General Public | The MacMillan Center Council on African Studies

Ayi Kwei Armah’s “The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born” (1968), an Inspiration

Stephanie Newell, George M. Bodman Professor of English at Yale University, will discuss the classic Ghanaian novel that inspired Njideka Akunyili Crosby’s ongoing series “The Beautyful Ones,” represented in the YCBA’s current exhibition of her work. Newell will describe the history and context of Ayi Kweh Armah’s novel of Ghanaian independence, and explore some of its themes. In this visceral novel, filled with dirt and bodily fluids, Armah vividly conjures the stench of political corruption.

South Sudan, Education and Yale

After losing his parents to the world’s longest civil war in Sudan, Lorem Aminathia spent 8 years of his childhood in a refugee camp in Kenya. Raised a group of older boys, he launched an astonishing journey to Yale College, culminating in his selection for the first cohort of Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University in China.
Returning to the world’s newest independent country, South Sudan, Lorem recognized that his nation’s lack of an education system was not only an obstacle to progress, but also an exceptional development challenge in its own right.

South Sudan: Education and Yale

After losing his parents to the world’s longest civil war in Sudan, Lorem Aminathia spent 8 years of his childhood in a refugee camp in Kenya. Raised a group of older boys, he launched an astonishing journey to Yale College, culminating in his selection for the first cohort of Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University in China.

"A Time to Kill": Elections, State Legitimacy and the Role of Religion in Uganda

Bishop Dr. D. Zac Niringiye, theologian and pastor, is a civic-political activist in Uganda, involved in several civil society-led social justice and peace campaigns.

CAS Lecture Series: Africa's classical art in translations

Souleymane Bachir Diagne is a professor in the departments of French and of Philosophy and the Director of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University. He is the author, among other works, of African Art as Philosophy: Senghor, Bergson and the Idea of Negritude (Seagull books, 2011) to be soon republished by The Other Press.

POSTPONED - James Weldon Johnson Memorial Lecture: “What Could a Vessel Be?” by Christina Sharpe

The lecture, previously scheduled for Tuesday, November 29, has to be postponed. Information on a rescheduled date will be posted on the Yale calendar and shared through the library e-newsletter when available in the future.

PRFDHR Seminar: Assessing the Direct and Spillover Effects of Shocks to Refugee Remittances, Professor Sarah Walker

Professor Sarah Walker examines the impact of an exogenous shutdown of remittances to the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya in 2015. She finds that the shutdown did not reduce refugee consumption on average. However, for households that previously received remittances through the networks that were shutdown, consumption decreased, while for those who continued to receive remittances through other mechanisms, consumption increased.

Windham-Campbell Festival: The Playwright as Novelist

After receiving the Windham-Campbell Prize for drama, Kia Corthron published two novels; Abbie Spallen is currently working on her first book. Professor of English, Theater, and Performance Studies, and American Studies, Marc Robinson talks with both writers about leaving their comfort zone to tell stories in a different form.

Windham-Campbell Festival: This Mournable Body

Tsisti Dangarembga’s three novels have had an enormous impact on women’s writing in Africa and around the world. She’ll discuss all three works in a career-spanning conversation with Courtney J. Martin, the Paul Mellon director of the Yale Center for British Art.
The event will also be livestreamed on the Yale Center for British Art YouTube channel.

Windham-Campbell Festival: One (More) Night in the Roof Nightclub

Ishion Hutchinson will play a mash up of Jamaican music—ska, rocksteady, reggae and especially 1970s dub. Cooking up a dancing elixir, other genres will also be played. The session will be interspersed with performance of original dub poetry and a screening of a short film. Guest DJ appearance by Jonah Mixon-Webster.
Iconic local restaurant Sandra’s Next Generation will also be serving up a soul food feast!