AFRICA ON CAMPUS

Winter 1999, Volume 11, No.1

The Newsletter of The Institute of African Studies at Columbia University Letter from the Director
In this context, the end of apartheid calls on us to re-think the configuration of the area called Africa in a double sense. There needs to be a problematization of the current meaning of Africa in "African Studies" -- as the study of the area between the Sahara and the Limpopo. As such studies accumulate, they will generate new comparative knowledge, both re-thinking the notion that the Sahara and the Limpopo constitute epistemological boundaries, and recasting their epistemological significance.
THE END OF APARTHEID CALLS ON US TO RE-THINK THE
CONFIGURATION OF THE AREA CALLED

Mahmood Mamdani, Director of IAS

The new millennium marks a turning point for Africa in a double sense. Globally, Africa enters the postCold War age; regionally, it enters the post-apartheid age. Both transitions present a challenge to the pursuit of what has come to be known as "African Studies" in North America. Just as the end of the Cold War has brought down the Berlin Wall, so it is likely to bring down epistemological walls built around areas of study. The boundaries of area studies will become more porous. Their study will be historicized as we cease to take geographical boundaries for granted: the center of gravity of academic work will shift as it balances an emphasis on locales with a more comparative and in-depth focus on themes. The more they reflect a common historical experience, the less areas will cease to connote boundaries of knowledge.

AFRICA IN A DOUBLE SENSE.

It is my hope that this multiple challenge will both set the agenda of the Institute of African Studies at Columbia University over the next decade and inaugurate a period of more fruitful cross-boundary collaboration, both institutional and epistemological.

F E A T U R E D

I N

T H I S

I S S U E

Symposium on Franz Fanon: Dying Colonialism, Forty Years On page 5 Spring 2000 Tuesday Lunchtime Schedule page 6 African Languages at Columbia University page 7 Teacher Training & Outreach: Africa and Its Environment page 12 AFRICA ON CAMPUS
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STAFF
Mahmood Mamdani Director Nigel Gibson Assistant Director Marlyse Rand Administrative Assistant Paulette Young Outreach Coordinator Joe Caruso Librarian Ngozi Amu Program Assistant Angela NdingaMuvumba Program Assistant Yaya Fanusie Work-Study Nebiat Woldemichael Work-Study AFRICA ON CAMPUS Editor and Layout Designer Angela NdingaMuvumba Reporter Ngozi Amu

Issues Debates in African Studies

At a seminar sponsored by the Institute of African Studies, attended by faculty from many of Columbia's departments and schools, Mohamed Mbodj argued that debates in African history were at a point where it is difficult to see whether they are moving forward or backward. To initiate a new seriesDebates in African Studies, to which we encourage you to respond, we have reproduced some of Professor Mbodjs comments. Remarking that the similarity to old ideas is more like "background noise," Mbodj claimed that overarching themes, such as recolonization and marginalization, are being refashioned not simply in terms of identity and otherness but also in terms of WHEN IT COMES TO self-representation. For instance, MARGINALIZATION, THE is domination by the West only QUESTION IS WHO IS comprehensible in terms of MARGINALIZING WHOM AND AND colonization or even WHO CARES? modernization? Of course not because Africans have at least some agency to invent their own selves. When it comes to marginalization, the question is who is marginalizing whom and who cares? Africa still operates within categories that are not fully appropriated and are sometimes denied by Africans. It seems also that such categories have a life of their own, so to speak, so much that even if one assumes that ethnic groups, for example, do not exist, the category is so powerful that it ends up defining research. The influence of subaltern and postcolonial studies, Mbodj continued, has proved to be a corrective to the domination of determining categories, deconstructing them and refocusing our attention on the history of specificities. Rather than searching for "authentic" categories, subaltern and postcolonial studies have directed our attention to questions of articulation and agency. One can do the same with the idea of "popular culture," asking questions like "whose culture is it," "where is it tapped from," and "what is the process of establishing something as pervasive as 'popular culture'? One finds that popular culture is also a vertical phenomenon, coming through history. Something that seems to be lost can be retrieved as popular culture. Perhaps reflecting on this idea, we can ask whether there is anything that can be called "African knowledge"?

Call for Submissions Africa On Campus invites readers to submit articles on African Studies or Affairs. Those interested should please call the Institute at: 212-854-4633 or email us at: mbr1@columbia.edu

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The Sawyer Se Seminar minar Workshops 2000

Co-Sponsored with the Department of Anthropology

NNOUNCING

Fall 1999 Lunchtime Seminars

Identity and politics resound in the landscapes of Ato Quayson and Philippe Wamba, two of our speakers this fall in the Institutes Lunchtime Seminar Series. Ato Quayson is the Director of African Studies at Pembroke College, Cambridge. The author of Postcolonialism: Theory, Practice and Process, Quayson focused on the theoretical possibilities for literature. Discussing key debates in the field, he stressed the importance of seeing postcolonialism as a process of analysis, and demonstrated his argument in a lecture entitled Thunder in the Index: Nationalism and Disassembled Identities in Postcolonial Literature and Politics. Quayson read excerpts from Tsitsi Dagarembga's Nervous Conditions, Dambuzdo Marecheras The House of Hunger and Antjie Krogs Country of My Skull, to illustrate the need for a social and political theoretical view on postcolonial literature. Dr. Quaysons analysis called for both exogenous and endogenous readings of postcolonial literature. He presented the utility in rendering the characters in a dialectical manner, and in seeing how identity shifts in the frame of the postcolonial narrative. Philippe Wamba is Editor-InChief at Africana.com. His new book, Kinship: A Familys Journey in Africa and America celebrates the passionate and complex dialogue between Africa and America. Mr. Wamba, the Philippe Wamba son of Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, (former Professor of History, University of Dar es Salaam, and currently the Chairman of the Congolese Democratic Movement) has a unique view of the cultural mirroring and political discourse that has shaped the African Diaspora. Struggling with the complex affinity between Africans and African-Americans, which has at once been packed, with myth and fact, betrayal and allegiance, truth and fiction, Wamba explored the historical, musical, cultural, and political patterns that comprise the identity of black people on both sides of the Atlantic. He concluded that Africans and African-Americans have historically expressed a passionate longing for one another.
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Saturday, February 5, 2000

10:00 am- 4:30pm Schermerhorn 614, Columbia University

BLACK ATHENA: HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE, POWER & POPULAR CULTURE

Martin Bernal, Government, Cornell University Mary Lefkowitz, Classical Studies, Wellesley College Mia Bay, History, Rutgers University, Lynn Meskell, Anthropology and Archeology, Columbia University, Mohamed Mbodj, History, Columbia University Wilson Moses, History, Pennsylvania State University

Saturday, March 4, 2000

10:00 am- 4:30pm Schermerhorn 614, Columbia University THE RWANDA GENOCIDE :

HISTORY & POLITICS

Alison des Forges, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Phillip Gourevitch, The New Yorker Catherine Newbury, Political Science, UNC-Chapel Hill, David Newbury, History, UNC-Chapel Hill, Peter Rosenblum, Harvard University Law School

Saturday, April 1, 2000

10:00 am- 4:30pm Schermerhorn 614, Columbia University THE TRC AND POST-APARTHEID SOUTH

AFRICA Ian Shapiro, Political Science, Yale University David Dyzenhaus, Law & Philosophy, University of Toronto S.J. Terreblanch, Economics, Stellenbosch University Robert Meister, Political Science, University of California- Santa Cruz

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Summary: Fall 1999 Tuesday Lunchtime Seminars

September
STUDENT INTERNSHIP DEBRIEFINGS Second-Year SIPA students discussed their diverse experiences interning in Africa during the summer of 1999. FRANCO BARCHIESI Lecturer, University of Witwatersrand Losing Subject: Labour, Employment and Social Citizenship in the Democratic South Africa. DR. ATO QUAYSON, Director of African Studies, Lecturer in English, Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, "Thunder in the Index: Nationalism and Disassembled Identities in African Literature and Politics," Co-sponsored with the Center for Comparative Literature and Society. NJABULO S. NDEBELE, Lifetime President of the Congress of South African Writers, "Citizens, Writers and Readers: Remaking Culture in South Africa, Co-sponsored with The Center for Comparative Literature and Society.

OCTOBER
YOHANNA GANDU, I.I.E. Fullbright Scholar, Doctoral Candidate in Sociology, Ahmadu Bello University of Nigeria "Women in the Workplace in Nigeria, Co-sponsored with the Center for the Study of Human Rights. JAIROS M.GANDU, Lecturer, Dept. of Educational Management, Zimbabwe Open University "Traditional Religious Practices Among the Shona People of Zimbabwe, Cosponsored with the Center for the Study of Nigel Gibson and Yohannes Gandu Human Rights. BILL BERKELEY, Journalist and Senior Fellow, World Policy Institute, New School for Social Research, Ethnicity and Conflict in Africa: The Methods Behind the Madness.

NOVEMBER
MEREDITH TURSHEN, Rutgers University, School of Planning and Public Policy, "Women in the Aftermath of War and Armed Conflict". SYMPOSIUM ON FRANZ FANON: DYING COLONIALISM, Robert Bernasconi, University of Memphis, Drucilla Cornell, Rutgers University, Irene Gendscler, Boston University, Nigel Gibson, Columbia University, Edward W. Said, Columbia University, Lou Turner, Napperville College. Co-sponsored with The Center for Comparative Literature and Society,The Middle East Institute, La Maison Franaise, The Institute for Research in African-American Studies and The Pan African Studies Program at Barnard College. PETER ALEXANDER, Senior Lecturer, Rand Afrikaans University, Trade Unions & the Imposition of Apartheid. SIGNE ALFRED, Female Identity Politics in a Period of Change: Muslim Womens Dance Association in Mozambique, Co-sponsored with The Pan-African Studies Program at Barnard College. PHILIPPE WAMBA, Author, Journalist, Editor-In-chief of Africana.com, on Kinship: A Familys Journey in Africa and America, Co-sponsored with The Pan-African Studies Program at Barnard College, and SIPAs People of Color Alliance.

DECEMBER
BRUCE BERMAN, Queens University, "The House of Custom: Jomo Kenyatta, Louis Leakey and the Making of the Modern Kikuyu".

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Symposium on Franz Fanon: Dying Colonialism, Forty Years On

The November 16, 1999 Symposium was co-sponsored with The Center for Comparative Literature and Society, The Middle East Institute, La Maison Franaise, The Institute for Research in African-American Studies and The Pan African Studies Program at Barnard College. Over 100 people attended a lively discussion of Frantz Fanon's life, work, and continuing relevance with a focus on A Dying Colonialism (L'An V de la rvolution Algrienne) forty years after its publication. Challenging both Fanon and some of the dominant ideas about Fanon, the speakers Robert Bernaconi, Drucilla Cornell, Irene Gendzier, Nigel Gibson, Edward W. Said and Lou Turner -- discussed Fanon's legacies and unfinished business. The presenters addressed questions of violence and gender, postcolonial economics and regime change as well as Fanon's relevance to the U.S. political movements. The symposia was taped by WBAI (99.5 FM) and will be aired in February.

Photos of Fanon Sypmosium Participants Clockwise, Top to Bottom:, Edward W. Said, Drucilla Cornell, Robert Bernasconi, Nigel Gibson, Irene Gendier, Lou Turner

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Institute of African Studies

Spring 2000 Tuesday Lunchtime Schedule 12 2pm 11th Fl. SIPA, Columbia University February
Feb 8: IAIN EDWARDS (Rockefeller Fellow, Oral History Research Office, Columbia University), "Identities: Umkhonto we Sizwe, Gays, Shanty Towns and Post-Apartheid Discourse." 12:00-1:45 pm Middle East Insitute, 1118 IAB, Columbia University JOHN COLLINS, University of Ghana Lecture/ performance--"The Ghanaian concert party and its association with highlife music." 12:00-1:45pm, Middle East Institute, 1118 IAB, Columbia University ANNIE COOMBES, Birkbeck College, University of London, "Translating the Past: Monuments and the Making of Histories in Transition in a Democratic South Africa." Co-sponsored with the Department of Art History, 12:00-2:00pm, 930 Schermerhorn, Columbia University ROBERT VAN NIENKERK, Lincoln University, Oxford, "Social Policy Reform in South Africa: Assessing Progress in Health and Welfare Between 1994-1998. 12:00 1:45pm, Middle East Institute, 1118 IAB, Columbia University ANDREW OKOLIE, University of Toronto, "The State, Economic Development and the Construction of Political Identities in Nigeria since 1970." 12:00 1:45pm, Middle East Institute, 1118 IAB, Columbia University MAMADOU DIOUF, University of Michigan, "Senegalese Youth and the Production of Knowledge of an urban culture in the late 20th century." 12:00 1:45pm, Middle East Institute, 1118 IAB, Columbia University PATRICIA MCFADDEN, Feminism, Nation and the New Millennium in South Africa. 12:00 1:45pm, Middle East Institute, 1118 IAB, Columbia University, (Co-sponsored with PanAfrican Studies).
SEE FORTHCOMING ANNOUNCEMENTS FOR DETAILS

Feb 15:

Feb 22:

Feb 29:

MARCH
March 7:

March 23: (Thursday) March 28:

APRIL *NOTE:
April, TBA: April 11: April TBA: April 25:

SAMPE TERRE BLANCHE, "The Truth and Reconciliation Commission." TOM HALE, Penn State University, "Griots and Griottes: Myths and Realities." MMATSHILO MOTSEI, Restoring the Health of the Community: The struggle against domestic violence in Alexandra Township. (Co-sponsored with Pan-African Studies). KRISTINE ROOME, Teachers College, Columbia University, "Process of 'liberating voices': Artist Expression and national representation in South Africa."

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African Languages at Columbia University

ABDU NANJI

advanced kiswahili
Its a lot of fun to take my courses, says Professor Nanji who teaches Advanced Kiswahili and Swahili Life and Culture at Columbia University. Most students enrolled in his courses have visited or lived in Africa prior to attending graduate school. But, experience in Africa is not a prerequisite. In fact, there are grants available for students interested in traveling to an East African country such as Kenya and Tanzania . The students in Nanjis classes come from a variety of different fields, including political science, medicine, journalism and drama. I picked this course because I thought I might perform in East Africa, says Signe Grant, a drama major and student in Nanjis Advanced Kiswahili II. It is Friday and she and three other students are busy conversing in Kiswahili. Matthew Dwyer, a graduate student in Anthropology and Education, reviews an article on womens reproduction habits in Africa and a wild debate follows. Amani MBale is a SIPA student. I was determined to speak an African language, she says, and I chose Kiswahili because it covers a wide geographical region. Paul Kontra is another SIPA student. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in Tanzania for two years before coming to graduate school. He likes Professor Nanjis teaching style, he

says, because proficiency.

it

emphasizes

language

The main objective of Professor Nanjis course is to have students think in Kiswahili and gain fluency. Professor Nanji examines contemporary culture through Kiswahili life styles by making his students read Kiswahili magazines and newspapers. You can learn Kiswahili in one year if you get the basic structure, he says. CLIFFORD HILL

hausa
Professor Clifford Hill has taught Hausa since 1972 when he joined the faculty at Teachers College. He now holds an endowed chair, The Arthur I. Gates Professor of Language and Education, and continues to conduct research on African languages and cultures. Among his research interests are oral culture in West Africa and the different ways in which African languages represent space and time. Professor Hill believes that language study is a good way to unpack cultural differences. As he puts it, "language is, in many ways,
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our most basic way of understanding another culture." Students in his class approach language from many different perspectives. For example, they learn a range of materials from oral culture such as proverbs and stories. They also become aware of how ordinary words such as "back" and "front" or "before" and "after" have different meanings in Hausa and English. According to Professor Hill, when speakers of Hausa use the terms "front" or "back" to describe a relationship between two objects, they often use the terms in just the opposite way to Americans. As one Hausa once put it, "we see the world facing out, whereas you see it facing in." Professor Hill and doctoral students from different parts of the world have conducted research showing that these differences are widespread among speakers of African and Asian languages and carry over to their use of European languages in complex ways. Professor Hill is concerned that SIPA students are not given credit for African language courses taught at the introductory level because it discourages many students from taking an African language. According to Professor Hill, African languages need to be given greater priority by administrators at SIPA and in other parts of the university. Learning an African language can be life changing for some students. Professor Hill recalls the story of a student who came to SIPA to prepare for a career in the Foreign Service but who changed his career goals after taking Hausa. After graduating from SIPA, the student completed a PhD at Stanford University on language and gender relations in Hausaland. He now holds a major position in anthropological linguistics and often returns to Hausaland to conduct research.

PETER MTESIGWA Peter Mtesigwa is from Tanzania. He is currently a student at Teachers College, working on his doctoral degree. Prior to coming to New York and Columbia, Mr. Mtesigwa worked at the Institute for Kiswahili Research.at the University of Dar es Salaam He teaches two courses at Columbia: Introductory and Intermediary Kiswahili. This semester, Mr. Mteswiga had as many as 20 students enrolled in his introductory class. That is more than I ever had before, he says with enthusiasm. Kiswahili is spoken in more than ten nations in Eastern and Central Africa. Anyone who wants to visit and do business in that region, needs to know Kiswahili, confirms Mr. Mteswiga. Kiswahili extends from Somalia to the North and South to Mozambique, and from Zanzibar in the East to the Democratic Republic of Congo in the West. There is also news that it is spreading widely to CongoBrazzaville, says Mr. Mtesigwa, and he adds: Kiswahili is definitely a language worth studying. The first thing we learn in my Introductory Kiswahili course is to say greetings, explains Mr. Mtesigwa. Students also learn basic vocabulary and how to count. Mr. Mtesigwa uses different songs to make this a fun exercise. In my classes, we read, we sing, we talk, and we write, he says. There are also intensive summer courses offered in Eastern Africa that Columbia students can apply for. Last summer there was a program
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in Zanzibar organized by the African Language Teachers Association. These are the kinds of activities in which Mr. Mtesigwa encourages students to participate. Those students who went there and who came back are really doing a very exciting job when it comes to speaking Kiswahili, he contends. Why should students take Kiswahili? I think many people enjoy being a bit different, admits Mr. Mtesigwa. Students in his class come to appreciate the language very much, and they are quick learners: Some days in class you would think they come from Swahili land! FALLOU GUEYE

wolof

Fallou Gueye does not want to show me how to do the Sabar, the very popular Senegalese dance that looks like something in between Saturday Night Fever and electric boogie. Oh, I cant do that now, he says smiling. Mr. Gueye teaches Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced Wolof at SIPA. Many of his students who are PhD candidates in fields of Anthropology, Sociology and Ethnomusicology learn Wolof to facilitate anticipated fieldwork in Senegal. Other students are from SIPA, Columbia College and the Graduate Center at New York University. Wolof is mostly spoken in Senegal and the Senegambian region, but also in the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Mauritania where many Senegalese have settled. Senegalese
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people travel extensively, according to Mr. Gueye, and Wolof is spreading throughout the world. For example, when you are shopping in large cosmopolitan cities in Europe and in Africa, it is useful to know Wolof, he says. There is also a large population of Senegalese people living in New York City. The Senegalese are giving a new face to Harlem, asserts Mr. Gueye. Many famous musicians, writers and filmmakers come from Senegal, and students in Mr. Gueyes class explore these resources in the class-room by watching movies and listening to music by artists such as Youssou NDour, the well-known singer from Dakar. Senegal also plays an important role on the African continent because of its geographical location and the mobility of its people. For many students who are interested in Africa, Senegal is the gateway to that continent, says Mr. Gueye, referring specifically to the history of colonialism and the transatlantic slave trade.

MOLI NTULI Moli Ntuli teaches Zulu at SIPA. As a South African woman, she is happy to see that her language has generated so much interest lately, in both South Africa and abroad. White and black kids learn Zulu in South African schools today, says Ms. Ntuli, Zulu has become as important as any other language. Culture is an important part of Ms. Ntulis teaching. As she points out, learning a language involves mastering a certain set of grammatical rules as well as an

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understanding of the culture. Ms. Ntuli says she makes her class simple and fun and thinks that learning Zulu is very similar to learning Spanish. As with Spanish, she teaches her students vowels first and then she mixes them with consonants. Earlier this year, the South African Broadcasting Cooperation came to Ms. Ntulis class to do a story on Zulu language taught in New York. One of the students in the class explained to them how he found Zulu to be such a melodic language. The student, who is a musician, compared Zulu to music. And its true, says Ms. Ntuli, who thinks the clicks in the language makes it sound so musical. In the final Zulu language exam, she had a question that read You will be going to town, and how would you get there? and the answer was motorbike. In Zulu, motorbike translates

into isithuthunthu [isitutundo]. That is perhaps an 'exotic' word, says Ms. Ntuli. Another equally beautiful phrase is Ngiyaku thanda [giagotanda] which means, I love you in Zulu. Next semester, Ms. Ntuli will be teaching Introductory and Intermediate Zulu at SIPA. She welcomes all students to take her courses and wants to assure that anybody could learn Zulu. When the South African Consulate hosted a party earlier this year Ms. Ntuli brought a group of students there, and she was surprised to see how well they communicated with the crowd. It was wonderful, she says, remembering the South African invitees who came up to her and said: Are these really Americans who can speak Zulu.

SPRING 2000 New Course at Columbia: #W4592 Swahili Language, Literature, and Cultural Approaches F 1:30pm - 3:30pm With Abdu Nanjisee article on Languages

To keep updated on Institute events, or courses at Columbia University VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/SIPA/REGIONAL/IAS/index.html

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Forthcoming: March 2000 Exhibition

AFRICAS IRON & COPPER CURRENCY

Curated by Professor Phillip Gould
Some 200 examples of African currency will be on view in the Rotunda of Low Memorial Library, Columbia University. The exhibit will be open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The opening reception and symposium will take place on Monday, March 6, 2000, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

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Teacher Training and Outreach

Fall 1999 Teacher Training: Africa and Its Environment
Part of an-ongoing program to enlighten teachers and students on historical and contemporary issues affecting people of Africa.~Paulette Young, Outreach Coordinator

Extreme Drought, Food Shortages, Widespread Famine, and Forced Migration often headline the medias portrayal of Africa. These reoccurring themes lead many educators and their students to view Africa as a collection of poor, barren and insignificant countries. While the African continent, like many other areas, does face various environmental challenges, important historical, social and meteorological

conditions explain its current state. The Institute of African Studies fall 1999 teacher training session entitled Africa and Its Environment addressed these issues from a historical, scientific, and social perspective. The goal of this workshop was to debunk some of the generalizations about Africas physical and social environment by replacing them with factual information. On Saturday, October 16, 1999 educators from the New York City area schools assembled to learn the ways that climate and environment influenced the development of
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political, economic, social and religious systems in Africa. The program began with a review of the basic principles involved in understanding and addressing climate and weather conditions that relate to Africa. Dr. Matthew Fulakeza, a Research Associate at Goddard Institute for Space Studies illustrated how the weather trends and climate variability in regions of Africa relate to the global environment, calling on examples from his native Malawi. Professor Mohamed Mbodj, a historian at Columbia University presented a historical overview of the intersection of ecology, society and trade in Western Africa, focusing on the ways that environment effected the formation of economic networks and political systems that linked African peoples. Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim, a geographer from Hunter College, considered a social-cultural approach to meteorology and life in Africa. He used case studies from his native Sudan to illustrate local ways that African peoples have developed to address their environmental challenges.

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A major part of Africa and Its Environment was its emphasis on curriculum development. The participants learned how to develop materials that complimented their classroom program while meeting national and local education standards. Charles Heatwole, Director of the Department of Geography at Hunter College demonstrated how teachers could use maps to teach geography in relation
Forthcoming Outreach OUTREACH WEBSITE, FEATURING:
Africa in New York Educators Curriculum Development, and Educational Resources = Upcoming Teacher Training March 2000: African Iron and Copper Currency = =

bringing geography back into the classroom, David Lesser, a 30-year veteran of the New York Public Schools explained how to build files from the training session and other resources including the Internet, journals and newspapers to facilitate future lesson plans. The program concluded with an interactive trading simulation designed by William Gaudelli of Teachers College. Participants incorporated surprise scenarios adversely affecting their environments such as floods and sandstorms or a sudden drop in the value of currency to illustrate how societies in Africa did not exist in isolation. The overall training session expanded educators knowledge of the roles that the environment plays in the lives of African peoples. Teachers will use primary sources such as maps, epics and other writings, meteorological data and life to develop and enhance curriculum and materials for further UPCOMING CONFERENCE POLITICS OF CLIMATE IN AFRICA FARMING, FOOD AND FORECASTING: Implications of Seasonal Climate Forecasting for Food Security and Rural Development in Africa, Some Social and Political Questions Panel I: Predicting Rain: The Science and Politics of Forecasting PaneI II: Policies and Problems: Some Theoretical Issues Panel III: From Techniques to the Real World: the Uses of Climate Forecasts
March 24, 2000, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm Dag Hammarskjold Lounge Co-sponsored with SIPA's Center for International Studies, Columbia's Earth Institute, and The International Research Institute

Other News
FALL 1999 UNIVERSITY SEMINAR ON STUDIES IN CONTEMPORARY AFRICA

October 21, 1999 The Anatomy of Widowhood in Nigeria Yohanna K. Gandu, Ahmadu Bello University November 4, 1999 Corruption in Africa: Whose Perspectives, Whose Remedies? Ernest Harsch, New School for Social Research December 16, 1999 Reflections on Returning to Liberia (1989/90 and 1998) Mario Bick and Diana Brown, Bard College

to human and environmental concerns, focusing on how peoples interaction with the land and atmosphere leads to changes in geography and culture. With the aim of

studies.

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Spring 2000 Undergraduate and Graduate Courses

AFRICAN CIVILIZATION Ejkeme, Anene C1020 Gibson, Nigel C1020 Shehata, Samer C1020 Strother, Zoe S. C1020 Wright, Marcia C1020 ANTHROPOLOGY Alland, Alexander Jr. V1002 Sharp, Leslie V1002 Cords, Marina V1011 Combs-Schilling, M. V3009 Meskell, Lynn V3931 Taussig, Michael V3952 Larkin, Brian V3946 Mamdani, Mahmood W4650 Dirks and Mamdani G6002 Shukla, Sandhya G6030 Meskell, Lynn G6101 Bond & Gibson SCFF 6513 ART HISTORY Strother, Zoe S. G8067 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE Cond, Maryse W3530 DANCE Camara, Maguette BC2252 Camara, Maguette BC2253 ECONOMICS Cesari, Jocelyne U4665 Yobert, Shamapande U8405 FRENCH Sidikou-Morton, Aissata BC3047 Fischer, Rosalie W3421 Conde, Maryse G8768 HISTORY Jackson, Lynette A BC1030 Plaa, Andrew BC3483 Marable, Manning C3936 Bulliet, Richard W3979 Dirks and Mamdani G6002 Wright, Marcia G8925 Wright, Marcia G9092 African Civilization African Civilization African Civilization African Civilization African Civilization The Interpretation of Culture The Interpretation of Culture Behavioral Biology Living Primates People, Culture- N. Africa & Middle East Social Life in Ancient Egypt Taboo and Transgression African Popular Culture Political Identity, Civil Wars, State Reform in Africa The Production of the Past II Transnational Perspective-Race/Ethnicity Archaelogy & Social Theory
Modernity & Shifting Identities In Africa & the Diaspora

The Literature of African Art The African Image African Dance I African Dance II Socio- Economic Changes in N. Africa
Political Economy of Poverty /Development in S. Africa

Women in Francophone Africa Introduction to Francophone Studies - II Childhood Memories 20th Century South Africa British Imperialism: 1783-1980 Black Intellectuals Islam and the Modern World The Production of the Past II Disease/Health/Healing Modern Africa Research Seminar on African History

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INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Cesari, Jocelyne U4665 Martin, Paul U4760 Rubin, Gary U6153 Bartoli, Andrea U6809 Yobert, Shamapande U8405 Bartoli, Andrea U8556 LANGUAGES Hill, Clifford W3302 Mtesigwa, Peter W3302 Mtesigwa, Peter W3322 Nanji, Abdul W4341 Nanji Abdul W4592 Gueye, Fallou W3302 Gueye, Fallou W3322 Gueye, Fallou W3332 Ntuli, Moli W3302 PAN AFRICAN STUDIES Edmonds, Ennis BC300 Sidikou-Morton, Aissata BC3112 POLITICAL SCIENCE Friedman, Elizabeth BC3414 Beck, Linda W4496 Mamdani, Mahmood W4650 Heydemann, Steven G8451 Heydemann, Steven G8465 PUBLIC HEALTH Waldman, Ronald P6690 Freedman P6678 Waldman, Ronald P8646 Waldman, Ronald P8679 WOMENS STUDIES Najmabadi, Afsaneh BC3133 Ogunyemi, C. BC3134

Socio- Economic Changes in N. Africa Human Rights Practicum II Refugee/Displaced Pop: Policy/Program International Conflict Resolution II
Political Economy of Poverty /Development in S Africa Preventive Diplomacy/Conflict Resolution: UN Cases

Introductory Hausa II Introductory Swahili II Intermediate Swahili II Advanced Swahili II

Swahili Language, Literature & Cultural Approaches

Introductory Wolof II Intermediate Wolof II Advanced Wolof II Introductory Zulu II Intro. Pan-African Studies: African in Diaspora Politics & Culture in Chinua Achebe Women, Gender & Third World Contemporary African Politics Political Identity, Civil Wars, State Reform in Africa Politics of the Middle East and North Africa Political Economy of 3rd World Development Refugee Issues Seminar Health and Human Rights Humanitarian Assistance Investigative Methods in Humanitarian Emergencies Women, Islam, and Nationalism Unheard Voices: African Women

Columbia University Libraries African Studies Internet Resources on the World Wide Web http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indiv/area/Africa
= = = = = = = = = Online catalogs of the worlds top libraries with large Africana collections Bibliographies from Columbia University Libraries and other research institutions worldwide Electronic news archives specializing in African affairs Abstracts an full-length reports on Africa from U.S., African and international organizations Electronic African art exhibits Electronic texts, images, and sound files on Africas history and contemporary cultures Maps, flags and geographical data Information on scholarly organizations and activities Links to other Africa-related gophers and web servers
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The Only Online Directory for African Scholars Columbia University Libraries International Directory of African Studies Scholars (IDASS) http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/indiv/area/Africa/directory.html Please address questions to Joseph Caruso, at jc93@columbia.edu Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in some of the articles published in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute of African Studies or Columbia University.

Africa On Campus
The Newsletter of the Institute of African Studies School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University Room 1103, International Affairs Building 420 West 118th Street New York, New York 10027

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AFRICA ON CAMPUS WINTER 1999