Arts and Humanities Commons^™

East African Perspectives Of Family And Community, And How They Can Inform Western Ecclesiology, Ben Strait

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Research into the daily lives of East Africans is either outdated or too narrowly focused. This presentation is the result of field research done in East Africa, especially focusing on how East Africans view and practice family and community living. It answers the questions of: What is "family" to an East African? What does community living look like in East Africa? And how can Westerners apply these intercultural ideas in practical ways?

The Imagined Nation, Yohannes Tesfamichael

Symposium on Eritrean Literature

No abstract provided.

The Witty And Hilarious Stories Of Shum Fre-Hans - ተረካብ ዘረባ ሽም ፍረሓንስ, Abraham Negash

Symposium on Eritrean Literature

Before the beginning of written literature, the stories told by people known for their wisdom and intellect in their villages were passed from generation to generation by word of mouth.

However, as time went by and the tellers of Eritrean folklore passed away and the rest of society became nonchalant, the meaning and pleasurable messages started to fade away from the memory of society. If those stories had been written down, they would have enriched and contributed immensely to the development of Eritrean language, culture, and literature.

Considering that a lot has been said and narrated in different regions on …

Challenges For Eritrean Literary Work: A Personal Experience - ብድሆታት ስነ ጽሑፍ ብትግርኛ፤ ርእሰ ተመክሮ, Eskias Ghebreyohannes

Symposium on Eritrean Literature

Abstract: Potential Eritrean writers in the diasporas face formidable technical and marketing challenges in bringing their literary works in Tigrigna to printing. The purpose of this presentation is to qualitatively discuss these challenges. I will touch upon the problems encountered in editing, publishing/printing, marketing and distributing the literary work.

Parental Care On Perspective Of Eritrean Customary Laws - ሕግታት እንዳባ ብዛዕባ ምእላይ ወላዲ, Mussie Tesfagiorgis Ph.D

Symposium on Eritrean Literature

ኣብ ምምዕባል ኣብ ዝርከቡ ሕብረተባት፡ ሕቶ ምእላይ ኣረጋውያን ወለዲ፡ ሓደ ካብቶም ቍባውን፡ ባህላውን ስነምግባራውን ብድሆታት እዩ። ኣብ ሕብረተሰባት ኤርትራ፡ ሕቶ ምእላይ ወለዲ፡ ናይ ነፍሲ ወከፍ ኣባል ስድራቤት ስነምግባራዊ ሓላፍነት ምዃኑ ከም ርዱእ ዝውሰድ እኳ እንተዀነ፡ ዳርጋ ኵሎም ሕግታት እንዳባ፡ ንኣተጋገብርኡ ብዝምልከት፡ ከም ኣካል ሕጊ ኣስፊሮሞ ይርከቡ፡፡ እዚ ጽሑፍ እዚ፡ ንምእላይ ወለዲ መንጽር ሕግታት እንዳባ ብዕሙቕ ዝበለ መንገዲ ዝድህስስ ክኸውን እዩ። መወከሲ እዚ ጽሑፍ እዚ እቶም ኣብ 1937 ክሳብ 1938 ተሓቲሞም ዝተዓቀቡ ሕግታት እንዳባ ኤርትራን፡ ገለ ብኣፈታሪኽ ዝተረኽቡ ሓበሬታትን ክኾኑ እዮም።

The Impact Of Ww Ii On African Nationalism And Decolonization, Jacob Louis Money

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

Who was the true victor that emerged from the Second World War? General consensus among academia is that the United States and USSR were the chief benefactors from the downfall of the Axis, as they became the foremost states among the global community, in part due to the regression of traditional powers such as Britain and France. However, Africa as a whole was profoundly changed by the war and the most destructive conflict in history propelled the continent along the path to self-determination. Without the contribution of Africa to the allied cause, both in manpower and material, the eventual triumph …

Nothing Compares 2 U: The Performance Of Prince Through Cover Songs, Jacqueline Hudson

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

Prince was lauded as one of the greatest and most influential multi-hyphenate (singer-songwriter-producer-instrumentalist) in the music industry. He influenced many artists across different genres of music such as rock, funk and soul. Not only was his music timeless over the years as long as he began as a performer in the late seventies, his lyrics were thought-provoking, innovative and reflective of its time. Being a prolific songwriter, Prince wrote songs originally for other artists such as Stevie Nicks and The Bangles. Also, he obviously wrote songs for himself, but a few of these songs have been covered musically by other …

Pop Music As E-Civism: Negotiating Change Through Subaltern Voices In Burkina Faso, Lassane Ouedraogo

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

In 2014, a popular revolution led by a group of underground pop musicians ousted a 27-year regime in Burkina Faso. In attempting to find meaning in how these musicians were able to mobilize millions of people across the country under the banner of Le Balai Citoyen (the Citizen Broom), I studied their works before the 2014 revolution. I found that pop music from Burkina Faso represents a subaltern discursive engagement voice whereby lyrics and video frames disseminate a counter-discourse and call for action against government malpractices. By examining the lyrics and video frames as a discursive voice in 40 YouTube …

The Relevance Of The Message To Time And Space: President Barack Hussein Obama Speaking, Michael A. Nkansah

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

This paper adopts the traditional perspective of rhetorical criticism by Aristotle to analyze the speech that is said to have made Barrack Hussein Obama, the President of United States of America. The traditional perspective has been used to explain advertisements, novels, films and for the most part speeches. Concepts that form the construct of the traditional criticism are used to describe, interpret, evaluate and make subtle judgments about the rhetorical artifact. In order to achieve this, Aristotle proposed three elements for rhetorical analysis of an individual’s performance to a target audience within a span of time: (i) the speaker or …

Ethics And The Policing Of African Americans And Those Of African Descent In America, Richard Brown, Abhijeet Shirsat

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

What role does ethics play in policing Black America? The criminal justice system has a race problem (Obama, 2017; Alexander, 2010). Data shows that racial disparities exist within corrections (Robertson, 2014). The numbers of minorities that are entangled within the courts, the number of arrests made by police and the numbers of unarmed blacks who have recently been killed by the police, support the notion that who have been given a pass by county prosecutors and states attorneys (Chaney & Robertson, 2015). Amadou Diallo, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, and John Crawford are just a few of the names …

The "Independence" Of Ethiopia And Liberia, William Seger

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

This essay will examine the independence of Ethiopia and Liberia, two states frequently upheld as the only remaining independent African states during the colonial era. These two countries remained independent primarily because of the diplomatic regard that European nations held them, not because of military or geographic factors. The European view that these countries were legitimate players on the world stage was essential to avoiding outright conquest. However, these countries failed to achieve “real” independence. They had to sacrifice territory, succumb to European economic intrusion, and be placed in spheres of influence in order to remain “independent.” In fact, Liberia …

Firelie Báez: Road Map Of Symbols, Mariah Morales

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

The Dominican diaspora artist, Firelie Báez, is painting in the history of resilient Afro Caribbean women and making their acts of defiance more readily known through various works such as Bloodlines and Sans-Souci. Báez imbeds images in her artwork that follows the slavery movement from Africa to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, then ultimately to the rich cultural past of Louisiana. Báez’s work is a full on multi-sensory experience. She provokes different responses with her diverse styles of media. The artist’s subtle but powerful narrative found within her work promoted by her dynamic range of color selection, makes the viewer …

Haunted By Solitude: Isolation And Representation In Zanele Muholi’S Archive, Michelle M. Fikrig

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

This paper focuses on contemporary South African photographer Zanele Muholi’s (b. 1972) extensive photographic archival project, Faces and Phases, which documents South Africa’s black queer community. The series exists not only as a book published in 2014, but as an exhibition that has been shown globally. In the introduction to her book of the Faces and Phases series Muholi states her goal as “[articulating] the collective pain [black lesbians] as a community experience” (emphasis mine). Yet the series, composed of over two hundred black and white portraits, is made up of photographs of individual black lesbians. This paper explores …

A Life Elsewhere?: Afropolitanist Reading Of Race Struggle, Identity And Home In Chimamanda Adichie’S Americanah, Hammed Oluwadare Adejare

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

Globalization and global movements have had significant impacts on the kinds of literary works that have been produced by writers of African descent in the 21^st century. There is currently the pervading popularity of diasporic writing, a kind which has come to be associated with works produced by a community of immigrant writers, either with common ancestral homelands or shared immigration experiences. Many of these works have painted African immigrants as leaving their home countries because of desperate situations. Many have also presented the narratives of double- trouble for Africans who fled their homes only to be confronted with …

Accessibility Of Educational Materials For Undergraduates With Visual Impairments: An Ongoing Study, Oluwafisayo Ilemobola Oke

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

Persons with visual impairments in Nigeria are known for making demands for access to information that suit their reading interests (Adetoro 2014). The provision of such services is rendered by public libraries (Adetoro 2010; Atinmo 2007). However, public libraries are confronted with surmounting the challenge of high demands for alternative educational formats (Adetoro 2010). Much of the research that have been carried out relating to access of alternative educational materials have been focused on secondary school aged participants and older adults leaving out college age individuals. They also deployed quantitative methods of data collection which only show a numbered representation …

Translation And Botswana Literature In Setswana Language: A Postcolonial Criticism And Practice, Keith Phetlhe

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

The role of translation in the development and transformation of various aspects of both traditional and modern Botswana literature cannot be overlooked. This is not only because of its significance in defining and describing the different categories of the literature but also due to fact that translation has opened paths that make it possible to theorize and critique Setswana literature in the context of translation. Translation in Setswana literature applies to a vast volume of works encompassing the written and oral genres. This project aims to explore the perspectives and arguments that have been submitted by various translators and authors …

Mande Cultural Expression In The Work Of Female Potters, Amanda Johnson

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

For centuries, Mande women of West Africa have been creating ceramics through traditional methods passed down from one generation of women to the next. Mande ceramics, created by skilled female artists, function not only as a means of making money, but also represent broader Mande concepts of social organization and spirituality. The process by which ceramics are created and the forms of the vessels represent ideas of Mande culture, and show how Mande ideas have spread throughout West Africa and remained constant over time. The potters themselves, known as numumuso, use hand building techniques to create ceramic vessels from …

Iconoclasm In Ancient Egypt, Micaela Deogracias

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

Iconoclastic controversy in Egypt caused the destruction of thousands of pieces. Those impacted were nearly lost to history, if it were not for the inability to efficiently destroy all traces of a ruler. While iconoclasm affected a wide span of Egyptians, this study will focus on Pharaoh Akhenaten and his family (including Tutankhamen), Queen Hatshepsut, and Queen Hatshepsut’s son, Thutmose the Third. This study will explore cultural symbolism and focus on the mystery of missing crooks and flails in Egyptian statuary. Among the topics discussed in the symbolic portion of the study will include reasons for the symbols’ absences and …

Wrapped In Tradition: Ceremonial Skirts Of Kuba Women In The Western Congo Basin, Rachel Wilson

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

The Kuba Kingdom resides in the central Kasai region of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The numerous clans which make up the kingdom have become recognized around the world for their exceptional corpus of design patterns which adorn their embroidered ceremonial skirts. The decorated wrap-skirts of Kuba women are a social construct and have come to represent the communal artistry of the Kuba clans. The raffia cloths are woven by the men and decorated through the combined effort of several women. The effect of having the skirt decorated by multiple women is that each skirt has its own unique design …

Performing Afro-Mexican Identity: The Racial Politics Of Negrito And Devil Dances, Alexus Chavana

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

In examining the racial dynamics of Mexico, one clearly notices relatively few Mexicans who identify as Black or Afro-Mexican. This paper is therefore concerned with the historical context that forged the racial atmosphere of Mexico today. Mexicans are discouraged to embrace la tercera raíz or the third root of Mexican heritage and identity stemming from Africa. The Mexico of today has been profoundly shaped by this African influence that dates back to the arrival of Cortés and the Spaniards. However important African identify is for understand boarder Mexico, most are reluctant to acknowledge this aspect of their heritage. After centuries …

Eclectic Architecture In A “Model Colony”: The Sacred Heart Cathedral In Lomé, Diana Kate Karsanow

Africana Studies Student Research Conference

In the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, while under the colonial rule of the German Empire, Togo was coined the “model colony.” This status was due largely to economic success and what has been referred to as a more peaceful colonial encounter. Some have argued the German administration’s ability to recognize cultural differences between themselves and the local people was successful in lieu of more rigid assimilation polices. German administrators did not overtly force their beliefs and social structure upon the local people of Togo, but instead, as I explore in this paper, creatively intertwined their own perspectives …