Faculty | The MacMillan Center Council on African Studies

The Bookshop of Black Queer Diaspora: On the Contents of Rotimi Fani-Kayode’s Trunk

About this program
In recognition of Worlds AIDS Day on December 1, 2023, this talk will examine the history of neoliberalism and neocolonialism in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States as well as the history of Black queer art and activism through a series of visits to a make-believe Black queer bookshop and gallery. While the visits are fictional, the objects in the bookshop and their histories are real. The trunk owned by the Nigerian-born British photographer Rotimi Fani-Kayode (1955–1989) will be a focus of this talk.

An Islamic Commons? Reflections on environmental, economic, and social stewardship from an indigenous apiary in Morocco

Dr. Salah Chafik’s research is inspired by the age-old question and notion of ‘living and doing good’ or السعادة القصوى (eudaimonia). He studies the pursuit & understanding of public value creation beyond a global Western paradigm, focusing on purpose-driven indigenous institutions rooted in Islam. In particular, he is interested in the role of these institutions in delivering public services to, taking on challenges for, and shaping the business and wider socio-economic environment of their communities.

Book Series: The Ideological Scramble for Africa with Frank Gerits

Join Professor Paul Kennedy for a conversation with Frank Gerits on his book, The Ideological Scramble for Africa: How the Pursuit of Anticolonial Modernity Shaped a Postcolonial Order, 1945–1966. The book examines how African leaders in the 1950s and 1960s crafted an anticolonial modernization project. Rather than choose Cold War sides between East and West, anticolonial nationalists worked to reverse the psychological and cultural destruction of colonialism.

Sarah Osterhoudt: Vigilant Fields: Self-Surveillance in the Vanilla Boom

The core of the Agrarian Studies Program’s activities is a weekly colloquium organized around an annual theme. Invited specialists send papers in advance that are the focus of an organized discussion by the faculty and graduate students associated with the colloquium.
This topic embraces, inter alia, the study of mutual perceptions between countryside and city, and patterns of cultural and material exchange, extraction, migration, credit, legal systems, and political order that link them.

PRFDHR Seminar: AI, Digital Identities, Biometrics, Blockchain: How the Use of Technology is Changing Migration Globally, Dr. Raphaela Schweiger

The seminar led by Dr. Raphaela Schweiger will delve into the profound impacts of digitalization and technological advancements on migration and refugee policies. In a world shaped by rapid technological change, this seminar offers an exploration of the evolving landscape, both globally and in some specific cases in Africa, the Middle East, Europe and North America. Technology has already begun reshaping the experiences of migrants, refugees, and those on the move.

Citizens Movement Building: Making a Case for Peoples' Movements in the Face of Repressive Regimes

In repressive regimes, Citizens’ movements can be a powerful counter force. Join 2020 World Fellow Evan Mawaire and 2023 World Fellow Janah Ncube as they share lessons from Zimbabwe where citizens continue to fight for democratic rule.

From scars of war to diplomatic leadership: a talk with the Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone

The International Leadership Center and the MacMillan Center Council on African Studies will host a conversation with Timothy Musa Kabba who will discuss his personal journey from child soldier to Minister of Foreign Affairs, leading his country’s efforts in the UN Security Council as it navigates global food and energy shocks and regional coups. Also a former Minister of Mines and Mineral Resources, he will discuss the role of natural resources in Sierra Leone’s development agenda.

Film Screening: A United Kingdom

The story of King Seretse Khama of Botswana and how his loving but controversial marriage to a British white woman, Ruth Williams, put his kingdom into political and diplomatic turmoil, based on the book Color Bar by Susan Williams.
Co-hosted by the Whitney Humanities Center.

White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa

White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa is a book that dives into the archives, revealing new, shocking details of America’s covert program in Africa. The CIA crawled over the continent, poisoning the hopes of 1958 with secret agents and informants; surreptitious UN lobbying; cultural infiltration and bribery; assassinations and coups. As the colonizers moved out, the Americans swept in—with bitter consequences that reverberate in Africa to this day. Celebrate the paperback release of White Malice with Susan Williams and Dan Magaziner in conversation.

Race, Gender and Migration in the Global South

This workshop inaugurates a network of early career social scientists researching the racial and gendered dynamics of migration and bordering in the Global South. It emerges in response to the ongoing situation of anti-black and anti-immigrant violence in Tunisia, precipitated by statements President Saied made calling for the deportation of sub-Saharan African migrants and stoking racial violence against them. As scholars of the region point out, racialized discourses regarding sub-Saharan migration are not new to Tunisia nor new to North Africa at large.