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October 3 - 4, 2014University of Kansas

WelcomeThe Kansas African Studies Center is pleased to host the 20th annual meeing of MAAAS. The occasion provides an opportunity for reflection on past achievements and future directions. What is the relevance of African Studies scholarship for the Mid-America region and the university education mission? Work in African Studies provides an important epistemological foundation for decolonizing knowledge: not only to illuminate how standard forms of knowledge bear the imprint of colonial power, but also to develop concepts and practices, rooted in observations from African settings, that provide the foundations for broader human liberation. We invite you to join us in consideration of our conference theme: “African Studies: Concepts and Practices for Decolonizing Knowledge.”

Glenn Adams, ConvenerKU Dept. of Psychology; KASC Faculty Associate Director;2014 Past President of MAAAS

Welcome

Garth Myers, a founding member and former president of MAAAS, is the Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of Urban International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author of 3 books, co-editor of 2 others, and author of more than 60 articles and book chapters, the vast majority of which focus on cities in Sub-Saharan Africa. His primary research interests reside with the historical, political, environmental and comparative geography of urban planning and urban development in eastern and southern Africa, but he is more broadly interested in urbanization and urban planning around the world.

Keynote Speaker Garth Myers with Mushebe Subulwa and Brian Shakarongo

•Bridging Continents: Africanist Librarianship in the 21st Century; Brian D. Moss, University of Kansas

•Disseminating Public Health and Development Knowledge through the Community Tool Box; Ithar Hassaballa, University of Kansas

•Decolonizing Biodiversity Knowledge: Digital Enabling of Botanical Data for West Africa; A. Townsend Peterson, University of Kansas

•Decolonizing Understandings of Rhetoric and Nation Building in the Work of Kenya’s Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission; Lindsay Harroff, University of Kansas

3:00-3:20 BREAK

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2014

•Religious Practice and Decolonial Imaginaries in Equatorial Africa; John Cinnamon, Miami University

•Conflict versus Cohabitation: Uncovering the African-Indigenous World of Sixteenth Century Mexico; Robert C. Schwaller, University of Kansas

•“Archdemon” Walter E. Owen and Edith B. Downer: Rewriting Missionary Experience in Colonial Kenya; Hannington Ochwada, University of Kansas

•Ade-Ajayi and the Study of African History; Bukola Oyeniyi, Missouri State University

Program

1:20-3:00 DECOLONIZING ARCHIVESChair:Yacine Daddi Addoun, University of KansasThe Commons, Spooner Hall

1:00 WELCOME AND OPENING REMARKSThe Commons, Spooner Hall•Glenn Adams, Associate Professor of Psychology, KASC Faculty Associate Director; Liz MacGonagle, Associate Professor of History, KASC Director

3:20-5:00 DECOLONIZING THE PASTChair: Mariana Candido, University of KansasThe Commons, Spooner Hall

5:15-6:45 RECEPTION9th Floor Terrace, Oread Hotel, 1200 Oread Avenue

Join us for food and drinks down the street at the Oread Hotel. We will gather on the 9th floor terrace known as “The Nest” to converse and enjoy the view. Light hors d’oeuvres. Cash bar available.

7:00-9:00 MOVIE AT MAAAS: Lumumba (2000)Malott Room, Kansas Union

Made in the tradition of such true-life political thrillers as Malcolm X and JFK, Raoul Peck’s award-winning epic dramatizes the rise and fall of legendary African leader Patrice Lumumba.

When the Congo declared its independence from Belgium in 1960, the 36-year-old Lumumba became the first Prime Minister of the newly independent state but would last just months in office before being brutally assassinated.

Popcorn provided.

Eriq Ebouaney as Patrice Lumumba

•Progress Towards Sustainable and Equitable Waste Management at the University of Ghana, Legon; Matt DeCapo, Kansas State University

•Traveling to Nontraditional Destinations: 5 Things Americans Should Know Before Studying Abroad to “Africa”; Ifeyinwa Onyenekwu, University of Illinois

•Confronting the Elephant in the Room: Race in South Africa Twenty Years after Democracy; Elene Cloete, University of Kansas

•Links between Women’s Empowerment and Fourth Wave Democratization in Predominantly-Muslim States; Ginger Feather, University of Kansas

Saturday, October 4, 2014

•Service and Study Abroad: A Challenge to Global Citizenship Education; Katie Gauthier Donnelly, Saint Louis University

•The Lie of the Lion: Racialization of Nature in the Safari; Cassie M. Hays, Gettysburg College

•Sacred Grove Dynamics in the Republic of Benin; Erika Kraus, Michigan State University

•An Instance of African Modernity: Manjako Age Sets Make History; Margaret Buckner, Missouri State University

9:00-10:40 KEN LOHRENTZ GRADUATE PAPER AWARD PRESENTATIONSChair: Peter Ojiambo, University of KansasMalott Room, Kansas Union

8:00-8:55 BREAKFAST BUSINESS MEETINGThe Commons, Spooner Hall

9:00-10:40 DECOLONIAL ENCOUNTERSChair: Elizabeth MacGonagle, University of KansasThe Commons, Spooner Hall

10:40-11:00 BREAK

•Victoria Chikodi Onu, University of Nigeria•Wilfred Chukwudi Onu, Director & Co-owner, Shalom Academy, Nsukka, Nigeria•Nkemjika Helen Asadu, Principal, St. Cypriam Girls Secondary School, Nsukka•Geoffrey Ndubisi Asadu, Barrister and Social Welfare Officer, Nsukka Local Government•Nnenna Liziana Onuigbo, University of Nigeria •Ngozi Obiyo, University of Nigeria•Augustina Nwamaka Ugwu, Head Mistress, Center for Academic and Vocational Training for Special Needs Children Nsukka (CAVTSN), Nsukka, Nigeria•Dorothy Ukamaka Abugu, Assistant Head Mistress, Center for Academic and Vocational Training for Special Needs Children Nsukka (CAVTSN), Nsukka, Nigeria

* This presentation is part of the Nigeria Public Affairs Program, Missouri State University sponsored by the U.S. Embassy, Public Affairs Division, Abuja, Nigeria and Provost Office, Missouri State University. Program Coordinator: Dr. Jamaine Abidogun, Missouri State University (417) 836-5916; jamaineabidogun@missouristate.edu

•Africans Read Shakespeare; Leonard Gadzekpo, Southern Illinois University - Carbondale

•“Anansi Meets Peter Parker”: Uses of the SpiderMan in African Diaspora Literature; Giselle Anatol, University of Kansas

•Decolonizing Images…From Thiaroye to Katanga; Andre Siamundele, Wells College

•Transformative Aesthetics: Ndebele Identity in South African Visual Culture; Adrienne Walker Hoard, University of Missouri-Kansas City

11:00- 12:40 PANEL DISCUSSION*The Role of Extended Family in Raising Children with Special Needs: Implications for Community-Based Rehabilitation in Africa Chair: Jamaine Abidogun, Missouri State UniversityMalott Room, Kansas Union

11:00-12:40 DECOLONIZING REPRESENTATIONSChair: Marie Brown, University of KansasThe Commons, Spooner Hall

1:00-2:15 LUNCH AND KEYNOTE ADDRESSIntroduction by Byron Caminero-Santangelo, University of KansasThe Commons, Spooner Hall

•Building from the South: Comparative Urbanism from African Knowledge Bases; Garth A. Myers, Trinity College

•Democracy and Corruption in Mali: The Case for Election Campaign Finance Reform; Stephen A. Harmon, Pittsburg State University

•The Land Reform in Zimbabwe: Myths and Realities; Angellar Manguvo, University of Missouri-Kansas City

•Rwanda in 2014: Policy Implementation in a Post-Genocide Country; Sterling Recker, Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville

•Genocide as Oppressors’ Revolt? Rwanda, 1994; David N. Smith, University of Kansas

•Decolonizing and Deconstructing African Knowledge/Stereotypes in a Globalizing Era; Manfred O. Wogugu, University of Nebraska at Omaha

2:20-4:20 REVOLT AND REFORMChair: Ken Lohrentz, University of KansasMalott Room, Kansas Union

2:20-5:00 DECOLONIZING GENDERThe Commons, Spooner Hall

Part 1 (2:20- 3:35) Nigerian CasesChair: Carlos Nash, University of Kansas

•Strengthening Gender Research to Improve Girls’ and Women’s Education in Nigeria; Jamaine Abidogun, Missouri State University

•She Lives Dangerously: Grammatical Personhood, Intimate Ethics, and HIV/AIDS in Northern Nigeria; Kathryn A. Rhine, University of Kansas

•(De)Mobilizing Women: Discourses of Sex, Mobility, and National Honor in Nigeria; Stacey Vanderhurst, Indiana University

BREAK (3:35-3:45)

Part 2 (3:45-5:00) Sex and MarriageChair: Randal Jelks, University of Kansas

•Afrobeat Queens and the Decolonial Turn; Oladotun Ayobade, University of Texas

•Of Traditions, and Meaning: Gender and Marriage Institutions in West Africa; Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka, University of Kansas

• Old Margins Becoming New Frontiers: The New Trend of African Traditional Weddings among Young African-American Students/Graduates in the United States; Mary Mba, University of Kansas

Sponsors

Founded at the University of Kansas in 1995, the Mid-America Alliance for African Studies (MAAAS) seeks to encourage scholarship and teaching in African Studies through conferences, seminars, workshops, exchanges, cooperative relations among libraries, and the advancement of African language teaching, among other endeavors. MAAAS is the only organization for the promotion of African Studies in the region, specifically connecting scholars located between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains where great distances exist between pockets of African Studies enthusiasts. MAAAS membership is open to all with an interest in scholarship and teaching with an African Studies focus.

The Kansas African Studies Center (KASC) at the University of Kansas coordinates the study of Africa in the university and the wider region. The Center’s mission includes sponsoring research and outreach initiatives, enhancing the African Studies curriculum, organizing conferences, acquiring library and related resources, and raising funds to make these activities possible. KASC is a proud partner of MAAAS in the advancement of African Studies in the mid-America region.

www.kasc.ku.edu

www.associations.missouristate.edu/maaas

Thank you to The Commons, the Department of African and African-American Studies, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Kansas for their generous support of the conference.