Africa Past & Present » Afripod

Reginold Royston (University of Wisconsin Madison) on his new book, Pan-African Futurism: Ghana and the Paradox of Technology for Development (University of California Press, 2025). He delves into the “digital divide” between Global North and South and how Ghana's activist-software developers and digital diaspora are using IT for economic reasons and also to gain greater political autonomy. A discussion of Royston's digital ethnographic method and research on African podcasting concludes the interview.

Paul Landau (History, University of Maryland) on his award-winning book, Spear: Mandela and the Revolutionaries (Ohio University Press, 2022). Landau begins by discussing the book’s origins and sources, with special attention paid to oral interviews. The interview then turns to an evaluation of the nature and impact of violence in antiapartheid movements, Nelson Mandela’s Communism, and Cold War intelligence intrigues. The conversation concludes with a sneak peek at Landau’s new research project on the history of apartheid’s demise.  

Bernard Moore (University of Basel) discusses his co-authored book, Space is the Ultimate Luxury: Capitalists, Conservationists, and Ancestral Land in Namibia (Brill, 2025, open access). He describes conflicts over land use between African pastoralist farmers and billionaire white conservationists, and reflects on how and why written, oral, and visual sources shaped the book’s analysis and significance. The interview ends with a consideration of Moore’s ongoing activism and what is at stake in southern Namibia.

David William Cohen (Emeritus, History, University of Michigan) discusses his new book, The Weight of Lufu: Essays on Busoga before 1900 (Menha Publishers, 2025), with guest host Paul Landau. Drawing on Cohen’s more than fifty years of engagement with the region, the conversation sensitively discusses multiple forms of knowledge and creativity in dealing with the past, from oral traditions and local African histories to evolving Africanist scholarship, including Cohen's of course. The interview closes with the author's reflections on lessons learned from reinvestigating Busoga’s complex past.

Dr. Claudia Gastrow (Anthropology, North Carolina State University) on her new book, The Aesthetics of Belonging: Indigenous Urbanism and City Building in Oil-Boom Luanda (University of North Carolina Press, 2024). Dr. Gastrow reflects on her winding path from South Africa to Switzerland, Angola, and the United States. The conversation then delves into the main thrust of the book, doing research in Portuguese in Luanda, and the role of the Angolan state, and China, in housing provision. The interview concludes with a brief discussion of Gastrow’s new project on Cuba and Angola.

Dr. Benjamin Talton (Director, Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University) on his eclectic intellectual journey as an historian of Africa and the Diaspora. The interview begins with a discussion of his early work on ethnicity and politics in northern Ghana and then turns to his award-winning book, In This Land of Plenty: Mickey Leland and Africa in American Politics. In the final portion of the interview, Dr. Talton discusses his forthcoming book on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s engagement with African liberation politics.

Afis Ayinde Oladosu (Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies, University of Ibadan) on being and becoming Muslim in Nigeria and Africa. Dr. Oladosu reflects on his journey to academia, positionality at Ibadan, and experiences as a Gates Fellow in the U.S. He then discusses his MSU African Studies Center seminar presentation and comments on the role of religion in Nigerian politics. The interview concludes with a look at Dr. Oladosu's current research projects.

Lauren Jarvis (History, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill) on her new book, A Prophet of the People: Isaiah Shembe and the Making of a South African Church (Michigan State University Press, 2024). Dr. Jarvis discusses the remarkable life of Shembe, the building of a religious community of people left behind by industrial capitalism, strategies of evasion, and the key role of women in the church. She then reflects on written, oral, and visual sources, white authorities’ anxieties about the Nazaretha church, and what happened to the community after Shembe’s death in 1935.

Michelle Sikes (Kinesiology, African Studies, and History, Penn State University) on her new book, Kenya’s Running Women: A History (Michigan State University Press, 2023). The conversation begins with Sikes's journey from NCAA champion and professional runner to Rhodes scholar and academic. She then delves into the book's main arguments and sources and methods. Sikes elaborates on women athletes' biographical narratives and transformational changes in global athletics since the 1990s. The interview closes with a discussion of gender-based violence, what makes Kenyan runners great, and the impact of sports on the broader quest for Black freedom, equality, and justice.

Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi (History, University of the Free State) on his new book, Cultural Resistance on Robben Island: Songs of Struggle and Liberation in South Africa (Skotaville 2024). After discussing the genesis of his scholarly interests, Dr. Ramoupi describes prisoners’ music— instruments, genres, styles—and its impact on surviving apartheid’s harshest prison. He then reflects on the relationship between prisoners and guards, and changes in Robben Island prison culture over time. The interview closes with Ramoupi’s reflections on the film, Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony, and a preview of his new Mellon Foundation-funded research project.