CAS Affiliate Yasmina Martin Presents Research at the African Studies Association Conference

The Council on African Studies and the MacMillan Center support graduate research and conference participation opportunities through the CAS Graduate Conference-Research Award and the MacMillan Center International Conference Travel Grant. CAS-MacMillan recently sponsored PhD student in History and CAS Grad Affiliate, Yasmina Martin, to present her research at the annual African Studies Association Conference (ASA). As Martin noted, “I was privileged to be a part of an ASA three-part panel series, Decolonization and the Underground, which was organized by Fatoumata Seck, Mark Drury, and Erin Pettigrew.” The panel series investigated covert, subversive elements of African decolonization beginning in the 1950s through the 1970s, from cultural production in the Senegalese left to liberation movements in Cabo Verde and Guinea. Martin presented ‘Haven of Refugees?: The African National Congress (ANC) in Dar es Salaam’s Decolonial Underground, 1961-1969,’ which questioned looking at Dar es Salaam in the global sixties as a decolonial hub to turn to the less obvious and sometimes difficult relationships between South African exiles (ANC members) and hosts. Examining the African National Congress’ members’ interactions with the Tanzanian government, the paper studied how President Julius Nyerere opened Tanzania up to host half a dozen liberation movements, predicated on his support of Pan-African unity. Yet, as Martin showed, within a decolonizing Africanist context, the ANC’s acceptance of white members within its ranks and its links to the South African Communist Party led to distrust from the Tanzanian state. The paper presented will form the basis of a chapter in her dissertation, which will focus on relationships between exiles and hosts in 1960s Dar es Salaam. Martin appreciated being able to showcase her work. “I’m grateful to CAS and MacMillan for supporting my research, and it was great to see CAS graduate affiliates and faculty in San Francisco!”