydland, who necklaces, beads, a Qur’anic writing board, a small leather showed how different map projections can distort the rela- camel, and a chunk of salt. tive size and shape of the globe, minimizing Africa’s geo- PAS also continued its outreach partnership with graphic proportions vis-à-vis the global north. He explained Chicago’s Newberry Library. Evan Mwangi (English) led a how any map, far from being a neutral depiction, represents seminar on African (and global) responses to Joseph Conrad’s its maker’s intentional choices. 1899 novella Heart of Darkness. The seminar expanded PAS’s The students were divided into three groups to take work with the Newberry beyond social studies teachers: turns viewing the video and exhibition and touring the participants included 25 high school English teachers whose Herskovits Library. In the museum, each group was accom- classes incorporate Conrad’s work. Mwangi led a discus- panied by a Northwestern undergraduate docent specially sion of the text and provided resources and suggestions for trained to engage the students in an interactive experience. including more African voices and perspectives in their read- Herskovits Library tours were led by anthropology graduate ing. PAS will work with the Herskovits Library to incorporate students Patrick Mbullo and Dela Kuma and history gradu- Mwangi’s recommendations into a library guide, and make ate student Chernoh Bah, who shared how their respective them widely available to educators. upbringings in Kenya, , and related to

3 Online exhibit highlights national airlines of newly independent African states

by Rachel Cole economic expansion, modernity, and in partnership with BOAC; by 1961 technological advancement. the airline was entirely government Making its debut this spring is Commercial passenger aviation owned. In a 1964 speech, Prime Independence in the Air: African in Africa dates to the 1920s, when Air Minister Kwame Nkrumah spoke for Aviation in the 1960s, an online exhibit , Britain’s Imperial Airways, and all Ghanaians: “Naturally it increases that looks at the history and creation Germany’s Lufthansa first added major our self-confidence to observe our own of African national airlines in the era of African cities to their routes. African- people helping to control the intricate decolonization. Viewable at libraries. owned passenger airlines emerged mechanisms involved in the function- nu/independenceintheair, the exhibit in the 1930s with South African ing of our airways services, and we draws on reports, timetables, and pas- Airways and in the ’40s with Ethiopian certainly experience a glow of pride senger ephemera from Northwestern’s Airlines, Liberian National Airways, in seeing our flag flying on planes and Transportation Library and the and Egyptian airline Misrair. Through ships traveling to other countries.” Herskovits Library of African Studies. the ’50s and into the ’60s, however, Newly independent nations much of the African proudly displayed their flags for both continent continued to domestic and international travelers, be served by overseas emblazoned on the uniforms of their operators, includ- airline personnel and the exteriors and ing British Overseas interiors of planes. Symbols, colors, Airways Corporation and other representations of national (BOAC), Sabena Belgian identity ran through the branding Airlines, Pan American systems of , , World Airways (Pan Ethiopian Airlines, East African Am), and Trans-World Airways, and other carriers, as seen in Airlines (TWA). In the exhibit’s timetables, route maps, some cases, European menus, annual reports, and other pub- colonial governments lished material and ephemera. formed multinational Airlines also expanded their ser- airline operators, vice networks during this period, as including Central documented in their route maps. Route African Airways, East maps published in airlines’ annual African Airways, and reports were designed for those with West African Airways. business interests in the airlines’ As nations throughout Africa The founding of national airlines routes and profits; when included in won their independence in the 1960s, often went hand in hand with gaining passenger ephemera, the maps often the creation of national airlines soon independence, as many new African featured bold, imaginative graphics followed. These airlines not only con- nations launched their in that informed the traveler, promoted nected regions underserved by rail their first year or shortly thereafter. destinations, and inspired a desire to and road infrastructure; they were This was the case in Ghana, which fly. Featured in the exhibit is a 1961 powerful symbols domestically and withdrew from the former West Sudan Airways route map from the on the world stage, bearing the flags African Airways Corporation in 1957, Transportation Library’s George M. of Africa’s newly independent nations the same year the country became Foster Timetable Collection. Formed and connoting national identity, independent. Ghana Airways was founded the following year, originally

4 Online exhibit highlights national airlines of newly independent African states

in 1946, Sudan Airways was among connections, and prohibited articles, By the end of the 1960s, more the first national airlines founded in these timetables offer insight into the than 70 African airlines were in opera- Africa. The route map illustrates the travel experience of the time. tion, reflecting rapid growth from the growth of an airline that began with National pride rose not only when beginning of the decade. More airlines service between Sudan and Eritrea and flag-carrying fleets first took off but were founded in subsequent years as 15 years later would encompass a net- also when the airlines began to visibly independence spread on the continent, work reaching as far north as London, Africanize their operations at every including Air Zimbabwe in 1980. This to Aden and Beirut in the east, to level: Africans were actively recruited, growth proved unsustainable in many Entebbe in the south, and to Geneina trained, and offered apprenticeships cases, however, with financial, political, in the west. to become flight attendants, engineers, and operational instabilities leading to Like route maps, airline timetables pilots, salespeople, and executives. This transformation, merger, or cessation of served a utilitarian purpose—giving trend was seen not just in the national services by some airlines in the follow- travelers practical information—while airlines created in the 1960s but also ing years. Ethiopian Airlines, for one, is also suggesting the glamour of air in African airlines established decades still a shining example of commercial travel, promoting destinations near earlier by independent nations, such and operational success, flying to 125 and far, and building the airline’s iden- as Ethiopian Airlines. Included in the destinations around the world. tity and brand. Replete with details exhibit is that airline’s 25th anniver- about baggage allowances, passport sary brochure from 1970, which states: Rachel Cole is the reference librarian in requirements, fares for children and “Ethiopianisation at the fastest pos- Northwestern’s Transportation Library. students, rules for stopovers and sible rate compatible with the needs of a modern airline has always been an integral part of the airline’s policy.”

5 In memoriam

Jean Frances Herskovits (1935–2019)

A pioneer in decolonizing African history scholarship, Jean Frances Herskovits died February 5 at her home in New York City. She was born in Evanston in 1935, the only child of anthropologists Melville J. and Frances S. Herskovits. She received a BA in history from Swarthmore College in 1956 and a doctorate from Oxford University in 1960, at a time when her dissertation topic—liberated African returnees to Nigeria—and use of oral methodol- ogy in her research were considered unconventional. She was supported and advised by scholars Kenneth Kirkwood and Thomas Hodgkin, both instrumental in establishing African studies at Oxford, and renowned Nigerian histo- rians Kenneth O. Dike and J. F. A. Ajayi. Her dissertation was published in 1965 as A Preface to Modern Nigeria: The “Sierra Leoneans” in Yoruba, 1830–1890, under the name Jean Herskovits Kopytoff. A 1958 trip for dissertation research would be the first of Herskovits’s frequent visits to Nigeria. Returning at least once a year, she was described by one Nigerian leader as a well-disguised Nigerian. She wrote extensively and consulted for foundations, corporations, and the World Bank and testified at US Senate and Congressional commit- tee hearings on Nigeria and US Africa policy. In 1998 she became a founding trustee of the Shehu Shagari World Institute for Leadership and Good Governance. She also held various positions in Nigeria, including director of the United Bank for Africa (1998–2005) and member of Conoco Phillips’ Nigeria Advisory Council (2001–08). In 2009 she became a founding trustee of the Danjuma Foundation, an independent philanthropic organization in Nigeria, taking particular interest in its education projects. Herskovits published many articles on Nigerian affairs for journals and US and Nigerian newspapers. She was also involved in southern African issues, participating in the anti-apartheid movement and conducting research on the kingdom of Lesotho. She collaborated with the late Joseph N. Garba, a former president of the United Nations General Assembly, on a study of regional defense issues among southern African nations. Herskovits held faculty positions at Brown University, Swarthmore, and City College of the City of New York before joining the history department of the State University of New York at Purchase in 1977, where she taught for nearly 40 years. She is survived by her husband, John Corry; three daughters; and six grandchildren. She donated her personal papers to New York Public Library’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

6 Viewpoints

On sharing research findings with Mali’s Manantali community by Dolores Koenig Our final major activity was pre- electricity connections frustrated the senting provisional results to inter- minority of those who had resettled In late January, as Evanston froze, I ested groups in Manantali. The biggest upstream from the dam. Everyone was sitting in the dusty meeting room challenge was deciding what to pre­ stressed the lack of gardening areas, of Bamafele commune in far southwest sent; there was too much information the high cost of electricity connections, Mali, listening to local villagers com- to be comprehensive. Not wanting to and the need for more agricultural ment on my research team’s work. bore audiences already familiar with land and inputs. In 2016, before I retired as pro- the region, we decided on 20-minute These presentations were chal- fessor of anthropology at American presentations, with a similar amount lenging, as they were neither standard University and moved to Evanston, of time for comments and questions. academic presentations nor compre- I received a National Science Each presenter chose a topic: an over- hensive reports. Nevertheless, audi- Foundation grant to study the people view of local institutions (Diarra), ences appreciated our sharing results resettled by the construction of the agriculture (Dembélé), nonagricultural with them. I especially valued villagers’ Manantali Dam in 1986–87. The goal activities (Koenig), women’s roles (R. comments that they found our infor- was to see how their lives had changed Traoré), and political decentralization mation to be accurate. in the 30 years since—and to what (N. Traoré). extent this was attributable to changes We met first with about 25 rep- in Mali’s economy and politics rather resentatives of local government, than the resettlement. I worked with national government agencies, and five scholars from Mali’s Institut des nongovernmental organizations. Some Sciences Humaines: Tiéman Diarra, presentations stressed the inadequacy Moussa Sow, N’gna Traoré, Rokia of services; government representa- Traoré, and Kama Dembélé. Through tives did not disagree but in turn cited intermittent field research from 2016 errors committed before they arrived to 2018, we gathered data from house- and inadequate funding. Participants holds that had been studied since also provided complementary informa- the 1980s, as well as from others, on tion where our data were incomplete. topics of major interest: the town The next day we met with two of Manantali’s growth, new educa- representatives from each resettle- Dolores Koenig (anthropology PhD ’77) tional institutions, and agricultural ment and autochthonous village in our studies displacement caused by devel- production. sample—about 60 people. Although the opment in West Africa and Asia. audience included people of various ages, discussion was dominated by the senior men and one senior woman, who used this forum to present their many ongoing complaints. The lack of good roads and of telephone and

7 How a fellowship influenced my development plans in Kenya

by Jeremy Riro created 81 percent of the country’s jobs In the past three years we have and contributed about 33 percent to completed more than 76 engagements Before leaving Kenya to participate in the annual GDP. Unfortunately, most with startups, high-growth businesses, the summer 2018 Mandela Washington MSMEs do not survive beyond three social enterprises, and NGOs in Kenya, Fellowship at Northwestern, I prom- years due to lack of knowledge and Uganda, Ghana, and South Africa. We ised my team back home at Fie-Consult business development support. have also collaborated with develop- that I would return with new insights After graduating with my finance ment partners and local organizations aligned with our firm’s philosophy: degree, I had a burning passion to to implement entrepreneurship pro- that a sustainable economic devel- support MSMEs in my country and grams. Thus far we have trained more opment model for Africa should be across Africa—to bridge the skill and than 1,600 entrepreneurs, yet we have anchored on knowledgeable entrepre- knowledge gaps—so they could grow barely scratched the surface of the neurs operating in a vibrant ecosystem beyond their local markets. Most small work that needs to be done. of transferable skills and business businesses, however, could not afford I often thought about this huge development support. the type of consulting services offered knowledge gap during our course at In Kenya, there are more than at my former employer; they ended up Northwestern. As I listened to profes- 7 million MSMEs—micro, small, and failing for the reasons cited. After dis- sors break down complex business medium enterprises. As of 2016, these covering this, I quit my management theories into simple and practical consulting job and started Fie- concepts, I remembered the many Consult to offer customized entrepreneurs who do not have access training and business develop- to such knowledge. The more my ment services to MSMEs and mind was enriched in class, on visits startups in Kenya and beyond. to Chicago, and during other socio­ Fie-Consult is a Nairobi- cultural interactions in the US, the based strategy consulting and more I knew I needed to do something investment advisory firm that bigger back home. helps entrepreneurs create, Northwestern gave me world-class manage, and expand their training in leadership and entrepre- businesses across sub-Saharan neurship, as well as a strong network Africa. We structure innova- of 24 fellow young leaders from across tive operational processes that Africa. Now sufficiently empowered, improve efficiency and maxi- I look forward to empowering at least mize profits for our clients. We 1,000 more entrepreneurs annually also develop competitive and through knowledge transfer and busi- sustainable long-term strate- ness development support. I dream gies for entrepreneurs, support that in five years we shall have com- them in implementing growth pletely transformed the entrepreneur- plans, and offer investment ship landscape in Africa. advisory services for raising external capital. Former Mandela Washington fellow Jeremy Riro lives and works in Nairobi.

The author (far left) with his Mandela Washington Fellowship cohort

8 Reflections on Caravans of Gold

by Matthew Francis Rarey

Eager to see an exhibition tackle the history of trans-­ Saharan exchange, I had been anticipating Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time for some time. Apparently I was not alone. Walking through the Block Museum’s packed galler- ies at the opening celebration in January, I ran into a who’s who of Africanist art historians intermingling with a non- specialist public genuinely interested in the material history of medieval western Africa. When two visitors overheard me and a colleague nerding out over something I had never expected to see in person—the Tada figure (pictured)—they came over to join the conversation. The exchange reminded me that for attracting new audiences to African art history, nothing beats a well-done exhibition. The convergence of people in the galleries struck me as appropriate for a show about migration, movement, and cultural convergence. One cannot overstate the diplomatic, logistical, and curatorial accomplishment that is Caravans of Gold. Exhibition curator Kathleen Bickford Berzock said as much in her opening address. She alluded to the difficulty—and necessity—of forming mutually beneficial partnerships with the Nigerian, Moroccan, and Malian insti- tutions whose loans—all superb, in some cases unique— Seated figure, possibly Ife, from Tada, Nigeria, late 13th– are now in the US for the first time. But Caravans of Gold’s 14th century. Nigerian National Commission for Museums real curatorial innovation is its response to a long-held and Monuments, 79.R18. prejudice of mine: that exhibiting medieval West African history is all but impossible in a museum space, given the lack of surviving materials. In her address, Berzock rightly Jonathan Holloway gave a nuanced, searing speech about insisted on scholars’ responsibility to tell the complex, the problematic, and often contradictory, place of Africa nuanced stories that must be told, even when materials are in the minds of those forced to leave it (lest we forget that scant. In this sense, the exhibition’s biggest success may be the treasures showcased in Caravans of Gold engendered a display case filled with bits of ceramic and small wisps of the jealousy of Europeans for centuries afterward). What cloth, whose survival testifies to the vibrancy of exchange struck me most were two poetic recitations, one of them centers in medieval Mali. Such fragments, despite their in the original Arabic, of travelers’ descriptions of medieval visual banality, demand our attention. Mali. Six centuries later, in times rife with displacement and Later that evening, in Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, uncertainty, glorifying Africa while reading Arabic is not a Mourikeba Kouyate’s kora music set the stage for celebra- neutral gesture—and as Caravans of Gold insists, neither tory speeches and performances. Gus Casely-Hayford, are the histories we choose to tell. director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, spoke of the wonder that must have been 14th-century PAS visiting scholar Matthew Francis Rarey teaches art Mali during Mansa Musa’s reign. Northwestern provost history of the Black Atlantic world at Oberlin College.

9 ISITA news

modernité (Paris: Karthala) investi- profound yet remarkably accessible gated the surprising ways in which aspects of Africa’s Islamic heritage. Senegalese society is inventing its From calligraphy to clothing, music own political and religious moder- to mosque architecture, poetry and nity. Seck’s coedited volumes include the psalmody of the Qur’an to pottery, Etat, Islam et Société au Sénégal: Un painting, weaving, and digital media, air de nouveau temps? (Karthala, these arts embody combinations of 2015) and Mémoires de routes et African Islamic cosmologies, talis- corps: Figures et discours de migrants manic sciences, metaphysics, mythol- (Riveneuve éditions, 2015). At UGB, ogy, material cultures, ethics, histories, in addition to teaching in the Faculty and much more. They point to deeper of Civilizations, Religions, Arts, and understandings of the history, politics, ISITA welcomes visiting Communications, Seck is deputy direc- socioeconomics, values, worldviews, scholar from Senegal tor of the Laboratory for Analysis of personal experiences, and philosophies Anthropologist and historian Societies and Powers/Africa–Diasporas of the artists and their communities. Abdourahmane Seck of Senegal’s and coordinator of the Observatory of While these artistic traditions are Université Gaston Berger (UGB) is African Diasporas. vital and popular on the continent spending eight weeks at Northwestern and abroad, they are relatively under- this spring. Seck’s research focuses New project to focus studied and underappreciated in the on Islam in contemporary Senegal, on Islamic arts academy. diaspora and migration, and Muslim ISITA is formalizing plans for a multi- youth. His 2010 monograph La disciplinary initiative that will exam- Question Musulmane au Sénégal: ine and increase awareness of artistic Essai d’Anthropologie d’une nouvelle traditions that are among the most

A new project will focus on African Islamic artistic traditions such as those represented in calligrapher Ahmed Salem Ahmedou’s 2018 artwork (above), which features ISITA’s full name in an Arabic script traditionally used by Tuareg writers.

10 Collaborative translation Book based on ISITA project gets under way project is published ISITA has teamed with Bruce Hall (his- In Jihad of the Pen: The Sufi Literature tory, University of California, Berkeley) of West Africa, published in December and Bernard Salvaing (Université de by American University in Cairo Press, Nantes) to organize a multiyear work- coeditors Rudolph Ware, Zachary shop series designed to bring together Wright (history PhD ’10), and Amir scholars who can translate and edit Syed bring together, translate, and con- Arabic and Ajami texts from Africa for textualize major writings by four West publication. For the first workshop, to African Sufi scholars: Uthman b. Fudi be held in Nantes in June, more than (d. 1817), Umar Tal (d. 1864), Ahmad 20 scholars will convene to discuss Bamba (d. 1927), and Ibrahim Niasse texts that address African responses to (d. 1975). The volume had its genesis in European colonial occupation in West ISITA’s 2005–08 “Constituting Bodies Africa. By the start of the workshop, of Islamic Knowledge” project that was each participant will have prepared supported by a grant from the Ford a draft translation to be shared with Foundation. the other participants. The organizers intend to publish the texts, accompa- ISITA and Harvard to nied by annotation and introduction to cosponsor conference their historical context. Two follow-up ISITA and the Alwaleed Professorship workshops are planned—one at the of Contemporary Islamic Religion and University of California, Berkeley, in Society at Harvard Divinity School are 2020, and the other hosted by ISITA at cosponsoring the September 19–21 con- Northwestern in 2021. ference “Africa, Globalization, and the Muslim Worlds.” To be held at Harvard, the conference is a follow-up to the “Islam in Global Africa” conference ISITA organized at Northwestern in April 2018. Coconvened by ISITA direc- tor Zekeria Ahmed Salem and Harvard Divinity School’s Ousmane Kane, the conference will investigate the inter- play between the religious, political, and social experiences of African Muslims and the transformations of Islamic Africa in a globalized world.

11 Community news

Teju Adesida (performance studies Johnetta Cole (anthropology PhD ’67) Sean Hanretta (history) contributed PhD ’13) gave a performance as part of joined other visiting dignitaries and the chapter “Formal Care: Bureaucracy the “Nation of Migrants” event at the exhibition partners in speaking at an and Muslim Religious Identity in Block Museum of Art in February. event prior to the January 26 opening the Gold Coast/Ghana” to Religion, of the Block Museum’s Caravans of Media, and Marginality in Modern Douglas A. Anthony (history PhD Gold exhibition. A video of their com- Africa, edited by Felicitas Becker, Joel ’96), international studies program ments is available on Northwestern’s Cabrita, and Marie Rodet and pub- chair and professor of history at YouTube channel. lished by Ohio University Press. He Franklin and Marshall College, also wrote the chapter “The River wrote the article “Decolonization, Andrew Dillon (Global Poverty of Salvation Flows through Africa: Race, and Region in Nigeria: Research Lab, Kellogg School of Blyden, Armattoe, and the Redemption Northernization Revisited,” published Management and Buffett Institute of the Culture Concept,” appearing in in the International Journal of African for Global Affairs) and Lori Beaman Indigenous Visions: Rediscovering the Historical Studies 51 (2018). (economics) coauthored “Diffusion of World of Franz Boas, edited by Isaiah Agricultural Information within Social Wilner and Ned Blackhawk and pub- Articles by three faculty mem- Networks: Evidence from Composting lished by Yale University Press. Both bers appear in Caravans of Gold, in Mali,” published in the Journal of books were issued last year. Fragments in Time, the volume edited Development Economics 133 (2018). by Kathleen Bickford Berzock Dillon also coauthored the American Pamela Khanakwa (history PhD (Block Museum) and published last Journal of Agricultural Economics ’11), lecturer in Makerere University’s December: “Uncertain Fragments: A article “Nutrient Production and department of history, archaeology, Divination” by Chris Abani (English); Dietary Macro- and Micronutrient and heritage studies, wrote the article “Saharan Crossing: The Realities of Gaps: Evidence from an Agriculture- “Reinventing Imbalu and Forcible Migration Today” by Galya Ben-Arieh Nutrition Randomized Control Trial,” Circumcision: Gisu Political Identity (political science); and “Views from published online last October. and the Fight for Mbale in Late Afar: Reading Trans-Saharan Trade Colonial Uganda,” published in the through Arabic Accounts” by Robert Miklos Gosztonyi (political science Journal of African History 9 (2018). Launay (anthropology). PhD ’16) has been appointed a conflict analyst by the Norwegian Refugee Jahara “Franky” Matisek (political Keith Breckenridge (history PhD Council in South Sudan. In addition to science PhD ’18) presented the paper ’95), professor of history and deputy supporting humanitarian policy and “Peeling Back the Onion of Security director of the University of the advocacy efforts, he is supplying in- Force Assistance Patron-Client Witwatersrand Institute for Social depth context and conflict analysis to Disconnects” at last December’s Peace and Economic Research, authored the council’s Protection Cluster to help Research Institute conference in Oslo. the article “The Failure of the ‘Single inform its strategic decision-making Matisek is an assistant professor in Source of Truth about Kenyans’: The and operational planning. the US Air Force Academy’s military NDRS, Collateral Mysteries, and the and strategic studies department and Safaricom Monopoly,” published in a 2018–19 nonresident fellow of the African Studies 78 (2019). Modern War Institute at West Point.

12 Former PAS artist-in-residence Femi Odugbemi received the Nigeria Send your news updates to [email protected] so that PAS can Film Society’s Movie Rock of Fame share word with the Africanist community at Northwestern and beyond. Award at last December’s Zuma Film Festival in Abuja, Nigeria. In January and February, PAS visiting Lynn M. Thomas (history MA ’93) scholar Naaborko Sackeyfio-Lenoch authored the article “Consumer PAS visiting scholar Matthew Francis traveled to the African studies centers Culture and ‘Black Is Beautiful’ in Rarey gave the presentation “Leave No at the University of North Carolina Apartheid South Africa and Early Mark: Blackness Inviolate, 1700–1731” and the University of Illinois at Postcolonial Kenya,” appearing in at Amherst College’s department of Urbana-Champaign to give presenta- African Studies 78 (2019). Thomas is a religion in February. tions related to her project on the Arts professor of history and adjunct pro- Council of Ghana and its transnational fessor in the departments of women Will Reno (political science) authored cultural policy. and sexuality studies and of anthropol- the chapter “The Dilemmas of ogy at the University of Washington. Security Assistance to a Failed State: Rhiannon Stephens (history PhD Lessons from Somalia” in the book ’07), associate professor of history at Marlous van Waijenburg (history Before Military Intervention: Upstream Columbia University, authored two PhD ’17), assistant professor of eco- Stabilisation in Theory and Practice, journal articles: “Poverty’s Pasts: A nomics at the University of Michigan, edited by Timothy Clack and Robert Case for Longue Durée Studies” in the coauthored the article “Africa Rising? Johnson and published this year by Journal of African History 59 (2018) A Historical Perspective,” published Palgrave Macmillan. He contributed and “Bereft, Selfish, and Hungry: in African Affairs 117 (2018). Another the chapter “Hybrid Warfare: The Greater Luhyia Concepts of the Poor in article she coauthored, “The African End of Conventional Wars in the 21st Precolonial East Africa” in American Model: Asia’s Path May Not Work, but Century?” to the book Military Strategy, Historical Review 123 (2018). There Is an Alternative,” was published Joint Operations, and Airpower, edited in African Arguments in January. by Ryan Burke, Michael Fowler, and Rachel Sweet (political science Kevin McCaskey and published in 2018 PhD ’17) will join the University of Larry W. Yarak (history PhD ’83), by Georgetown University Press. Reno Notre Dame’s political science depart- emeritus professor at Texas A&M also presented the paper “Tactics with- ment as an assistant professor this fall. University, coauthored the article “A out Strategy: Security Force Assistance Sweet was a postdoctoral Academy Tale of Two ‘Returnee’ Communities to Antiterrorist Groups in Very Weak Scholar at Harvard University’s in the Gold Coast and Ghana: ’s States” at last December’s Peace Weatherhead Center for International Tabon and Elmina’s Ex-Soldiers, Research Institute conference in Oslo. Affairs in fall 2018. 1830s to the Present,” published in the International Journal of African Historical Studies 51 (2018).

13 Swahili Corner

On my travels in East Africa to con- New titles added to duct research, I’ve had many hum- bling (and often comical) experiences Working Papers series when trying to communicate. I have Nigerian Marriage Advice Booklets: learned that language is never just 1962–2009 about the words; rather, language by Elisha P. Renne learning is a process of making sense PAS Working Paper No. 25 of cultures, building bridges, and rec- Working with 152 marriage-advice ognizing all that we have in common booklets from Nigeria obtained despite our differences. between 1988 and 2010, University With my blonde hair, pale com- of Michigan professor emerita Elisha plexion, and numerous bird tattoos, Renne explores the genre’s themes, it is readily apparent to my Ugandan authors, and changing modes of pro- hosts that I am indeed a mzungu. They duction over a nearly 50-year span. are surprised to see their national bird—the crested crane—tattooed on “Professional Sentimentalists”: my arm; they are often even more surprised when they hear me, because Internecine Conflicts in the Emergent I can speak about local and regional politics, history, culture, and traditions. Gold Coast Of course, the more you learn, the more you learn there’s a lot you by Kofi Takyi Asante don’t know. During exploratory research in Kampala in 2016, I realized I PAS Working Paper No. 26 would need to learn Kiswahili to continue developing relationships with Examining conflictual relationships refugees and asylum seekers. While I was able to communicate in my native among British members of the Gold English or in French whenever either was my interlocutor’s second or third Coast administration, Kofi Asante language, I needed to learn the regional lingua franca. Ndio! (sociology PhD ’16) adds to the litera- I am grateful that I could study this year with Swahili professor Peter ture that problematizes earlier notions Mwangi. Although my language skills are not yet to the level where I could of colonialism by highlighting tensions successfully conduct independent research, I know I can meaningfully con- and contradictions inherent in colonial nect with Swahili speakers. I am better at picking up the nuances of express- governance structures. ing oneself in ways that differ from typical American communication. For example, I know not to begin a conversation by saying I feel “bad,” “sad,” or PAS Working Papers are available “angry.” Developing relationships involves levels of interaction. Welcoming online from the PAS website and and warmly greeting one another must come before any mention of negativity Northwestern University Libraries’ or sensitive subjects. Arch repository (arch.library I am excited to return to Uganda this summer and resume my disserta- .northwestern.edu). tion research—this time with a foundation in Swahili that will allow me to continue learning about and connecting with people, whether we’re discuss- ing local politics or the crane on my arm.

—Christa Charbonneau Kuntzelman, political science PhD student

14 New books by Northwestern Africanists

Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time and “defeat” measured? How do the understanding of one of the most Editor Kathleen Bickford Berzock answers to these questions affect poli- influential Muslim revivalist move- (Block Museum) presents a volume cymaking regarding ongoing armed ments of the last two centuries. The celebrating the Block Museum’s 2019 conflict? Published by Lynne Rienner. Deoband movement quickly spread exhibit Caravans of Gold, Fragments in from colonial India to Pakistan, Time. It draws on the latest archaeo- Historical Dictionary of Women in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and even the logical discoveries and art historical Sub-Saharan Africa United Kingdom and South Africa; yet research to construct a compelling Kathleen Sheldon (history MA Deoband’s connections to the Taliban look at medieval trans-Saharan ’77) has published an updated and have dominated the attention it has exchange and its legacy, with 18 con- expanded edition of this historical received from scholars and policy- tributors from diverse disciplines dictionary, which shared the 2018 makers. Ingram’s nuanced account of presenting case studies. This richly African Studies Association/Africana this global religious network offers illustrated work offers irrefutable evi- Librarians Council Conover-Porter an important corrective, stressing dence of Africa’s key role in medieval Award. This second edition contains the need to understand the complex history and promotes a new under- a chronology, an introduction, appen- modalities through which Deoband standing of the past and the present. dixes, and an extensive bibliography. spread beyond South Asia. Published Published by Princeton University Press The dictionary section has over 700 by University of California Press. in association with the Mary and Leigh cross-referenced entries on individual Block Museum of Art. African women in history, politics, reli- Speaking with Substance: gion, and the arts; on important events, Methods of Language and The Fates of African Rebels: Victory, organizations, and publications; and Materials in African History Defeat, and the Politics of Civil War on topics important to women in gen- Kathryn M. de Luna (history PhD Christopher Day (political science eral and to African women in particu- ’08) and coauthor Jeffrey B. Fleisher PhD ’12) investigates the relationship lar. Published by Rowman & Littlefield. approach African oral history through between rebel groups and regime poli- interdisciplinary historical reconstruc- tics in Africa, addressing the follow- Revival from Below: The Deoband tions based on archaeological and ing questions: What determines the Movement and Global Islam linguistic data, locating the analysis in outcome for rebels in contemporary Religious studies faculty member the process of interdisciplinary team- African civil wars? How are “victory” Brannon D. Ingram reorients our work. Published by SpringerNature.

15 Events calendar

Unless otherwise noted, all events take place at PAS, 620 Library Place, Evanston. For updates, check the PAS website: northwestern.edu/african-studies.

APRIL 26 5:30–7 p.m. 22 noon–1 p.m. Myers Symposium Keynote “Deep Knowledge: Ways of 3 noon–1 p.m. “Trans-Saharan Exchange and the “Producing Senegal: Social Knowing in Ifa and Tijani Sufism, Global Medieval,” Susan Keech Proc­esses and the Study of Islam,” Two West African Intellectual McIntosh (anthropology, Rice Abdourahmane Seck (ISITA Traditions,” Oludamini University). Block Museum visiting scholar; Université Ogunnaike (religious studies, Gaston-Berger, Senegal) College of William and Mary) MAY 4–6 “African Studies Now: 1 noon–1 p.m. JUNE Decoloniz­ing the Field” “Interpreting Muslim-Christian 5 noon–1 p.m. AfriSem Conference Relations in Light of Awqaf in “ID Wars: Struggling for Keynote address by Robtel Neajai Kenya since 1900,” S. Athuman Citizenship in Côte d’Ivoire,” Pailey (international develop- Chembea (philosophy and reli- Richard Banégas (PAS visiting ment, Oxford University), April 6, gious studies, Bomet University scholar; Sciences Po) 3:30–5 p.m., Block Museum, College, Kenya) 40 Arts Circle Drive 6 4:30–6:30 p.m. 3 ISITA Book Development PAS end-of-year picnic at the home 10 “Security, Governance, and Workshop of Rachel Riedl Policy in the Sahel” Conference 8 noon–1 p.m. 11–12 “Saharan Futures: “Xenophobia’s Contours during Migration, Identities, and an Ebola Epidemic: Proximity Economies” Conference and the Targeting of Peul Program of African Studies Keynote address by Ann Migrants in Senegal,” Ato 620 Library Place McDougall (history and Kwamena Onoma (Council Evanston, Illinois 60208-4110 USA classics, University of Alberta), for the Development of Social Phone 847-491-7323 April 11, 5–6:30 p.m., Block Museum Science Research in Africa) Fax 847-491-3739 [email protected] 17 noon–1 p.m. 15 noon–1 p.m. northwestern.edu/african-studies

“Making Markets: Experiments “To Invoke the Invisible: Islam, Rachel Beatty Riedl, PAS Director from Rural Mali,” Andrew Dillon Spiritual Mediation, and Social Meagan Keefe, PAS Associate Director (Global Poverty Research Lab) Change in the Sahara,” Erin Zekeria Ahmed Salem, ISITA Director Pettigrew (history, New York Rebecca Shereikis, ISITA Associate Director 24 6–7:30 p.m. University Abu Dhabi); cospon- Kelly Coffey, Business Coordinator “From the Field: International sored by ISITA and the Health LaRay Denzer, Newsletter Editor Archaeologists in Conversation,” and Healing Research Cluster Amy Settergren, Outreach Coordinator Abidemi Babatunde Babalola, Tiffany Williams-Cobleigh, Program Assistant Mamadou Cissé, Mamadi ©2019 Northwestern University. All rights reserved. Dembélé, Abdallah Fili, Ron Produced by Global Marketing and Communications. 4-19/125/RM-KP/2848 Messier, and Sam Nixon. Block Museum