African Languages and Societies Commons^™

Kul Shae Mizean—Moroccan Rhetoric Of Racism: Obscured Moroccan Racism And Its Effects On Sub-Saharan African Refugees’ Integration In Rabat, Hannah Mangen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper aims to examine the overarching rhetoric surrounding racism against the Black

community in Morocco, specifically targeted toward refugees and migrants, and how the presence of racism—and the absence of a public conversation about its manifestation in Morocco—impacts the extent to which Sub-Saharan African[1] refugees feel they have been able to integrate. This is an attempt to find how the blindness of the majority of Moroccans to racism promotes its perpetuation and hinders refugees’ integration, and to understand how, by acknowledging and speaking out against racism, the human rights of refugees can be better advocated for by NGOs …

The Acts Of Subjugation And Repatriation Of Africa And Its People Through The Viewfinder, Mariah Morales

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

No abstract provided.

Monuments, Movements, & Memory: The Visual And Spatial Implications Of The Shooting At Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Megan G. Zembower

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

This paper focuses on the dichotomous relationship of race relations and visual culture in the American South, with a particular focus on the shooting of nine black Americans at Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015 by Caucasian South Carolinian Dylann Roof. Prior to the shooting, Roof posted images of himself posed in front of various Confederate landmarks in South Carolina to online social media platforms. Using these images as evidence, I contend that Roof’s racist motivation for the crime was, in part, fostered by the surrounding environment that memorializes fallen Confederate soldiers …

Vohou-Vohou: A Search For Post-Colonial Cultural Identity In Cote D’Ivoire, Olivia Keefer

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

This paper addresses the Vohou-Vohou movement (1970s-1980s) in Cote d’Ivoire. Through an explanation of the region’s history, the paper brings to light the motivations of the movement and its founders. The work of Youssouf Bath, Théodore Koudougnon, and Kra Nguessan are the focus of this paper to represent the movement’s style, formation, and impact on Cote d’Ivoire culture. Vohou-Vohou developed a decade after Cote d’Ivoire gained independence from French colonial control, and the movement became an inward return to local culture. The artists had an interest in rejecting the West. A visual representation of the rejection is seen through Vohou-Vohou …

Painting Photographs: Absence On Mohammed Mahmoud Street, Kirsten Stricker

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

The Egyptian Revolution prompted an outpouring of art. It filled the streets of Cairo, a city that had lacked any street art prior to the revolution, with large murals and art of every kind. Ammar Abo Bakr says that his massive murals are not art — they are news. His works are a protest against the censorship and selective reporting of the mainstream media. Bakr is best known for his large mural on Mohammed Mahmoud Street near Tahrir Square, Cairo. The mural is massive and contains many elements. One element consists of paintings of mothers holding photographs of their children …

The Essence Of Bogolanfini: Thinking About Ethical Design With African Inspiration, Sierra N. Bailey-Van Kuren

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

Bogolanfini are intricately designed textiles created by Bamana women in Mali. The cloths are created through a natural process, producing rich designs and motifs that address stories, narratives, female-specific ideas or relate to historical events. Each textile is hand made for a particular individual and given to her as she enters adulthood, an event marked by puberty and clitoridectomy. During this time, the cloth is used to absorb blood from the operation, a process transferring the woman’s spirit into the bogolanfini. As she progresses through life, the utility of her bogolanfini extends to absorbing her life-blood during menstruation, first intercourse …

Rethinking The "Anonymous:" Simeon Agbetuyi And The Yoruba Example, Caroline Bastian

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

In looking at “Traditional” and “Contemporary” African Art, it is clear Western culture still struggles with recognition of the individual African artist. For example, most museum exhibitions displaying local or more continent-based African art still tend to embody a flawed sense of “traditional” art created by a culture rather than an individual. In contrast, contemporary African art stresses the importance of the singular artist, their personal style, historical context, and cultural motivation. Part of the problem stems from colonialism, when many Western “collectors” seized any art they deemed valuable and “exotic,” taking it away from context leaving behind all information …

African Mask Display In Context, Elise C. Aronson

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

African masquerade is deeply interconnected with the community in which it performs. However, in Western-based exhibition display, the mask becomes the sole object of scrutiny and interest, decontextualizing it from its holistic dimension and multi-media interface. In fact, much of masquerade’s cultural significance is lost if the dynamic multimedia display of which the mask is part becomes alienated from its holistic context, reducing it to a mere static object hung on a wall. The argument can be raised, to mount a mask on a white wall or behind glass, especially grouped among other masks from Africa, as many museums do, …

Renee Green: Combination Artist, Cail P. Lininger

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

Renée Green, a combination artist, engages viewers in multi-faceted and diverse topics without directly addressing the central theme. In Partially Buried In Three Parts (1991-1996), Green utilizes films shot in a “home-movie” fashion and site-specific archiving to curate complex dialogues across three different locations: Kent State in 1991, exploring the shootings in 1970 and Robert Smithson’s installation, Partially Buried Woodshed; Germany and the United States and what it means to be a displaced national undergoing culture shock; and Korea, in war and peace. Green originally displayed all three in an installation designed to invoke feelings of nostalgia amidst confusion regarding …

Media In The Murid World: Analysis Of Inscribed Faith And Religious Identity In Murid Agencies’ Media Approach, Macodou Fall

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

Previous studies about Muridiyya have mostly focused on the economic and political influences of the Senegalese Sufi Islamic Brotherhood founded by Shaykh Amadu Bamba at the end of 19^th century. At the beginning, Muridiyya was a reactive force to colonialism and it aimed to propose alternatives to Western cultural and economic domination. However, the rapid growth of Muridiyya was possible via the creation of decentralized Murid organizations and groups called dahiras (religious associations). Prior to the rise of dahiras, Murid’s religious ideology spread throughout daaras (Quranic schools), which intended to initiate Murid talibes (disciples) to Islam and the …

Mediated Sankarism: Re-Inventing A Historical Figure To Reimagine A Future, Lassane Ouedraogo

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

Thomas Sankara has contributed significantly to the formation of the modern national identity of post-independent Burkina Faso before his assassination in 1987. This essay used discourse analysis to examine the emergence of Thomas Sankara’s ideology also known as Sankarism (and his praxis?) in the Burkinabe public discourse. In the current socio-political context of a nascent democracy characterized by the emergence of active civil society movements and multiple political factions contesting the right to govern and claiming the capacity to provide a new direction to a country caught up amid local and global issues, the reinvention and re-appropriation of Sankarism call …

The African Immigrant Experience In France According To "La Haine", Samantha B. Weiss

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

Le Haine depicts the fictional experiences of three immigrants to France, each with a different background, but a similar fate. The title, which translates to "hate" sets the tone for the movie, which is quick to explain its motives – depicting the life of a French migrant as a hopeless, fruitless one. Though the African character - his home nation never named - can speak perfect French and even attempts to better the lives of those around him, his efforts are met with violence, hatred, resistance, and an anti-immigrant mentality. By reading the conflicts of the movie in reference to …

What To Keep, What To Let Go: The Case Of Indians From Nyasaland, Debra Nicholson

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

This paper examines how identity may be constructed in the case of multiple transnational migrations within just a couple of generations, using an example (or examples) of immigrants from India to Nyasaland (present-day Malawi) to Great Britain to Canada.

What happens to your sense of identity when your Indian ancestors emigrate to Nyasaland, you grow up there, but around 1964, soon after independence from Great Britain, all Indians, including you and your family, are deported from your homeland of Nyasaland?

In one case study analyzed in this paper, a Nyasa Catholic woman of Indian descent first travels to Great Britain …

Fighting The Lion: Nationalist Masculinity In Sam Nujoma's Autobiography, Kelly J. Fulkerson Dikuua

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

Dr. Samuel Nujoma’s autobiography, Where Others Wavered: My Life in SWAPO and My Participation in the Liberation Struggle, documents his life as a pivotal figure in the Namibian war for independence leading to his tenure as the first president of Namibia (1990-2005). Nujoma, known as the “Founding Father” of Namibia, occupies a larger-than-life sphere within the public imagination through monuments, public photographs, placards and street names. Nujoma’s autobiography prescribes a certain type of national citizenship that details a specific construction of masculinity for Namibian men. This paper analyzes his autobiography, arguing that Nujoma constructs a hegemonic masculinity based on four …

Andrew Jackson And Harriet Tubman: A Monstrous Intimacy, Sheneese Thompson

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

In the wake of the announcement of Harriet Tubman joining Andrew Jackson on the back of the twenty-dollar bill, as well as the recent election of Donald Trump as the nation’s 45^th president, this paper employs Christina Sharpe’s notion of monstrous intimacies to assert that the coupling of the two on the bill reinscribes the monstrosity of the intimate encounters between the enslaved and their masters, even though Jackson did not own Tubman herself. Further, the appropriation of Tubman’s image and the revisionist underpinnings of her inclusion on money, once offered for her bounty, serves no other purpose than …

Theories Of Space And Place In Abstract Caribbean Art, Shelby Miller

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

How can one define the concepts of space and place and further translate those theories to the Caribbean region? Through abstract modes of representation, artists from these islands can shed light on these concepts in their work. Involute theories can be discussed in order to illuminate the larger Caribbean space and all of its components in abstract art. The trialectics of space theory deals with three important factors that include the physical, cognitive, and experienced space. All three of these aspects can be displayed in abstract artwork from this region. By analyzing this theory, one can understand why Caribbean artists …

Identity Performance: African-Caribbean Artists As Creators Of Cultural Community, Jessica Allison

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

Identity performance is an aspect of everyday life and can be seen in an individual's daily routines, or even the way they present themselves in specific social situations. These performances of identity can also be displayed in the actions one puts in to a piece of art. In African-Caribbean societies artists have become aware of the importance identity holds for their community and many of them put these ideas in to their artwork. The conscious decisions that these artists make in the creation and display of their artworks act as performances of an identity that they are attempting to convey. …

Impact Of Colonialism On Contemporary African Art, Jayna Clemens

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

“If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree.” – Michael Crichton

Studying history provides insight and explanations for what is present in today’s society. Colonization is not the only piece of Africa’s history, but it is a major contributor. Studying the history of Africa, pre and post colonialism, provides explanations for how Africa arrived at its present and where it is headed in the future. Colonization had a major impact on Africa’s culture and history, including contemporary African art. Contemporary African art, including description, materials, …

African Resistance To European Colonial Aggression: An Assessment, Nigel Tussing

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

When observing African resistance to colonialism one plainly sees that there was quite a bit of non-military resistance. However, military resistance played a large role in helping the cause of the native people of Africa. It had success such as Ethiopia’s ability to remain independent and the Chilembwe insurrection; it also had its failures such as lack of technology and lack of unity. Through careful examination of these ideas we can further understand the success and failure of African military resistance to colonialism.

European Colonialism And The Formation Of New African Identity, Isha Nabay

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

European colonialism left a devastating effects on Africa. The exploitation of the vast continent began with the slave trade which robbed Africa millions of people. The abolition of the slave trade witnessed the beginning of legitimate trade, which, in turn ushered in direct European invasion, conquest and establishment of colonial rule in Africa. Under colonialism, human rights were extensively violated for decades, African kings and chiefs lost their power to European rulers who imposed their own laws and customs to keep the people of the land degraded and exploited. Some high points of European influence include the introduction of Christianity …

European Christian Evangelism And Cultural Erasure In Colonial Africa, Jessica Ricker

Africana Studies Student Research Conference (2013-2019)

It is often argued that the colonization of the African continent in the 19^th and 20^th century was only made possible through the use of professional military infiltration. While the use of a professional military force is one of the ways in which Europeans colonized African territories, it is not the only way. In addition to military force, many Europeans utilized Christian evangelism and cultural erasure as a means of pacification. Many arguments made about colonialism in Africa point to evangelism and cultural erasure as goals of European imperialism, while other arguments boast that the European powers only …

Sherbro Dictionary, George Tucker Childs

The Sherbro Language and Culture of Sierra Leone

Sherbro Dictionary

Writing Africa Today: Research Materials (Library Resources), Holy Cross Libraries

Library Resources for Campus Events

A bibliography of resources available through the Holy Cross Libraries which provide additional information related to "Writing Africa Today," a lecture by Zimbabwean author Petina Gappah held at the College of the Holy Cross February 15, 2018.

Gappah writes critically about the government, social and criminal justice issues, and human rights work in sub-Saharan Africa. Her collection of short stories called "Elegy for Easterly" was shortlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and won the Guardian First Book Award in 2009. Her second book, a novel, "The Book of Memory" is the fictional story of an imprisoned albino …

The Family Politics Of The Federation Of South African Women: A History Of Public Motherhood In Women’S Antiracist Activism, Meghan Healy-Clancy

History Faculty Publications

This article reexamines the roots of the Federation of South African Women (FEDSAW), the first national organization of women from all state-defined racial groups united against apartheid, founded in 1954. It argues that the deep history of public motherhood in southern Africa was what made FEDSAW possible: biological and symbolic motherhood had long been associated with responsibility for public social life in the region. Moreover, the article demonstrates that the first half of the twentieth century represented a time of profound transformation in the ways that women in southern Africa talked about and experienced motherhood. The influences of both missionary …

Christians’ Cut: Popular Religion And The Global Health Campaign For Medical Male Circumcision In Swaziland, Casey Golomski, Sonene Nyawo

Anthropology

Swaziland faces one of the worst HIV epidemics in the world and is a site for the current global health campaign in sub-Saharan Africa to medically circumcise the majority of the male population. Given that Swaziland is also majority Christian, how does the most popular religion influence acceptance, rejection or understandings of medical male circumcision? This article considers interpretive differences by Christians across the Kingdom’s three ecumenical organisations, showing how a diverse group people singly glossed as ‘Christian’ in most public health acceptability studies critically rejected the procedure in unity, but not uniformly. Participants saw medical male circumcision’s promotion and …

A Polyvalent Mediterranean, Or The Trope Of Nomadism In The Literary Oeuvre Of Igiaba Scego And Abdourahman A. Waberi, Alessandra Benedicty-Kokken

Publications and Research

I argue that novelists Igiaba Scego and Abdourahman A. Waberi, building on the work of Nuruddin Farah among others, engage the trope of nomadism so as to propose a pre-colonial imaginary of a Somali polyvalent cosmopolitanism as a possible tool for thinking through our contemporary geographies of Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.

Exploring Leaders' Strategies For Employee Engagement In The South African Mining Industry, Le-Marlie Marais

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Research suggests that disengaged employees have contributed to the 28.5% reduction in the mining industry's contribution to South African gross domestic product. Some South African mining leaders lack strategies for engaging employees. Using the employee engagement framework, the purpose of this single case study was to explore successful strategies that South African mining leaders use to engage employees. The target population was mining leaders, purposefully selected because of their success with engaging employees at a typical South African mining company. Data collection was through face-to-face interviews with 4 leaders; a focus group interview with 9 employees; and a review of …

Perceptions Of Ethnic Federalism And The Ethiopian Diaspora Community In The Us, Kassaw Tafere Merie

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Diaspora communities are becoming an essential part of socioeconomic and political developments of their homeland countries. The problem addressed by this study is that after ethnic federalism was implemented in Ethiopia, the Ethiopian diaspora in the US is divided along ethnic lines, causing human resource management and law enforcement challenges within the communities in the host country. The purpose of this study was to describe the impacts of Ethiopia's ethnic-based federalism on its diaspora residing in a US metropolitan area. The theoretical framework was based on Teshome and ZáhoÅ?ík's theory of ethnic federalism and Safran's theory of diaspora. The key …

Busy Intersections: A Framework For Revitalization, George Tucker Childs

Applied Linguistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper reports on the applicability of a pedagogical model for use in West Africa drawn from adult literacy practices in the United States. It proposes bridging the gap between linguists, teachers, and community organizers, and building on the ethnographic skills of language documenters. One increasingly important goal of language documentation has been “creating and mobilizing documentation in support of pedagogy” (Nathan and Fang 2009:132) or even as a “social movement” (Dobrin and Berson 2011). A documentary perspective is here synthesized with an adult literacy one, fitted to the context of West Africa, to offer some guidelines for revitalization efforts.

Generating Amharic Present Tense Verbs: A Network Morphology & Datr Account, T. Michael W. Halcomb

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

In this thesis I attempt to model, that is, computationally reproduce, the natural transmission (i.e. inflectional regularities) of twenty present tense Amharic verbs (i.e. triradicals beginning with consonants) as used by the language’s speakers. I root my approach in the linguistic theory of network morphology (NM) and model it using the DATR evaluator. In Chapter 1, I provide an overview of Amharic and discuss the fidel as an abugida, the verb system’s root-and-pattern morphology, and how radicals of each lexeme interacts with prefixes and suffixes. I offer an overview of NM in Chapter 2 and DATR in Chapter 3. In …