Mastey was also interviewed by Ottawa Morning‘s Robyn Bresnahan on CBC Radio. You can listen to that interview here

Higher Learning at TIFF Bell Lightbox is hosting Sanogo’s talk, “The Lumière Brothers and Africa.”  The lecture will examine the work of the Lumiere brothers in and on Africa from 1896 to 1903. This Lumiere Africa Corpus, made of about 100 of the 1425 films currently restored, will be examined in relation to the historiography of early cinema. The talk will take place on Friday, February 4 at 10 am.

Sanogo’s second talk is entitled “A Sembenian Century: Ousmane Sembene and his times” will focus on the significance and resonance of Ousmane Sembène’s films and include screenings of La Noire de…and Borom Sarret. The lecture will take place prior to the screening and an audience Q&A session will follow the films. The event is scheduled for Saturday, February 5, at 6:30 pm.

Sanogo’s research interests include African cinema, documentary, world cinema, colonial cinema, and the relationship between film form, history and theory. He is also a film curator, and has curated programs at the Smithsonian Institution and the Pan-African Film Festival of Ouagadougou.

Tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis through the TIFF Bell Lightbox Office an hour before the event begins. Students and faculty must show valid university ID.

More information on “The Lumière Brothers and Africa”

For information regarding La Noire de . . . and Borom Sarret

In the Militant Intellection Complex, Adesanmi discusses the impact of Africa’s public intellectuals on the public’s perception of the continent, and their role in shaping narratives of Africa.

In his discussion of what he refers to as the Mercy Industrial Complex, Adesanmi takes a look at the motives that drive Western notions of charity, military action, and celebrity advocacy toward Africa.

Megan Malone

by Nicole Findlay

Megan Malone lives and breathes her love of Africa. Her enthusiasm for the continent is infectious enough to inspire her peers to spend a month last summer volunteering in orphanages in Ghana.

Malone, a fourth-year student in African Studies and Political Science, put up posters on the campuses of both Carleton and University of Ottawa to promote the opportunity. 

She also partnered with Volunteer Corps, a Ghana-based NGO, to facilitate the volunteer work.

The seven students who took up the challenge raised their own money to fund both the trip and projects on the ground in Ghana.

The students’ primary responsibility was to help the children, of whom there were 65 and ranged in age from just months old to their 20s, prepare for their daily classes. Malone and the other students also assisted with the preparation of meals and laundry.  

“We had the small schoolhouse repaired as well as the children’s beds and bought new mattresses for them,” said Malone. 

The month-long trip was Malone’s second spent volunteering in the country.

Upon her return, she returned to her job at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade’s Africa Bureau. She landed the plum position the year before as part of her African Studies Placement Course – a half-credit one-day a week volunteer placement offered through the African Studies program at Carleton.

 This fall she resumed the last year of her studies, and launched the Institute of African Studies Student Association in cooperation with another student majoring in African Studies.

While Malone isn’t sure if she will pursue graduate studies in the UK or US, of one thing she is certain, her ultimate destiny is Africa.

Last week, the Institute of African Studies held its inaugural conference Africa: New Visions in a time of Global Crisis. Although officially founded in 2008, the institute was celebrating the attainment of a milestone 40 years in the making. 

Since the 1960s, Carleton has seen a rise in scholars in a range of disciplines including sociology/anthropology, English, history, political science, geography, and art and culture whose research focuses on Africa.

According to Blair Rutherford, director, Institute of African Studies, it was a triumvirate that culminated in the inception of the Institute of African Studies. The first was a marked increase in interest among students in the wider-world and in finding ways to contribute to the improvement of the world, in human rights issues, international development and peace building initiatives. Rather than relying on portrayals in the media, pop culture for information on the continent, they are interested in scholarly research pertaining to the divergent cultures, economics, and politics.
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A second factor is the increased immigration from African countries or students with African ancestry attending university.
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Finally, Ottawa itself is a hotbed of expertise due to the number of educational institutions with scholars studying Africa, along with the city’s embassies, headquarters of NGOs, community groups and government agencies. The Institute of Africa Studies provides a hub through which interdisciplinary collaborations can be generated and supported.
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The conference, entitled Africa: New Visions in a time of Global Crisis focused on how the global economic downturn is affecting African nations. Many countries lack a social safety net to help cushion the blow of the recession, and this is further compounded by dwindling funds being sent back to families from the African diaspora. 

Rutherford hopes that conference attendees will move beyond “Afro-pessimism”, a term he refers to as a tendency to throw one’s hands up in despair over seemingly intractable problems, and instead develop greater understanding of the complex and heterogeneous dynamics shaping daily life in the continent.

“Both projects are a marvel in interdisciplinary co-operation which is one of the things that Carleton does best,” says Blair Rutherford, director of the Institute. Forty-four faculty members from five faculties and 19 departments sit on the African Studies committee that determined the need for both initiatives.

The Institute of African Studies and programs fall under two faculties, Public Affairs and Arts and Social Sciences. “This is a true reflection of our ability to collaborate between faculties to create innovative interdisciplinary programs that meet the needs and interests of our students,” says Katherine Graham, dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs.

The Institute will oversee two new academic programs, organize conferences and other events, and network with government, NGOs, embassies and high commissions and the community. It will also promote new research initiatives.

“We created the new academic programs in response to a high demand from the community to learn more about this fascinating continent that is not only the birthplace of humanity but is perhaps the most culturally and geographically diverse continent on earth,” says Dr. Rutherford.

Carleton has been the home of African studies in Canada for almost half a century. Over the years, a vibrant group of Africa enthusiasts at the university promoted events, initiatives, and individual courses concerning Africa. Exchange programs for African students began almost 30 years ago, along with different academic courses. In 2006, professor Allan Thompson created the Rwanda Initiative, a partnership between Carleton University’s School of Journalism and Communication and its counterpart at the National University of Rwanda. The project has sent several journalists to teach in Rwanda and welcomes Rwandan journalists to study at Carleton. Carleton established a special scholarship for deserving African students to honour the legacy of former university president Richard Van Loon. Political science professor Daniel Osabu-kle and his wife donated land and personal funds to create a small school in Teshie, Ghana, to help low-income children receive a good education.

“So it seemed only natural to take the next step and create an Institute and new combined honours and minor programs in African Studies,” says Dr. Rutherford.

The new interdisciplinary program in African Studies will offer students a window into the history, geography, cultures, cinema and economics of Africa and explores critical issues the continent is facing such as poverty, political leadership, HIV/AIDS, war and unequal trading relationships with wealthy countries.

Students can pursue a minor in African Studies or a combined honours program that allows them to combine African Studies with any major within the Bachelor of Arts. Students in the combined honours program will have access to a work placement, a mentorship program and the chance to study in Africa at one of the three African universities with which Carleton has exchange agreements with University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), University of Ghana and the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

“We wanted our students to get an opportunity to have real-life experience outside the classroom,” says Dr. Rutherford.

The courses will be taught by professors from multiple disciplines who have substantial, real-world experience in the field. They include:

• NGOs and civil society as agents of development: Lessons from sub-saharan Africa Amos Mhina, visiting scholar from the University of Dar es Salaam)
• The invention of ‘race,’ the history of racism (Audra Diptee)
• Studies in race and ethnicity (Amina Mire)
• African drumming and listening (Kathy Armstrong)
• African literature (Pius Adesanmi)
• African women and colonialism (Susanne Klausen)
• Politics of development in Africa (Daniel Osabu-kle)
• Politics of war in Africa (Chris Brown)
• Southern Africa after apartheid (Linda Freeman)
• The politics of international refugees (James Milner)
• Advanced studies in contemporary sub-saharan Africa (Louise de la Gorgendière)
• La résistance dans le roman caribéen (Christine Duff)
• Southern Africa (John Tunbridge)

For more information about the background of these faculty members and other members of the African Studies committee, please visit http://www.carleton.ca/africanstudies/

In preparation of the new Institute, the African Studies Committee created a monthly African Studies Brownbag Lunch Series to promote discussion of current research and initiatives in Africa. The meetings are held Thursdays from 1:10 p.m. to 2:20 p.m. in Room 433 Paterson Hall. Some of the future talks include:

• January 15 – Susanne Klausen (History) – Reclaiming the White Daughter’s Purity: Racism, Heteropatriarchy and the 1975 Abortion and Sterilization Act in Apartheid South Africa
• February 12 – Louise de la Gorgendiere (Sociology & Anthropology) – Ghanaians in Canada – Canada in Ghanaians: An ethnographic analysis
• March 19 – Allan Thompson (Journalism) – Notes on the Rwandan Initiative