Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Takun J Fought The Gbagba, Zach E J Williams

Capstones

Liberia's most famous rapper has embarked on a quest to save democracy in Africa's oldest republic. This challenge faces Jonathan "Takun J" Koffa after a nine-year reign as the king of HiCo — a local form of Hip Hop music defined by the local patois. A local form of corruption called "Gbagba" makes for a formidable enemy, but Takun J has a plan to defeat it.

Link to capstone project: https://zachjournalism.com/2016/12/12/takun-j-fought-the-gbagba/

African American Culture In Historical Art Museums: Remembering A Buried Tragic Past, Lana Sarkisian

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The transparency of reality reflecting in art often represents a false tragedy in African American history because of the lack of preservation and representation due to a predominantly white dominion, ultimately leaving the veracity of their history to consign to oblivion. There is a common thread of forgetfulness with the retrieval of art in today’s society that embodies the African American community. Although artist Fred Wilson does not explicitly assert his assessment to the lack of black representation on account of cultural differences, he vocalizes how African American culture is indoctrinated to the public in a white, supremacist national narrative …

Fabulations Ou Imaginaires Vacillants : L’Écriture De Rakotoson Et Raharimanana Entre Histoire, Mémoire Et Urgence Du Social, Ute Fendler

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The two writers from Madagascar, Michèle Rakotoson and Jean-Luc Raharimanana, fill empty memorial spaces by writing texts that vary from autobiographical mode, via the historical one, up to some elements of oral tradition with the objective to create anticipatory texts. The article analyzes the entanglement of references to reality and to fiction drawing on the notion of “fabulation” by Deleuze and of “half-knowledge” by Flahaut.

Littérature Congolaise : Imaginaire Et Miroir De L’Urgence Sociale, Ngwarsungu Chiwengo

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Congolese literature of urgency is the historical conscience which informs the conscience of history, a therapeutic medium which allows the reader to transcend national trauma and to articulate the future. As the foundation of the metadiscourse of Congolese realities, it is the counter-discourse of Western and national cultural domination, the erasure of the national voice, the traumatism of dictatorships, invasions, and political and social conflicts maintained. It therefore condemns theological, political domination and advocates for nationalism, the reconstruction of Congolese identity while affirming Congolese desire to auto-determine their future in a country where truth is extirpated from political euphemisms.

Quelle Modernité Congolaise ? Et Quelle(S) Modalité(S) Pour La Dire ?, Charles Djungu-Simba K

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This study examines literary production in DR Congo especially with regard to the short story genre. This is based on the work of a generation of young writers who conceive their engagement with a literary field still under the sway of their elders as an avenue for self-assertion in a declining society portrayed through characters that find it difficult to carve a place in the sun. Their works showcase uncommon possibilities of expression that harness the virtues of economy and authenticity, suggesting the traits of what Congolese modernity should not be, given that authors seem to be more concerned with …

Urgence Du Social Et Dimension Utopique Du Roman Africain. Une Lecture De Pacte De Sang De Pius Ngandu Nkashama, Kasereka Kavwahirehi

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article shows how the urgency of the social in the francophone novel goes with a utopian dimension. It is suggested that if the African novel reveals the flaws and faults of the social and political body that the censorship attempts somehow to hide, if it has the power to dismantle the mechanism of violence, it also has the power to provide the vision of another possible world. Thus, the novel of disillusionment may be secretly the book of enchantment and utopia.

Portrait De L’Exclu Dans Le Lys Et Le Flamboyant D’Henri Lopes, Médard Bouazi

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The author of Le lys et le flamboyant uses humor, metaphors and adjectives to represent a world in conflict, to show the impossible encounter of otherness (racial and cultural). Our contribution represents an attempt to show that this novel reflects a deep social distress, which is characterized by an environment where characters and speeches unfold a permanent contradiction. This text tries to account for the turmoil that marked the history of Africa through language as exploited by the novelist. Basically, the author makes an excluded character portrait.

« Nous Avons Besoin D’Ouvrir Le Pays » : Le Développement Et Le Scénario Clef Du Point De Vue Chrétien Dans L’Espace Social Des Séries Télévisées De Kinshasa, Katrien Pype

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article offers a discussion of “development” rhetoric as expressed in and around television drama in Kinshasa, capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Producers (artists and pastors of Awakening Churches; some individuals are both) contend that their work will transform society, will combat the social and political crisis and will contribute to the development of the nation. Pentecostal christians embrace the melodrama because these television serials emphasize the spiritual development of the individual. I argue that the fictive representation of witchcraft relates to the Pentecostal diagnosis of the crises, and that the narrative emplotment of the TV serials …

Black Americans And The South African Anti-Apartheid Campaign In Portland, Oregon, Ethan Johnson

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper argues that in order to understand the anti-Apartheid campaign in Portland, Oregon it must be located within the particular socio-historical context of race and racism in the city and state. Thus, Black people living in Portland had good reason to compare the Apartheid system in South Africa to their own experience. Therefore, the confluence of national and local issues that move the local anti-Apartheid campaign forward is examined; the paper documents the rise and development of critical organizations in the anti-Apartheid campaign in Portland; the paper focus on the closure of the Honorary South Africa Consulate in downtown …

Book Review: A History Of Rwandan Identity And Trauma: The Mythmakers' Victims, James J. Snow

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Exit By Grizelda Grootboom, Anne Mayne

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Positionality And Feminisms Of Women Within Sufi Brotherhoods Of Senegal, Georgia Collins

IdeaFest: Interdisciplinary Journal of Creative Works and Research from Cal Poly Humboldt

No abstract provided.

Nit Nitay Garabame: Analyzing Mental Illness And Art Therapy Within Dakar’S Atelier D’Ex-Pression Artistique, Alaina Orr

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

As mental health issues are usually given low priority in countries of sub-Saharan Africa, including Senegal, mental illness continues to be an emerging topic of discourse (Rand 2015). In Dakar, the practice of art therapy has been used for decades to provide those living with mental illness or going through trauma with a method for selfexpression when words fail to articulate their situations or mental states. Situated within Hôpital Fann’s psychiatric hospital, Clinique Moussa Diop, is an art therapy workshop known as l’Atelier d’EX-PRESSION Artistique1, which provides the space, structure, and material for persons with mental illness to work with …

Denied Victimhood And Contested Narratives: The Case Of Hutu Diaspora, Claudine Kuradusenge

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Based on 46 interviews conducted in a 2-month period, this article explored the identity narrative of three generations of the Hutu Diaspora community living in Belgium. Through a analysis of the Rwanda's National Identity policy and political categories, the research aimed to explore important themes such as sense of self and other, victimhood, and homeland through the lenses of the perpetrator group. Moreover, it was essential to investigate the trans-generational impact the perpetrator label has on the next generations. By looking at the Hutu population, the study was opening the door to the exploration of contested memories of survival for …

Powerful Words: An Exploration Of Linguistic Hierarchy In Moroccan Hospitals, Ellelan Degife

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Morocco is a country of distinct diversity, which exists as a result of the settling of multiple peoples and European colonization. As a result of this diversity, many languages are employed in different settings and spaces, and of these languages, French represents remnants of colonialism and continual elitism in the country. One of the spheres that French commands in Moroccan society is medicine, which creates a dichotomy between the educated health care providers and the underprivileged patients in public hospitals. The aim of this paper is to explore the effect of French on the doctor-patient relationship in urban, public Moroccan …

Human Rights Education: A Tool For The Cultivation Of National Human Rights Culture In Morocco, Page Benoit

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Human rights have been taught in Morocco for twenty years. Since the process of Moroccan transitional justice, the aim of this human rights education has been to promote a national human rights culture. This research is a cross-comparison between how human rights education; for the purpose of creating a human rights aware society, is presented and enacted by the the Moroccan government and how it is presented and enacted by non-governmental bodies in a post transitional justice moment of history. The study was conducted through a qualitative data method. It includes interviews with the Inter-Ministerial Delegation of Human Rights and …

Analysis Of Media In Rwanda: Internship With The New Times, Rhiannon Snide

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This report examines the effects and expectations of media in Rwanda today, specifically in reference to the New Times daily newspaper. I spent one month interning with the New Times as a news writer, spending approximately 45 to 50 hours a week with the institution. Within this month, I was able to use both primary research and secondary research to analyze the role of media in Rwanda’s society today. Interviews with head editors of the New Times and conversations with paid journalists from the New Times provided me with much of the information specific to the news outlet, while desk …

China And Africa’S Peace And Security Agenda: The Burgeoning Appetite, Oita Etyang, Simon Oswan Panyako

Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies

China and Africa have had contacts since time immemorial. It is, however, in the last two decades that China vastly increased its engagement with Africa, following the first Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that took place in 2000 and the Beijing Summit held in 2006. China has skillfully utilized its international strategy of multipolarity and non-interference to champion its economic interests as well as its hegemonic quest. It is undeniable that China has heavily invested in Africa through Foreign Direct Investments (FDI), and infrastructure development. China has also increased its appetite on matters peace and security. …

Outliving Love: Marital Estrangement In An African Insurance Market, Casey Golomski

Anthropology

Marital estrangement and formal divorce are vital conjunctures for married women’s kinship relations and life course, where a horizon of future possibilities are revalued and negotiated at the interstices of custom, law, and social and ritual obligations. In this article, after delineating the forms of customary and civil marriage and the possibilities for divorce or estrangement from each, I describe how some married women in Swaziland and South Africa mediate this complex social field for their children and families through pensions and continuing to pay for their partners’ insurance coverage. This was not solely out of avarice to reap future …

Youth…Power…Egypt: The Development Of Youth As A Sociopolitical Concept And Force In Egypt, 1805-1923, Matthew Blair Parnell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on youth as a symbol, metaphor, and subject involved in processes related to Egypt’s modernization, colonization, and liberation from the beginning of the nineteenth century through the 1919 Egyptian Revolution. It demonstrates that youth was not simply an unchanging stage of development between childhood and adulthood, but a construct reflecting the political, Social, and cultural interests of specific eras and perspectives. I critically analyze the local and global discourses on Egypt’s modernization, colonialism, and nationalist movement to understand how changing power relations within and outside the country affected conceptions of youth and youthfulness. Additionally, I suggest by …

Tapez Le Tam-Tam And The People Will Come: A Study Of Theater For Social Justice In Kaolack, Senegal, Emily Schwerdtfeger

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of theater to create social change and raise awareness of social issues as used by the troupe Bamtaare in Kaolack, Senegal. Further study was done to determine why theater was successful and whether this type of theater can be implemented in the United States. I spent four weeks in Kaolack working with the troupe to understand their methods. While in Kaolack, I observed rehearsals and performances, conducted interview with actors and audience members, and reviewed relevant literature. My research showed that Bamtaare’s performances in urban neighborhoods and rural villages did …

Agenda: Coping With Water Scarcity In River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned From Shared Experiences, University Of Colorado Boulder. Getches-Wilkinson Center For Natural Resources, Energy, And The Environment

Coping with Water Scarcity in River Basins Worldwide: Lessons Learned from Shared Experiences (Martz Summer Conference, June 9-10)

Water scarcity is increasingly dominating headlines throughout the world. In the southwestern USA, the looming water shortages on the Colorado River system and the unprecedented drought in California are garnering the greatest attention. Similar stories of scarcity and crisis can be found across the globe, suggesting an opportunity for sharing lessons and innovations. For example, the Colorado River and Australia's Murray-Darling Basin likely can share many lessons, as both systems were over-allocated, feature multiple jurisdictions, face similar climatic risks and drought stresses, and struggle to balance human demands with environmental needs. In this conference we cast our net broadly, exploring …

La Littérature Africaine Francophone Et La Théorie Bourdieusienne De Champ Symbolique, Louis Bertin Amougou

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of symbolic fields as a social arena for rivalries between agents for the capture, accumulation or conservation of capitals of its own is now implemented with the same rigor to African literature as to French literature which served as the material for the French sociologist. Yet, the specific characteristics of African literary production make it a weak institution. The present article is an attempt to put in perspective the relevance of Bourdieu’s studies to an insufficiently autonomous literary institution and holds the point that any literary field is a secondary field.

L’Écrivain Intellectuel Et Le Destin De L’Université Camerounaise, Jean Marie Wounfa

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This reflection is based on a corpus of narrative texts (novels and short stories) and on an eclectic approach which theoretical and methodological tools are borrowed from the comparatism, the institutional approach and the discourse analysis. The goal is to show that as a literary theme, the University strips off its pedestal and undergoes a more or less severe criticism under the pen of Cameroonian intellectual writers. Hence, its representation is marked with prejudgments, stereotypes and misconceptions that make the University a myth from which the writers free and engage themselves in a realistic representation of the university system. The …

L’Africain Et Le Paradigme De La Modernité. Que Devient L’Identité?, Yvette Balana

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Questioning the african uniqueness within the academic field of identity forces us to investigate the ability of Africans to find a way out of a painful aporia between an adulterated tradition and an overwhelming totalitarian modernity. The latter, in Africa more than anywhere else, constitutes an obstacle to individual emancipation. Thus it raises today like yesterday, the imperative of a dual liberation without which Africa will be unable to construct an identity taking into account both alterity and anteriority.

Savoir Et Légitimation En Afrique. Ambroise Kom Et La Critique De L’Extraversion Théorique, Kasereka Kavwahirehi

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article has two main objectives: to show how Ambroise Kom raises the question of the legitimation of Knowledge in Francophone Africa and to present the way he proposes to the continent to overcome subalternity and theoretical extroversion in order to become its own center of production and legitimation of knowledge. The article also shows how Ambroise Kom, a cultural and literary critic, extends the tradition of African philosophers, mainly Mudimbe, Hountondji and Laleye, who, from 1970, put the issue of decolonization of the African discourse in the center of their work.

Transmettre Et Instituer Contre Vents Et Marées : Ambroise Kom, L’Universitaire Des Populations Camerounaises, Amelle Cressent

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This text touches on various aspects of Ambroise Kom’s social engagement. It explores some pathways taken by Kom outside Literature, his core academic field, insisting on the most prominent threads in his career: Knowledge transmission and institutionalization in Cameroon while prioritising collective over individual action. It also highlights Kom’s interaction with a challenging political and cultural environment, the social praxis resulting from it and his writings on what should be the contribution of Education, especially, higher Education, to contribute to nation building in Cameroon.

Young, Urban, Professional, And Kenyan?: Conversations Surrounding Tribal Identity And Nationhood, Charlotte Achieng-Evensen

Educational Studies Dissertations

By asking the question “How do young, urban, professional Kenyans make connections between tribal identity, colonialism, and the lived experience of nationhood?,” the researcher engages with eight participants in exploring their relationships with their tribal groups. From this juncture the researcher, through a co-constructed process with participants, interrogates the idea of nationhood by querying their interpretations of the concepts of power and resistance within their multi-ethnic societies. The utility of KuPiga Hadithi as a cultural responsive methodology for data collection along with poetic analysis as part of the qualitative tools of examination allowed the researcher to identify five emergent and …

Breaking The Legacy: Recognizing And Prosecuting Sexual Violence As A Violation Of Human Rights In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo, Miranda L. Weinstein

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper aims to outline the existing policies aimed at providing protection for sexual abuse survivors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In an attempt to provide justice for the survivors of sexual abuse, an analysis of the 1992-1995 Bosnia and Herzegovina post-conflict reconstruction is included. In particular, prosecution of sexual violence and rape as a weapon of war will be provided in order to weigh the benefits and weaknesses of international criminal law. The conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo witnesses widespread and systematic sexual violence abuses. With over 60 armed groups at any given day, …

The Effect Of Past Institutional Structures On Current Economic Development Levels: The Former French African Colonies, Ana May Jerolamon

Senior Honors Projects

By the early 1960’s, most of the French colonies in Africa had gained independence. Since then, these former colonies have reached economic development levels that vary widely by country. This project will argue that while most of these countries were official colonies for less than one hundred years, the institutions that were created during the colonial period still have an effect on the current economic development of such countries. Since political institutions become intertwined with the culture and structure of a country,

they are extremely hard to modify; therefore, we can expect to find the presence of institutions that are …