In this seminar we hosted Antonia Witt of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt. Their lecture is titled The African Union and Post-Coup Intervention in Madagascar.

In this seminar we hosted David Anderson of Warwick University as he presented on "The Dead Speak: Identity, Autochthony and the Occult in Kenya’s Western Highlands".

In this seminar we hosted Professor Francis Nyamnjoh as he presented his lecture titled Being and Becoming African as a Permanent Work in Progress: Inspiration from Chinua Achebe’s Proverbs.

In this seminar we hosted Jennifer Riggan as she gave a lecture entitled: The Intimate State: Teachers as Fault Line Between Repression and Revolution

In this podcast we hear from Selina Molteno, Publisher, Oxford & Robin Cohen, Senior Research Fellow, Kellogg College, University of Oxford, as they discuss their lecture titled An Expatriate Family in the Nigerian Civil War.

In this seminar, Rogers Orock (University of Witwatersrand) and Peter Geschiere (University of Amsterdam) jointly provide a lecture titled: Anusocratie? Freemasonry, Sexual Transgression and Illicit Enrichment in Postcolonial Africa.

For this podcast, we co-hosted Tim Allen of LSE with Oxford's Anthropology Department.

For this seminar we hosted George Bob-Milliar (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology). Professor Bob-Milliar's lecture is titled Presidential Campaigns stops in Ghana.

For this seminar we hosted Fred Ikanda from Maseno University. Professor Ikanda's spoke about his research and fieldwork experiences with the Dagahaley Refugee Camp.

For this seminar today we hosted Kwasi Konadu (Colgate University). Professor Konadu, Colgate University, spoke about his book, Our Own Way in This Part of the World: Biography of an African Community, Culture, and Nation.

Elleke Boehmer (University of Oxford) in conversation with Wale Adebanwi (University of Oxford)

In this seminar, Christine Cheng explores how states and extra-legal groups work together and analyzes how our definitions of what is legal affect our view of the state and governance.

Ramon Sarró and Marina P. Temudo deliver paper at 'Cultural Production in Africa's Extractive Communities' workshop. This is the fourth of five papers delivered at this workshop on 16 May 2019. ‘Cultural Production in Africa’s Extractive Communities’ is the sixth research seminar of the ERC project ‘Comparing the Copperbelt’ based at the University of Oxford. It focuses on the intersection between mining and cultural production in Central, Western and Southern Africa. Mining was one of the most important engines of transformation in Africa’s recent social and economic history. Industrial-scale mining – of gold, copper, tin, coal, oil, and diamonds – generated new towns and hurled people together from myriad cultural, linguistic and regional backgrounds. Thus, mining regions have also proved to be important venues of new forms of cultural production. Examples include DRCongo’s popular painting, Zambia’s psychedelic rock revolution in the 1970s, or Sotho migrant workers’ lifela song-poem genre. While certain forms of popular art have been the object of detailed study, e.g. in J.C. Mitchell’s 1956 ethnography of the Kalela dance, many of these studies have tended to be narrow in geographical focus. This seminar will attempt a more global view and will look at a variety of cultural forms across a variety of regions and time periods. It will integrate analysis of cultural production into regional histories that have more commonly been characterised in structural and material terms, exploring the ways in which processes of cultural, political and economic change found expression in everyday life. Questions to be addressed include: in what ways did new forms of popular art integrate various cultural influences to address social issues specific to the mining context? How does the 21st century mining context, defined by plurality and competing global companies, impact cultural production? How do cultural forms produced in such contexts relate to and compare with those produced in other areas of the country? What can popular art tell us about the lived experiences of the societies that produced it?

David Pratten delivers paper at 'Cultural Production in Africa's Extractive Communities' workshop. This is the third of five papers delivered at this workshop on 16 May 2019. ‘Cultural Production in Africa’s Extractive Communities’ is the sixth research seminar of the ERC project ‘Comparing the Copperbelt’ based at the University of Oxford. It focuses on the intersection between mining and cultural production in Central, Western and Southern Africa. Mining was one of the most important engines of transformation in Africa’s recent social and economic history. Industrial-scale mining – of gold, copper, tin, coal, oil, and diamonds – generated new towns and hurled people together from myriad cultural, linguistic and regional backgrounds. Thus, mining regions have also proved to be important venues of new forms of cultural production. Examples include DRCongo’s popular painting, Zambia’s psychedelic rock revolution in the 1970s, or Sotho migrant workers’ lifela song-poem genre. While certain forms of popular art have been the object of detailed study, e.g. in J.C. Mitchell’s 1956 ethnography of the Kalela dance, many of these studies have tended to be narrow in geographical focus. This seminar will attempt a more global view and will look at a variety of cultural forms across a variety of regions and time periods. It will integrate analysis of cultural production into regional histories that have more commonly been characterised in structural and material terms, exploring the ways in which processes of cultural, political and economic change found expression in everyday life. Questions to be addressed include: in what ways did new forms of popular art integrate various cultural influences to address social issues specific to the mining context? How does the 21st century mining context, defined by plurality and competing global companies, impact cultural production? How do cultural forms produced in such contexts relate to and compare with those produced in other areas of the country? What can popular art tell us about the lived experiences of the societies that produced it?

Enid Guene delivers paper at 'Cultural Production in Africa's Extractive Communities' workshop. This is the second of five papers delivered at this workshop on 16 May 2019. ‘Cultural Production in Africa’s Extractive Communities’ is the sixth research seminar of the ERC project ‘Comparing the Copperbelt’ based at the University of Oxford. It focuses on the intersection between mining and cultural production in Central, Western and Southern Africa. Mining was one of the most important engines of transformation in Africa’s recent social and economic history. Industrial-scale mining – of gold, copper, tin, coal, oil, and diamonds – generated new towns and hurled people together from myriad cultural, linguistic and regional backgrounds. Thus, mining regions have also proved to be important venues of new forms of cultural production. Examples include DRCongo’s popular painting, Zambia’s psychedelic rock revolution in the 1970s, or Sotho migrant workers’ lifela song-poem genre. While certain forms of popular art have been the object of detailed study, e.g. in J.C. Mitchell’s 1956 ethnography of the Kalela dance, many of these studies have tended to be narrow in geographical focus. This seminar will attempt a more global view and will look at a variety of cultural forms across a variety of regions and time periods. It will integrate analysis of cultural production into regional histories that have more commonly been characterised in structural and material terms, exploring the ways in which processes of cultural, political and economic change found expression in everyday life. Questions to be addressed include: in what ways did new forms of popular art integrate various cultural influences to address social issues specific to the mining context? How does the 21st century mining context, defined by plurality and competing global companies, impact cultural production? How do cultural forms produced in such contexts relate to and compare with those produced in other areas of the country? What can popular art tell us about the lived experiences of the societies that produced it?

Sarah Van Beurden delivers paper at 'Cultural Production in Africa's Extractive Communities' workshop. This is the first of five papers delivered at this workshop on 16 May 2019. ‘Cultural Production in Africa’s Extractive Communities’ is the sixth research seminar of the ERC project ‘Comparing the Copperbelt’ based at the University of Oxford. It focuses on the intersection between mining and cultural production in Central, Western and Southern Africa. Mining was one of the most important engines of transformation in Africa’s recent social and economic history. Industrial-scale mining – of gold, copper, tin, coal, oil, and diamonds – generated new towns and hurled people together from myriad cultural, linguistic and regional backgrounds. Thus, mining regions have also proved to be important venues of new forms of cultural production. Examples include DRCongo’s popular painting, Zambia’s psychedelic rock revolution in the 1970s, or Sotho migrant workers’ lifela song-poem genre. While certain forms of popular art have been the object of detailed study, e.g. in J.C. Mitchell’s 1956 ethnography of the Kalela dance, many of these studies have tended to be narrow in geographical focus. This seminar will attempt a more global view and will look at a variety of cultural forms across a variety of regions and time periods. It will integrate analysis of cultural production into regional histories that have more commonly been characterised in structural and material terms, exploring the ways in which processes of cultural, political and economic change found expression in everyday life. Questions to be addressed include: in what ways did new forms of popular art integrate various cultural influences to address social issues specific to the mining context? How does the 21st century mining context, defined by plurality and competing global companies, impact cultural production? How do cultural forms produced in such contexts relate to and compare with those produced in other areas of the country? What can popular art tell us about the lived experiences of the societies that produced it?

Portia Roelofs and Gavin Williams discuss in this podcast Gavin's influential book, State and Society in Nigeria.

Carli Coetzee discusses her book and surrounding themes in this talk. Ideas of femininity and issues about Ruth First regarding her time in prison are central to this interesting discussion.

In this talk, Dr Pedi Obani explores the impact of flooding in Benin City and the different ways in which people combat this hardship. Dr Obani also analyzes how these strategies could be improved for the betterment of the community as a whole. Most fast growing cities across Africa are experiencing the negative impacts of the convergence of urbanisation and climate change. Climate change itself exposes individuals, communities, common goods and infrastructure to flooding, heat, and other extreme weather events in a way that compromises the delivery of basic services and human wellbeing. Very often, the negative impacts are exacerbated by intervening factors such as poverty and the failure of relevant institutions to support effective adaptation and mitigation. This research explores individual adaptation strategies to flooding and assesses their impacts and sustainability in the context of a low income urban setting in Benin City, Nigeria. It further examines the interplay between urban planning laws and processes, and local adaptation strategies. In practice, when faced with extreme weather events such as flooding, the affected individuals (including households) and communities adapt using the resources available in their environment and networks. Nonetheless, tensions between actor rationality and the optimal collective outcomes are likely to affect the quality of adaptation with community-wide consequences because individuals often appear to prefer strategies that maximize the personal rather than the collective benefits. This research identifies four heuristic types of relationships that are observable from individual adaptation strategies for flooding in low income urban settings, namely: isolation, competition, alliance, and cooperation. Furthermore, the paper makes recommendations for improving the coherence between personal adaptation strategies on the one hand, and the maximisation of the collective utility on the other hand as a means of achieving transformation towards sustainability.

ASC seminar with Marco Di Nunzio Marco Di Nunzio speaks about his new book, The Act of Living. The book explores the relation between development and marginality in Ethiopia, one of the fastest growing economies in Africa. Replete with richly depicted characters and multi-layered narratives on history, everyday life and visions of the future, Di Nunzio's ethnography of hustling and street life is an investigation of what is to live, hope and act in the face of the failing promises of development and change. Di Nunzio follows the life trajectories of two men, 'Haile' and 'Ibrahim,' as they grow up in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, enter street life to get by, and turn to the city's expanding economies of work and entrepreneurship to search for a better life. Apparently favourable circumstances of development have not helped them achieve social improvement. As their condition of marginality endures, the two men embark in restless attempts to transform living into a site for hope and possibility. By narrating Haile and Ibrahim's lives, The Act of Living explores how and why development continues to fail the poor, how marginality is understood and acted upon in a time of promise, and why poor people's claims for open-endedness can lead to better and more just alternative futures. Tying together anthropology, African studies, political science, and urban studies, Di Nunzio takes readers on a bold exploration of the meaning of existence, hope, marginality, and street life.

ASC seminar with Rui Verde

ASC and Oxford Africa Society special lecture with Dr Max Price, former Vice Chancellor of UCT. Dr Max Price gives a topical lecture in Oxford about his experience as Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town during the national student protests which took place between 2015 and 2017, speaking about the meanings, issues and dilemmas of 'decolonisation' in the UCT context.

Prof Karin Barber delivers keynote lecture for 'Cultural Production in Africa's Extractive Communities' workshop 'Cultural Production in Africa's Extractive Communities' is the sixth research seminar of the ERC project 'Comparing the Copperbelt' based at the University of Oxford. It focuses on the intersection between mining and cultural production in Central, Western and Southern Africa. Mining was one of the most important engines of transformation in Africa's recent social and economic history. Industrial-scale mining - of gold, copper, tin, coal, oil, and diamonds - generated new towns and hurled people together from myriad cultural, linguistic and regional backgrounds. Thus, mining regions have also proved to be important venues of new forms of cultural production. Examples include DRCongo's popular painting, Zambia's psychedelic rock revolution in the 1970s, or Sotho migrant workers' lifela song-poem genre. While certain forms of popular art have been the object of detailed study, e.g. in J.C. Mitchell’s 1956 ethnography of the Kalela dance, many of these studies have tended to be narrow in geographical focus. This seminar will attempt a more global view and will look at a variety of cultural forms across a variety of regions and time periods. It will integrate analysis of cultural production into regional histories that have more commonly been characterised in structural and material terms, exploring the ways in which processes of cultural, political and economic change found expression in everyday life. Questions to be addressed include: in what ways did new forms of popular art integrate various cultural influences to address social issues specific to the mining context? How does the 21st century mining context, defined by plurality and competing global companies, impact cultural production? How do cultural forms produced in such contexts relate to and compare with those produced in other areas of the country? What can popular art tell us about the lived experiences of the societies that produced it?

ASC seminar by Kimathi Donkor

ASC seminar by Tom Lavers A growing literature highlights the pursuit of 'double-digit growth' and industrialisation within the Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Party's (EPRDF) 'developmental state' model. Yet economic transformation has never been the sole focus of the EPRDF's thinking. Rather, the distributional implications of development have been a central concern ever since the party came to power in 1991 and even beforehand during the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front's (TPLF) liberation struggle and administration of Tigray during the 1980s. This presentation is based on empirical research on land, agriculture, social protection and employment conducted over the past 10 years, involving analysis of key informant interviews with political elites and bureaucrats, official and internal party documentation, and village level case studies. The analysis shows that the EPRDF has long sought not only to stimulate a rapid process of economic transformation, but also to manage that process in the interests of social and political stability, drawing on a range of policy tools to do so, including: state land ownership, agricultural extension, employment creation and, more recently, social protection. Despite significant shifts in the EPRDF’s development strategy over time, there is actually considerable continuity in the principles underpinning this distributional strategy that reflects the complex interplay of political interests and ideology, namely: delivering tangible progress to a broad section of the population as a means of building support, while also mobilising along ethno-nationalist lines. Ironically, however, while this approach has secured many successes, it has also exposed important limitations, in highlighting two of the central drivers of recent political upheaval within the country: an interlinked crisis of severe land and employment shortages, and the limits to ethno-regional autonomy under the federal system. Tom Lavers is a Lecturer in Politics and Development at the University of Manchester's Global Development Institute. His research focuses on state-society relations and the politics of development. Recent work has been published in journals such as African Affairs, Development and Change and the Journal of Agrarian Change.

ASC seminar by Roseanne Njiru In Kenya, marriage is a significant contributor to adult HIV infections. Global public health acknowledges the relationship between gender inequalities and HIV in marriage. However, behaviour change interventions to reduce the marital HIV ‘risk’ in Kenya have emphasized individual-level sexual behaviour change and, in recent times, accelerated biomedical solutions in the drive towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. The social and structural realities that, for example, produce and facilitate extramarital sexual behaviour are often masked by the emphasis on individual responsibility that underpins the neoliberal market logic which serves to shift obligation of welfare from the state, and other global institutions, to its citizens. Thus, public health’s discourses and education on HIV (e.g. marital monogamy and fidelity, condom use) are under the rubric of this responsibilising ideology. In this presentation, I examine how the biopower of public health frames HIV risk in marriage, how they imagine and seek to shape gender and sexual relations in marriage, and the assumptions they make about local marital and gender relations in their programs and discourses. On the other hand, using data from rural and urban heterosexual couples, I explore how married individuals receive, interpret, and act (adopt or resist) on public health messages in light of their socio-cultural and material circumstances that also powerfully regulate behaviour, and then what forms of gender and social relations emerge to either reduce or exacerbate HIV transmission in marriage. This presentation highlights the relations in the two realms of power—public health, and socio-cultural and structural realities—and what this means for HIV in marriages in Kenya. Roseanne Njiru is a visiting fellow at the Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge. She teaches Sociology in the Department of Social Sciences and Development Studies at The Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Kenya. She has a PhD in Sociology, and a graduate certificate in Human Rights, both from the University of Connecticut, USA. Her MA in Sociology is from the University of Nairobi, Kenya. Her doctoral research is on gendered HIV transmission in marriages in Kenya. Her research interests are in gender, health, human rights, internal displacement and peacebuilding.

ASC seminar by Teresa Almeida Cravo Abstract: This talk presents a critique of aid discourses of success and failure as the basis for intervention in Africa, using Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau as case studies. By questioning why such discourses emerge, how they evolve and what their implications are, I seek to contribute to constructivist theories of international relations and development, whilst also offering an analysis of how this instrument of global governance has played out in the two countries. Short bio: Teresa Almeida Cravo is currently a Visiting Fellow at the African Studies Centre of the University of Oxford, working on a book manuscript on the politics of discourse in the context of western donors' relations with specific African countries. She is an Assistant Professor in International Relations at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra and a Researcher at the Centre for Social Studies.

ASC seminar by Dan Hodgkinson, Luke Melchiorre and Marcia Schenck. Dan Hodgkinson, Luke Melchiorre and Marcia Schenck launch the Africa special issue: Student activism in an era of decolonization. 'The articles collected in this special issue, and first presented at a workshop entitled 'Student Activism Reconsidered' at the University of Oxford in July 2016, seek to develop understandings of African student activism during this critical period by revisiting postcolonial Africa's first student protests and experiences of university life. Many of the debates that these students initiated on campus would come, in subsequent decades, to be rearticulated on the national political stage through former students who went into prominent public positions or who set up or entered governing or opposition parties. As such, appreciating the ideas, behaviours and dreams that these people adopted during their university experiences can provide important insights into how they responded, as professionals and political leaders, to the challenges of economic crisis, structural adjustment and increasingly repressive authoritarian rule in the 1980s and 1990s.' Please note that, because of recording difficulties, the final portion of the seminar (by Marcia Schenck) is not included in this podcast. The full journal issue is available here (and Hodgkinson and Melchiorre's introduction is open access): https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/issue/450ED9F309972E6B034AEB155590EA9A.

ASC seminar by Olumide Popoola and Bibi Bakare-Yusuf. For the last seminar of Michaelmas Term, we were joined by author Olumide Popoola and publisher Bibi Bakare-Yusuf for an interview with Olly Owen on Popoola's new book, 'When We Speak of Nothing' and the bigger vision of Cassava Republic Press, a Nigerian publishing house which aims to generate the 'African archival future.' Book abstract: Best mates Karl and Abu are both 17 and live near Kings Cross. It’s 2011 and racial tensions are set to explode across London. Abu is infatuated with gorgeous classmate Nalini but dares not speak to her. Meanwhile, Karl is the target of the local ‘wannabe’ thugs just for being different. When Karl finds out his father lives in Nigeria, he decides that Port Harcourt is the best place to escape the sound and fury of London, and connect with a Dad he’s never known. Rejected on arrival, Karl befriends Nakale, an activist who wants to expose the ecocide in the Niger Delta to the world. Increasingly distant from happenings in London, Karl falls headlong for Nakale’s feisty cousin, Janoma.Meanwhile, the murder of Mark Duggan triggers a full-scale riot in London. Abu finds himself caught up in its midst, leading to a tragedy that forces Karl to race back home. When We Speak of Nothing launches a powerful new talent. The stream of consciousness prose, peppered with contemporary slang, captures what it means to be young, black and queer in London. If grime music were a novel, it would be this.

ASC seminar by Oliver Owen (Oxford) This ongoing research showcases oral history work with surviving Nigerian veterans of the British Army's 81 and 82 Divisions who fought the Japanese in the jungle war in Burma. It foregrounds their memories and interpretations of the experience, and uses popular culture of the period, particularly soldiers' songs, as part of a public engagement project. It also highlights two legacies of war service: The institutionalisation of the postcolonial military, and ethno-regional political consciousness in the central regions of Nigeria. Links to resources mentioned in podcast: https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2015/aug/10/forgotten-army-world-war-two-west-african-soldiers-burma-video https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80022228 https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/aljazeeracorrespondent/2011/08/2011828135228487172.html http://nsibidiinstitute.org/ http://www.commonwealthveterans.org.uk/

ASC seminar by Edith Ojo (Brighton based arts freelancer) & Nicola Stylianou (MoDa, Middlesex University) The Fashioning Africa project at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery (2015-2018) aimed to develop a new collection of African dress from 1960-2007. This was an area where existing British museum collections were weak to the point of virtual non-existence. The project was innovative in other ways too, because, as a collaboration between the Museum’s World Art (formerly ‘Ethnography’, later ‘Non-Western’) and Fashion & Textiles sections, it cross-cut conventional curatorial divisions and allowed the Museum to transcend the problem of reproducing the split between ‘African dress’ and ‘Western fashion’. Moreover, it aimed to explore new ways of collecting by devolving decisions over what to acquire to an external panel, thus aspiring to look beyond expertise in the field of museology to co-produce the new collection with diverse interested parties bringing other forms of knowledge to bear. This paper will address why African dress hasn’t been systematically collected in the post- independence period and explore the methodology of co-production. Edith Ojo is an Arts Consultant based in Brighton who has always worked closely with diverse artists and art organisations across the region. She also currently sits on the Fashioning Africa Collection Panel, Brighton Museum. Prior to becoming a freelance consultant, Edith worked at Arts Council England for several years as Diversity in Arts Relationship Manager. She holds an MA in African Studies (SOAS), and a BA in Fine Art (Chelsea College of Art & Design). She is also currently a Trustee at a local Brighton Community organisation, Trust for Developing Communities. Nicola Stylianou was awarded a PhD in 2013 for her thesis ‘Producing and Collecting for Empire: African textiles at the V&A 1852-2002.’ She went on to work at the V&A on a two-room display about the African objects in the V&A collection. She currently works at the Museum of Domestic Design and Architecture, Middlesex University. In January she takes up a position at the University of Sussex to work as a post-doctoral researcher on Making African Connections in Sussex and Kent Museums: De-colonial futures for colonial collections. She is a participant in the Fashioning Africa Collection Panel at Brighton Museum, a project to acquire African fashion and textiles from 1960-2000.

ASC seminar by Yusuf Kajura Serunkuma (Makerere University) Exploiting the craft and aesthetics of popular culture—music, poetry, paintings, monuments, coffeehouses, fliers, flags, popular narratives, national celebrations, cultural sites, book fairs, everyday practices such as vehicle tinting—through recent ethnography in Hargeisa (March-October, 2015), literary and discourse analysis, this study examined the ways in which Somaliland nationalism is imagined and mobilised after the 1991 civil war. It springs from the understanding that nationalist sentiments are not born, but are mobilised in time and space. Setting out to answer questions relating to history, identity and aspirations of the people of Somaliland in the 1991 nationalist imaginary, this study broadly concludes that Somaliland is constructed and represented mimetically as a foil for Somalia. Specifically, in its secessionist ideations, Somaliland is mobilized as standing for (a) a stricter Islamic public identity, (b) victims of a failed ant-colonial nationalist project, which ended in genocide and human rights abuses, and (c) a ‘progressive’ state; democratic and free, of literatis and open to the outside world, anti-extremism, and stable.

ASC seminar by Florence Bernault (Sciences Po)

ASC seminar by Judith Byfield (Cornell University). Byfield offers a riveting narrative of the unexpected convergence of interest between educated Christians and market women in forming the Abeokuta Women's Union in Nigeria, setting this in a wider context of gendered political mobilization in post-WWII Nigeria.

Prof Yemi Osinbajo inaugurates the ASC's new International Advisory Board with a lecture on 'The Challenges of Human Development in 21st Century Africa'. On 12 October 2018, the African Studies Centre inaugurated an International Advisory Board to further links between the Centre, and institutions and organizations on the continent. As part of the event, Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, delivered the lecture recorded here. We very much look forward to working with members of the Board (listed below) in the future to further grow the Centre! - Mr Tito Mboweni – Finance Minister, South Africa - Madame Monica Geingos – Lawyer and First Lady of the Republic of Namibia - Mr Gareth Ackerman – Chairman, Pick’n Pay, South Africa - Dr Charlotte Scott – Former First Lady of Zambia - Governor Nasir El-Rufai – Governor of Kaduna State, Nigeria - Ms Linda Mabhena-Olagunju – Founder and Managing Director, DLO Energy Group (Pty) Ltd, South Africa - Mr Alex Duncan – Development economist and Director, Policy Practice, UK - Mr Ivor Agyeman-Duah – Economist and author, Accra, Ghana - Prof Ibrahim Gambari – Former UN Under-Secretary for Political Affairs; former Nigerian External Affairs Minister

Suad Musa kicks off a new term of ASC seminars by launching her new book. Al-Hakkamat Baggara women hold an instrumental position in rural Sudan, wielding agency, social and political power. This book uncovers their significant, but widely overlooked, role during the war in Darfur from the 1970s, and into today’s continuing conflict. The author examines, in depth, the influence they exercised through composing and reciting poems and songs and through informal speech and other symbolic acts and analyses their impact in the social and political domain. Challenging the pervasive portrayal of women as natural peacebuilders and their roles as passive and submissive, she highlights how Sudan’s state government co-opted al-Hakkamat Baggara women to lobby on its behalf, to rally for war and to advocate for peace. They played a critical role in war, and understanding how they can contribute to the resolution and resettlement processes is vital to sustainable reconciliation and post-conflict transformation of the unstable state.

Booklaunch of Democracy in Africa which provides the 1st comprehensive overview of the history of contemporary democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa and explains why the continent's democratic experiments have so often failed, as well as how they could succeed. Speakers: Professor Nic Cheeseman, Oxford University; Professor Stephen Chan OBE, SOAS; Dr Phil Clark, SOAS. Chaired by Professor Catherine Boone, LSE. Beginning in the colonial period with the introduction of multi-party elections and ending in 2013 with the collapse of democracy in Mali and South Sudan, the book describes the rise of authoritarian states in the 1970s; the attempts of trade unions and some religious groups to check the abuse of power in the 1980s; the remarkable return of multiparty politics in the 1990s; and finally, the tragic tendency for elections to exacerbate corruption and violence. During this event the author Professor Nic Cheeseman and a panel of experts will explore some of the most important questions facing Africa and democracy today in the wake of recent events in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Nigeria and Zimbabwe.

Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of Oxfam International, gives the 2015 Annual Lecture for the African Studies Centre.

Joint Seminar of the African Studies Centre and Reuters Institute. Speakers; Catherine Gichuru (Editor, Nairobi Star, Kenya), Winston Mano (Westminster, editor, Journal of African Media Studies), Nic Cheeseman (African Studies, Oxford), Alexandra Reza (IR, Oxford), Chaired by David Levy (Reuters Institute, Oxford)

Simon Turner, Aalborg University, Denmark, gives a talk for the African Studies Centre Based on ethnographic fieldwork in two exceptional spaces, namely among Burundian refugees living clandestinely in Nairobi and living in a refugee camp in Tanzania, the article argues that displacement can be about staying out of place in order to find a place in the world in the future and is therefore closely linked to temporarily and temporariness. I suggest that the term dis-placement described this sense of not only being out of place but also being en route to a future. Burundians in the camp and the city are doing their best to remain out of place, in transition between a lost past and a future yet to come, and the temporary nature of their sojourn is maintained in everyday practices so that they may remain displaced; on their way to something else. The article argues that such everyday practices are policed by powerful actors in the camp and are ingrained in practices of self-discipline in Nairobi. Comparing the two settings demonstrates that displacement can take on different forms, just as non-places or states of exception are different according to context.

Roundtable discussion looking at the ongoing crisis in South Sudan Chair: Jason Mosley, Chatham House and African Studies Centre, Speakers: Annette Weber, SWP Berlin, Douglas Johnson, author of "the Root Causes of Sudan'd Civil Wars, Peter Biar Ajak, Cambridge University, Discussant: Dr Ahmed Al-Shahi, Middle East Centre, Oxford University

Danny Hoffman, Associate Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington, gives a talk for the African Studies seminar series

Wale Adebanwi, Associate Professor, African American and African Studies, University of California-Davies, gives the 2013 African Studies Annual Lecture.

Markus Hoehne, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, gives a talk for the Horn of Africa seminar series workshop 'Post-transitional' directions in the Somalias on 30th April 2013.

Part of the Post-transitional directions in the Somalias, Horn of Africa Seminar Series workshop.

Part of the Post-transitional directions in the Somalias, Horn of Africa Seminar Series workshop.

Part of the Post-transitional directions in the Somalias, Horn of Africa Seminar Series workshop.

Part of the Post-transitional directions in the Somalias, Horn of Africa Seminar Series workshop.

Rachel Bray (Independent Scholar, Oxford) gives a talk for the African Studies seminar series on 7th March, 2013.

Tobias Hagmann (Roskilde University) gives a talk for the African Studies Seminar Series on 28 February, 2013.

The Bram Fischer Memorial Lecture 2013. Navi Pillay, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights gives a talk about human rights in Africa.

Stephen Ellis (Free University, Amsterdam) gives a talk for the African Studies Centre seminar series on the African National Congress (ANC).

Marco Di Nunzio (Université Libre de Bruxelles) gives a talk for the African Studies Centre seminar series on 7th February 2013.

Huw Bennett (Aberystwyth University), gives a talk for the African Studies Centre seminar series on the British Army and Kenyan Mau Mau.

Emmanuel Akyeampong (Harvard) gives the 2012 Annual African Studies Centre Lecture.

Paul Ugor (Birmingham) gives a talk for the African Studies Centre Seminar Series on 10th May 2012.

Laura Hammond (SOAS) gives a talk for the African Studies Seminar series. In association with the Horn of Africa Seminar.

Dr Noor Nieftagodien (University of Witwatersrand) gives a talk for the African Studies Centre on 8th March 2012.

Dr Florence Brisset-Foucault, Research Associate, Cambridge, gives a talk for the African Studies Centre seminar series.

Professor David Anderson gives a talk for the African Studies Seminar series on 23rd February 2012.

Dr Nikki Palmer (Oxford) gives a talk for the African Studies Centre seminar series on 8th February.

Louise Aalen, Bergen University, gives a talk for the African Studies Seminar Series on 2nd February 2012.

Dr Susan Williams (Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London)gives a talk for the African Studies Centre Seminar Series on 19 January.

Andrew Feinstein gives a talk for the African Studies Seminar series on the arms trade and its impact on Africa.

Phillan Zamchiya (International Development/St Antonys), gives a talk for the African Studies Seminar Series.

Chris Low, African Studies, Oxford, gives a talk for the African Studies Seminar Series.

Karen Brown (Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine) and William Beinart (African Studies/St Antony's) give a talk for the African Studies seminar series.

Jonny Steinberg, (African Studies/St Antony's) gives a talk for the African Studies Centre Seminar Series.

Andrew Loveridge (Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Zoology) gives a talk for the St John's College Colloquium on Environmental Conflict and its Resolution (joint event with Oxpeace and Human Sciences).

Harry Verhoeven (Politics/St Cross) gives a talk for the St John's College Colloquium on Environmental Conflict and its Resolution (joint event with Oxpeace and Human Sciences).

Karen Witsenburg (Both ENDS and Max Plank Institute for Anthropology) gives a talk for the College Colloquium on Environmental Conflict and its Resolution (joint event with Oxpeace and Human Sciences).

Julie Archambault (African Studies/St Annes College), gives a talk for the African Studies Centre.

Babatunde Fashola, Governor of Lagos State, Nigeria, gives a special lecture for the African Studies Centre.

Professor Florence Bernault (Wisconsin) presents her work on the historical role of 'fetish' and 'witchcraft' in colonial Africa and the historical development of their linguistic uses.

Dr James Fenske (Oxford) presents his ongoing research on the history of the rubber trade in Benin, and presents a comparative study to other areas of rubber trade in West Africa.

Helene Maria Kyed (DIIS) looks at the role of community policing in Mozambique and Swaziland.

Achille Mbembe, Professor of Social Theory, University of Stellenbosch, gives the second 2011 Africa Studies Annual lecture on 26th May 2011.

Sarah Nuttal, Research Professor, Department of English, University of Stellenbosch, gives the first 2011 African Studies Annual Lecture on 26th May 2011.

Heide Schmidt, Professor of African Studies, University of Vienna, gives a talk for the African Studies Seminar series on 16th May, 2011.

Zoe Grove, PhD student at Keele University, presents her research on the history of the Central African Federation, especially looking at the issues of cross-border migration and the movement of ideas.

Michael Sata, President of Zambia's leading opposition party, the Patriotic Front (PF), presents a talk on what it means to lead an opposition party in Zambia.

As part of the Women's Sport in Africa conference (University of Oxford, 7 Mar 2011), Prof. Nauright (George Mason Univeristy) presents on historical research looking at sports in Africa, with a particular view to women's sport and his own work.

Prof Thomas Carothers, Vice President for Studies, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Nuffield College, gives a talk for the Rothmere American Institute on 2nd Feb 2011.

George Bizos SC, human rights lawyer and defense barrister for Nelson Mandela, gives the 2011 Bram Fischer lecture at the Rhodes House, Oxford.

Dr Omar McDoom (London School of Economics) looks at a single community in southern Rwanda, using spatial mapping, in order to understand why some people chose to kill during the violence and others did not.

Prof. Anderson (Oxford University) examines the tumultuous history in the Jubaland area of southern Somalia and northern Kenya at the turn of the 20th century. (Presented in the Global and Imperial History Research Seminar). Professor David Anderson (Oxford University, African Studies Centre) presents research on the history of Jubaland, located in Southern Somalia and, previously until 1924, part of the Kenya colony and East African protectorate. Focused on the tumultuous history of British involvement in this area, Prof. Anderson uses the themes of Islam, imperialism(s), and transnational history to understand what was going on in this region at the turn of the 20th century. Anderson offers possible insights for the troubles facing this region today. (Presented at the Global and Imperial History Research Seminar, History Faculty, University of Oxford, http://www.history.ox.ac.uk)

Prof. Harries examines the surprising role the Cape played in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade and the challenges the Royal Navy was forced to deal with in stopping slave ships. Professor Patrick Harries' (Basel University) examination of the historical role the Cape area played in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade offers significant conclusions on the challenges the Royal Navy faced in prohibiting the slave trade, the reality of conditions aboard slave ships, and how historians might view P.G. Hill's classic work 'Fifty Days on Board a Slave Vessel'.

Dambisa Moyo, the internationally renowned author and economist, presents material from her books, Dead Aid and How the West Was Lost, looking at the policies that affect both Africa and the West. Dambisa Moyo, the internationally renowned author and economist, shares her thoughts on the policies affecting both Africa and the West in this lecture given at Oxford's Rhodes House. Utilizing research from her books 'Dead Aid' and 'How the West Was Lost', Ms. Moyo challenges the policy choices the West has made, both towards Africa and internally, and the detrimental effect they have had - and are continuing to have. [African Studies Centre, Oxford. http://www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk]

'A Luta Continua! Reflections on 100 Years of "Struggle" Between the Polity and the Market in South Africa', presented by Dr Jesmond Blumenfeld (Brunel). Dr. Jesmond Blumenfeld (Brunel, Oxford Analytica) looks at the history of economic policies and the marketplace over the last 100 years in South Africa. He further examines the continuity within the polity-marketplace relationship during and post-apartheid. [African Studies Centre, Oxford. http://www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk]

A roundtable discussion examining the current state of Kenyan politics, twenty years after it changed to a multi-party state. The change to multi-partyism in Kenya in the early 1990s brought with it the hope of significant developments for the East African country. This roundtable discussion examines, through presentations by scholars, a former Kenyan official, a journalist, and Great Britain's former ambassador to Kenya, what changes multi-partyism has had on Kenya. The panel includes (in order of presentation): Gabrielle Lynch, Leigh Gardner, Lillian Cherotich, Sir Edward Clay, Michela Wrong, and John Githongo. The round-table is moderated by David Anderson. [African Studies Centre, Oxford. http://www.africanstudies.ox.ac.uk]

Dr Jonny Steinberg gives the 2010 Africa Studies Centre Annual lecture held on 11th June 2010, Nissan Lecture Theatre, St Antony's College, Oxford University.

Mamadou Diouf from the University of Columbia gives the 2009 African Studies Annual Lecture on the influence of Islam in Post-Colonial Africa, in particular, the public spaces of the former French Colonial City of St Louis in Senegal.

Professor Jean Comaroff gives the 2008 African Studies Annual Lecture on the situation in South Africa, the rise of crime and violence as well as the rise private security companies and belief in the supernatural forces of witchcraft.