Africa Past & Present » Afripod

Africa Past & Present » Afripod episodes:

• 12.10.2021

  Episode 133:

  Peter Mark (Emeritus, Art history, Wesleyan Univ.) on his personal and scholarly journeys through precolonial Mande worlds. He shares insights from decades of experience working with an eclectic range of primary sources and archives. He then discusses the history of...

  
• 09.27.2021

  Episode 132:

  Marissa Moorman (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, African Cultural Studies) on Angolan social history and media studies. We discuss the evolving trajectory of her scholarship, research in southern Africa and Portugal, and her latest book, Powerful Frequencies: Radio, State Power, and the...

  
• 06.22.2021

  Episode 131:

  Historian Jessica Marie Johnson (Johns Hopkins Univ.) digs into her award-winning new book, Wicked Flesh: Black Women, Intimacy, and Freedom in the Atlantic World. The conversation brings out how Black women in Senegambia, the Caribbean, and Louisiana devised ways to...

  
• 03.24.2021

  Episode 130:

  Dr. Gerard Akindes discusses his experience playing and coaching basketball in West Africa and Europe, and the new Basketball Africa League. He considers the role of “electronic colonialism” in the sport media landscape and then reflects on his work advancing...

  
• 12.14.2020

  Episode 129:

  Dr. Chambi Chachage (Princeton) discusses his intellectual journey from Dar es Salaam to Cape Town, Edinburgh, and Cambridge, Mass., his book manuscript on the history of Black entrepreneurs in Dar, and the changing role of digital humanities in the field...

  
• 12.11.2019

  Episode 128:

  Cherif Keita (French and Francophone Studies, Carleton College) reflects on his life as a scholar from Mali and on his documentary films about John Langalibalele Dube and Nokutela Dube, founding figures of the African National Congress of South Africa. The...

  
• 11.05.2019

  Episode 127:

  Kim Yi Dionne (Political Science, UC Riverside) on her recent book, Doomed Interventions: The Failure of Global Responses to AIDS in Africa; the controversial May 2019 elections in Malawi, where she served as an observer; and hosting the Ufahamu Africa...

  
• 10.22.2019

  Episode 126:

  Elizabeth Schmidt (History, Loyola Maryland) on her activist beginnings and professional trajectory as an historian, first of Shona women in colonial Zimbabwe and later of Guinea’s independence movement. The second part of the interview focuses on Schmidt’s recent books on...

  
• 04.11.2019

  Episode 125:

  Didier Gondola (IUPUI, History and Africana Studies) on his book, Tropical Cowboys: Westerns, Violence, and Masculinity in Kinshasa. He reflects on how Hollywood Westerns shaped a performative young urban masculinity expressed through nicknames and slang, cannabis consumption, gender violence, fashion,...

  
• 02.28.2019

  Episode 123:

  Alex Thurston (Miami University) discusses his recent book, Boko Haram: The History of an African Jihadist Movement. Taking local religious ideas and experiences seriously, Thurston sheds light on northeastern Nigeria and the main leaders of Boko Haram; relationships with the...

  
• 02.14.2019

  Episode 124:

  Cal Biruk (Oberlin, Anthropology) on the politics of knowledge production in African fieldwork. We talk about her new book, Cooking Data: Culture and Politics in an African Research World, based on HIV and AIDS research in Malawi. The discussion explores...

  
• 02.14.2019

  Episode 122:

  Msia Kibona Clark (African Studies, Howard University) on her new book, Hip-Hop in Africa: Prophets of the City and Dustyfoot Philosophers. Clark describes how her personal passion became academic expertise. She highlights African women emcees and the role of local...

  
• 12.12.2018

  Episode 121:

  Bonny Ibhawoh (McMaster Univ.) and Christian Williams (U. Free State) on historicizing refugees in Africa. Looking at children evacuated from the Biafran War to Gabon and Ivory Coast, Ibhawoh discusses the politics of “refugee” labeling. Williams’s biography of a woman...

  
• 11.07.2018

  Episode 120:

  David Coplan (Wits, Emeritus) takes us on a journey from New York to Soweto and into the making of his ethnographic studies of music and popular culture in West and South(ern) Africa. Coplan then turns to his recent book about...

  
• 10.29.2018

  Episode 119:

  Jean Allman (Washington U.) on rethinking African humanities. She discusses her research on Ghana, women, and gender, and highlights the transformative potential of collaborative work. Allman reflects on African Studies publishing networks and then previews her ASA Presidential Lecture delivered...

  
• 10.08.2018

  Episode 118:

  Prof. Somadoda Fikeni (UNISA) and Nomzamo Ntombela (Stellenbosch) reflect on continuities and changes in South African social justice activism. Fikeni and Ntombela share their respective personal and political experiences, connecting the motives and lessons of 1980s anti-apartheid mass mobilization to...

  
• 05.17.2018

  Episode 117:

  Albie Sachs, former judge, freedom fighter, and professor, speaks (and sings!) about his anti-apartheid activism and lifelong commitment to equality and justice. He reflects on the enduring need for soft vengeance and draws on his 15-year term on South Africa's...

  
• 02.13.2018

  Episode 116:

  Prof. Norman Etherington (U. Western Australia) on empire in Africa, missions, and Southern African history. The interview focuses on themes of his distinguished career and influential works, such as The Great Treks, and his latest books Indigenous Evangelists & Questions...

  
• 11.29.2017

  Episode 115:

  Dr. Alcinda Honwana on the struggles of young Africans, the condition of "waithood" a state of limbo between childhood and adulthood and their creative engagements with everyday life. She reflects on the art and ethics of oral interviewing in Mozambique,...

  
• 11.02.2017

  Episode 114:

  Youssouf Sakaly and Malick Sitou discuss the Archive of Malian Photography, a collaborative Malian-US project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the British Library, that provides free access to preserved and digitized collections of five important photographers...

  
• 10.10.2017

  Episode 113:

  Keren Weitzberg (Institute of Advanced Studies, University College London) on her new book We Do Not Have Borders: Greater Somalia and the Predicaments of Belonging in Kenya. She grapples with the long history of Somali migration across colonial/post-colonial borders, definitions...

  
• 06.18.2017

  Episode 112:

  Prof. Alois Mlambo (University of Pretoria) discusses Zimbabwe's deindustrialization and economic decline, its relationship with South Africa, and the role of Pan-Africanism and patriotic history in sustaining a new authoritarian nationalism.

  
• 05.24.2017

  Episode 111:

  Jeremy Prestholdt (U. California, San Diego) on East African commodities, culture, and transnational imagination, featuring his forthcoming book, Icons of Dissent (on Che, Marley, Tupac, Bin Laden). He also discusses changing meanings of Indian Ocean Africa and how technologies impact...

  
• 04.27.2017

  Episode 110:

  John Mugane (Harvard University) on his book, The Story of Swahili, a history of the international language and its speakers. Mugane sheds light on enduring questions: Who is Swahili? What is authentic Swahili? He also discusses the state of publishing...

  
• 04.05.2017

  Episode 109:

  Allen Isaacman (University of Minnesota) discusses his recent Herskovits Award-winning book, Dams, Displacement and the Delusion of Development: Cahora Bassa and its Legacies in Mozambique, 1965-2007, how the work was researched, its significance, and the lives of those disrupted by...

  
• 03.03.2017

  Episode 108:

  Fallou Ngom (African Languages Director, Boston U.) on his new book Muslims Beyond the Arab World: the Odyssey of Ajami and the Muridiyya. Focusing on Senegambia and Ahmadu Bamba, Ngom discusses Ajami literary texts African languages in Arabic scripts...

  
• 02.02.2017

  Episode 107:

  Professor Amidu O. Sanni (Lagos State University) on his work for the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project and preservation of West African intellectual heritage. He discusses the importance of Ajami sources (African languages written in Arabic script) for historical and cultural analysis...

  
• 01.23.2017

  Episode 106:

  Nicholas van de Walle (Cornell) and Michael Wahman (Missouri) analyze the 2016 Zambian presidential and parliamentary elections. The two political scientists discuss the controversial results, the role of the Constitutional Court in the process, violence, and the influence of international...

  
• 12.22.2016

  Episode 105:

  Micere Githae Mugo (Syracuse, Emeritus) and Simon Gikandi (Princeton) discuss the making and aftermath of The Trial of Dedan Kimathi and, on the 40th anniversary of the play, reflect on the play's historical and political significance in Kenya and beyond;...

  
• 11.21.2016

  Episode 104:

  John Aerni-Flessner (MSU) on his forthcoming book The Desire for Development: Foreign Assistance, Independence, & Dreams for the Nation in Lesotho. Discussion focuses on development projects and their local, national and international politics; perspectives of Basotho youth, farmers, chiefs and...

  
• 10.12.2016

  Episode 103:

  Artist Sam Jury on the neglected situation of Sahrawi peoples refugee camps, her video installation To Be Here on their daily lives, and about the women who built the camps. Additional background on the Sahrawi movement is provided by Richard Knight...

  
• 06.06.2016

  Episode 102:

  Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Greg Marinovich (Boston University) on the genealogy and ethics of his work and on his new book: Murder at Small Koppie: The Real Story of the Marikana Massacre one of the largest killing of civilians in South...

  
• 05.23.2016

  Episode 101:

  Tejumola Olaniyan (Wisconsin Madison) on African cartoonists, their depictions of the body and struggles with censorship, and the aesthetics of corpulence in African political cartooning. He elaborates on the deeper origins and gendered nature of satire in African societies and...

  
• 04.26.2016

  Episode 100:

  This centenary episode brings together selections from the first eight years of the podcast. The chosen segments broadly represent earliest and latest episodes, different African countries and regions, and notable contributions by local and international guests on a number of...

  
• 03.29.2016

  Episode 99:

  Anthropologist Rosemarie Mwaipopo (U. of Dar es Salaam) on artisanal and small-scale mining in Tanzania. She discusses the roles of women;grassroots dimensions, including cultural and gender dynamics; and government policies. The interview concludes with a comparative look at small-scale mining...

  
• 02.22.2016

  Episode 98:

  Author Ben Rawlence (Open Society Foundations Fellow) on his new book: City of Thorns: Nine Lives in the Worlds Largest Refugee Camp. He describes working in Dadaab, Kenya, and discusses Somali refugees' daily struggles, their personal lives, social relationships, trade,...

  
• 01.30.2016

  Episode 97:

  Susanne Klausen (History, Carleton U.) on the history and politics of women's reproductive rights in South Africa. Our discussion of race, nationalism, and women's sexuality focuses on her new book, Abortion Under Apartheid, the first full-length study of the history...

  
• 11.17.2015

  Episode 96:

  Toyin Falola (History, Texas; President, African Studies Association) on Yoruba history and culture; language policy in Nigeria; creativity and decolonization; forms of community action in hyper-modern times; and the meaning of Buhari's victory in the 2015 presidential election.

  
• 10.26.2015

  Episode 95:

  Ganiyu Akinloye Jimoh (Creative Arts, University of Lagos) on his work in Nigeria as a popular cartoonist, with the pen name Jimga, and as a cartoon scholar. Issues discussed include: political aspects of cartooning; visual aspects of the art; language...

  
• 10.13.2015

  Episode 94:

  Professor Renfrew Christie (University of the Western Cape) on South African advances and challenges since 1994; educational transformations at UWC; his role as an anti-apartheid student activist, exposure of South Africa's nuclear bomb and subsequent imprisonment, and nuclear issues today.

  
• 09.22.2015

  Episode 93:

  Lisa Lindsay (North Carolina) on her forthcoming biography of James Churchwill Vaughan whose life provides insights into the bonds of slavery and family and the differing prospects for people of African descent in the 19th-century Atlantic world. Vaughan's odyssey took...

  
• 05.21.2015

  Episode 92:

  Hikabwa Decius Chipande (PhD 2015 Michigan State) on the political and social history of football (soccer) in Zambia. He discusses becoming an historian; the game's relationship with British colonizers, the copper mines, and postcolonial governments; and the archival research and...

  
• 04.28.2015

  Episode 91:

  Peter Cole (Western Illinois, SWOP [Wits]) compares Durban and San Francisco, maritime union solidarities, the anti-apartheid movement, and technological change in the two ports. Cole concludes with reflections on researching and teaching comparative history.

  
• 03.31.2015

  Episode 90:

  Menán Du Plessis (Stellenbosch University and U. of Kentucky) on her literary work, research on the Kora! language, and the significance of Khoesan linguistics to southern African studies. Du Plessis also considers digitization efforts and the impact of mass media...

  
• 02.03.2015

  Episode 89:

  Laura Seay (Government, Colby College) on becoming a Congo scholar; the genealogy and impact of her Texas in Africa blog; using Twitter for academic purposes and public discourse; and her book project titled Substituting for the State about non-state actors...

  
• 01.13.2015

  Episode 88:

  Keith Breckenridge (WISER) on the current state of digital Southern African Studies; the politics, funding, and ethics of international partnerships in digital projects; and his new book Biometric State: The Global Politics of Identification and Surveillance in South Africa, 1850...

  
• 12.03.2014

  Episode 87:

  Chitja Twala (History, Univ. of Free State) on the history of black politics and the African National Congress in the Free State province; oral history; cultural resistance; the field of History in South Africa; lessons of the Marikana Massacre; and...

  
• 11.12.2014

  Episode 86:

  Tebogo Motswetla, a leading African cartoonist from Botswana, on his journey of becoming a cartoonist; the 25th anniversary of his character Mabijo; applied aspects of his work; seTswana language dialogue; the creative process, censorship, and freedom of expression.

  
• 11.04.2014

  Episode 85:

  Abdilatif Abdalla is the best-known Swahili poet and independent Kenya's first political prisoner. He discusses poetry as a political instrument and as an academic field; publication prospects for African poets; and how poetry enabled him to survive three years of...

  
• 10.22.2014

  Episode 84:

  Pius Adesanmi (Carleton University) on African literatures, public intellectuals, Sahara Reporters blog, social media and postcolonial writing, Yoruba and Anglophone literatures, imposed transnationalismin the African literature classroom and What is Africa to me?