The Canadian Association of African Studies annual conference, “Africa Matters: Celebrating 40 years of the Canadian Association of African Studies,” will take place at Carleton University from May 5-7.
Advanced registration can occur via Paypal. Please note undergraduate students (with ID get in for free), graduate students and delegates from Africa pay $100, and others pay $200. There is also a one-day pass for $75. You can also register at the registration desk which will be in the foyer of the second floor of Paterson Hall from 4pm -6pm Tuesday May 4th, 8am-5pm on both Wednesday May 5th and Thursday May 6th, and from 8am to noon on Friday May 7th.
On Thursday May 6th, there is also a concert with Mighty Popo (Click Here) at “La Chapelle,” room 112, Tabaret Building at the University of Ottawa (550 Cumberland @ corner of Laurier Ave. East – building ‘TBT’ on campus map: http://www.uottawa.ca/maps/). Tickets are $30, $15 for students and delegates from Africa. For tickets, please contact caas2010carleton@gmail.com .
The following events are free and open to the public:
* Friday May 7, 2:30-4:30 pm
Plenary Panel: Roundtable: Sexual Violence and Conflict in Africa
Chair: Joanne Lebert – Peacebuild & POWER
Marie Honorine Chiribagula – International Rescue Committee Kudakwashe Chitsike – Research and Advocacy Unit Céline Narmadji – l’Association des Femmes pour le Développement et la Culture de la Paix au Tchad Jessica Nkuuhe – Urgent Action Fund-Africa
(Simultaneously translated in English or French / interprétation simultanée de l’anglais au français)
Room: Azrieli Theatre 302
* Friday May 7, 2:30-4:30 pm
Plenary Panel: Africa Matters : Two Perspectives
Chair: Edward Jackson – Carleton University
Ian Smillie – Development Consultant / Consultant en développement Rita Abrahamsen – University of Ottawa
Room: Azrieli Pavilion 132
* Films @ the Conference
Wednesday May 5, 12:45pm-1:55 pm Room: Azrieli Pavilion 132 “The Power of Art: Women’s Voices in Africa” (2007, 51 minutes, Canada) The idea of culture is evolving, and is no longer simply a static collection of knowledge, values and practices, shared and transmitted by a community, but a dynamic reality. La Force d’art: Voix de Femmes en Afrique explores how contemporary women who choose to be professional artists reach their position and battle stereotypes associated with their African-ness and their identity as women. The film also explores the role an artist can play in addressing the problems that women face on the African continent. Artists interviewed include Aminata Diaw Cisse, Gabi Ngobo, Penny Siopis, Pelagie Gbaguidi, Marie-Blanche Ouedraogo, Zainab Toyosi Odunsi, Suzanne Ouedragog, Mawa Kone, Fatoumata Diabater and others.
Wednesday May 5, 8:00pm-9:30pm Room: Azrieli Theatre 102 “Who’s Afraid of Ngugi” (2006, 83 min, US/Kenya) Novelist, essayist, playwright, journalist, editor, academic and social activist Ngugi wa Thiong’o was born in Kenya, in 1938 into a large peasant family. In 1977 his novel Petals of Blood was published to critical acclaim. The novel painted a harsh and unsparing picture of life in neo-colonial Kenya. Sharply critical of the inequalities and injustices of Kenyan society, publicly identified with unequivocally championing the cause of ordinary Kenyans, and committed to communicating with them in the languages of their daily lives, Ngugi was arrested and imprisoned without charge at Kamiti Maximum Security Prison at the end of the year, December 31, 1977. After Amnesty International named him a Prisoner of Conscience, an international campaign secured his release a year later, December 1978. The Moi regime’s plot to eliminate him forced him into exile for 22 years. This documentary follows acclaimed author Ngugi wa Thiong’o as he and his political activist wife Njeri journey back to Kenya after years of exile. As they are welcomed home by joyous and hopeful crowds, they also must cope with those who still find their revolutionary words and deeds threatening.
(Abstract adapted from:http://www.twn.org/catalog/pages/cpage.aspx?rec=1191&card=price).
Thursday May 6, 12:45pm-1:55pm Room: Azrieli Pavilion 132
“Phakathi: Soweto’s Middling Class” (2010, 50 min, South Africa) The documentary entitled Phakathi – Soweto’s Middling Class by Mosa Phadi, a researcher with the South African Research Chair in Social Change at the University of Johannesburg, Professor Peter Alexander, with support from the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, underlines research on peoples’ understandings of class and how they locate themselves within a class structure. The following comment by Erik Olin Wright, Vilas Distinguished Professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison. “It is certainly a very high level piece of work exploring the character of class identity in South Africa and the distinct problem of class in a society undergoing such rapid transformations. But in many ways it is more than simply a documentary about South Africa. It is also a wonderful work of sociology on the way people in general form their understandings of class and how they locate themselves within a class structure.”
(Abstract adapted from:www.uj.ac.za/EN/Newsroom/News/Pages/ScreeningofaUJresearchdocumentaryfilm.aspx).