Africana Studies Commons^™

The United Arab Emirates Trip: A Problem Of Propaganda, Cecilia Volk

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Us Government’S Genocide Determination For Sudan And The Us Treasury Department Sanctions, Us Government Press Releases & Responses

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Sudan: A Nation Divided, A People Displaced, Talmiz Ahmad

The Journal of Social Encounters

Sudan’s civil war nears its second year, with 150,000 dead and 12 million displaced. Yet, the prospects for peace remain bleak and distant.

Introduction: The Continuing Saga Of Darfur And Sudan, Mawa Mohamed, Ron Pagnucco

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Black Sonicism: Cultural Maintenance And Evolution Through New Orleans Bounce Music, Leandrea L. Clay

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

As a form of regional hip-hop, Bounce music operates as an expressive culture native to New Orleans with generational lineages of artists. Black sonicism is a regionally and digitally-sensitive theoretical framework that seeks to conceptualize how Black soundmakers and their audiences create a dialogic relationship through three components: responsive participation, spatial relatability, and expressed ratchetry. I catalog each of these components through three audience formations—origin, scope, and reception—to understand the tensions between Black music, regional identity, and technology. From this project, I propose a theoretical development to consider how Black artists continually pass down communal histories through their music while …

Negotiating Home In The Long Poem: Amatoritsero Ede’S Transpatiality, Mathias Iroro Orhero

Faculty Publications

In this paper, I argue that Amatoritsero Ede uses the long poem to negotiate the idea of home in an African diasporic context. As a form that carries the implications of length, time, and space, the long poem has been used by poets to interrogate the way we structure the world and to deconstruct grand narratives. The figure of the Black immigrant is one that destabilizes grand narratives of nationalism. This makes the form important in its capacity to ask important questions about nation and tradition even as it transgresses them. As a writer from the Niger Delta, a marginal …

"Our Vision Is That Black Mothers And Birthing People, Fathers, And Partners Are Safe, Honored, And Respected Throughout Pregnancy And Parenthood": Black Birth Workers' Agenda For Black Maternal Health In Oregon, Sarah Marguerite Applin

University Honors Theses

Black women and Birthing People (BWBP) face disproportionate rates of mortality within the United States healthcare system. BWBP are three times more likely to suffer a pregnancy-related death than White women. Therefore, addressing and consulting with BWBP about the birthing experience that BWBP sustains when they are bearing children is imperative. The inclusion and application of this key knowledge and understanding should be emphasized and at the root of further development toward reproductive justice. This participatory story was led by Dr. Roberta Hunte. Interviews and focus groups with Black birth workers, birthing people, and public health professionals were conducted in …

Empowering Multilingual Learners Through Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy And Arts-Based Learning In Burkina Faso, Inoussa Malgoubri

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation explores how culturally sustaining pedagogy and arts-based learning can engage multilingual learners of English as an Additional Language (EAL) in Burkina Faso. The research emphasizes the incorporation of local cultural elements and learners' linguistic backgrounds into the EAL curriculum to address challenges such as limited classroom interactions (Somé-Guiebré, 2020) and monolingual instructional strategies with inadequate cultural representation (Ndlangamandla, 2024). This qualitative study integrates culturally relevant materials, including Forum Theater, slam poetry, and griot-style storytelling, to create an engaging and inclusive learning environment. Data consisted of observation, images from arts-based workshops and pre- and post-workshop interviews with selected teachers …

The Power Of Community: A History Of African American Education In New London County, Connecticut, Jack Lavorel

History Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Operation Airlift Africa: American Education And The Development Of Future Leaders From British Colonies In East And Central Africa, David N. Gachigo

Theses and Dissertations

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, over 800 students from British East and Central Africa gained access to American education through Operation Airlift Africa (OAA), a visionary initiative led by Kenyan trade unionist and politician Tom Mboya. Funded by private American donors, including Senator John F. Kennedy, and supported by scholarships from U.S. institutions, the program enabled African students to attend high schools, colleges, and universities in North America, mostly in the United States. This dissertation explores the impact of OAA on educational access for colonial subjects and its role in shaping future African leadership. The study argues that …

Economic Miracles And Their Hypes: An Africanist Disputation, Abou B. Bamba

History Faculty Publications

This essay argues that economic miracles are the result of particular processes and procedures to establish a regime of truth. Taking the example of Ivory Coast from the 1950s through the early 1980s as core evidence, the author shows the role of public relations in creating a particular perception of economic achievements. Using the emergence of both West Germany and Japan as early examples in the wake of postwar reconstruction, it is further underlined that the larger context of the Cold War facilitated the construction of economic miracles.

Including Black Farmers, Excluding Pests: Perspectives On Participation In The Cooperative Extension Service, Briana Bazile

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

In recent years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has faced renewed scrutiny for documented discrimination against Black farmers, yet far less attention has focused on its century-old partner in public service delivery, the Cooperative Extension Service (CES). This gap is especially notable considering 1) federal parity mandates extant since 1972 in response to significant disparities between Black and White constituents and staff,2) public commitments to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in 2020 and, 3) the contributions of Black leaders at the origins of CES, at Tuskegee University in the late nineteenth century. Using the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service (KYCES) as a …

A Long Way Home: Postcolonial Migration Between Cameroon And France, Elizabeth Greenberg

Honors Theses

This project grew from an observation that despite exhibiting strong national pride, most young Cameroonians express a fervent desire to emigrate. Through a combination of interviews and a review of past literature, I discovered a unique narrative among upper middle class Cameroonian migrants whose stories are generally underrepresented in migration literature. This study investigates how history and sociocultural dynamics help explain the Cameroonian decision to choose France (specifically the Île de France region) as a migration destination. France is particularly relevant because it previously held control of many parts of Cameroon and is one of the most popular migration destinations …

Identifying Intangible And Biocultural Heritage Elements Toward Environmental Understanding: Engaging Stakeholders Through Art, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Grounded in a case study in Barbuda in the Caribbean, this research examines sustainability from the perspective of what arts and heritage can contribute to community engagement and local and broader understandings about the environment. This article documents a growing body of literature recognizing the role of arts and culture, including local knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), in climate change endeavors. Art and TEK present expansive world views. Contextual information situates research done on the island of Barbuda pre- and post-Hurricane Irma. Visual arts workshops engaged community members in mixed methods research. Results documented cultural elements, particularly intangible and …

Mapping Entanglements: Un-Nesting The Myths Of My White Identity, Kayla C. Brown

Dance (MFA) Theses

This braided research-performance thesis uses personal narrative, critical theory, and live performance to investigate how whiteness is sustained and embodied. Grounded in the work of bell hooks, Ibram X. Kendi, Tema Okun, Diana Taylor, Catrice M. Jackson, Miguel Gutierrez, and Narcissister, I interrogate whiteness not as a static identity, but as a system of power that shapes perception, behavior, and social value. As a cisgender white woman, I move through the world with unearned ease—my presence normalized, my advantages often unquestioned.

Identity is performance—layered, like the Russian nesting dolls I once played with at my grandmother’s house. Peeling back these …

Echoes Before Language: A Written Thesis On Movement, Origin, And Becoming, Shadidja Parker

Dance (MFA) Theses

This thesis presents a body-based, lineage-informed approach to movement development into dance, honoring both scientific and spiritual knowledge systems. It engages in a blend of qualitative, embodied, and autoethnographic methods—including dance studies, developmental science, phenomenology, and cultural analysis—to examine how movement emerges, evolves, and carries meaning. Grounded in my lived experience as a dancer, mother, and Black woman, this research frames the body as both a site and source of knowledge. I use my own body as an instrument of movement, memory, and identity, positioning my embodiment as a form of inquiry. The thesis is organized in two parts: a …

Singing Hunger In Protest Music: Nasboi’S “Hunger Games” And Post-Election Realities In Nigeria’S “Emilokan” Era, Omotayo Jemiluyi, Abubakar Tajudeen

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This article examines “Hunger Games” (2024), a protest song by Nigerian artiste and skit maker Nasboi, as an indictment of the economic hardship, political repression, and widespread disillusionment that have characterized Nigeria’s 2023 post-election landscape under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s “Emilokan” administration. Situating the song within Nigeria’s long-standing tradition of politically conscious music, from the Afrobeat of Fela Kuti to the contemporary commentaries of Falz and Burna Boy, the study critically dissects how “Hunger Games” reflects collective frustration and subversively positions popular music as resistance. The analysis of the study demonstrates that Nasboi’s aesthetic strategy—combining satire with repetition—renders individual hardship …

Art As Witness: Carrying Christian Iconographies In The Works Of Henry Ossawa Tanner During The Gilded Age To Contemporary Autobiographical Testimonial Art, Ziona King

Pomona Senior Theses

Culminated in a solo exhibition of three works titled the prodigal daughter and The Great High Priest, Baptism, and The Lord of Hosts, this research explores the implications of the Christian methodologies and iconographies in the works of Henry Ossawa Tanner to influence testimonial artwork containing personal Christian iconographies of water baptism, spiritual encounter in everyday life, the lion of Judah, bowls, and more interpretive motifs.

Connections And Contrasts Between “Enactments Of Power: The Politics Of Performance Space” By Ngugi Wa Thiong’O, Kendrick Lamar’S 2025 Superbowl Performance, And Sunni Patterson’S “We Made It.”, Crystal Endsley Taylor

Open Educational Resources

This assignment by Dr. Crystal Endsley Taylor uses all Open, "low-tech" solutions to create an active learning module that prompts students to pause, retrieve, re-state and reconsider several texts, including The Politics of Performance Space” by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 Superbowl performance, and Sunni Patterson’s “We Made It.” It was made as part of a workshop on OER-based Active Learning at John Jay College in 2025.

Whose Decolonization? Prospects For Decolonizing African Art Music, Kofi Agawu

Publications and Research

Although they date back to the 1960s—the decade of African independence—decolonization discourses have gained a new visibility in today’s academies and social media. Targets of decolonization include universities (and numerous practices within), archives, museums, political and economic systems, and individuals from previously colonized nations. Questions remain, however, about what, why, and how to decolonize. This article explores the prospects for decolonizing African art music, a repertoire formed from the twin forces of missionization and colonization. Eschewing a big-picture approach, the author focuses on samples of African choralism, African pianism, African opera, and African symphonism to show that the dividing lines …