Year of Kenya Lecture Series (2006-2007)

Competing Roles of the State, NGOs and the Local Community Towards Environmental Conservation in Kenya.

BIO: Dr. Olubayi Olubayi is an associate professor of microbiology and the chair of the biotechnology program at Middlesex County College in Edison, New Jersey. He is also a lecturer in Africana Studies at Rutgers University where he teaches the senior seminar on wealth, and a class on the contributions of Africans to science. Dr. Olubayi earned his Ph.D. in plant biology from Rutgers University in 1995. His research focus was on the biology of bacteria-plant-cell interactions. He is the co-founder and president of the Global Literacy Project, Inc., a nonprofit organization that has already shipped more than one million books and hundreds of computers to economically disadvantaged countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and Asia. He is the founder and chair of the advisory board of the Pan-African Mentoring and Learning Organization (PAMLO) whose mission is to promote literacy and self-reliance on the continent of Africa. He is the adviser to the Youth Organization of Amagoro district in Kenya, and the founder of the Chamasiri Harambee Self-Reliance Project in Kenya. Dr. Olubayi is currently writing a book on protein purification and another on the responsibilities of educated Africans in rebuilding Africa. He and several colleagues are developing a plan to launch a micro-lending project in rural western Kenya and are designing a Pan-African Leadership Academy to train the next generation of African leaders to create solutions to the Continent’s problems.

Kenya and the Indian Ocean Diaspora: Which Direction and Which Sources?

BIO: Dr Mark Horton is Reader in Archaeology, and until 2006, was Chair of the Department of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Bristol. He has been working on the Kenyan coast since 1980, directing archaeological excavations in the Lamu archipelago, where his research has uncovered the earliest Islamic societies to be found in sub-Saharan Africa. He works with the British Institute in East Africa, and currently with University of Virginia NSF funded project on Pemba Island (Tanzania). His interests have a global scope, and he is keen to place African societies within a wider world of exchange and influence. He has written numerous articles on African archaeology, and is also the author of two major books, Shanga (1996) and The Swahili (2000).

BIO: Dr. Kusimba has served as Curator of African Archaeology and Ethnology at the Field Museum since 1994. He is also Adjunct faculty in the Departments of Anthropology at Northwestern University. Chap is involved in a number of disciplinary and interdisciplinary field and collection-based research as well as interdisciplinary and interdepartmental research projects. He has initiated international collaborative programs with colleagues at the National Museums of Kenya, Kenya Wildlife Services, Deccan College, India, and Pardubice University, Czech Republic.His research agenda focuses on the role of economy, technology, and politics in the development of urban societies. In East Africa, He studies the origins of urbanism and its influence in East African history. In India, he is studying the role of South Asian merchants on African urbanism. His research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research (1990-91), National Geographic Society (1996-98), Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (1990), Eli Lilly Foundation (1998), Chicago 2020 (2000), and the Norwottock Charitable Trust (2005).

BIO: Bruce Hardy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Kenyon College. Bruce Hardy holds a B.A. in Anthropology and French from Emory University and M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from Indiana University. He is part of the Environmental Studies faculty at Kenyon and teaches course on human ecology and human variation. Trained in paleoanthropology, he has worked extensively on the Paleolithic of Europe and Africa, particularly with early hominids and Neandertals. Recently, his research has focused on understanding the behavioral changes associated with the transition from Neandertals to modern humans.

BIO: Dr. Macharia Waruingi , founder of the Kenya Development Network, neurophysiologist, and MIT doctoral candidate in Systems Thinking and Organizational Learning.

Public Health and Capacity Building in Kenya

ABSTRACT: Detention camps were put in remote, arid, ecologically unfriendly places. At great risk, women smuggled food from the villages to resistance fighters in the forests. During Mau Mau women’s roles changed and took on greater importance. Women lead prayers and had visions advising men where and when to attack. Women served as spies, collecting intelligence, arms and medicine, especially in Nairobi. The Mau Mau had little access to weapons. They had to be stolen from the British. The British introduced curfews and communal labor which cut down significantly on women’s ability to support fighters in the forests. There were also many forced marriages to loyalists to buy protection. Loyalists oppressed their own people. They were co-conspirators in the maintenance of colonial rule. The Mau Mau became a nationalist freedom movement that started locally but its ideals and aspirations spread. The Mau Mau movement was crucial to achieving Kenyan independence but these freedom fighters were not recognized by Kenyatta as heroes. Following independence, Mau Mau peasant classes did see some benefits through their children who were able to pursue school and advance based on merit.

BIO: Caroline Elkins work on the Mau Mau emergency examines the origins and escalation of British colonial violence, the nature of the camp experience, and the impact of detention upon the Kikuyu population and the Kenyan nation as a whole. In arguing against the accepted view that detention in Kenya was a moment for British liberal reform, Elkins reexamines Britain's civilizing mission and suggests that the postwar period in Kenya was one of violence and brutality rather than one of gradual liberalization. Caroline is an assistant professor of history at Harvard University. She studies the colonial encounter in Africa during the twentieth century. Her works draw on a variety of different sources--including extensive oral testimonies, archival evidence, and personal accounts--to rethink our understanding of the late colonial period in Africa, particularly in those colonies that had a settler presence.

BIO: Caroline Elkins work on the Mau Mau emergency examines the origins and escalation of British colonial violence, the nature of the camp experience, and the impact of detention upon the Kikuyu population and the Kenyan nation as a whole. In arguing against the accepted view that detention in Kenya was a moment for British liberal reform, Elkins reexamines Britain's civilizing mission and suggests that the postwar period in Kenya was one of violence and brutality rather than one of gradual liberalization. Caroline is an assistant professor of history at Harvard University. She studies the colonial encounter in Africa during the twentieth century. Her works draw on a variety of different sources--including extensive oral testimonies, archival evidence, and personal accounts--to rethink our understanding of the late colonial period in Africa, particularly in those colonies that had a settler presence.

BIO: Professor John Lonsdale spent 1940-44 as an infant war refugee near Cleveland, Ohio. Matriculated from Trinity in 1958 after National Service in the King's African Rifles. PhD from Trinity 1964. First teaching job at University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1964-66. Fellow of Trinity since 1964. Director of Studies in History for Trinity 1968-2000. Tutor at Trinity 1974-83. Retired as Professor of Modern African History at the University of Cambridge 2004. Won University of London Prize for book on Commonwealth History 1994; elected 'Distinguished Africanist' by the African Studies Association of the UK 2006. Since 2002 Vice- President of Royal African Society.

BIO: Professor John Lonsdale spent 1940-44 as an infant war refugee near Cleveland, Ohio. Matriculated from Trinity in 1958 after National Service in the King's African Rifles. PhD from Trinity 1964. First teaching job at University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1964-66. Fellow of Trinity since 1964. Director of Studies in History for Trinity 1968-2000. Tutor at Trinity 1974-83. Retired as Professor of Modern African History at the University of Cambridge 2004. Won University of London Prize for book on Commonwealth History 1994; elected 'Distinguished Africanist' by the African Studies Association of the UK 2006. Since 2002 Vice- President of Royal African Society.

BIO: Theodora O. Ayot is currently Professor of History at North Park University in Chicago, Illinois. She taught previously at Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya, State University of New York, College at Fredonia, New York, and as a Visiting Professor at the University of Jonkoping, College of Health Sciences, Jonkoping, Sweden. Major academic publications include A history of the Luo of Western Kenya 1590-1930, (1987), The Luo Settlement in South Nyanza (1987), and Women and Political Leadership in Precolonial Period: Case Study of Chief Mang’ana of Kadem in Western Kenya (1994). She is the Director of Daniel Katete Orwa Foundation for Humanity.

BIO: Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (b. 1938, Limuru, Kenya) is one of Africa's leading contemporary writers. His novels have been translated into more than thirty languages and have garnered numerous prizes. Currently, Ngũgĩ is Distinguished Professor of English and Comparative Literature and Director of the International Center for Writing & Translation at the University of California, Irvine.

Panel Discussion by The Global Institute. Moderator: Wendy Bosley, Executive Director, Fishbird Productions; Panelists: Ruth Hunt Wood, Artist and Trustee, Ol Malo Trust; Liz Frye, doctor, representing Carolina for Kibera; Yvonne Johanesson-Jones, Strategic Marketing and Compliance Manager, Gray Ghost Capital (Microfinance Division).

Panel Discussion by The Global Institute. Moderator: Wendy Bosley, Executive Director, Fishbird Productions; Panelists: Ruth Hunt Wood, Artist and Trustee, Ol Malo Trust; Liz Frye, doctor, representing Carolina for Kibera; Yvonne Johanesson-Jones, Strategic Marketing and Compliance Manager, Gray Ghost Capital (Microfinance Division).

BIO: Jean Ngoya Kidula is Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Georgia, where she teaches classes in music cultures of the world, African music, and African American music. Prior to her appointment at UGA, Dr. Kidula was on the Music faculty of Kenyatta University for more than 15 years. Dr. Kidula received her Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology at UCLA. She has published articles on Religious popular music in Africa and the USA, on the localization of European Christianity in Kenya, on ritual music and its intersection with identity construction and on women in Music in the African academy and the popular music circuit. She continues to research the juncture of African indigenous and national with global popular and religious music. Dr, Kidula performs in a variety of ensembles that showcase indigenous Kenyan music, religious and secular popular music and European classical music.

BIO: James Thuo Gathii is the Governor Pataki Chair of International Commercial Law at Albany Law School, where he has been on the faculty since 2001. Professor Gathii received his LL.B. from the University of Nairobi and his LL.M. and S.J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. He has consulted for the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission. His research and expertise is in the areas of public international law, international economic law, international intellectual property and trade law as well as on issues of constitutionalism, good governance and legal reform as they relate to the third world and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Professor Gathii teaches Business Organizations, Public International Law, International Trade, International Business Transactions, Comparative Constitutional Law and International Organizations. Professor Gathii has published over forty articles and book chapters, including in the Michigan Law Review and the University of Illinois Law Review. He is one of the leading voices on Third World Approaches to International Law. He is a member of the International Law Association’s Study Committee on the Meaning of War.

BIO: James Thuo Gathii is the Governor Pataki Chair of International Commercial Law at Albany Law School, where he has been on the faculty since 2001. Professor Gathii received his LL.B. from the University of Nairobi and his LL.M. and S.J.D. from Harvard Law School. He is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya. He has consulted for the Constitution of Kenya Review Commission. His research and expertise is in the areas of public international law, international economic law, international intellectual property and trade law as well as on issues of constitutionalism, good governance and legal reform as they relate to the third world and sub-Saharan Africa in particular. Professor Gathii teaches Business Organizations, Public International Law, International Trade, International Business Transactions, Comparative Constitutional Law and International Organizations. Professor Gathii has published over forty articles and book chapters, including in the Michigan Law Review and the University of Illinois Law Review. He is one of the leading voices on Third World Approaches to International Law. He is a member of the International Law Association’s Study Committee on the Meaning of War.

BIO: ALI A. MAZRUI was born in Mombasa, Kenya, on February 24, 1933. He is now Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University. He is also Albert Luthuli Professor-at-Large at the University of Jos in Nigeria. Dr. Mazrui has also been appointed Chancellor of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya. Mazrui was Ibn Khaldun Professor-at-Large, Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, Leesburg, Virginia (1997-2000). He was also Walter Rodney Professor at the University of Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana (1997-1998).Mazrui obtained his B.A. with Distinction from Manchester University in England, his M.A. from Columbia University in New York, and his doctorate from Oxford University in England. For ten years he was at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, where he served as head of the Department of Political Science and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Professor Mazrui also served as professor of political science (1974-1991) and as Director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies (1978-1981) at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

BIO: ALI A. MAZRUI was born in Mombasa, Kenya, on February 24, 1933. He is now Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities and Director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at Binghamton University. He is also Albert Luthuli Professor-at-Large at the University of Jos in Nigeria. Dr. Mazrui has also been appointed Chancellor of the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in Kenya. Mazrui was Ibn Khaldun Professor-at-Large, Graduate School of Islamic and Social Sciences, Leesburg, Virginia (1997-2000). He was also Walter Rodney Professor at the University of Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana (1997-1998).Mazrui obtained his B.A. with Distinction from Manchester University in England, his M.A. from Columbia University in New York, and his doctorate from Oxford University in England. For ten years he was at Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda, where he served as head of the Department of Political Science and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. Professor Mazrui also served as professor of political science (1974-1991) and as Director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies (1978-1981) at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.