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Episode 133:

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 10, 2021 45:59


Peter Mark (Emeritus, Art history, Wesleyan Univ.) on his personal and scholarly journeys through precolonial Mande worlds. He shares insights from decades of experience working with an eclectic range of primary sources and archives. He then discusses the history of a Portuguese Jewish diaspora in Senegal and Afro-European identities. The interview closes with Mark's preview of his late[…]

Episode 132: Music, Radio, and Politics in Angola

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 27, 2021 47:57


Marissa Moorman (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, African Cultural Studies) on Angolan social history and media studies. We discuss the evolving trajectory of her scholarship, research in southern Africa and Portugal, and her latest book, Powerful Frequencies: Radio, State Power, and the Cold War in Angola, 1931–2002. The interview features a musical interlude (courtesy of Paulo Flores). It […]

Episode 131: Black Women, Slavery, and Freedom

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 22, 2021 55:57


Historian Jessica Marie Johnson (Johns Hopkins Univ.) digs into her award-winning new book, Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World. The conversation brings out how Black women in Senegambia, the Caribbean, and Louisiana devised ways to gain control over parts of their lives and defined freedom for themselves in the age […]

Episode 130: African Sports Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2021 42:54


Dr. Gerard Akindes discusses his experience playing and coaching basketball in West Africa and Europe, and the new Basketball Africa League. He considers the role of “electronic colonialism” in the sport media landscape and then reflects on his work advancing African scholarship through research publications and through Sports Africa, a coordinate organization of the U.S. […]

Episode 129: Pan-African Scholarship, Black Entrepreneurship, and Digital African Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 14, 2020 47:48


Dr. Chambi Chachage (Princeton) discusses his intellectual journey from Dar es Salaam to Cape Town, Edinburgh, and Cambridge, Mass., his book manuscript on the history of Black entrepreneurs in Dar, and the changing role of digital humanities in the field of African studies. The interview concludes with Chachage’s insights on the controversial recent elections in […]

Episode 128: Cherif Keita’s Life in African Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 11, 2019 34:26


Cherif Keita (French and Francophone Studies, Carleton College) reflects on his life as a scholar from Mali and on his documentary films about John Langalibalele Dube and Nokutela Dube, founding figures of the African National Congress of South Africa. The interview closes with a discussion of musician Salif Keita’s journey from social outcast (as an […]

Episode 127: AIDS Interventions, Elections in Malawi, and Digital Scholarship

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 5, 2019 35:20


Kim Yi Dionne (Political Science, UC Riverside) on her recent book, Doomed Interventions: The Failure of Global Responses to AIDS in Africa; the controversial May 2019 elections in Malawi, where she served as an observer; and hosting the Ufahamu Africa podcast and co-editing the Monkey Cage politics blog at the Washington Post. Follow her on […]

Episode 126: South(ern) Africa, Guinea, and Histories of Foreign Interventions

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2019 50:34


Elizabeth Schmidt (History, Loyola Maryland) on her activist beginnings and professional trajectory as an historian, first of Shona women in colonial Zimbabwe and later of Guinea’s independence movement. The second part of the interview focuses on Schmidt’s recent books on foreign intervention in Africa since 1945—a complex story driven by multiple geopolitical and economic interests, […]

Episode 125: Gangs, Identity, and Power in Congo

Play Episode Listen Later May 1, 2019 33:55


Didier Gondola (IUPUI, History and Africana Studies) on his book, Tropical Cowboys: Westerns, Violence, and Masculinity in Kinshasa. He reflects on how Hollywood Westerns shaped a performative young urban masculinity expressed through nicknames and slang, cannabis consumption, gender violence, fashion, and sport. Gondola also offers insights on Jean Depara’s photography, the recent DRC elections, and […]

Episode 124: Cooking Data

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 2, 2019 36:02


Cal Biruk (Oberlin, Anthropology) on the politics of knowledge production in African fieldwork. We talk about her new book, Cooking Data: Culture and Politics in an African Research World, based on HIV and AIDS research in Malawi. The discussion explores the social and cultural cleaning (“cooking”) of survey data and its implications for demographers and […]

Episode 123: Boko Haram

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 7, 2019 37:49


Alex Thurston (Miami University) discusses his recent book, Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement. Taking local religious ideas and experiences seriously, Thurston sheds light on northeastern Nigeria and the main leaders of Boko Haram; relationships with the Islamic State; the conflict’s spread to Niger, Chad, and Cameroon; and US foreign policy in […]

Episode 122: Hip-Hop in Africa

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 14, 2019 29:52


Msia Kibona Clark (African Studies, Howard University) on her new book, Hip-Hop in Africa: Prophets of the City and Dustyfoot Philosophers. Clark describes how her personal passion became academic expertise. She highlights African women emcees and the role of local languages and Pan-African elements in the music. In the final part of the interview, Clark […]

Episode 121: Refugees in African History

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 12, 2018 31:42


Bonny Ibhawoh (McMaster Univ.) and Christian Williams (U. Free State) on historicizing refugees in Africa. Looking at children evacuated from the Biafran War to Gabon and Ivory Coast, Ibhawoh discusses the politics of “refugee” labeling. Williams’s biography of a woman born in a SWAPO camp in exile in Tanzania shows how displaced people are agents […]

Episode 120: Jazz Music and African Borderlands

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 7, 2018 39:10


David Coplan (Wits, Emeritus) takes us on a journey from New York to Soweto and into the making of his ethnographic studies of music and popular culture in West and South(ern) Africa. Coplan then turns to his recent book about The Bassline jazz club in Johannesburg. The interview concludes with insights from his new research […]

Episode 119: Rethinking African Humanities

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2018 30:18


Jean Allman (Washington U.) on rethinking African humanities. She discusses her research on Ghana, women, and gender, and highlights the transformative potential of collaborative work. Allman reflects on African Studies publishing networks and then previews her ASA Presidential Lecture delivered at MSU: “#HerskovitsMustFall? A Meditation on Whiteness, African Studies, and the Unfinished Business of 1968.” […]

Episode 118: Social Justice in South Africa

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 8, 2018 38:23


Prof. Somadoda Fikeni (UNISA) and Nomzamo Ntombela (Stellenbosch) reflect on continuities and changes in South African social justice activism. Fikeni and Ntombela share their respective personal and political experiences, connecting the motives and lessons of 1980s anti-apartheid mass mobilization to the recent #FeesMustFall student movement. Click here to watch the “Campus Activism for Justice: From […]

Episode 117: Albie Sachs on Fighting Apartheid and Building South African Constitutionalism

Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2018 48:20


Albie Sachs, former judge, freedom fighter, and professor, speaks (and sings!) about his anti-apartheid activism and lifelong commitment to equality and justice. He reflects on the enduring need for “soft vengeance” and draws on his 15-year term on South Africa’s Constitutional Court to emphasize the importance of constitutionalism for democracy. The interview concludes with Sachs’ […]

Episode 116: Empire, Missions, and Culture in Southern Africa

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 13, 2018 38:33


Prof. Norman Etherington (U. Western Australia) on empire in Africa, missions, and Southern African history. The interview focuses on themes of his distinguished career and influential works, such as The Great Treks, and his latest books Indigenous Evangelists & Questions of Authority in the British Empire 1750-1940 and Imperium of the Soul.

Episode 115: Youth Struggles

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 29, 2017 31:50


Dr. Alcinda Honwana on the struggles of young Africans, the condition of “waithood”—a state of limbo between childhood and adulthood—and their creative engagements with everyday life. She reflects on the art and ethics of oral interviewing in Mozambique, Senegal, South Africa, and Tunisia, and concludes with a hopeful vision of young women and men as […]

Episode 114: Digital Archive of Malian Photography

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 2, 2017 31:31


Youssouf Sakaly and Malick Sitou discuss the Archive of Malian Photography, a collaborative Malian-US project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the British Library, that provides free access to preserved and digitized collections of five important photographers in Mali. The interview considers ethical questions, family and community memory, conservation and dissemination of […]

Episode 113: East African Borderlands: Somalia, Kenya, and Belonging

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 10, 2017 29:07


Keren Weitzberg (Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London) on her new book We Do Not Have Borders: Greater Somalia and the Predicaments of Belonging in Kenya. She grapples with the long history of Somali migration across colonial/post-colonial borders, definitions of “Somaliness,” media coverage and representations of Somali people, and the “hidden history’” of women gleaned from poetry and […]

Episode 112: Zimbabwe’s Politics of Economic Decline

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 18, 2017 24:06


Prof. Alois Mlambo (University of Pretoria) discusses Zimbabwe’s deindustrialization and economic decline, its relationship with South Africa, and the role of Pan-Africanism and “patriotic history” in sustaining a new authoritarian nationalism.

Episode 111: Indian Ocean Africa—Icons, Commodities, Mobility

Play Episode Listen Later May 24, 2017 38:40


Jeremy Prestholdt (U. California, San Diego) on East African commodities, culture, and “transnational imagination,” featuring his forthcoming book, Icons of Dissent (on Che, Marley, Tupac, Bin Laden). He also discusses changing meanings of Indian Ocean Africa and how technologies impact global circulation of ideas, people and commodities. With guest host, Laura Fair.

Episode 110: The Story of Swahili

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 27, 2017 40:51


John Mugane (Harvard University) on his book, The Story of Swahili, a history of the international language and its speakers. Mugane sheds light on enduring questions: Who is Swahili? What is authentic Swahili? He also discusses the state of publishing in Swahili, and the challenges and approaches to teaching African languages in the U.S.   Part of a podcast series […]

Episode 109: Doing Mozambican History—Dams, Development & Going Digital

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2017 21:48


Allen Isaacman (University of Minnesota) discusses his recent Herskovits Award-winning book, Dams, Displacement and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965-2007, how the work was researched, its significance, and the lives of those disrupted by the dam. He also talks of his long trajectory doing Mozambican history, book series publishing in […]

Episode 108: Ajami in African History

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 3, 2017 38:39


Fallou Ngom (African Languages Director, Boston U.) on his new book Muslims Beyond the Arab World: the Odyssey of Ajami and the Muridiyya. Focusing on Senegambia and Ahmadu Bamba, Ngom discusses Ajami literary texts — African languages in Arabic scripts — as sources for history. He also reflects on creating online Ajami collections, teaching and learning African languages […]

Episode 107: West African Intellectual Heritage

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 2, 2017 22:43


Professor Amidu O. Sanni (Lagos State University) on his work for the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project and preservation of West African intellectual heritage. He discusses the importance of Ajami sources (African languages written in Arabic script) for historical and cultural analysis and suggests possibilities for future research and training initiatives.  

Episode 106: The 2016 Zambian Elections

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 23, 2017 23:14


Nicholas van de Walle (Cornell) and Michael Wahman (Missouri) analyze the 2016 Zambian presidential and parliamentary elections. The two political scientists discuss the controversial results, the role of the Constitutional Court in the process, violence, and the influence of international election observers. With guest host, Jessica Achberger. Part of a podcast series in collaboration with the U.S. African Studies […]

Episode 105: Popular Theater in Kenya—The Trial of Dedan Kimathi

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 22, 2016 36:28


Micere Githae Mugo (Syracuse, Emeritus) and Simon Gikandi (Princeton) discuss the making and aftermath of The Trial of Dedan Kimathi and, on the 40th anniversary of the play, reflect on the play’s historical and political significance in Kenya and beyond; its innovative elements; and researching, writing, and enacting the play with Ngugi wa Thiong’o and […]

Episode 104: Development Dreams in Lesotho

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 21, 2016 42:00


John Aerni-Flessner (MSU) on his forthcoming book Dreams for Lesotho: Independence, Foreign Assistance, and Development. Discussion focuses on development projects and their local, national and international politics; perspectives of Basotho youth, farmers, chiefs and government; and interactions with South Africa, U.S. Peace Corps and the foreign aid industry.

Episode 103: On the Ground in Western Sahara

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 12, 2016 39:27


Artist Sam Jury on the neglected situation of Sahrawi peoples’ refugee camps, her video installation To Be Here on their daily lives, and about the women who built the camps. Additional background on the Sahrawi movement is provided by Richard Knight (African Activist Archive).    

Episode 102: Photojournalism and the “Real Story of the Marikana Massacre” with Greg Marinovich

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 6, 2016 36:02


Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Greg Marinovich (Boston University) on the genealogy and ethics of his work and on his new book: Murder at Small Koppie: The Real Story of the Marikana Massacre—one of the largest killing of civilians in South Africa since 1960. For more: read the Marikana Commission of Inquiry Report here and watch Miners Shot Down here.

Episode 101: Corpulence, Cartoonists, and Politics

Play Episode Listen Later May 23, 2016 29:31


Tejumola Olaniyan (Wisconsin–Madison) on African cartoonists, their depictions of the body and struggles with censorship, and the aesthetics of corpulence in African political cartooning. He elaborates on the deeper origins and gendered nature of satire in African societies and also discusses his website Africa Cartoons.com.

Episode 100: The Afripod Centenary Special

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 26, 2016 65:25


This centenary episode brings together selections from the first eight years of the podcast. The chosen segments broadly represent earliest and latest episodes, different African countries and regions, and notable contributions by local and international guests on a number of subjects and themes.

Episode 99: Artisanal Mining in Tanzania

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 29, 2016 20:24


Anthropologist Rosemarie Mwaipopo (U. of Dar es Salaam) on artisanal and small-scale mining in Tanzania. She discusses the roles of women;grassroots dimensions, including cultural and gender dynamics; and government policies. The interview concludes with a comparative look at small-scale mining in Africa.

Episode 98: City of Thorns—Inside the World’s Largest Refugee Camp

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 22, 2016 30:42


Author Ben Rawlence (Open Society Foundations Fellow) on his new book: City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp. He describes working in Dadaab, Kenya, and discusses Somali refugees’ daily struggles, their personal lives, social relationships, trade, and Islam. The interview closes with reflections on the international dimensions of the conflict in Somalia and prospects for peace.

Episode 97: Reproductive Rights in South Africa

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 30, 2016 43:11


Susanne Klausen (History, Carleton U.) on the history and politics of women’s reproductive rights in South Africa. Our discussion of race, nationalism, and women’s sexuality focuses on her new book, Abortion Under Apartheid, the first full-length study of the history of abortion in an African context. The interview concludes with an assessment of the present and future of abortion rights in […]

Episode 96: Creativity and Decolonization: Nigerian Cultures and African Epistemologies

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2015 43:44


Toyin Falola (History, Texas; President, African Studies Association) on Yoruba history and culture; language policy in Nigeria; creativity and decolonization; forms of community action in “hyper-modern” times; and the meaning of Buhari’s victory in the 2015 presidential election.

Episode 95: Nigerian Politics and Society in Cartoon Art

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 26, 2015 43:42


Ganiyu Akinloye Jimoh (Creative Arts, University of Lagos) on his work in Nigeria as a popular cartoonist, with the pen name “Jimga,” and as a cartoon scholar. Issues discussed include: political aspects of cartooning; visual aspects of the art; language and graphic styles; and the future of cartooning in Nigeria.

Episode 94: The Bomb, a Professor, and Higher Education in South Africa

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 13, 2015 29:46


Professor Renfrew Christie (University of the Western Cape) on South African advances and challenges since 1994; educational transformations at UWC; his role as an anti-apartheid student activist, exposure of South Africa’s nuclear bomb and subsequent imprisonment, and nuclear issues today.

Episode 93: Atlantic Bonds and Biography: from South Carolina to Nigeria

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 22, 2015 32:36


Lisa Lindsay (North Carolina) on her forthcoming biography of James Churchwill Vaughan—whose life provides insights into the bonds of slavery and family and the differing prospects for people of African descent in the 19th-century Atlantic world. Vaughan’s odyssey took him from slavery-ridden South Carolina to Liberia and finally Nigeria, where he was involved in the […]

Episode 92: Football, Power, and Identity in Zambia

Play Episode Listen Later May 21, 2015 36:37


Hikabwa Decius Chipande (PhD 2015 Michigan State) on the political and social history of football (soccer) in Zambia. He discusses becoming an historian; the game’s relationship with British colonizers, the copper mines, and postcolonial governments; and the archival research and oral interviewing process. Chipande concludes with insights from his extensive experience with sport development in Africa.

Episode 91: African and American Ports–Solidarities in Durban and San Francisco

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 28, 2015 34:20


Peter Cole (Western Illinois, SWOP [Wits]) compares Durban and San Francisco, maritime union solidarities, the anti-apartheid movement, and technological change in the two ports. Cole concludes with reflections on researching and teaching comparative history.

Episode 90: Language and Power–Khoesan Studies

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 31, 2015 23:11


Menán Du Plessis (Stellenbosch University and U. of Kentucky) on her literary work, research on the Kora! language, and the significance of Khoesan linguistics to southern African studies. Du Plessis also considers digitization efforts and the impact of mass media and the Internet on endangered African languages.

Episode 89: Digital African Studies Part 2 with Laura Seay

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 3, 2015 31:42


Laura Seay (Government, Colby College) on becoming a Congo scholar; the genealogy and impact of her “Texas in Africa” blog; using Twitter for academic purposes and public discourse; and her book project titled “Substituting for the State” about non-state actors and governance in eastern DR Congo. Follow Laura on Twitter: @texasinafrica

Episode 88: Digital African Studies with Keith Breckenridge

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2015 28:53


Keith Breckenridge (WISER) on the current state of digital Southern African Studies; the politics, funding, and ethics of international partnerships in digital projects; and his new book Biometric State: The Global Politics of Identification and Surveillance in South Africa, 1850 to the Present. Follow Keith on Twitter: @BreckenridgeKD Part I of a series on digital African studies.

Episode 87: Black Politics in South Africa

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 3, 2014 38:03


Chitja Twala (History, Univ. of Free State) on the history of black politics and the African National Congress in the Free State province; oral history; cultural resistance; the field of History in South Africa; lessons of the Marikana Massacre; and “transformation” in South African higher education.

Episode 86: Cartooning in Africa with Tebogo Motswetla

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 12, 2014 26:31


Tebogo Motswetla, a leading African cartoonist from Botswana, on his journey of becoming a cartoonist; the 25th anniversary of his character “Mabijo”; applied aspects of his work; seTswana language dialogue; the creative process, censorship, and freedom of expression.

Episode 85: Swahili Poetry with Abdilatif Abdalla

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 4, 2014 29:46


Abdilatif Abdalla is the best-known Swahili poet and independent Kenya’s first political prisoner. He discusses poetry as a political instrument and as an academic field; publication prospects for African poets; and how poetry enabled him to survive three years of solitary confinement, after which he spent 22 years in exile. The interview ends with Abdalla […]

Episode 84: African literatures & public intellectuals: Sahara Reporters & ‘What is Africa to me’?

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 22, 2014 26:44


Pius Adesanmi (Carleton University) on African literatures, public intellectuals, Sahara Reporters blog, social media and postcolonial writing, Yoruba and Anglophone literatures, ‘imposed transnationalism’ in the African literature classroom and ‘What is Africa to me’? With guest host Ann Biersteker. Photo courtesy of Pius Adesanmi

Episode 83: Conflict in Côte d’Ivoire and Beyond, From High Politics to the Grassroots

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 29, 2014 35:57


Brett O’Bannon (Political Science, Director of Conflict Studies, De Pauw University) on the causes and consequences of civil war in Côte d’Ivoire; the “Responsibility to Protect” as applied to conflict in Africa ; and monitoring herder-farmer relations in Senegal to anticipate the onset of wider-scale warfare.

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