AFROFILES

Africa has fostered the development of numerous writing systems across history, but European colonialism installed Roman script as a near universal while propagating the myth of a continent without letters. What’s the significance of African typography? And what worlds are embedded in the design of alphabetic characters? Charlotte discusses with Saki Mafundikwa, founder and director of the Zimbabwe Institute of Vigital Arts and author of Afrikan Alphabets: The Story of Writing in Afrika.

Music in this episode from RYYZN and Chistoffer Moe Ditlevsen

In this week’s episode, AFROFILES’ Leslie Rose talks with Dr. Marcus Rediker about the history of the Amistad Rebellion, a mutiny staged by enslaved Africans aboard the Spanish ship La Amistad in 1839. The vessel was ultimately taken into custody by the US Navy, and the 53 enslaved people were charged with piracy and murder. Their trial in New Haven, Connecticut became a lightning rod for US abolitionists, and the eventual repatriation of the defendants to Sierra Leone stands as a rare triumph in the story of resistance to the slave trade. 

Dr. Rediker has written extensively about the Amistad Rebellion and produced the documentary, Ghosts of Amistad: In the Footsteps of the Rebels, available here: https://www.ghostsofamistad.com/

Our theme music is from RYYZN, audio clips from Charlie Haffner’s “Amistad Kata Kata.”

If you’re interested in learning more about the Amistad Rebellion, sharing this story in the classroom, or seeing a replica of the infamous shop, check out the organization Discovering Amistad here: https://www.discoveringamistad.org/

This week’s episode honors the late historian of Mande people and culture, Djibril Tamsir Niane, whose 1960 publication The Epic of Sundiata introduced the West to the legend of 13th-century Mali’s heroic king, Sundiata Keita. AFROFILES' Charlotte Bednarski interviews Dr. David Conrad, Emeritus Professor of History at State University of New York at Oswego and an expert in Mande oral tradition and history. They discuss episodes from the epic, as well as its historical and social significance.

Music is this episode from Sillaba and Maher Cissoko, Bassidi and Khalifa Koné, and Mory Kanté. Our theme is from RYYZN.

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In this episode, we illustrate the importance of a global and connected approach to African Studies by digging into a key moment in both African and American history: the Italian Occupation of Ethiopia. In October 1935, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini launched an invasion of Ethiopia that would last until 1941. Although this action violated international law and global opinion, Western powers, including the US, refused to become directly involved in the conflict. We approach this tumultuous period from a unique vantage point by asking ourselves: What were the connections between black Americans and Ethiopians in the 1930s? 

To answer this question, Charlotte sat down with Ms. Amy Alemu, a Ph.D. Candidate in African and African American Studies at Harvard. Ms. Alemu earned her master’s in History from Harvard University and her BA honors degree in History and Economics from Harvard College. Her research focuses are Black transnationalism, history of political thought, integrative approaches to African and African American studies, and digital and multimedia scholarship.

In this episode, we discuss the racial politics in African Studies. What are the ramifications of a western dominated field of African Studies, specifically one that is skewed towards the white scholar, and an organizational stronghold, the African Studies Association or the ASA, that reflects and often times shepherds this racially disparate phenomenon? 

Akua speaks with Dr. William Martin and Dr. Michael West, co-editors of the 1999 volume Out of One, Many Africas: Reconstructing the Study and Meaning of Africa, a book that critically “assesses the rising tide of discontent that has destabilized the conceptions, institutions, and communities dedicated to African studies.”